Published: October 02, 2009 11:23 pm         

Tasty treats, history abundant at Popcorn Fest

Brazil — As its name suggests, the seventh-annual Popcorn Festival in Brazil this weekend celebrates one of Indiana’s top crops: popcorn.

The festival also recognizes a native son — Orville Redenbacher — who did his best to perfect the fluffy white snack food.

Amid the salt-and-pepper popcorn, the carmel and kettle corn, the popcorn knick-knacks, and the bags full of popcorn, there is a display of Orville Redenbacher memorabilia, and a woman eager to share stories and talk about the man she knew as Dad.

Gail Tuminello still resides in Valparaiso, the northern Indiana town where Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn first became famous. But she enjoys traveling to Brazil for the annual festival and sharing her father’s love of good popcorn.

“It’s surprising how many people want to talk to me because they knew my father,” Tuminello said Friday afternoon while visiting at the Riley home of her daughter, Pam Bertoli.

“Orville’s sister lived in Center Point,” Tuminello said. “And I had a man call from Fort Wayne who said he went to [Brazil] high school with my dad and he has a copy of the yearbook and he wants to show me. He said he’s coming to the festival.”

From 1 to 5 p.m. today, Tuminello will greet the public at the Brazil City Park in a small building full of photos, videos and other memorabilia.

“They’ve been so nice to us and have us be part of the festival ,” Tuminello said of the festival organizers. And that is why she shared boxes of memorabilia and videotapes of commercials that are now displayed as part of the festival. The organizers’ intent is to one day establish a permanent local exhibit about Redenbacher.

“I knew it was someplace people wanted it, and would take care of it, and it would be displayed,” she said of her donation of the items.

Redenbacher was born in 1907 at Brazil, and attended school there through high school. He went on to Purdue, and met his soon-to-be wife, Corinne, who was a native of West Lafayette.

After college, Orville taught at a Vigo County school at Fontanet for a year before becoming the county Extension agent in Terre Haute. His love of the 4-H program was a constant throughout his life, Tuminello said.

The Redenbacher family lived in Terre Haute for several years before moving to southern Indiana, where Orville managed Princeton Farms.

“That was a great place to grow up,” Tuminello said. “I had the run of the place.”

As the baby of the family, her older sisters were soon gone off to college and she was on her own with her outgoing parents. Her father was working on hybridizing popcorn while he was head of Princeton Farms, she said, but it wasn’t until he and a partner took over the Chester seed business in Valparaiso that he developed the top-popping popcorn that would make Redenbacher a household name.

Growing up, Tuminello said the family always snacked on popcorn. But after the success of the Redenbacher brand took off, it seemed like they enjoyed popcorn even more. The family favorite these days is the Movie Butter microwave popcorn.

Her father loved making the commercials and the attention he received from the success of his popcorn, she said.

“He loved being famous,” she said. “He was never too busy to talk to someone or spend time with someone.”

Even after arthritis in his hands limited his ability to sign autographs, he would still give out stickers that read, “I met Orville Redenbacher.”

One of her father’s often-shared stories about his popcorn comes from the early days of attempting to market it and being overwhelmed by the challenge. Orville and his partner went to Chicago to meet with a marketing firm representative, who told him that using his photo and name would be the selling hook.

“He used to laugh that he paid $12,000 for someone to tell him he should use the same name his mother gave him for free,” Tuminello said.

The popcorn first started selling at Marshall Field in the food pantry. Some people thought it wouldn’t sell because it was too expensive, but it turns out the public wanted a “gourmet” popping corn.

“It is still the best-selling popcorn,” Tuminello said proudly. For a while, sales dropped when the company took Orville’s picture off the box. But when his image was added back to the packages, sales took off again.

Despite all the fame that came with having the world’s best gourmet popcorn, Orville was a down-to-earth person who enjoyed many hobbies such as traveling, photography, music and sports. As a young man, he was a cross country and track runner, and he played the sousaphone.

He was a member of Kiwanis, and Tuminello said she often accompanied her parents as they made public speaking tours.

The city of Valparaiso has its own popcorn festival that started about 30 years ago based on the success of Redenbacher’s popcorn. That festival has morphed over time, she said, and she is not involved in it as she was in the early years.

“The Brazil festival is more interested in having the family participate,” she said.

In fact, only blood relatives of Redenbacher are allowed to judge the look-alike contest that was conducted Friday evening.

“Two years ago, the winner so uncannily looked like my dad it was freakish,” Tuminello said.

She and her daughters and grandchildren have fun judging the contest. One year, they chose a woman winner, another year it was a child.

Sadly, there are no male Redenbacher descendants, and the name has died out, at least in its Clay County line, though the resemblance to Orville still shows up in the male grandchildren.

This weekend in Brazil, a lot of people will be looking like Orville — with their hands in a bag of popcorn and their mouths watering for more.

Lisa Trigg can be reached at lisa.trigg@tribstar.com or by calling (812) 231-4254.