The Hormel Girls

By Jill M. Sullivan and Danelle D. Keck


On any given summer Sunday evening in 1948, one could hear on the mutual broadcasting System the sponsor of a popular program exclaim: "S-P-A-M! The first meat of its kind in America preferred by most people! SPAM! over eleven years ago the news sensation of the meat packing industry, SPAM. Today, this miracle meat of many uses continues to maintain its leadership from coast to coast." The program was Music with the Hormel Girls, the broadcast of a band of female World War II veterans organized to market food products of the George A. Hormel Company. over a seven-year period, 1946–53, this group evolved from a competitive drum and bugle corps into a traveling caravan that used an assortment of sales strategies and musical performances to sell products. Their story illuminates a range of American topics: industry ensembles, drum and bugle corps, professional-performance opportunities for women musicians, and military women's postwar employment.