Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "When It Rains It Pours" Story

It was an ordinary day. Just got home from working at the framing gallery for a few hours and decided it was time to each lunch. Made a sandwich with some luncheon meat and thought I would put a bit of salt on it. Salt shaker was empty so I opened the pantry door and grabbed the Morton Iodized Salt container.

My container with the 1941 image.

When I was looking at the label on it, I realized there was a different label on either side of the cardboard container. One side featured the traditional Mortal Salt Girl that I have known for quite a few years while the other side of the container featured an image of the 1941 Morton Salt Girl. A small label was at the upper left of the container that read: 1941 - The fourth Moton Salt Umbrella Girl was introduced to America in 1941 and appeared on packages until 1956. While our boys were off to war, our little girl was serving at home. I never realized that over the years the Morton Salt Girl changed her appearance, but it certainly looked like she had. Did some online searching and found that the Morton Salt Girl, umbrella clasped in one arm and an upturned container of salt in the other, has been a fixture on the Morton container for more than 100 years.

The current image of the Salt Girl.

The Morton Salt Company began in 19th century Chicago as Richmond & Company. A businessman from Nebraska named Joy Morton acquired a major interest in the company in 1889 and began to realize the nation's rising population and meatpacking industry was going to create a demand for salt. Eleven years later the company was incorporated as Morton Salt Company. At the time, the salt as we know it today, had a tendency to clump in humid or rainy weather. Tough to extract from a shaker when it was in chunks in the shaker. The salt was much like sugar in that it was what was called hygroscopic, or it absorbed water vapor from the air around it. Then in 1911 Mr. Morton added magnesium carbonate, an anti-caking agent, to prevent the salt from clumping. He had created the world's first free-pouring salt. His next step was to add a small metal spout on the top of the company's round blue container.

Early advertisement showing the wrapping on the package.

To advertise his "new salt", he hired an advertising company who ran a series of 12 advertise- ments in Good House- keeping magazine. One ad, an image of a curly-haired little girl with an umbrella in one hand and a spilling salt container in another, summed up exactly what the company hoped to convey to the public which told the buyer that their salt would run even when it was damp outside. Mr. Morton's son, Sterling, didn't like the words that were displayed with the advertisement that read: "Even in rainy weather, it flows freely." Too wordy for him so he searched for something else and found that "It never rains but it pours" had some promise. But, a newer version of much the same thing that read: "When It Rains It Pours" seemed to be the one he wanted. Both the "Umbrella Girl" and the new slogan appeared on the cylindrical package in 1914 as well as in Good Housekeeping ads in October of 1914. Since that time the Morton Salt girl's image has been slightly updated six times. In 1921 her blond curls were switched to straight hair, before becoming curly again in 1933 when Shirley Temple became a household name. In 1941 Morton's Salt Girl donned her now-signature yellow dress and got blond pigtails. 1956 saw the handle of her umbrella turn yellow while in 1968 her hair and dress changed. Then, six years ago she got a refresh to mark the company's centenary, this time appearing in simplified linework. Over the years she has been named as one of the Top 10 Female Ad icons of All Time and had 100 birthday parties in 100 cities over 100 days on her centenary. Today you can buy t-shirts, tote bags and even umbrellas with her likeness on them. And, you can always find it in our pantry...unless I use all of it and forget to get another container. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.