In 1946, the Hormel Company started hiring for the Hormel Girls, a marketing strategy designed to push a 'quasi-patriotic' button for consumers, who associated Hormel with the American military.
Hormel was concerned for his employees who served, because his dad, the founder of the Hormel company, was a veteran of World War One, and he was a vice-chairman
of the American Legion National Employment Committee, a group focused on the repatriating of soldiers. In the summer of 1946 Hormel
established the all-female American Legion SPAM Post 570 in Austin,
Minnesota, as a publicity vehicle.
Jay Hormel, the son of Hormel’s founder, wanted his company to give jobs to returning vets—and many of those were women. He used military service as a way of recruiting women into the Hormel workforce, targeting military bands and creating the Hormel Drum and Bugle Corps.
Some women answered advertisements, some were referred by
employment agencies, some heard of the new group by word of mouth,
and some already worked in the Hormel Company. Also many recruits
had received a direct mailing from the Hormel Company: Jay Hormel
had acquired the rosters of all women’s military bands from World War II
Hormel planned to defy convention by sending the first all-female
senior drum and bugle corps to compete against men in the American
Legion National Drum and Bugle Corps Championship playing a repertoire, comprised of music that “had seldom been bugled before”—“The Hormel Girls’ Theme,” “Light Cavalry Overture,” “Tiger Rag,” “Pennsylvania Polka,” “Honey,” “Yankee Doodle,” “This Is My Country,” “McNamara’s Band,” “Lullaby of Broadway,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “Minnesota Rouser,” and “Cuddle Up a Little Closer.”35 Jay Hormel also hired an entourage of service people to cater to the women, including hairstylists and tailors, who assisted the women to look their best at all times
In preparation for the twenty-ninth American Legion National Drum and Bugle Corps Championship Competition to be held in New York City, this group of women went to the Eastern Military Academy on Shippan Point, near Stamford, Connecticut, where Jay Hormel had rented a dormitory and rehearsal area for an entire month at the cost of $5,000
He also provided extra incentive for the women to win the competition: “If we place in the finals we each receive an extra $100.00. If we win the competition, we each get another $100.00.
But their first competitive outings—against male American Legion bands— had mixed results, as they were sued for noise making during practice, and during competition a sexist judge had it in for them
Three weeks into the practice regimen, fifty Stamford neighbors complained about the seemingly nonstop noise. “It’s perfectly atrocious. Why, these women drill hour after hour, practicing the same notes all day.” Therefore, the neighbors “filed a motion for a temporary injunction to stop the rehearsing.”
They do not care that for the first time in American Legion history an all-woman drum and bugle corps composed of veterans of World War II is making ready to challenge male supremacy. This will take place in the annual Tournament of Music to be held during the twenty-ninth annual American Legion Convention in New York City.
In the end, an out-of-court agreement was made for the women to practice outside only in the morning, and the ensemble was transported to a nearby ballpark where they practiced in the afternoon for approximately nine days leading up to the competition.
The members of America’s first and perhaps only female professional drum and bugle corps placed thirteenth out of the forty-nine competing units, just missing the cut for the twelfth-place position in the finals by .20 of a point, scoring 86.80 out of 100 points.
Ritter remarked: “Thirteenth was quite outstanding, but we just missed being in the finals by a
fraction of a point. And those men had been practicing [and competing]
for years and years.”
Later they learned that one judge had marked the
women last place for general effect. But the music judge singled them
out for praise: “It was music that no other corps could match. Spamettes
didn’t blast, they brought forth tones that practiced ears will not forget
for a long time.”
The disappointment subsided as Hormel and his entire family met with the women at the academy following their performance, where he told them he wanted to do it again the next summer and hoped that all would come back to try again in Miami. Before leaving, he had the women line up so he could shake hands with each one and give her a hundred dollar bill even though they had not made the finals.
So Hormel turned their talents more toward selling SPAM on the road, than playing drums and bugles.
Soon, the Hormel Girls were selling SPAM door to door. They marched in local parades, appeared at grocery stores, and held contests. Then, Hormel decided to put them on the radio. They morphed into a radio orchestra and went on the air Sunday nights as Music with the Hormel Girls.
They traveled the country in a caravan of thirty-five white Chevys, attracting as much attention as a military parade.
After their 1948 appearance in the American Legion National Drum
and Bugle Corps Championship, the musical-sales force continued its cross-country
travels. Due to increased exposure and company profits, the Hormel
Girls organization grew. Jay Hormel purchased thirty-five white Chevrolets with the company name painted in hunter green on the sides of
each car. The women could then travel to major cities in a long caravan,
making a noticeable entrance
Hormel knew
that the sight of these thirty-five new white Chevrolets coming into a city
would attract the attention of the news media, which he hoped would
translate into bigger sales. Heightening the sensation of the caravan, he
had his leadmen secure the town’s police force to give a formal escort
into town. Upon arrival the mayor would formally welcome the women
to the city and the Hormel Girls’ Drum and Bugle Corps would commence a parade
Hormel Girl Eleanor Jones wrote home
after a memorable entrance into a city:
We made the most spectacular entrance into Miami Sunday evening.
We had a police escort all the way from Palm Beach to the edge of
North Miami where we were met by an impressive fleet of motorcycle cops. So we roared though the city like ambulances, stopping everything in sight. Exciting! We loved it! We skidded to a halt in
front of the court house and there lined up waiting for us was the
entire Miami Drum and Bugle Corps, rated probably as one of the
top three in the country. They then marched in front of all the white
cars from there to the hotel. The streets were lined.
The Hormel Girls were paid four times what the military paid them, maybe more... they worked for $50.00 a week
Eleanor Jones, received a letter from the U.S. Naval Department to audition for the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve Band that was organized in November 1943.
“It was asking if I wanted to be part of an all-woman Marine band. Looking back, those two episodes, the Marine band and Hormel (Girls) caravan were so different but were two of the very most important, memorable periods in my entire life.
The Hormel Girls disbanded in 1953.
FYI, the Hormel Girls were at least the 3rd musical troupe Hormel had advertising and selling it's goods:
In 1929 Jay Hormel, became the CEO. Having “a distinct flair for the unusual and dramatic,” Jay Hormel “conceived a promotional . . . twenty-member troupe of Mexican song and dance girls called the Hormel Chili Beaners.”
This troupe presented an hour-long show at county fairs throughout the Midwest and
was credited with helping to sell 500,000 cans of chili the first year, primarily purchased by the Scandinavian population of Minnesota in 1936.
In 1940 Jay Hormel contracted the biggest act in the country—George
Burns and Gracie Allen together with Artie Shaw and his twenty-three piece orchestra—to help advertise Hormel meat products.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~jmsulli/documents/FINAL_Hormel%20Girls.pdf beginning on page 5
A note about women, or, women and my posting about them. I'm vehemently opposed to showcasing a race, sex, or whatever due to some national month of politically correct liberal snowflake bullshit.
I post about people, when they randomly show up where ever I'm looking for interesting or entertaining stuff. By the way, that's all I ever do, because this world is very depressing unless you're avoiding the horrible mess all around us.
I will deliberately avoid catering to political pushy assholes who try to shove their agenda on us, the vast majority who will avoid the racist sexist agenda some small whiney few want to shovel our way.
So, to be understood clearly, I will not post anything to cater to someone else's wishes, marketing, agenda, or whatever, because they got the govt to tag a month with some sexist racist history month bullshit.
I post about the interesting, fun, cool, amazing or fun stuff randomly, only as I come across it, because the people, place, or thing EARNED the feature showcase article free publicity.
After all, some few things change, and affect, the whole world, like Michelin star rating the restaurants. Who ever would guess a tire company trying to get people to buy tires, by driving farther and using up their current tires, would result in the restaurant business living and dying by the rating from a tire company?
If you're seeing something here, it's due to respect, admiration, interest, or thorough enjoyment I want to share with anyone and everyone that has found my blog somehow, because I've never advertised to actively draw anyone to see my blog.
Women don't get posted about because they make babies, or milk. Men don't get posted about because they pee standing up. No one gets posted about because they or their ancestors are from any particular area on this planet, have any color hair, eyes, or skin.
Respect, that's why everyone on this blog got space here, and the time it took to do a good post about them. What they did, made, created, caused, etc.
Or the ones that I post to warn you about, the horrible people I want to raise awareness about so you can avoid having a bad day encountering them, police, thieves, scammers, etc.
Now, I hope that no one is going to misunderstand why I post what I do, and don't, or when, and certainly not why. After all, this isn't a job for me, unlike the people making website content for Hagerty, Hemmings, Hot Rod, Jalopnik, Autoblog, etc, company and corporate paid bloggers, writers, etc that have someone paying them to create content which results in revenue from advertisers or merch sales
I am 77 years old and had never heard of the Hormel Ladies. Thanks for the history and the honesty at the end of your essay.
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