Duncan Hines 

(1880-1959)

Betty Crocker is a fictitious character created for marketing purposes. 

Duncan Hines was a real person. 

Duncan Hines was an American author and food critic who produced restaurant ratings for travelers.  He branched out to marketing food under his name which continues as a brand, today. 

"Upon purchasing our first car, we decided to see as much of America as possible..."

Duncan Hines, Adventures in Good Eating

Circa 1936

Hines was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the son of a former Confederate soldier in the Civil War.  His mother died when he was four years old andhe was raised by his grandmother.  Hines attended Bowling Green Business University which later merged with what is now Western Kentucky University.  He worked in the American West for Wells Fargo and other companies settling in Chicago, Illinois.

Hines worked as a traveling salesman for a Chicago printer and he had eaten many meals on the road across America by 1935 when he was 55.  At this time, there was no American interstate highway system and only a few chain restaurants, except in large populated areas.  Therefore, travelers depended on local restaurants. 

Hines and his wife, Florence Chaffin began assembling a list for friends of several hundred good restaurants around the country. The list became popular and he began selling the paperback book Adventures in Good Eating (1935), highlighting restaurants and their featured dishes that Hines had personally enjoyed in locations across the United States.  Following Florence's passing, he married Clara Ursula Wright (often referred to as Mrs. Clara Hines) in 1946.  She survived her husband, Duncan.

In 1952, Duncan Hines introduced Duncan Hines bread through the Durkee's Bakery Company of Homer, New York.  Principals Albert Durkee and Lena Durkee were the bakery proprietors.  This was Duncan Hines' first foray into baked goods. 

By 1953, Hines sold the right to use his name and the title of his book to Roy H. Park to form Hines-Park Foods which licensed the name to a number of food-related businesses.  The cake mix license was sold to Nebraska Consolidated Mills in Omaha, Nebraska which developed and sold the first Duncan Hines cake mixes.

In 1957, Hines appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show To Tell the Truth.

Hines is honored in his hometown of Bowling Green and a portion of U.S. Route 31W north of the city was named the Duncan Hines Highway.  A museum exhibit at Western Kentucky University's Kentucky Museum in Bowling Green showcases Duncan Hines. 

Duncan Hines Cherry Crunch McCall's Magazine Advertisement

Circa 1969

Crisco Oil & Duncan Hines Deluxe Cake Mix Circular Coupon Advertisment

Circa 1983

When Americans think of store-bought brownie and cake mixes, two names spring to mind:  Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines.  Betty Crocker is a fictitious character created fro marketing purposes though Duncan Hines was a real person. Despite his name being synonymous with packaged baking products, Hines was not a baker.  Nor was he a chef.  He didn't create any of the recipes or mixes found in the boxes that bear his name. He didn't really know his way around a kitchen at all!  He was a traveling salesman for a printing and advertising company.   

Though not a baker himself, Hines oversaw the quality of the products, ensuring they met the high standards he had set for his restaurant recommendations. Before the cake mixes achieved dominant success, the Hines-Park Foods, Inc. joint venture licensed the Duncan Hines brand name to over 250 different canned, bottled and boxed grocery products.  Hines required that every licensed product meet strict, premium quality specifications before it could carry his "Seal of Approval" endorsement. 

Duncan Hines and his wife, Clara cut a cake at the Duncan Hines test kitchen in Ithaca, New York.

Circa 1957

Roy E. Park

The Duncan Hines test kitchen was in Ithaca, New York because Roy H. Park, a prominent Ithaca-based advertising entrepreneur, partnered with Duncan Hines in 1949 to form Hines-Park Foods, Inc. which was headquartered in Park's home city to commercialize the brand. The Ithaca facility served as the development and quality control center for the brand's rapid expansion inot grocery products including the famous cake mixes introduced in 1951. The facility was located at what is now known as The Foundry in Ithaca located at 416 East State Street.

Roy H. Park and Duncan Hines met because Park actively sought out Hines in the late 1940s to pitch a business venture after an agricultural cooperative asked Park to find a way to market their food products. Park targeted Duncan Hine because Hines was America's most trusted restaurant critic and travel author with immense name recognition. Initially, Hines was highly reluctant to use his respected name for commercial product endorsements. After extensive persuasion and "wooing" by Park, Hines agreed to license his name.  

Duncan Hines

The Foundry in Ithaca was made up of several buildings built at different times.  The original wood-sided house was built in the late 1800s.  In the 1940s and 1950s, Roy H. Park, who later became a well-known media tycoon, purchased the property and built an industrial warehouse addition. The addition was first home to the original headquarters of Hines-Park Foods, a brand of food products including the famous Duncan Hines Cake Mix and also a print press for several of Roy H. Park's publications. 

Historically, Duncan hines licensed his name in 1949 for a high-quality, high-butterfat ice cream which was the brand's first product before cake mixes.  Today, Duncan Hines primarily focuses on baking mixes and frosting.

For more than 85 years, the Duncan Hines name has represented excellence in quality and the brand is one of the most recognized trademarks in the United States.  The Duncan Hines product line has included 60 different baked-good mixes ranging from layer cakes and brownies to cookie and muffin mixes plus ready-to-spread frostings. The brand has experienced a resurgence after a partnership in 2022 with the Queen of Country resulted in the Dolly Parton Baking Collection.

Duncan Hines, the man, gave us much more than some wonderful products for the kitchen, he gave us a higher standard of dining in America

.. so ..

the next time you have an exceptional meal while dining out, give him a little nod! 

DUNCANHINESDAYS.COM

The Duncan Hines Days Festival honors the famous food explorer and entrepreneur featuring a restaurant week celebrating local dining and much more. In previous years, the festival has included a nostalgic block party, themed nights, live entertainment and a National Corvette Museum scavenger hunt.

Duncan Hines's guidebooks were discontinued in 1962 though market research by Proctor & Gamble in the 1990s showed that 99 percent of people going into a grocery store recognized the name Duncan Hines.

When Duncan Hines debuted its first cake mixes in 1951, the original offerings featured a "3-Star" cake mix (versatile vanilla base that could be adapted into white, yellow or spice cakes) and a Devil's food cake mix. These early, innovative mixes were designed to offer a "homemade" taste and texture, often requiring consumers to add their own eggs and milk to the mix, resulting in a notably moist product.