The Food That Built America (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Best Served Cold - full transcript

- Previously, on
The Food That Built America:

food pioneer, Henry Heinz,

brought his iconic
tomato ketchup

to the world.

- We're wiring this back
here, starting today.

- And revolutionized
the industrial process,

creating an American dynasty.

And shrewd visionary,
Asa Candler...

- I'll give you $300 for
the rights to Coca-Cola.

- Turned John
Pemberton's formula

for Coca-Cola



into the first
national soft drink,

becoming the richest
man in Atlanta.

Now, trailblazer
Milton Hershey...

- Damn it!

- Get out.

- Bets on an unknown luxury

called milk chocolate
to make his fortune.

- Make sure every sales manager

has plenty of samples.

They're gonna need 'em.

- It's the start

of a multi-billion
dollar enterprise.

A father and son duo named
Frank and Forrest Mars

create an iconic
candy of their own.



- I call it the Milky Way.

- And they're
gunning for Hershey's throne.

- Hershey isn't our supplier.

They're our competition.

- C. W.
Post used the ideas

he took from John
and Will Kellogg

to launch a cereal empire.

Now the brothers go to war
with Post and each other.

- I'm gonna bury you.

- But it's Post's daughter,

teamed with outdoorsman,
Clarence Birdseye,

whose bold vision will reinvent
the way the world eats.

- Very, very
good; very, very good.

- Will Kellogg has spent a year

building his new
corn flake company.

- For decades,
he toiled in the shadow

of his famous older
brother, Dr. John Kellogg.

- John Harvey Kellogg had
this great reputation.

Not always a lecturer
and a doctor,

but he wrote best-selling books.

And so, tens of thousands
of people per year

came from around the
country and around the world

to meet the great Dr. Kellogg,

and to learn how to
be healthy from him.

- The only reason you work here

is because you're my brother.

- But he never missed
a moment to humiliate

or razz his brother.

- You're not capable!

- Will's cereal
brand is growing quickly

thanks to the family name
his brother made famous.

- Will Kellogg bought the
recipes from John Harvey Kellogg

and he added a little bit
of malt sugar, not a lot,

and he would put his
name, his signature on it,

and so, it became Kellogg's.

Will had to know
that the name Kellogg

was very marketable
because of the doctor.

- By 1907, he
makes $178,000 in profit,

nearly five million today,

and he pours almost
double that amount

into making the name of Kellogg
synonymous with corn flakes.

- W. K. had a brilliant mind.

He had business savvy.

You know, "Only look for
the box with my signature."

The marketing of
these things, genius.

- The most important thing

for spreading the national
brand was advertising.

It's going to change how
word-of-mouth comes out

about what type of food
you should be eating.

Industries are buying
space in magazines,

saying, "Uneeda Biscuit."

Jell-o takes off by
advertising itself

as America's most
famous dessert.

It wasn't famous at all,

but they started an advertising
campaign calling it that

and it took off.

- Will Kellogg, he had all
sorts of amazing campaigns.

He had these giant billboards,

the largest
billboard of its time

that he put up in Times Square,

similar things in Chicago.

He had a whole campaigns
where they suggested to women

that they wink at the
grocer and that'd be a sign

to give them the
Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

So, there was also
sexual innuendo.

He promoted the hell out of
it with Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

- By the early
part of the 20th century,

food becomes the biggest segment
of the advertising market,

beating out cosmetics,
tobacco, and automobiles,

with Will Kellogg
leading the charge.

Just a few miles
away, Dr. John Kellogg

is determined to strike
back at his younger brother.

- As Will Kellogg
became more successful,

John resented that.

He didn't want his little
brother to succeed,

particularly with his
name, and his product.

- John markets his
own unsweetened Corn Flakes,

using the same
name and packaging,

even though he sold
the rights to Will.

- When John Harvey Kellogg began

to make his own
Kellogg's cereal,

it was a threat
to Will's company

because if people
confused Will's product

with Dr. Kellogg's product,

which didn't taste as good,
he would lose customers.

No wonder Will Kellogg
resented John Harvey Kellogg.

He seethed with anger.

- The Kellogg
Company will someday

be worth $20 billion.

- The only
question is, which one?

- What the hell is this?

I bought the recipes!

- The rights aren't exclusive,

and Kellogg is my last name.

- I have tried with you, John.

I really have,

but if you weren't
my brother, I swear.

- You're nothing without my
name, and you never were.

You know, I used to pity you.

Now I don't feel anything.

You're pathetic.

- I'm gonna bury you.

- With the Corn
Flakes legacy at stake,

John and will sue each
other for the right

to the Kellogg name, and the
massive fortune it represents.

- Meanwhile,
C. W. Post oversees

the dynasty he's built on
ideas he took from Kellogg's.

- People forget how much
industrial espionage there was.

C. W. Post himself came to
the sanitarium as a guest,

and then he creates Grape Nuts.

- By 1908, his company makes

over $5.2 million,
147 million today,

but Corn Flakes represent
the first real threat

it's ever faced.

- At this point, Post still
was marketing its products

as a health supplement,
whereas Will Kellogg

is really selling
his flakes as food,

and was enormously
successful at it.

- Years after a
nervous disorder landed him

at Dr. Kellogg's sanitarium,

the stress of competition
is taking its toll.

- Why is it so cold
in here all the time?

- Cold?

It's not that cold, sir.

- Right.

Well, you're doing a great job.

Keep it up.

You know.

- Post is a man who has
been plagued by illness

throughout his entire life,

and just around the time
the companies became rivals,

C.W. Post's health
problems start coming back.

- Post, desperate
to bring corn flakes

of his own to market,

and his illness makes
him increasingly erratic.

- I asked you to produce
flakes three-quarters

of an inch across.

This is mush.

- Whether he completely
rips it off or not

is another question,
but if you think

about C. W. Post's ethics,

he was just like the other
entrepreneurs of his time.

He was part of that robber
baron generation, after all.

It was a time when ruthlessness
was, if anything, admired.

- I want you to find out what
equipment Kellogg is using

and who makes it.

Get us whatever the hell he has.

- Yes, sir.

- Wait.

Buy them out.

Order 100 of them
if you have to.

I don't want anyone
else to get one.

I don't care how much it costs.

Money's not an issue.

- Post Corners the market

on Will Kellogg's
proprietary flake rollers,

cementing himself as
Kellogg's fiercest competitor.

- 480 miles from Michigan,

a local businessman

is looking for a
factory to mass-produce

an entirely new product

that almost no
American has ever tasted.

- We're never going to
find a perfect space.

- I know.

- We have to make a
compromise somewhere.

We've seen every available
factory in Philadelphia.

- I know.

- The people who, in my
experience,

tend to be innovators

are really kind of maniacal.

They're not your average people.

- Now you're take me
to middle of nowhere.

For what, exactly?

- Just hang
on, we're almost there.

- The ambition comes from
somewhere deep inside

where you think, "I
can do this better,"

or "I can find a way to
make this process better,

"that product better,"
and I think that's really

what America's about,

and that has always been the
ethos that drives our society.

- This is where I
wanna build my factory.

- I don't get it.

There's nothing here, we're
surrounded by corn fields.

- They're not corn fields;
they're dairy farms.

- He hasn't yet
created a product to sell

but he has a dream that will
take the world by storm,

and his vision is to
build not just a factory,

but an entire town
to support it.

His name is Milton Hershey.

- By the early 1900s,
the average American worker

makes roughly $400 a year.

- The United States, by 1900,

has the most powerful
economy in the world,

and this permanent
working-class developed,

and when you walked
out each day,

you had money in your pocket,

and so, this all
of a sudden meant

that there were people
who were gonna find things

for the folks with
cash in their pocket

to spend the money on.

- A typical family
spends almost a quarter

of its budget on housing,

15% on clothing, and a
whopping 45% on food,

creating a huge potential
for new products.

- As much as creating
successful brands

is about innovation
and imagination,

there needs to be an
understanding

of the marketplace,

and I think that's the key
to real entrepreneurship,

is being able to just see
the next step moving forward

and taking that door
when it opens to you

and running running through it

when you're not quite sure
what's on the other side.

- In rural Pennsylvania

almost 100 miles from the
nearest major city

Milton Hershey is gambling
everything

on an obscure product he
believes is the next big thing,

investing $20,000, more
than half a million today.

- Careful, careful.

That wasn't cheap.

- Into equipment
to make milk chocolate.

It's virtually
unknown in the U. S.

but will someday be sold in
90 countries across the globe.

- It was very popular in Europe,

but here in the United States,

nobody was making
milk chocolate,

and when Milton first
tasted milk chocolate

at the World's Columbian
Exposition in Chicago,

he recognized that
it was special.

- Chocolate
consumption dates all the way

back to the ancient Mayans, who
would drink chocolate beverages

spiced with chili.

Dark chocolate was common
in Europe by the late 1600s,

and in 1875, a Swiss
baby formula manufacturer

named Henri Nestle was the
first to make milk chocolate.

- We all know the Nestle name,

but what he was
really famous for

was he took the water
out of the milk,

and then he took the
solids that were left,

and he combined
it with chocolate.

People craved milk chocolate

because it was more
mellow in flavor,

and as far as inventions
goes, quite late.

The machine gun had been
invented before milk chocolate.

So, just think about
that for a minute.

- These are nice.

- Hershey left
school in the fourth grade

to help support his family.

After an apprenticeship
with a confectioner,

he started his own
caramel company,

and in 1900, sold
it for $1 million.

- It actually made
the front page

of the New York Times
when it was sold.

That was enormous amount
of money back then,

but Milton Hershey took a risk.

He went and invested
his million dollars

into making milk chocolate.

- Hershey buys
1200 acres of farmland

in dairy country, where he'll
spend his entire fortune

on building not just a factory,

but a dream to build a utopia.

- Now, these'll all
be housing, right?

And then, factory here.

Roads, here?

- Yep.

- These dimensions are fine,

but it doesn't have
any personality.

- Personality?

- Hershey had this
utopian vision,

this idea that everyone would
have things taken care of

for them like plumbing
and electricity,

and all these
modern conveniences

that workers of the day
couldn't even dream of.

These were things that
people just did not do

for their employees.

- Since the 1880s

remote industrial operations
requiring hard labor,

like coal mines and lumber yards

have been supported by
company towns.

- Very often,
factories were built

on relatively cheap
land outside of cities,

but in those days,
automobiles didn't exist

for the most part,
or very often,

there weren't systems
of urban transport,

so, the workers had
to walk to work.

Well, if the factory's
outside of town,

then you're gonna have to build
some place for them to live

so they can walk to work.

- Company towns are often dirty,

poorly-built, and expensive,

but Milton Hershey is
thinking much bigger.

He doesn't even have
a product to sell,

but he's already
building his ideal town.

- He broke ground on the town

before he ever finalized his
own milk chocolate recipe,

which is insane when
you think about it,

but that's what he did.

- Yeah, these are boring.

It all feels cheap.

I want people will be
happy to work here.

If they're happy to work here,

they'll take pride
in their work.

They'll work harder.

- There certainly
will be costs associated--

- Fix it.

- Construction
will take nearly every penny

of his $1 million investment.

- Now, he
has to crack the formula

for milk chocolate.

C.W. Post has bought up
all the flake rollers

that Will Kellogg helped design,

and he's using them to crank
out corn flakes of his own.

He calls them Post Toasties.

- Will was furious
when he found out

that Charlie Post had
bought the rollers

for Post Toasties.

Only so many machinists would
make these types of product,

which was very smart
of Charles Post.

- The genius of breakfast cereal
is that you take a product

that costs virtually nothing,

you lightly process corn by
cooking it and squashing it,

and then you fill a box with it,

and then you charge an enormous
amount of money for the box.

This was not lost on C. W. Post

and that is his genius.

- Post hopes to gain ground

while the Kellogg brothers
battle each other.

- Yeah?

- Just a few miles away...

- Okay.

- That fight is over.

After years of abuse...

- You're not capable!

The only reason you work here
is because you're my brother.

- Will Kellogg, once
his famous brother's lackey,

has triumphed.

Thanks To his brilliant
marketing scheme,

the courts rule that
Will has sole ownership

of Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

- It was all about
who had the right

to use the name Kellogg
as a brand name,

and the doctor argued, "I'm
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.

"I'm a world-renowned physician.

"I'm the real Kellogg,"

and Will Kellogg mentioned
all the advertisements he did,

the millions of
dollars he spent,

the tens of millions
of people who read

or saw his ads every year,

and he said, "I'm the more
recognizable Kellogg."

- All right, thank you.

- And the Michigan State
Supreme Court said,

"You know, Mr. Kellogg,"
not Dr. Kellogg,

"Mr. Kellogg, you're right.

"Your brand name is Kellogg's,

"and that's the
recognizable one."

- For John,
it's a shocking defeat.

Worse, the court orders
John to cover all legal fees

and forfeit all the
profits he's made.

- Thank you.

Goodbye.

- It was, in a
way, it was trying

to destroy his brother's legacy.

It was grinding him out
from the annals of history

so that only the Will
Kellogg company would remain.

- John turns his
focus back to the sanitarium,

and his groundbreaking research
on diet and digestion

earns him a seat on the
Michigan Board of Health.

But ultimately, the Battle
Creek Sanitarium closes

due to financial difficulties,
and John eventually falls

out of the public eye.

- John Harvey Kellogg
is a forgotten figure.

A lot of concepts of better
eating, and wellness,

and preventing disease
were developed by him.

A lot of the food
products that we enjoy

were invented by him.

He's just not given
credit for it,

and that's a pretty
sad story in my view.

- Will's victory
over his brother is complete.

Now, he's finally ready to
go to war with C. W. Post.

- Will Kellogg hated Charlie
Post for stealing his ideas,

and once, somebody
told Will Kellogg,

"You know, Charlie Post
calls you a dirty dog."

Will said, "Well, you know what
a dirty dog does to a post,"

and so, there was a lot
of animosity between them.

- Will increases production,

pushing his factory
to the Limit.

- No more than usual today.

is this--
- Fire! Fire!

- No, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Get out, everything,
the back door.

Everyone out!

Come on, come with me.

- In July 1907,

Will Kellogg's Corn Flake
factory burns to the ground,

crippling his operation.

- Do I even wanna know?

- Our stock has been
completely destroyed.

There's almost nothing left.

The mixers, they're
barely recognizable.

- Damn it.

Well, at least nobody was hurt.

Everything else is just details.

- Yes, sir.

- In the fire that destroyed
Will Kellogg's factory,

it also destroyed his rollers.

- No.
- You realize that his baby,

his creation, had
burned to the ground.

- Will needs
to be up and running

as fast as possible
or risk losing ground

to his nemesis, C. W. Post.

- But when he orders
a new set of flake rollers,

he learns about
Post's exclusive deal.

- No, I heard what you said.

I just don't understand it.

I helped you design
the damn things.

- I'm
sorry, Mr. Kellogg.

I'd love to help you
out, but there's no way

we can take any new orders.

- Name your price.

- Can't do it.

Our contract is exclusive,
no new customers.

I'm sorry.

- Will was furious
when he found out

that Charlie Post
had bought the rights

to make rollers
for Post Toasties.

It was a malicious idea
on Charlie Post's part,

but Will was a very wily guy

who could always get his
way out of a problem.

- Wait, you said no
new customers, right?

- That's right.

- But I'm not a new customer.

- What exactly
is it you have in mind?

- Fix up my rollers, the ones

that went down in the fire.

- He picked the old
rollers out of the rubble,

and said, "Your contract
doesn't say anything

"about repairing rollers
you already made, right?"

So, with this loophole in place,

they would actually not
just fix the burnt rollers

but replace them,

and then they sent them by
secret along the train rails.

His business almost was ruined,

and it was his ingenuity
that saved the day.

- Will takes
out the modern equivalent

of $2 million in loans and
pours it into construction.

- When Charlie Post
heard about it,

he just threw a fit, but
it was already too late.

- Why haven't these
shipments left yet?

Where are my
department managers?

I'm calling a meeting.

15 minutes, boardroom,
attendance mandatory!

Back to work.

- He had some type of stomach
or gastrointestinal problem

that would cause all
sorts of problems

from feeling nauseated
to depression,

and what we might call
a nervous breakdown.

- You okay?

Sir?

Sir?

- Milton
Hershey is doubling down

on milk chocolate, building
a factory and a town.

Even after months of failure,
trying to crack the formula.

- Milton Hershey was a lunatic.

That was just sort
of who he was.

He wasn't afraid
of taking risks,

and you know, he
believed in himself

enough to think that,
"Trial and error.

"I'm gonna get it right."

Probably a lesser person might
have walked away from it,

but that wasn't him.

- European milk
chocolate uses prepackaged,

condensed, or powdered milk.

- But Hershey
believes he can use

the nearly endless
supply of fresh milk

from local farms to
mass-produce his chocolate.

- The problem is that
milk has a lot of water

and chocolate has a lot of
rich plant fat, cocoa butter.

You try to mix oil and water,

everybody knows that's
near impossible,

and Milton Hershey didn't
understand any of this.

Milton Hershey
was not a chemist.

He was an experimenter,
he was a dreamer,

and he thought it would
be a simple process

to come up with his own
version of milk chocolate.

- It needs to be
creamy, rich but creamy.

- And smooth, you know?

Like, you know there's fresh,
delicious milk in there

even if you don't
really taste it.

- Got it.

- To help him solve the formula,

he brings in top chemists
from across the nation.

- Hey, where'd you say
you went to school?

- Princeton undergrad,
doctorate at Cornell.

So why are the condensing
and mixing so inconsistent?

- I don't know yet, but that's
what I'm here to find out.

- I'll stay outta your
way so you don't burn it.

- Excuse me?

- Your milk, that's gonna burn.

- I promise you, I
know what I'm doing.

- Okay.

Damn it!

I'll need to start a new batch.

I'll try mixing in the
milk as it dehydrates.

- Get out.

- I'm sorry, what?

- Just pack your things
and get the hell out.

- I think I just let
it reduce too far.

If I could have a
little more time--

- I'm not paying you
to learn on the job.

- In Europe, they
use powdered milk.

- I don't wanna hear about
how they do it in Europe.

I'm using fresh milk.

Period.

Just go.

- Milton Hershey
was so committed

to using fresh milk from
the local dairy cows,

and he was doing experiments.

At the same time, he was
financing all of this money

that he was putting into
this town of Hershey,

and he failed again and again.

And it was very difficult.

He was at the end of his rope.

- Milton Hershey
is on the brink of disaster

and he's running out of time.

- Far from Pennsylvania,

the son of a once-wealthy
New Jersey family

braves temperatures
that reach 40 below.

He's an avid outdoorsman
and scientist,

trapping fur and
living off the land.

- America as the
land of opportunity

is essential to the
way that we think

about entrepreneurship
and innovation.

The common person could see
themselves achieving wealth,

and that is very important.

- His name is Clarence Birdseye.

And here in the frigid
Canadian wilderness,

the startling discovery he makes

will give rise to a
$220 billion industry.

- Deep in the
Canadian wilderness

Clarence Birdseye
carves out a life for himself

after his once-prominent
family lost their fortune.

He survives on his own
making money as a fur trapper

and living much like
the Inuit natives.

- Clarence Birdseye was
very interested in nature

and he always had a
tremendous sense of adventure,

but he ended up
dropping out of school

for financial reasons,

but he was one of these
kids who just wanted

to take everything apart
and see how it worked.

- Birdseye subsists largely

on something most Americans
at the time don't eat:

- Frozen food.

- Americans certainly
associated frozen foods

with being gross.

It was on the bland
side, sort of mushy.

It's not like frozen
foods we know today.

- Nobody wanted it
because it was terrible.

It was terrible because
it was frozen very slowly,

so it was kind of rotting
as it was freezing.

It was served in prisons,

but prison reformers
complained about it

and tried to stop it
from being served there,

and it just was the
worst food in the world.

- Frozen food technology

is virtually nonexistent,

barely changed from the
ancient Roman technique

of packing food
in compressed snow

or in cold cellars
filled with ice,

but the local Inuits produce
how much better product

using the frigid
local temperatures

to freeze fish almost instantly.

- The frozen food that
Birdseye ate in Labrador

was really very good,

and so he began experimenting.

- When you freeze
something slowly,

you make these gigantic ice
crystals inside of the cell,

and the jagged edges
of this ice crystal

pierce the cell wall
so when it thaws,

all that liquid runs out,

and that's why things
look disgusting,

and withered, and shriveled,
and devoid of taste.

A fast freeze allows
small ice crystals

to create within the cell,

so upon thawing, the
cell wall is still intact

and the flavor is
still preserved.

- Birdseye figured out that if
you freeze fish fast enough,

it's as good as fresh.

- Birdseye realizes

that if he can replicate
the fast-freezing process,

he'll be able to apply
it not just to fish,

but to every food imaginable.

- Before frozen food,
foods were seasonal.

You ate foods that were fresh,

you ate foods that were
available at that time of year.

There's not a
whole lot of access

to various kinds of vegetables.

- People would often buy
fresh meat from butchers

and meat packers, and you
end up with meat rotting

and becoming putrid
before you eat it.

- Birdseye sees an opportunity

to return to the U. S. and
capitalize on a process

few in the world understand,

but the technology to
do it doesn't exist.

- Yet.

- Milton
Hershey hasn't perfected

his milk chocolate formula.

- Construction
on his factory continues,

and now he's doubling
down on his gamble.

- Hiring
workers and a head of sales

named William Murrie.

- Milton Hershey.

Pleasure to meet ya.

- William Murrie was apparently
quite a good salesman.

Hershey's struck by him.

He sees value in
him, immediately.

Successful people, I think,

are able to realize
their shortcomings

and to find people around
them to fill that void

and to make them better.

- Well, heard a lot of
good things about you,

so I'm just gonna
cut to the chase.

I'll beat whatever
you're making now

plus commission on top.

- What's the hook?

- It's milk chocolate.

It almost unheard of
outside of Europe,

but once we get
people to try it,

they're gonna want more.

It'll sell itself.

- Do you have any product
I could take a look at?

- No, not at the
moment, but I will.

- You're hiring me to sell
something that doesn't exist,

people don't know
anything about,

that's also gonna sell itself?

- Is that a problem?

Great.

Happy to have you onboard.

- Looking forward to it.

- Hershey is bleeding money

and if he can't
produce a product,

all his dreams will
come crashing down.

- Will Kellogg has
taken on today's equivalent

of millions in debt, replacing
his industrial flake rollers,

and rebuilding his factory.

- When the corn flake
factory burned down,

it was very hard to get loans,

and he found one banker
who had faith in him.

It was about $100,000,

which was more than
$1 million, then,

and it was a very real risk.

- After just six months,

Will Kellogg is
back in the game.

- And winning.

- Three shifts of workers

keep the factory running 24
hours a day, seven days a week.

- Great, great.

Very good, very good.

- And by 1909,

output of Kellogg's
Corn Flakes increases

from 4,000 cases
a day to 120,000,

leaving Post
Toasties in the dust.

- Meanwhile,
C. W. Post slides further

into illness.

- I'm not hungry.

- And steps away
from day-to-day operations

at the company he spent
his life building.

- I'm going for a walk.

- At that point, he
was a very wealthy man,

and spent a lot
of time traveling.

I sort of wonder about
him being out of touch

with his business,
and being, in a way,

forced to relax.

It may have been stress
more than anything else.

- Post tries everything from

vacationing in Europe to
founding a town in Texas

still named after him.

And trying to irrigate it

by dynamiting the clouds.

But it does nothing to ease his
debilitating stomach pain.

- C. W. Post has been
plagued by illness

throughout his entire life.

He claimed that Grape
Nuts would cure everything

from appendicitis to impotence.

Course, it doesn't cure him,
and that's the great irony.

He was one of the richest
men in the country,

but despite the money, despite
this incredible success,

he's left with the
same debility he had

when he entered the sanatorium.

- Suffering more than ever,

Post becomes convinced that
he's dying of stomach cancer

and decides to do
the unthinkable.

Milton Hershey's factory
is nearly complete,

and workers are moving
to his company town.

- He spent over 25
million in today's dollars,

and if he can't start
making a profit

he'll lose everything.

Desperate to find a
formula for milk chocolate,

Milton Hershey calls
on a former employee,

an experienced candy maker
named John Schmalbach.

- Should it be taking
this long to make a batch?

- This is fine.

Just let me concentrate.

- Do you need more equipment?

You know, everybody else
brought a lot of stuff.

This doesn't seem like
very much stuff to me.

- Shh.

- Right, sorry.

- John Schmalbach, I don't
wanna call him a chemist

because he had no formal degree,

but he was one of the
people Hershey knew early on

that he trusted.

- It's not perfect, but try it.

Let me know if this
better or worse

than what you've been getting.

What do you think's
not right about it?

- The texture is good,
but there's a little hint

of sourness that
we could eliminate.

- No, no, no, don't
change anything.

Did you write down what you
did so you can do it again?

- Of course.

- What's really kind of
amazing is Hershey himself

creating milk chocolate,
using these dairies.

I sometimes look at
my self, and I go,

"Would I have given up
under these circumstances?"

I think that a lot of people
in the modern age look

at brands like Hershey's
and just think,

"Well, it must have
been easy to establish.

"I could be a Hershey's,"

and people don't realize
that the risk was massive.

- This is fantastic.

- The formula that Milton
Hershey ultimately came up with

had what people
called sour notes,

which actually means in
his process of condensing,

he soured his milk.

He didn't realize at the time

that his chocolate didn't
taste like European chocolate.

He just knew he had
a formula that worked

and it was the first in the U. S.

So, we have become accustomed
to the Hershey flavor.

Hershey now goes
to great lengths

to keep that sourness
in the chocolate,

to protect that unique flavor.

- Here.

Here, take this.

Take it, John.

You earned it.

Thank you.

- Hershey pays
Schmalbach a $100 bonus

for his contribution.

- But the
distinct flavor it produces

will go on to be worth billions.

On May 9th 1914,

national headlines announce the
tragic death of C. W. Post.

- Hundreds
come to pay their respects

to a Battle Creek legend.

- I'm so sorry for your loss.

- Thank you.

- And mourn the loss
of a true titan of industry.

- The idea of the
self-made millionaire

was very much an American ideal.

There were the Fords, there
were the Rockefellers,

and C. W. Post takes that
model and applies it

to a food product.

Without people like C. W. Post,

the American food
landscape would look very,

very different than it does now.

- Please accept my sympathy.

- Thank you.

- C. W. Post leaves
behind a personal fortune

estimated at 22 million dollars,

the modern equivalent of
more than 550 million.

And in a stunning move
for the era,

he leaves not just the
bulk of his wealth,

but control of his
company to a woman:

his 27-year-old
daughter, Marjorie.

At the time, less than 20% of
college graduates are female,

and women don't even
have the right to vote.

- Women had been
involved in factories

since the early 19th century,

but they would work for a while,

and then most of them had the
idea that they'd get married,

and they'd have children,

and they'd step out
of the paid workforce.

You never saw them in
positions of ownership

or at the highest levels
of corporate management.

- C. W. Post
wanted to raise her

like the son he never had.

- It's okay to have fun
while you're working.

You look so serious.

So serious, got to...

If it's not fun,
you can't do it.

Right here.

- C. W. Post would have
his board meetings

and she would be there
under the table with him,

and he taught her every
aspect of the business.

- The company
is struggling in the wake

of its founder's death
and now rests in the hands

of an inexperienced young woman,

but her leadership will
completely reinvent it.

- For Will Kellogg,
the death of his greatest

rival brings an end
to his long battle

for cereal supremacy.

- By every imaginable
metric, he won.

He beat his brother, and
he outpaced C. W. Post,

so that by World War II,
the Kellogg's Cereal Company

had 50% of the
world's cereal market.

- Today, Will Kellogg's company

is valued at nearly
$20 billion dollars,

boasting familiar products
like Rice Krispies,

Frosted Flakes, Raisin
Bran, even Pop-Tarts,

and Eggo Waffles.

- He created not only one
of the major food companies

in the world, but
he also created

the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

- Will's
charitable organization,

with an
$8.6 billion endowment,

still helps disadvantaged
children all across the globe.

- Will Kellogg could
never imagined himself

as this giant mogul,

but the impact of ready-to-eat
cold cereal was enormous.

It was a game changer.

It was the iPhone of its
day, if you will.

Everybody wanted some.

So, in a way it was the
job Will was born to do,

even if he didn't know it.

- After two years,
spent building

his factory and his town,

Milton Hershey is finally armed

with the milk chocolate
formula he's been waiting for.

- Let's take a look.

- Wrapped its
iconic brown wrapper,

the Hershey bar is about

to take the United
States by storm.

- Make sure every sales
manager is plenty of samples.

They're gonna need 'em.

- Milton Hershey is the first

to mass-produce milk chocolate,

quickly turning an
obscure European luxury

into an American staple.

- Milton Hershey's vision was
to give the average consumer

this delicacy once
viewed as this thing

for only kings and queens,
and on special occasions,

and make it an everyday
item for folks in the U. S.

- Sales reach $5
million, 135 million today,

making Milton Hershey a true
American chocolate tycoon.

- He's just so fascinating
because here's a man

who really was a titan
just like the Rockefellers,

and the Carnegies,
and the J. P. Morgans,

but instead of having this
raw metal or iron product,

his product is chocolate.

- Then, on July 28th, 1914,

simmering unrest
in Europe explodes

into the first World War.

Over four bloody years,
more than 15 million died.

The United States joins
the conflict in 1917,

and resources are quickly
diverted to the war effort.

- In May of 1917, Herbert
Hoover is appointed

as Federal Food Administrator
for the United States.

There was no
mandatory rationing,

but Hoover used a
combination of propaganda

and peer pressure to really
try and coerce Americans

into following these rules,

which included things
like meatless Mondays

and wheatless Wednesdays,
which are the most famous.

As the war dragged
on, they did actually,

formally ration sugar.

- To avoid sugar rationing--

- You draw this?

- Milton Hershey
uses a brilliant strategy.

- The char house, here,

the mill, over here.

Fields here, here, and here.

- Opening his
own sugar refinery in Cuba.

- These are good.

- Complete with
a mill town and railroad.

- Being a visionary,

he realized that
there was a shortage,

and he wanted to insulate
his company against it.

So, despite World War I,

Hershey profits
continue to increase,

in large part because
of his venture in Cuba.

- In Europe, the
war destroys food production,

leading to shortages
across the continent.

- It's a watershed period that
transforms the 20th century

into the American century.

In Europe, people are starving,

and that's why the big
American food companies join

to help produce more food
and have it sent overseas

to our allies.

- The
U. S. food industry

expands International shipments,

growing from $190 million
in exports before the war

to over 510 million
at its height.

When the war ends in 1918,

the United States emerges
as an economic powerhouse.

- The destruction
took place in Europe.

The construction and the
production of all this stuff

took place in America,

so World War I gave the US
economy a great shot in the arm.

For the first time,
electricity enters homes

all over the country.

For the first time, ordinary
people can buy automobiles.

- In this new booming economy

the Hershey company manufactures

millions of pounds of
chocolate a year

with sales topping $20 million,

over 250 million today.

And Milton Hershey's
best salesman

is now the company's president.

- Milton Hershey had a lot
of different interests.

He had a town to run,

so Murrie really the
chief operating officer

while while Milton
was the C. E. O.

He became Milton's
right-hand man.

- The Hershey
Company is synonymous

with milk chocolate,
with no clear rival.

Then...

- Look how she's
looking at you, boy.

She wants you.

- A 19-year-old college student

raised in Canada works a summer
job hanging cigarette ads.

- That's it.
- I mean, look

at that gaze, man.

- His name is Forrest Mars.

- She's wantin' it.

Ooh, mon cheri.

- And he'll
someday rival Milton Hershey

as an American chocolate tycoon,

but for now, he's in the
wrong place at the wrong time.

- Forrest wound up
getting arrested

because he'd plastered
signs up for cigarettes

all up and down State
Street in Chicago.

He didn't know anyone
in the States at all,

and so he needed
somebody to bail him out.

- He calls
his father, Frank Mars,

a modestly successful candy
maker in nearby Minnesota.

It's the first time
they're seeing each other

since Forrest's
mother left Frank

when Forrest was a baby.

- He knew absolutely nothing
about who his dad was.

He knew his name, but
he'd never met him,

and he'd never heard
very much about him.

- You're welcome.

- But he reached out to his dad,

and the two of them met
under those circumstances

for the very first time.

- After his first company failed

Frank's new business,
the Mar-O-Bar Company

is a local hit, selling
candy mostly in Minneapolis.

- That's a pretty nice shirt.

- Yeah, things are good.

Who doesn't like
chocolate candy, right?

- Yeah, everybody
likes chocolate.

So, how come I haven't seen
any of your stuff in Chicago?

- Well, different
markets, different tastes.

- Yeah, sure, because
nobody eats Hershey bars

in California, right?

I mean, take these malts.

People drink these
across the country.

So, why don't you just
make a chocolate bar

that tastes like a
malted milkshake?

No, I'm serious.

- There wasn't a candy
bar business at the time.

There were a lot of
chocolate bars out there,

but the idea of the candy
bar being the staple of candy

was really something
that was very different,

and that got Frank
Mars thinking.

- Forrest's
simple idea will give rise

to one of the most popular
candy bars in the world,

launch a $35 billion empire

and rip his family apart.

- In the wake of World War I,

the US economy
continues to boom,

ushering in the Roaring '20s.

- But by 1920,

consumerism really sets
in, in American life,

and there is a demand
to have the latest,

to have the best, to
have the flashiest,

the notion of
conspicuous consumption,

we're gonna consume stuff to
show the world that we can,

that we can do this.

- Fueled by this
new spirit of consumerism,

groundbreaking new products
flood the market,

including the vacuum
cleaner, the washing machine,

and the wireless radio.

- Marjorie Post
recognizes the opportunity

in this new age.

Not content to be a
wealthy cereal heiress,

she has a vision of transforming
her father's company

into something much bigger.

- It was a time when
women were not serving

as chairman of the board.

A lot of the business
decisions that she made

were done privately in her home.

In those rooms in this
magnificent Tudor mansion,

she worked and had
a lot of influence

to move this company forward.

- We would be irresponsible
not to anticipate

the impact on our business.

We need to take care of
everything that we...

- Sorry to keep you waiting.

I figured this would
be more comfortable

than the board room.

- Young lady we're very--

- Miss Post.

- Miss Post.

- Years before
major food conglomerates

are common, Marjorie
directs her company

to snap up well-known brands,

like Maxwell House coffee,

Log Cabin syrup, Jell-o,

and Hellmann's mayonnaise.

Expanding from a cereal company

to a food juggernaut.

- Marjorie was very
strategic and a visionary,

just like her father was.

She is the reason
why the company

became the success it is.

- That will be all.

Let's get moving.

- Sales skyrocket,

and by 1927, profits
reach $13.6 million,

over 200 million today.

- And she
isn't finished expanding.

- By 1927,
Clarence Birdseye is back

in the U. S. with a
vision to freeze food

in a way that will open up a
world of new possibilities.

- Frozen food defies nature.

Food technology and
science take over

and make things available
that people have never seen

at different times of
year, in different places

Now food isn't confined
by geography anymore.

That idea of totally
exploding space and time

is kinda mind-boggling if
you really think about it.

- But he has a problem.

- A process
for freezing food as fast

as Labrador's negative 40 degree
temperatures doesn't exist.

- At the time, you had
drying food and smoking.

Then you had pickling,
and then you had canning,

but frozen food,
nobody had done that.

He takes the idea
that he had observed

from the First Nation
people in Canada,

and develops a company he
thinks is really gonna take off.

- Birdseye
raises the modern equivalent

of 5.5 million in capital,

and consults with
freezer manufacturers

and engineers working to build

a proprietary quick-freezing
system from the ground up.

- He hadn't yet
entirely figured out

the fast-freezing
process that would work,

but he was willing to
take tremendous risks,

and he was taking
everything he had

and staking it on
some crazy company.

- That is the low
convection pump?

- I think so.

- What does that mean?

- This is all your design.

It's only called that

because that's what
you wanted to call it.

- Just keep building it, 'kay?

Follow the schematics
as best you can.

- Birdseye's brilliant design

is called multi-plate freezing.

Two metal plates are cooled
to 50 degrees below zero,

then food is loaded into
a pressurized container

and held between the plates,

freezing them almost instantly,

locking in nutrition, taste.

Today, the frozen food industry

is worth more than
$220 billion worldwide.

- And is one
of the biggest segments

of the grocery market,

and it all starts here,
with Clarence Birdseye.

- You know, Clarence Birdseye

used this inspiration to
revolutionize frozen food.

Really, frozen food
has made the lives

of parents and people on the
go so easy, myself included.

My favorite recipe in the
world is my mom's spinach pie

and it calls for
Birdseye frozen spinach.

I probably have two
boxes of spinach

in my fridge, right now.

- And that was
one, two, three, four, five,

six of those.

Yeah, just keep
stacking 'em, there.

If that gets filled up,
just fill 'em in, here.

Come on in.

- Clarence
Birdseye is so convinced

he's found the next big thing

that he immediately
ramps up production.

- Back up there,
if you would, guys.

Yep.

If we're running out of
space, we can go back, okay?

- Even though in 1928,

fewer than one in 10 Americans
even has a refrigerator.

- In Minneapolis,

after years of estrangement,
Frank and Forrest Mars

work together on an idea that'll
launch an American dynasty

for one of them.

It's a candy bar meant to
taste like a malted milkshake.

- Just take a bite.

- I'm not in this alone.

- All right.

- No.
- You sure?

- No, it's not a milkshake.

- It's not bad, though.

- Yeah, but remember, we're
going for a milkshake.

Do we have any more?

- Yeah, we got some more.

- Frank Mars was
trying to understand

how he could make this work.

- How 'bout this one?

- Finally, after many failures,

he tried a mixture of
eggs, and milk, and sugar,

and whipped it all together,

and he added malt flavor to it.

And ultimately, he
developed the nougat center.

- The brilliant
recipe uses light, creamy nougat

and caramel...

- Covered in a
thin layer of milk chocolate.

- That's a keeper.

- Revolutionizing the candy bar.

- The thing that Mars
discovered is that

when you're taking nougat
and you're whipping it

to make it soft and light,

you're reducing the actual
ingredients in the candy bar

'cause there's a lot
of whipped air inside,

and it makes them
actually cheaper to make,

because air is free.

Spot on.

- In order to
mass-produce his new invention

Frank Mars needs a steady
supply of milk chocolate,

and by the late 1920s,

there's only one
place to get it.

- It's perfect.

No, it's absolutely perfect.

It's happy, it's bright.

Puts you in a good mood
when you look at it.

- At the time, there
was only one real master

of the universe when
it comes to chocolate

in the United States, and
that would be Milton Hershey.

He defines the space.

- The Hershey Company
was providing ingredients

and finished chocolate products

to a lot of other manufacturers,

and it became a big part
of the Hershey business.

In fact, everybody
knows Oreo cookies,

but they probably don't know

that the original
chocolate flavor in Oreos

came from Milton Hershey.

- What, you don't have phones

out there in Minnesota?

- Well, call me old
fashioned, but I prefer

to do business face-to-face.

- It's a long way to come
for a short conversation.

Look, I read your proposal,

and I respect your dedication,

but I just can't take
that kind of risk.

- I get it.

I don't know that I'd
take a risk on me either,

but I'm not asking for a lot,

just a modest line of
credit on your chocolates

so I can expand production

on this.

I called it the Milky Way.

- The Milky
Way will someday generate

more than $100 million
in yearly sales,

but for now, its fate rests in
the Hershey Company's hands.

Frank Mars is in enemy territory

determined to walk away with
the milk chocolate he needs

to create a candy
empire of his own.

- I'm not asking for a lot,
just a modest line of credit

on your chocolates, so
I can expand production

on this.

I call it the Milky Way.

Give it a try.

- Not bad.
- See what I mean?

Irresistible.
- Tell you what.

Why don't I bring
this by Mr. Hershey.

- That's all I ask.

Appreciate it.

- Frank Mars went to Hershey
and he asked William Murrie

if they would
become his supplier.

At the time that he
requests their assistance,

he isn't a huge success.

He is an unknown from
Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

- William Murrie
recognizes Mars as a threat

and goes to Milton Hershey
hoping to nip it in the bud.

- Try this.

It's a combination
of whipped nougat,

caramel, and milk chocolate.

Have a bite.

- I'm all right.

- He wants to buy chocolate
from us on credit.

I think we should
look into buying this.

We'd be eliminating a competitor

and expanding our product range.

- A competitor?

There's no one in our league.

What markets is he in?

- His hometown, Minneapolis.

- So, he's not much of a threat.

Give him a line of
credit if you want to,

and if you're worried
about this guy

suddenly getting too big,
make an exclusive deal.

We're his only supplier,

we get a piece of the action
no matter what happens.

Happy?

- Milton Hershey and
William Murrie took a risk

in deciding that they would
also support Frank Mars.

I don't think they had any idea
what they were getting into

at the time or certainly
didn't understand

the incredible success
that Frank Mars would find

with his candy bars.

- Instead
of eliminating a rival,

they're helping it grow.

- Clarence
Birdseye has raise $375,000

to start his business.

- Nearly five
and a half million today.

- Is that it?

- Go get it on the
truck before it thaws.

- His groundbreaking
technology freezes meat,

fish, fruits, and vegetables.

He even experiments
with aligator and whale.

The problem is nobody's
buying any of it.

- The problem with frozen food
was that nobody had freezers.

People didn't have
freezers in their home.

Stores didn't have freezers.

Trucks and trains
didn't have freezers

for transporting frozen food.

- There have to be major
changes in American society

before refrigeration or
freezing really comes

into everybody's homes.

You can't have a refrigerator
without electricity.

- By the mid-1920s,

almost half of
American households

still don't have electricity.

And the icebox, a
simple cupboard

with a block of
ice at the bottom

is what most Americans
use to keep food cold.

The electric
refrigerator was invented

more than a decade
before, in 1913,

but they're expensive
and slow to catch on.

Clarence Birdseye
is bleeding money

and has yet to make a
single dollar of profit

on his frozen food.

With a clever plan to
use Hershey's chocolate

as a coating, Frank
and Forrest Mars

quickly grow the Milky
Way from a local hit

to a national brand.

- The greatest thing
about the Milky Way

was that it looked enormous
next to the nickel Hershey bar

because sat up high, and
it looked twice as big,

but it was also a nickel.

So, people thought, "My God,

"there's so much more value.

"I'm gonna buy a Milky Way."

- Within two
years of its invention,

sales of the Milky
Way reach $800,000,

the modern-day
equivalent of 12 million.

- But a power
struggle is brewing

between father and son.

- Forrest takes credit
for this invention

telling everyone that it came
from his meeting with his dad

when they had this
little conversation

in the diner that
afternoon in Chicago.

He was eager to take
credit for anything

that his father did.

That was just in his nature.

He was very, very driven.

- Got you a little something.

- Nice.

Thank you.

- You don't like it?

- No, it's a nice shirt.

I just don't think I get it.

- It's the same
one that you liked

that day we had the
malteds, remember.

- It's my way of saying
I'm proud of you.

Look around.

This is everything
I've ever wanted

and you are a part of it.

- But I don't want a shirt.

I want to be put in charge
of the East Coast division.

- But we don't have an
East Coast division.

- No, exactly.

You're acting like we've won,

and we're not even
in the game yet.

You wanna win?

You have to start
thinking bigger.

Hershey isn't our supplier.

They're our competition.

- Forrest pushes his
father toward all-out war

with one of the most
powerful food empires

in the country.

- In 1927, Hershey's
sales of raw milk chocolate

to third parties are spiking,

accounting for over
20% of their revenue.

Hiding an attack
from their biggest challenger,

right in plain sight.

- Hey, do I have to
give you a raise?

I'm looking at these numbers.

This is a ton of raw products.

You must be selling
around the clock.

- Well, I'll take the
money if you're offering,

but that's just for one account.

Okay, I take back the raise.

Where's this all going, it looks

like enough for a small country.

- Minneapolis.

Frank Mars.

- Mars was Hershey's
biggest customer.

Mars Candy Company
represented a huge part

of Hershey's sales.

Few people understand
that two companies

that we see today as
enormous competitors,

that if you look back
in their history,

cooperation started it all.

- Mars.

Right.

- Threatened by
the Milky Way's success...

- It's bitter.

- Hershey immediately starts

innovating new products,

touching off years of
one-upsmanship with Mars.

- The ones on the right
have a little more

of a roasted flavor.

Think they might go well
with the milk chocolate.

- Hershey
introduces Hershey's syrup,

and the iconic
peanut-filled Mr. Goodbar,

while Mars introduces a bar
with Neapolitan-flavored nougat

called The 3 Musketeers,

and a version of the
Milky Way with peanuts

he names the Snickers bar.

- Frank has a favorite
horse named Snickers,

and they name their third
chocolate bar Snickers

after their horse.

I always wondered if
Snickers loved peanuts

because that's one of
the main ingredients

in a Snickers bar.

- I think we can
mass-produce it very quickly.

- Like Hershey's doing?

- Well, we have to compete.

- There's a mutual
a history here.

If it wasn't for Hershey
giving Mars chocolate,

he might not necessarily have
become this enormous success,

and you have to look
at both companies

as a single story that's
built the candy industry

in America.

There's a lot of
mutual connection here

that people don't understand.

- Mars sales balloon
to the modern equivalent

of more than $460 million a year

while Hershey's sales skyrocket

to more than 600 million,
keeping him in the lead for now,

but the fight is far from over.

Shoulders back for me.

Let's strike here.

Tilt your head
slightly, breathe in.

Breathe out.

Perfect.

Marjorie Post's plan

to build a food
conglomerate is working.

Her company is worth almost
three billion in today's dollar.

She's one of the wealthiest
women in the country,

and owns lavish estates
all across the nation.

- She built a home in Palm
Beach, Florida by the sea

called Mar-a-Lago.

Eventually, she would sell the
property to the government,

and then the government
eventually sold it

to our current president of the
United States, Donald Trump.

- But Marjorie isn't satisfied,

and she has her sights set

on a struggling new business

that's nearly out of
cash but will

someday be worth $1.3 billion.

- 'Kay, so, it's these two,

this one, and that one.

- Clarence Birdseye's
flash frozen food business

has yet to turn a profit.

- Let's keep it movin'.

- And he needs an influx of cash

to keep it afloat.

- Keep 'em on the table, okay?

Thank you.

- Hello, I'm looking
for Clarence Birdseye.

- What can I do for ya?

- Tell him Marjorie
Post is here to see him

about a business opportunity.

- Post?

You mean, Post, Post?

Wow.

Well, my name is
Clarence Birdseye.

Nice to meet you.

Come on in, I'll
show you around.

This is our freezer.

I can already
freeze more haddock

than the fishermen can catch.

I can do fruits,
vegetables, meat, anything.

The problem is, I
can't ship it anywhere.

Most trains don't
have freezer cars

and even if they did--

- There's no way for people
to keep it frozen at home.

- Exactly.

So, for now, all
our sales are local.

Folks let it thaw and
eat it the same day.

- And who are your
biggest competitors?

- I'm not sure I have any.

- None?

Come on, who else is doing this?

- No one.

The whole process,
top to bottom,

everything from the
equipment to the packaging,

it's all proprietary.

- And who controls the patents?

You?

- All 200 of them.

- Marjorie Post was the
very savvy business person

who went around acquiring
interesting food companies.

New England was her turf
and somebody told her

about this guy who was doing
frozen fish in Gloucester,

and she went and checked it out,

and she thought, "This
is an idea with a future.

"I think we'll buy it."

- Let's say I wanted
to make you an offer.

What would it take
to buy all of them?

All of this?

Your problem is distribution.

You said it yourself.

Without the money behind you,

you'll never be able to
build the infrastructure

to turn this from
a local curiosity

to a profitable
national business.

That's what I can offer.

Name a price.

I'm not leaving till
you give me a number.

- 12 million.

- For everything?

- For 75%.

- I'm not interested in owning
three-quarters of anything.

How much for the rest?

- I'm willing to do it
for another 10 million.

- So, 22 altogether?

I'll have the paperwork
sent over in the morning,

and you'll stay on as
president of the division

to run things under our
umbrella, on salary,

if that works for you.

- Yeah.

Yeah, it works.

- Good.

Well, congratulations.

- Convinced that frozen food

is the way of the future,

Marjorie Post make the
biggest gamble of her life:

buying Clarence Birdseye's
struggling company

for the modern equivalent
of more than $300 million.

- A lot of people felt
that they had overpaid

for the company and it
was actually investigated

in the Senate.

Marjorie Post was asked
why they spent so much

for this kinda crazy
frozen food thingy.

The total assets were a
fraction of what they paid,

and they said, "Well,
we weren't paying

"for the frozen food.

"We weren't paying
for the freezers.

"We were paying
for the patents."

- Clarence Birdseye is now rich

beyond his wildest dreams,
but no less determined

to make the company he
built into a success.

- Marjorie Post renames her
company General Foods

and uses her enormous resources

to help Birdseye pioneer frozen
food from coast to coast.

- He worked with a
refrigerator company

on a design for a store
freezer that had a window

in the top so you could look
in and see what was there.

They got stores to get
in on this experiment.

They didn't make they
buy the freezers.

They installed the
freezers for free.

And this opportunity turned up

a tremendous amount
of publicity.

- Today, frozen food
is the second biggest seller

in grocery stores
around the world,

and Birdseye still
leads the pack,

owning a third of the
frozen vegetable market,

more than any competing brand,

making Clarence Birdseye
the first true titan

of frozen food.

- When you look at any
of these innovators,

there's a certain kind
of drive and personality

you need to have in order
to be this successful,

but if you have that
sort of perseverance

and you know you've
got that personality

to carry something
through, it could lead

to, I mean, ridiculous success.

- Marjorie Post
is the most successful woman

of her day, and
a business tycoon

decades ahead of her time.

- Marjorie Merriweather
Post, in her day,

was the world's wealthiest woman

and she was a icon and
a advocate for women.

She, in her own
right, was a leader

and someone that other
women really did look up to.

- Led by
brilliant industrialists

like Marjorie Post
and Clarence Birdseye,

the 1920s are a time
of unparalleled wealth

and technological advancement,

but what no one realizes
is that it's about

to come to a crushing end.

On the next episode of The
Food That Built America:

Mac and Dick McDonald
design a new system

that turns their restaurant
into an assembly line...

- Start working!

- That will
generate untold wealth

for an ambitious
salesman named Ray Kroc.

- The American people will never
forget the name McDonald's.

- A Mars
family power struggle...

- This is my company!

- 30% or I walk out that door.

- Leads to an unlikely alliance.

- Mars and Murrie.

- It has a ring to it.

- And the creation
of an American empire.

And a visionary
Southern maverick--

- You're gonna wanna see this.

- Carves out an
iconic legacy at all costs.