I've always had a warm spot in my heart for the Morton Salt Girl.
Maybe it's because I like salt so much. My mother, my wife, even well-meaning strangers have been telling me foryears that I salt my food too much, but I can't seem to "just say no" to that old shaker .Maybe it's because Chicago-based Morton International has such a strong presence in Utah with its solar salt plant in Salt Lake City, its auto air bag manufacturing plant in Ogden and - before the recent split of Morton-Thiokol into separate companies - its rocket booster plant in Brigham City.
Maybe I just have a thing for little kids carrying big umbrellas.
Whatever, the Morton Girl turns 75 this year but she doesn't look a day over . . . oh, I don't know, 7 or 8 maybe? Like Little Orphan Annie, the Morton Girl has managed to stave off the ravages of time better than the rest of us.
Oh, sure, she's had to update her dress and hairdo from time to time since her birth in 1914 (in 1921, '33, '41, '56 and '68; see her various "looks" over the years on page M-2) but she's basically the same smiling little gamin she's always been.
To celebrate her birthday, Morton is sponsoring a contest this month and next, in which contestants are asked to match four of the six girls and four well-known rainy day songs that were popular during a year that one of the girls was on the package.
Those who answer correctly are eligible for the sweepstakes drawing. Grand prize is a 1914 Model-T Ford coupe or a 1989 Thunderbird coupe. Other prizes include a player piano or grand piano, a Rock-Ola juke box, audio/video system, old-time radios and, of course, Morton Girl umbrellas. Sweepstakes ads are running in various women's magazines.
There aren't many advertising logos that are better known than the Morton Salt Girl. According to Morton spokeswoman Nancy A. Hobor, the concept began in 1911 when Morton first added magnesium carbonate to salt as an absorbing element to reduce moisture and assure the salt would run freely.
The packaging went from cotton bags to a two-pound round cardboard box with a metal spout for easy pouring - improvements that doubled the price from a nickel to a dime. Morton decided they had to convince consumers that the improvements were worth the hefty price increase. An ad campaign was born.
N.W. Ayer Advertising Agency submitted a picture of a little girl standing in the rain with an umbrella and a box of salt. "It runs," said the ad slogan.
Three years later, Morton decided "It runs" didn't quite do the trick and modified the old proverb "It never rains but it pours," to "When it rains it pours."
The rest, as we've heard, is history and ever since Americans have been claiming that their grandma or Aunt Tilly or best friend's sister was the original model for the girl. In truth, reveals Hobor, like Orphan Annie, the Morton Salt Girl is the product of an (apparently unknown) artist's imagination.
Even though the Morton Girl turns 75 this year, she's just a kid compared with the company she represents. Morton Salt's beginning go back to 1848 when Alonzo Richmond of Syracuse, N.Y., arrived in Chicago and formed Richmond & Company, agents for Onondaga Salt.
In 1869, Joy Morton acquired an interest in the company and acquired control of it in 1886 when the senior partner died. In the tradition of Donald Trump, he renamed it Joy Morton & Co. Some years later, the company was temporarily renamed International Salt Co. of Illinois but after several acquisitions in 1910, was renamed again, this time Morton Salt Company.
In 1924, Morton Salt developed iodized salt for prevention of the then common goiter. The FDA later requested that all Morton Iodized Salt be labeled "This salt supplies iodide, a necessary nutrient."
During the '40s, the salt operation expanded to eight national production centers, including the Utah solar plant, established the company as the only branded national producer and distributor of salt.
Today, Morton International is a $1.4 billion corporation consisting of three business: specialty chemicals, automotive safety products and salt. It has more than 8,400 employees worldwide.