The "Little Miss Sunbeam Bread" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Got dressed and headed down to the kitchen to get something to eat before I headed to the gallery for a few hours of matting and framing.  At times I have cereal while other times I have a muffin or perhaps a few slices of toast that I dunk in a cup of hot chocolate.  I can still remember back to the 1950's when my mother would make me a few pieces of toast that I would spread with butter and strawberry jam and dunk in my cup of hot chocolate.  I know my brother still does the same, but does anyone else still do that?  One of our favorite loaves of bread back then was the one that had a colored picture of a little girl on it that was known as Little Miss Sunbeam.  She was one of the most recognizable faces from the second half of the 20th century.  Today, when I see a picture in a book or magazine of Little Miss Sunbeam, it brings back memories of my childhood and bygone times.  Did some searching and found that the Sunbeam brand of bread was first introduced by the Quality Bakers of America in 1942 in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area.  It was an immediate success and really took off at the end of World War II.  It was said to be both nutritious and wholesome for you.  When the brand first began, a woman by the name of Ellen Segner, who was a well-known children's book illustrator, was given the job of coming up with something to put on the loaf of bread.  

The little girl on the left is Donna Erickson who is posing with
artist Ellen Segner after she was picked as a Sunbeam contest winner.

She had been the illustrator for the Dick and Jane series of books and articles for magazines.  She was inspired to create Little Miss Sunbeam after observing a little blonde girl in New York City's Washington Square Park.  She created sketches of the little girl, but never found out who the little girl might have been.  Ellen produced more than 30 original oil paintings for Sunbeam advertising campaigns that featured Little Miss Sunbeam.  Then in 1955 a little five-year-old girl by the name of Patty Michaels was selected to be the first Little Miss Sunbeam.  

Little Miss Sunbeam as drawn by Ellen Segner.

She made public appearances for two years and then went on to play Louisa von Trapp in the Broadway production of The Sound of Music.  The success of the character Little Miss Sunbeam led to appearances in several comic books in the 1950's.  The comic books were given away to promote Sunbeam bread.  Today Sunbeam products are distributed at nearly 40 locations across the U.S. and Little Miss Sunbeam still appears on the packaging.  As I read a bit more about the bread and Miss Sunbeam, I came upon a story telling about sliced bread.  It is one of the world's oldest prepared foods.  Bread was made over 300 years ago.  Wasn't until 1928 that bread was packaged in pre-sliced loaves.  It was said to have been "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped."  It was a fellow by the name of Otto Rohwedder who successfully designed a machine that not only sliced the bread, but wrapped it.  He sold his first machine to a friend and baker Frank Bench who installed it at his Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri in 1928.  

An advertisement for Sunbeam Bread

The very first loaf of sliced bread was sold on July 7, 1928.  Two years later major baking companies began to sell sliced bread when they saw the demand for it.  Naturally, pop-up toasters began in 1932.  Then on January 18, 1943, it all came to a screeching halt when Claude R. Wickard, the Secretary of Agriculture, came up with the idea to ban pre-sliced bread in America.  It was said to be a wartime conservation measure regarding resources such as wax paper, steel and wheat.  The steel was needed to make materials for the military, including ammo and weapons.  The masses were quite disappointed when they learned about the ban.  Mr. Wickard stated in a New York Times article that "The ready-sliced loaf must have a heavier wrapping than an unsliced one if it is not to dry out.  This would require the paper to be waxed.  Since America is focused on defeating the Nazis and the Japanese, the country has better things to do than wrap sliced bread!"  The comments were so stupid that the public rebelled and on March 8, 1943, the ban was lifted.  So the next time you reach for a loaf of bread, remember this story and how important wrapping sliced bread was at one time. Today I take sliced bread for granted and I still enjoy my toasted sliced bread with butter and jam to dunk in my hot chocolate in the morning.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.