By 1965, Orville and his business partner Charles Bowman perfect their popcorn hybrid - it is light and fluffy, leaves hardly any unpopped kernels, achieves a 44:1 ratio in volume of popped to unpopped corn, and, of course, tastes great.

Orville Redenbacher was born on a farm in Brazil, Indiana, in 1907. At 12, he began to grow and peddle his own popping corn, which allowed him to save money for college. He graduated from Perdue University with a degree in agronomy and as a member of Alpha Gamma Rho, an agriculture-oriented fraternity.

The popcorn business and other old Hunt-Wesson businesses were sold in 1990 to agribusiness giant Conagra Brands. Hunt-Wesson, Inc.

popcorn Orville Clarence Redenbacher (July 16, 1907 – September 19, 1995) was an American food scientist and businessman most often associated with the brand of popcorn that bears his name which is now owned by Conagra Brands.

10 Interesting Popcorn Facts

• Interesting Fact #1: Popcorn can pop up to 30 times its size and up to 3 feet in the air.
• Interesting Fact #2: You can cook popcorn in butter, oil, air-pop, and even hot sand.
• Interesting Fact #3: Popcorn has been spotted throughout ancient North, Central, and South America.

French explorers wrote of Iroquois popping tough corn kernels in pottery jars filled with heated sand. The Iroquois nation spread throughout the Great Lakes region, so it's likely that settlers to upstate New York, Vermont and Quebec were the earliest European-American popcorn makers.

Microwave popcorn was first discovered in 1945. Perry Spencer discovered that popcorn would pop when placed near a microwave. Mr. Spencer led the way to development of the microwave oven.

Orville Redenbacher's Ultimate Butter This is it, folks: The all-around best popcorn on our list - especially if you're all about the butter. The label reads popping corn, palm oil, salt, butter and natural flavor and colors. It's free of artificial preservatives, flavors and dyes to boot.

By the mid 1970s, Redenbacher and Bowman had captured a third of the unpopped popcorn market. According to industry estimates, the brand, still the national leader in the $1 billion annual popcorn market, accounts for about 45 percent of the microwave market. These amazing successes are not all coming from luck.

Redenbacher was a natural salesman and became quickly successful in his line of work. He even went on to start a fertilizer company, which was very financially successful. Yet throughout it all, Redenbacher had a goal that he'd been working on since a child. He wanted to make a popping corn that was perfect.

Fun Facts About Popcorn

• Popcorn is over 5000 years old.
• The first commercial popcorn machine was invented by Charles Cretors in 1885.
• Nebraska produces the most popcorn in America, around 250 million pounds per year.
• Microwaveable popcorn was invented by Pillsbury in 1982.

Popcorn is a specific type of corn kernel that can expand and puff. The endosperm contains up to 20% moisture, which is converted to steam upon heating, making it pop! It's one of the oldest snacks. In 1948, two men discovered popped kernels of corn that has been said to be almost 6000 years old.