SNAPSHOT
As popcorn’s wealth circulated, theaters realized they needed to sell concessions without the street vendors as the middleman. The theaters are selling popcorn, candy, and soda. Things are going great until World War II came around and the United States entered a sugar shortage. Sugar exporters were cut off from America, and we needed to ration the sugar we had. That meant no candy and no soda. They needed to rely solely on popcorn for concession sales and by the end of the war, that was it for America. Popcorn was the official movie theater snack. (synopsis via Laughing Squid)
Even if you don’t like popcorn all that much when you go to the movies (c’est moi), you have to admit that it occupies a near-unassailable place at the top of the cinematic snack heap.
Think watching a film and you think popcorn, even if, like me, you are happier with a cup of lollies (candy) to speed you through your latest cinematic-viewing adventure.
But as this fascinating video from Cheddar Explains entertainingly-explains, popcorn wasnot always the snack royalty it is today, and in fact, in the early days of cinema, it was feared that it might distract people from really getting into the film.
Yup, fancy that! Cinema owners caring more about the film being watched than the bottomline being added to.
It wasn’t until the Great Depression and World War Two that popcorn made its way into cinemas and the rest as they say is history.
Now, if you can just stop crunching so loudly, that would be great …