Oscar Mayer

Oscar Mayer is an American meat and cold cut production company, owned by Kraft Foods, known for its hot dogs, bologna, bacon and Lunchables products.


German immigrant Oscar F. Mayer (March 29, 1859 in Neresheim - March 11, 1955) began working at a meat market in Detroit, Michigan, and later in Chicago, Illinois. In 1900 in Chicago, Oscar Mayer, along with his brother Gottfried, leased the Kolling Meat Market. The two sold bratwurst, liverwurst, and weißwurst and were popular in the predominantly German neighborhoods of Chicago around the market.

As the meat market's popularity grew, it expanded its storefront and sponsored local events including the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. By 1900 the company had 43 employees and Chicago-wide delivery service. In 1904 Oscar Mayer began branding its meats to capitalize on their popularity, beginning an industry-wide trend. In 1906 Oscar Mayer became one of the first companies to voluntarily submit to the newly-created Food Safety Inspection Service (part of the United States Department of Agriculture) for testing the purity of their products.

Oscar Mayer is also famous for their Wienermobile, which has toured the United States for over 70 years. The first Wienermobile was created in 1936, and six have since been built.

Oscar G. Mayer, Jr., grandson of the founder and the third Oscar Mayer to head the company until he retired in 1977, remarried in 1999, at the age of 85, to 21-year-old Geraldine Shapiro.

In 2007, the company was subject to an email hoax which claimed that Oscar Mayer did not support the United States military.

On July 6th, 2009 Mayer died of old age in Hospice Care in Fitchburg. He was 95 years old when he passed.

Oscar Mayer Dead

MADISON, Wis., July 8 -- Oscar G. Mayer, the retired chairman of the company bearing his family's name, died at a Wisconsin hospice. He was 95.

Mayer had retired in 1977 as chairman of the board of Oscar Mayer Foods, a company founded by his grandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, in Chicago in 1904, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Wednesday.

Mayer's grandfather purchased a slaughtering plant in Madison in 1919 and eventually moved the company headquarters to Wisconsin.

Mayer joined the family business in 1936 after leaving Harvard University for health reasons.

At one time, Oscar Mayer Foods was the largest private employer in Madison. It was sold to General Foods and is now a unit of Kraft Foods.

The State Journal said while Mayer may have had the most famous name in Madison, many local residents did not even know he was a real person because the company used a midget called "Little Oscar" as its spokesman.