Jelly-O Company

Jell-O was invented in 1897 in LeRoy, New York by a carpenter named Pearle Bixby Wait.  Wait also made and sold patent medicines, so he knew how to add colorings and flavorings to prettify products of unsavory origins – such as the boiled calves feet used to make gelatin.

Pearle Bixby Wait

It was his wife, May who came up with the name Jell-O by attaching to the word ‘jell’ the ‘O’, a popular ending for product names at the time. Wait registered Jell-O as a trademark in 1897. The first four flavors of the gelatin desert were orange, lemon, strawberry and raspberry.

Frank Woodward, owner of the Genesee Pure Food Company bought in the formula, for $450. The company launched a massive advertising campaign and by 1902, Jell-O’s annuals sales reached $250,000.

Two years later he introduced the Jell-O Girl and sent horse drawn wagons to rural communities to promote the new product.

The Jell-O so dominated the Genesee Pure Food Company that the firm’s name was change to the Jell-O Company in 1923. Two years later, it was acquired by the Postum Cereal Company (later renamed General Foods Corporation). Postum reduced Jell-O’s price and scored record sales but not record profits. General Foods was merged with Kraft Foods in 1989.
Jelly-O Company