Laura Scudder

Laura Clough Scudder (July 19, 1881 – March 13, 1959) was an entrepreneur in Monterey Park, California,^[1] who made and sold potato chips and pioneered their packaging in sealed bags to extend freshness.

Laura Scudder
Born	Laura Emma Clough (1881-07-19)July 19, 1881 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	March 13, 1959(1959-03-13) (aged 77) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Lawyer, entrepreneur
Known for	Laura Scudder potato chips
Spouse	Charles Scudder ​ ​ (m. 1908; died 1928)​

Biography

Born in 1881, in Philadelphia, as Laura Clough, she was a nursing student in Trenton, New Jersey. She worked as a nurse before moving to Ukiah in Northern California, after marrying Charles Scudder on July 4, 1908. She opened a restaurant across from the Mendocino County Courthouse, where lawyers encouraged her to study law.

While there she became the first female attorney in Ukiah (but she never practiced law) before moving south in 1920, to Monterey Park, California, where Charles ran a gas station (a garage and attached brick building at the northeast corner of Atlantic and Garvey)^[2][3] until he was disabled repairing a car.^[3] They rented the brick building to a barber who turned out to be a bootlegger, and Laura, who was a Republican and Episcopalian, kicked out the bootlegger.^[1] She took over the gas station and branched out into potato chips in 1926^[4] and peanut butter in 1931.^[1] The Scudders lived in La Habra Heights^[5] She tended a victory garden and wrote a newspaper column.^[6] They had four children.^[7]

Potato chips

In the early days, potato chips were distributed in bulk from barrels or glass display cases,^[8] or tins, which left chips at the bottom stale and crumbled.^[9] Laura Scudder started paying her workers to take home sheets of wax paper and iron them into the form of bags, which were filled with chips at her factory the next day. This innovation kept the chips fresh and crisp longer and, along with the invention of cellophane, allowed potato chips to become a mass market product. Other potato chip makers soon began to package their chips in bags.^[10]

Scudder also began putting dates on the bags, becoming the first company to show a freshness date on its food products and sold in twin packs to further reduce staleness and crumbling.^[11] This new standard of freshness was reflected in the marketing slogan, "Laura Scudder's Potato Chips, the Noisiest Chips in the World".^[12] The Laura Scudder Potato Chip Factory was at Garvey Avenue east of Atlantic Boulevard, Monterey Park, in the 1920s.^[13]

She expanded into peanut butter and mayonnaise in order to keep her workforce employed year round since potato chips tended to sell best during summertime. She published recipes to raise interest in her products and was noted for a chocolate cake recipe that used mayonnaise instead of eggs and butter. Ingredients like butter and fresh eggs were scarce during World War II due to rationing for civilians because of the effort to supply the needs of military personnel. ^[14]

Laura Scudder Inc.

 

Laura Scudder label

At one point, Scudder turned down a $9 million offer for the company because the buyer would not guarantee her employees' jobs. In 1957, she sold her firm to Signal Oil & Gas of Signal Hill, with a $6 million offer from a buyer who guaranteed job security for her workforce. The new company was called Laura Scudder Inc. At the time of the sale, the company had expanded into mayonnaise, and Laura Scudder brand potato chips held a greater than 50% share of the Californian market. She continued to run the company until her death in 1959.^{[citation needed]}

Post-Laura

In 1987, Laura Scudder Inc.^[15] was sold to Borden, Inc. for $100 million.^[16] Annual sales for the chipmaker were $126 million in 1986.^[17] To avoid union issues, Borden closed all California plants of Laura Scudder Inc. only a year later.^[16] Borden's overall culture of mismanagement, incurrence of excessive debt to finance numerous acquisitions, and several restructurings in 1993, led Borden to sell what remained of Laura Scudder for less than $16.7 million.^[18] The buyer, G.F. Industries, Inc.'s Granny Goose subsidiary, was already in trouble, and was put up for sale in January 1995. In 2009, Snack Alliance, Inc. licensed from The Laura Scudder's Company, LLC the rights to produce and market potato chips under the Laura Scudder's brand.

According to The J.M. Smucker Company website,^[19] the Laura Scudder's Natural Peanut Butter business was acquired by Smucker's from BAMA Foods Inc. in December 1994. In 2009, Smucker's marketed the Laura Scudder's brand of natural peanut butter on the west coast. According to a March 31, 2010, announcement,^[20] Snack Alliance, Inc. was acquired by Shearers Foods Inc., a manufacturer of competing salty snacks in different regions of North America. At the same time (2010), it appeared the original Laura Scudder's brand was being actively marketed by a Californian company.^[21] These two companies have different packaging for their different Laura Scudder's products, and the Californian company appears to be marketing its products nationwide.

Legacy

John Scudder, Laura Scudder's grandson, created a television documentary called Laura to honor his grandmother. It was completed in 1989 but only broadcast in 2007, because one of her daughters did not want anything made about her. After she died, the documentary was shown on the southern California public television station KOCE.^[22]

Laura Scudder's Papers^[23] and the Women's Studies Scholarship is at Chapman University.^[24] Laura Scudder Program Series is at the Bruggemeyer Library, in Monterey Park.^[25] with donations from the Laura Scudder Foundation.^[26]

References

1. Hudson, Berkley (April 9, 1989). . Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
2. "MONTEREY PARK LIFE IN THE EARLY DAYS". Laura Scudder, started her now famous potato chips behind her husbands gas station on the northeast corner of Atlantic.
3. Nancy Arcuri (April 19, 2016). "Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library Celebrates City's Centennial with Laura Scudder Program Series". The Citizen's Voice. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
4. La Ganga, Maria L. (September 23, 1987). . Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
5. Ryon, Ruth (May 28, 2006). . LA Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
6. Nancy Arcuri (November 15, 2016). "World War II – History of Food Rationing". The Citizen's Voice.
7. Jessie Brunner (May 20, 2007). "THE GOOD OLD DAYS:Tasty success story airing on KOCE". Daily Pilot. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
8. "History of the potato chip". Canadian Snack Food Association.
9. Harmon, John E. "Potato Chips". Atlas of Popular Culture in the Northeastern United States. Central Connecticut State University. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
10. . Laura Scudder's. Archived from the original on September 17, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
11. . sonoma.edu. Archived from the original on December 11, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
12. . YouTube. Archived from the original on April 20, 2020.
13. "Photograph of the Laura Scudder Potato Chip Factory". Calisphere. University of California. 1925. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
14. Beryl Williams (November 2015). "Laura Scudder, Cooking with Wartime Rations and Monterey Park". Monterey Park Cascades. p. 7.
15. Jeff Quitney (April 30, 2016). . YouTube. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
16. "Borden Acquisition Corp, et al. - SC 14D1 - Borden Chemical Inc - On 11/22/94 - EX-11.(G)(15)". SEC Info. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
17. "Borden Acquires Laura Scudder's". The New York Times. September 23, 1987.
18. "Borden Chemical Inc - 10-Q - For 6/30/94". SEC Info. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
19. . The J.M. Smucker Company. Archived from the original on August 22, 2007. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
20. (Press release). Shearers Foods Inc. March 31, 2010. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
21. "Potato Chips". Laura Scudders. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
22. "Newport man makes documentary about grandmother, potato chip maker Laura Scudder". Orange County Register. April 5, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
23. "Finding Aid for the Laura Scudder Papers 2010.10.r". Online Archive of California. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
    - "Leatherby Libraries". chapman.edu. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
24. Laura Silva (March 29, 2012). "Laura Scudder Women's Studies Scholarship". The Voice of Wilkinson. Chapman University. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
    - Laura Silva (April 4, 2016). "Laura Scudder Scholarship Application - Due May 1". The Voice of Wilkinson. Chapman University. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
    - Conrad, Suzanna (June 23, 2011). "Laura Scudder". Retrieved May 1, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
    - "Oral history program: Robert Brackenbury". Monterey Park Historical Heritage Commission. October 5, 1989. Retrieved May 1, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
    - "Oral history program: Phil Browning". Monterey Park Historical Heritage Commission. April 27, 1989. Retrieved May 1, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
25. Nancy Arcuri (June 14, 2016). "Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library". The Citizen's Voice. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
26. Nancy Arcuri (July 20, 2011). "Laura Scudder Scholarships". The Citizen's Voice. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
    - Barron, David. . SGV Journal. Archived from the original on September 30, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2022.^{[dead link]}
    - . City of Monterey Park. Archived from the original on July 4, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
    - . Archived from the original on September 30, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
    - . Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2017.

Sources

• Vare, Ethlie Ann; Ptacek, Greg (2002). Patently Female: From AZT to TV Dinners, Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-02334-5.

External links

• Works by or about Laura Scudder at Internet Archive
• 1950s commercial for Laura Scudder potato chips on YouTube
• Laura Scudder at Find a Grave