One of dk’s finds at the flea market this weekend was this Flatt & Scruggs album: The Mercury Sessions, Volume I.
Like so many other bluegrass legends, Flatt & Scruggs were graduates of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. But this post isn’t really about Flatt & Scruggs, or their band, the Foggy Mountain Boys, who brought bluegrass to international prominence. And it’s not about this album, which many critics consider to be among their best compilations.
This post is about flour.
Martha White Self-Rising Flour, with Hot Rize.
Martha White is a family of flour products from Royal Flour Mills, based in Nashville since 1899. The “Martha White” premium brand was named after the owner’s then 3-year old daughter.
In the early years, Martha White relied on country music, ever important to Nashville, to convey its advertising message. Betting their customers liked country music nearly as much as they liked biscuits, Martha White’s first advertising aired in the 1940′s with their sponsorship of the 5:45 a.m. radio show titled “Martha White Biscuit and Cornbread Time” on Nashville’s WSM radio. In 1948, with an advertising budget of $25 per week, Martha White sponsored its first segment of Nashville’s famous Grand Ole Opry. Martha White has been on the air with WSM-AM and the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night since, and remains the show’s longest continuing sponsor for the country’s longest-running live radio broadcast.
The company’s popularity exploded in the 1950s thanks to a powerful new ingredient: “Hot Rize®”, which (according to their website) “brought convenience to the kitchen and changed home baking forever”. Yeeehaw! And gave way to a fantastic newgrass band by the same name…
[Listen to the Martha White Theme, performed by Hot Rize in 1984]
Take a look at the cover of the album: that’s the legendary Martha White Bluegrass Express in the backdrop. Talk about product placement! Flatt & Scruggs first performed the jingle, written by songwriter Pat Twitty in 1953, from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. It has become a bluegrass standard – at least for those bands seeking sponsorship!
Back to Flatt & Scruggs: they released more than 40 albums between 1948 and 1969, when they disbanded. The duo’s popularity peaked in 1962, when they recorded the theme song to the television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, and in 1967 their instrumental “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was prominently featured in the movie Bonnie and Clyde.
[Flatt & Scruggs & Oscar]
Tags: Flatt & Scruggs, flea market, Foggy Mountain Boys, Hot Rize, Martha White
6 March 2008 at 10:57 am |
ha! a most excellent posting!
6 March 2008 at 2:14 pm |
Wassup Oscar Gamble!!!
9 August 2010 at 10:09 am |
Thank you for the wonderful article about my grandmother. Martha White was a “real” person. She was my beautiful mother’s mother. I know they are honored by your fine tribute to Martha White Flour.
15 August 2010 at 8:45 am |
Martha – Thanks for sharing! Very cool to hear from a family member.
- The P