All language subtitles for The.Food.That.Built.America.S04E11.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

- [Narrator] Nearly 70% of
Americans will enjoy a barbecue

on the 4th of July alone.

- Barbecue really embeds
itself as this kind of

uniquely American phenomenon,

particularly on holidays and
during the summer months.

This is a ubiquitous
symbol of a summer pastime.

- [Narrator] Charcoal
sales are an astronomical

$747 million in the
United States alone,

and more than $600
million worth of hotdogs

are sold between Memorial
Day and Labor Day.

- We gather and cook outdoors,

even if the great
outdoors is our backyard.

- [Narrator] The American
barbecue grill market

is worth almost three
billion dollars.

But a hundred years ago,

the backyard barbecue as
we know it, doesn't exist.

- There was no demand
in America for this.

People don't know
what to do with it.

- You wanted to
be cooking inside

in your more modern,
electric kitchen.

- [Narrator] It would
take visionaries.

- Henry Ford could
look into the future

and see this love affair
we were going to have

with grilling out and charcoal.

- He sees these
buoys and he says,

I think I can do
something with this.

- I call it the Wiener Mobile.

- It's one of the
most successful

advertising coups in history.

- God, I love America.

- [Narrator] Each invention.

- It starts with good food.

- [Narrator] Forging
the way for the next.

- Then you'd light it all up

with some Kingsford
charcoal, on a Weber grill.

- It gave America a
product that they needed.

- [Narrator] To ignite
one of America's

greatest food innovations.

- George Steven
took his brainchild

from a mere idea in his head,

into something in the backyards

of nearly everybody in America.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] In the 1920s,
the idea that most Americans

would be cooking right
outside their homes,

is nothing short
of preposterous.

- The idea of a backyard
comes along with suburbia.

That hadn't really
been invented.

- If you were living,
certainly in a tenement

or in another kind
of urban settlement,

you couldn't just go
outside and grill.

- Back in those
days, pre automobile,

you had the urban America and
then you had rural America.

They were miles, miles apart,
literally and figuratively.

- [Narrator] But the American
landscape is changing,

thanks in part to
one key invention,

Henry Ford's automobile.

- The Model T changed
both how we drove around

and how we got
things in a huge way.

It was cheap and
it was reliable.

Suddenly, you're mobile.

- The Model T made
the car approachable

for most every American family,

and it opened up this
world of open roads,

and seeing the
world in a way that

they'd only read about before.

- [Narrator] But while sales
of the Model T skyrocket,

Henry Ford begins
to see a major flaw

in his otherwise
efficient operation.

- Ed.

- [Ed] Yeah.

- What more can we be doing
with the saw mill waste?

- Model Ts used a
great deal of hardwood.

They had wooden running boards

and a lot of other
parts that were wooden.

- I'm Henry Ford
and I hate waste.

I'm looking at my
sawmill factory

and I'm just looking
at piles and piles,

tons of sawdust and
wood scraps piling up,

and I can't deal with it.

- [Narrator] Carting
away the wood waste

is costing Ford $182,000
a day, in today's money.

- Well, we could just burn it.

- No, I mean,

what can we do with it?

What can we make?

- Edward Kingsford was a
real estate agent first,

who actually had
given Ford the land

upon which to make
their wood mill.

- And Henry Ford
gets Edward Kingsford

to run his sawmill for him.

He knows timber.

He brings Henry something
that he didn't have,

a business knowledge
of the outdoors.

So he was able to run
this wood producing,

parts producing, component
for Ford Motor Company.

- There's gotta be a use for it.

(calm instrumental music)

- Henry Ford was a
fisherman, he was a hunter,

but really it was the
time that he got to think

outside of the office,

it was the time that he
got to spend ideating.

- Henry Ford invited
Edward Kingsford

to come along with him camping.

- It's not catching.

The wood's too moist.

- Henry Ford was
a big naturalist.

He would go on outdoor trips
and would love to cook.

- So, collect some more.

- It's no use, it
rained last night.

- Henry Ford is
always thinking about

how to make the
whole more efficient,

to get greater and
greater productivity.

- He was always about
what can I learn

and how can I use that
to improve business,

to improve the lives of others?

He was a tinkerer.

- Kingsford,

I think we just figured
out what we're gonna do

with all that sawdust.

- [Narrator] Almost a quarter
century earlier, in 1895,

an inventor named WP Taggart,

invented a new kind of fuel

by combining bits
of wood and sawdust.

- He was patenting charcoal
briquets to be used

as a portable fuel
source for heating.

- Basically, charcoal
is a dense wood

that's been burned, so
then when you burn it

the second time, it produces
a constant high heat.

- [Narrator] But people
simply didn't see the need

to risk switching from firewood

to the unfamiliar fuel source.

- There was no demand
in America for this.

And you have this
charcoal patent,

people don't know
what to do with it.

- Ford came up with the idea
of burning a wood waste down

and turning it into
charcoal briquets.

- Ford thinks, well, we're going
into the charcoal business.

- [Narrator] One day, sales
of charcoal will reach

half a billion dollars a year,

and Ford's colleagues
name, Kingsford,

will be on the number
one charcoal brand

in the United States.

But for now, Ford hopes bringing
charcoal out of obscurity,

will solve his
wood waste problem.

But before briquets
become a household staple,

many more groundbreaking
innovations will

need to take hold.

Meanwhile, in Chicago,

a young man has
just begun working

at his uncle's meat
processing company.

One of his first tasks

is making the rounds of
the local butcher shops,

to inspect how his company's
products are being displayed.

(mysterious music)

- Which ones are Oscar Mayer's?

- At the time, people weren't
packaging their hotdogs,

and generally it was sold to
the public in a giant bin.

Retailers really didn't
position one dog as being better

or even different
than any others.

- If you don't know,

how should the customers know?

- Who are you to tell me
how to run my shop, Sir?

- Carl Mayer, of the
Oscar Mayer company.

- [Narrator] One day,
Carl will help Oscar Mayer

become the world's
biggest name in hotdogs.

And thanks to their innovations,

Americans will enjoy
them, coast to coast,

catapulting the hotdog into
the fourth most popular food

in the country.

But for now...

- Carl Mayer is 27 years old,
really brash, loads of ideas,

but sometimes he gets a little
too big for his britches,

so to speak.

- Oscar Mayer came to
the United States in 1873

from a very poor
family in Bavaria,

and he decided then
to open his own shop,

having learned meat cutting
for a number of years.

Oscar F's brother,
Gottfried died early,

unfortunately from appendicitis.

His son Carl, went to
college to study business

and then worked his
way into the business.

- [Narrator] Their
dedication to quality

in their bacon and sausage,
has built the brand

since the late 1800s, in
Chicago and the Midwest region.

- From the very beginning,

they advertised their products
as the best, the purest,

because they signed
on right away

to the new meat inspection laws.

- [Narrator] But when
it comes to hotdogs,

it's an uphill battle to
convince consumers they're safe.

- People were wary and
skeptical about hotdogs

after Upton Sinclair's
novel, "The Jungle" came out

and exposed some
pretty horrific stuff

about what went into some of
these processed meat products.

- [Narrator] And
even years later,

these questionable fillings
have left a stigma.

- The rumor was that
hotdogs got their name

from dachshund dogs,
that German breed of dog

with their long slim bodies,

but also they may or may
not have used dog meat

to make them.

Yuck.

- [Narrator] But
Carl Myers determined

to help change the
public's perspective.

- So when the federal
government starts

a meat inspection service,

the Mayer brothers are among
the first to step up and say,

"yes, we want you to
inspect our product."

- [Narrator] Hotdogs have
gained regional popularity

thanks to a few trusted
restaurants and hotdog stands,

like Nathan's and
Feltman's of Coney Island.

But the idea of home-cooked
hotdogs is still mostly obscure.

- People thought of hotdogs
as really a novelty food item,

something when you
were having fun,

you'd have it at the
boardwalk or a baseball game.

It wasn't something
people considered

as part of the food items they
would serve at their table.

- [Narrator] To get people
to make hotdogs at home,

Oscar Mayer knows he'll first
need to gain their trust.

- Oscar Mayer had seven
full-time government inspectors

stationed at various
points in their factory,

inspecting the food.

This level of transparency
was unheard of.

- Even though the Mayer
family goes the extra mile

by labeling their boxes and
to get a government stamp

on the boxes, sometimes
the boxes are thrown away

and the hotdogs are
just thrown in the bin

with every other hotdog, despite
the difference in quality.

- But Oscar Mayer thinks
if they can convince people

that this is something
on their menu at home,

at their dinner table,

they're onto something.

- [Narrator] Carl Mayer
wants to be the one

to make this vision a reality.

And to do so,

he'll have to sell his uncle

on one of the most
radical schemes

in food history.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] It's the late
1920s,

and automobile
mogul, Henry Ford,

believes he's figured
out what to do

with the 350 tons of wood waste

coming from his Model
T factory each year.

- Ford came up with the idea
of burning a wood waste down

and turning it into
charcoal briquette.

- [Narrator] But neither Ford

nor his sawmill manager,
Edward Kingsford,

knows the first thing
about making charcoal.

So he turns to one of his
lifelong mentors for help.

- [David] Ford
has this incredible

list of close friends.

One of his closest
is Thomas Edison.

- They were kindred spirits.

They were both tinkerers great
American iconic tinkerers.

- So he approaches
Edison and says,

"help me build a
charcoal factory."

Edison readily jumped in.

- [Narrator] The
factory Edison designs

exceeds anything Ford imagined,

making use of every last
scrap of wood and sawdust.

- Edison didn't just design
any charcoal factory.

It was a model of efficiency.

600 pounds of charcoal from
every two tons of waste.

Incredible.

- [Narrator] Ford puts
Kingsford in charge

of the briquette factory,

which sits on the same tract
of land as his sawmill.

Together they become
known as Iron Mountain,

but it's still not without risk.

- Henry Ford is this, you know,
mega successful businessman.

He's already made it.

So getting into the charcoal
business is a little off brand.

So if this doesn't
work out for him,

this can really
damage his reputation.

This can take a little

polish off the Ford name.

- [Narrator] A
quarter century prior,

there was no
interest in charcoal.

Now it's up to Ford
to create a demand.

But beyond hunting
and fishing trips,

outdoor cooking is still
virtually unknown to the public.

- Henry Ford, because he
had a love of the outdoors,

and he knew it was
this coveted luxury

to be able to get
to the outdoors,

I think that he had a good
sense of Americans wanting

and chasing that dream.

- [Narrator] And as
Americans become more mobile

and public parks start
sprouting up across the country,

they are gathering outdoors
more and more, for picnics.

- Ford knew that the
American consumer,

which included the
workers at Ford's factory,

the more they
enjoyed their family,

the more cars they
were gonna buy.

- People suddenly realized
that they're able to

go and explore the
world, in a greater way.

It gives them a sense
that they're able to

live the kind of lives, at
least for brief moments,

that previously only rich
people have been able to enjoy.

- [Narrator] Ford
sees an opportunity

to capitalize on charcoal,

and packages his briquets

with a small
brazier style grill.

- Brazier's had been
around for a while.

They're basically
a metal box or bowl

that sits off the ground and
people would burn wood inside.

- [Narrator] First used
thousands of years ago,

by the 1900s, modern
versions of the brazier

are used primarily by campers

during hunting
and fishing trips.

- They're very simple
little metal grills,

no more than two feet long,

only about 16 inches
wide and not that deep.

They really didn't give you
much flexibility in cooking.

- [Narrator] And
the only fuel source

available to grill with is wood,

which usually only burns
for less than 45 minutes,

while charcoal can stay
lit for up to three hours.

(dramatic music)

Hoping to guide Americans
toward outdoor cooking,

in the mid thirties, Ford
begins selling picnic kits

out of his dealerships, for $1.

- It's essentially a bag of
Ford charcoal and a grill.

And that's forward thinking
really in America at the time,

and thus begins one of
the craziest side hustles

ever known in American history.

- [Narrator] Ford's
confident that Americans

will fall in love
with outdoor cooking.

- Henry Ford was someone
who was deeply invested

in celebrating a very particular
kind of American ideal.

- He had a vision
that he wanted to see

come from his head
into the real world.

- [Narrator] But Ford's
vision is about to be derailed

by something he
never saw coming.

(mysterious music)

Meanwhile, Carl Mayer reports
to his uncle, Oscar Mayer,

that in butcher shop barrels,

customers can't
tell the difference

between their superior quality
hotdogs and all the rest.

- Oscar and Carl met every day.

They talked all the time.

- [Narrator] And they develop
an unprecedented strategy.

- Oscar Mayer did
something really genius

to the packaging, to
distinguish the product

as a high quality product.

- They came up with the idea,
let's put yellow bands on

individual hot dogs.

Somebody had invented a glue

which would hold paper
around a sausage.

So it was a glue which
held paper together,

which was not poisonous.

Oscar is always in the
forefront of technology.

- That became a
hallmark for them,

that if you wanted people
to buy your product,

you'd say, "look
for the yellow band,

that's how you know it's ours."

- You know what
they're doing with that

is not just being
creative in advertising,

is they're creating
a brand image.

They're doing something that
firms struggle so hard to do.

- [Narrator] But
it's a time consuming

and expensive undertaking.

- Those yellow bands
had to be wrapped around

each individual hotdog, by hand.

- [Narrator] And
if it doesn't work,

it's on Carl's shoulders.

- Carl felt that this
incredible imposition

on their labor force,

which could have
been a waste of time,

would actually prove to be the
distinctive mark of quality

for an Oscar Mayer wiener.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] It's 1935,

Henry Ford's latest business
venture, charcoal briquets,

is struggling to
get off the ground.

- He's got car
salesman trying to sell

a Ford picnic kit with
charcoal and a portable grill.

But then comes America's
Great Depression,

which shuts everything down.

- [Narrator]
Suddenly a new image

of outdoor cooking is cemented,

but it's a far cry from the
idyllic one Ford's pushing.

- So when briquets entered
the market in the 1930s,

they did so at a time
when cooking outside

was not aspirational by any
stretch of the imagination.

People who could
afford other options

were not going out
and buying briquets,

to cook outside the way they
assumed only poor people do.

- People were cooking outdoors
because they were living in,

you know, shanty towns.

Cooking outdoors
didn't have the luxury

and that kind of
big American dream

that Henry Ford was envisioning.

- [Narrator] He's
now sitting on tons

of unsold charcoal briquets

and a sprawling factory
with little to show for it.

It will take some ingenuity,

but the briquets
will one day spawn

a 500 million dollar
a year company,

which Henry Ford
won't see a dime of.

It's 1934, six years since
Carl Mayer helped his uncle

market their wieners by
wrapping them in yellow bands.

- Oscar Mayer takes out ads,

and their ads actually said,

not only was this a
product of extreme quality

that the public should trust,

but they instructed the public
to look for the yellow band.

- [Narrator] The yellow band,

and the marketing push
behind it, pay off,

as sales of Oscar Mayer's
hotdogs begin to grow.

- Oscar Mayer
develops a reputation,

and I think fairly so, of
being extremely consistent

in the way they
made their products.

This generates what you
might call brand loyalty.

- [Narrator] By the mid
1930s, the Oscar Mayer Company

expands from the Midwest

to the eastern United States,

but the company's
top selling meats

are still bacon and sausage.

- Hotdogs in the 1920s
and thirties are not food

that you prepare at home.

This is street food that you
would buy at a sporting event.

- It's not considered
an everyday food

you can feed your family.

- [Narrator] But Carl sees
greater potential in hotdogs

and proposes another plan.

- Carl Mayer comes
out with an idea that

maybe doesn't make so
much sense at first.

- I call it

the Wiener Mobile.

(dramatic music)

- The giant drivable hotdog

with their branding on it.

- Is this a joke?

We'll be laughed out of Chicago.

- Well, it's...

it's a little late.

- Yes, you can thank Carl
Mayer for the Wiener Mobile.

- [Narrator] Carl's
already commissioned

the 13 foot long
novelty vehicle,

at a cost of $5,000,

over a hundred
thousand dollars today.

- And even though
the Mayer family

mustered up all of their courage

to believe in this project,

they thought he was one
bun short of a pack.

- [Narrator] In 1936,
despite reservations

from many within the company,

the Wiener Mobile hits
the streets of Chicago.

- Today it seems
like nothing special,

but consider that it
wasn't until the 1940s

that the military
even had its own Jeep.

So this notion of
a branded vehicle

rolling around,
promoting hotdogs,

was really, really
outside the box.

- It seems like
something akin to a float

in the Macy's Day parade.

Like, here's something on wheels

that's going down the
street, that shouldn't be.

- [Narrator] Originally
driven locally,

in the open cockpit
sat, Little Oscar,

a character meant
to add a personal

connection to the brand.

- Carl had been to the
Chicago World's Fair in 1933,

and there he saw something
called the Midget Village,

which was little people

who people could go
and look at them,

which is pretty revolting,

but it was very popular.

And he came back
and said, you know,

maybe if we had a spokesman,

like a Little Oscar,
might be good.

- [Narrator] Played
by Meinhardt Robbie,

who worked in their
advertising department

and would later have
a legendary role

as the constable
in Wizard of Oz,

Little Oscar would
greet onlookers

and occasionally give
cooking demonstrations.

- The Wiener Mobile was
what they'd send around

to various places, and it'll
be covered by the press.

- So to be a little kid
standing on the corner

and all of a sudden you see
something coming down the road

that's big and colorful,
it's a weird shape,

and it's gonna draw
your attention.

That was a big part of
the marketing scheme

behind the Wiener Mobile.

- [Narrator] Sales increased
the following year by $200,000,

which is the modern day
equivalent of over $4 million.

- Throughout the history of
the foods that built America,

the great minds
have come up with

some pretty novel
marketing ideas.

Wrigley was dropping
gum out of airplanes,

the Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta,

in terms of the
iconic nature of them,

few can compare to the
Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile.

Decades later, still touring
the highways and byways.

You might pull up
alongside a giant hotdog.

God, I love America.

- It's one of the
most successful

advertising coups in history.

- [Narrator] But it's
another publicity stunt

that will truly
cement the hotdog,

courtesy of the United
States President.

In 1939, while the threat
of war percolates overseas,

President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt,

invites King George the
Sixth and the Queen,

to his Hyde Park, New York home.

- So they set up a picnic at
Franklin Roosevelt's homestead

away from Washington.

It's where he grew up.

- [Narrator] This
would be the first time

a reigning monarch set
foot on American soil.

- The idea of the visit
was to reinforce solidarity

between the British people,
the British government,

and the American government.

Remember, this is
the eve of the war.

- [Narrator] The setting
is in stark contrast

to a formal White
House state dinner.

They sit outside and
for the main course,

the President presents a dish
he's pretty sure the royals

have never been served.

Hotdogs.

(upbeat funky music)

- The King ate hotdogs
and asked for more.

There's a famous story,
we're not sure if it's true,

but it's in a diary.

The Queen asked FDR,

how do you eat a hotdog?

And he said, well, you
put one end in your mouth

and you keep shoving,
until it's gone.

That's how you eat it.

She ate it with
a knife and fork.

But almost every newspaper
in America covered this.

- [Narrator] But the hotdogs
served weren't Oscar Mayer's,

but their competitors,

who happened to be one of
the largest meat purveyors

in the United States.

- They were Swift hotdogs.

- This was a huge
moment for hotdogs

because this changes
Americans' attitudes

towards outdoor cooking.

- We do all the work and
they get all the press.

(Oscar bangs table)

- [Narrator] Oscar
Mayer wants his name

to be the one that gets hotdogs
into homes across America.

To make that happen,
he'll need to innovate

in a bigger way
than ever before.

- [Narrator] In the
early forties,

Carl Mayer is
determined to use

Oscar Mayer's reputation
for quality hotdogs,

as a weapon against
their biggest rival,

the largest meat
packers in the country.

- Swift was a
monster company,

being the largest
purveyor nationally,

and they used big distributors
to sell their products.

- [Narrator] But
modern technology

and change in the
way Americans shop,

could give Oscar Mayer an edge.

- In the mid forties, we get
the rise of grocery stores.

The visual appeal of foods
became much more important

in terms of marketing.

People wanted to know that
what they were getting

was high quality and sanitary.

They wanted to see what was
inside all of these packages

they were buying.

- [Narrator] Meats such
as ground beef and bacon,

in new clear plastic packaging,

become available in
supermarket grab and go bins,

and refrigerators are becoming
more popular in the home.

- The refrigerator allows
you to take something

which is in a package and it's
gonna keep for a few days.

Oscar Mayer realizes
that the presence

of the home refrigerator,
changes the rules of the game.

- Oscar decided that packaged
meats were the way to go,

and they first began doing
this with bacon in the 1920s.

- [Narrator] As the
first to package

pre-sliced bacon and baloney,

Mayer has been ahead of the
curve in pioneering packaging.

Now he wants to do
the same for hotdogs.

- So packaging hotdogs
is actually really hard.

You can't really put
them in that flat plastic

because air would get in
between the plastic bubbles,

and they would spoil
really quickly.

- [Narrator] In
1944, Oscar Mayer

pours hundreds of
thousands of dollars

into cracking the code on how
to properly package hotdogs.

They draw inspiration
from wartime equipment.

- The company came
up with a machine

which would make the hotdog
packages look like cartridges.

It looked like
machine gun cartridges.

Beef hotdogs were put
together in strings of 10.

- [Narrator] Named for the
way machine gun cartridges

are built together,

they call it the cartridge pack.

- It absolutely transformed
supermarket hotdogs.

And with those, you can put
them on refrigerated trucks

and send them out by
the new road system.

So after the war,
Oscar began buying up

small distribution centers
around the country.

- [Narrator] Oscar Mayer
hotdogs are now sold

in freshly sealed grab and go
packages, across the nation.

But there's still
one major problem.

(mysterious music)

- Back then, most people
did not have a good way

to cook them.

- The preferred Nathan
style, Coney Island style,

is grilling and you put
that hotdog in the bun,

load it up, and it's
absolutely perfect.

- [Narrator] Since
most Americans

don't yet cook outdoors,

they can't recreate
the grilled flavor

of restaurant hotdogs.

In 1947, the Ford Motor Company

is mourning the death of
their founder, Henry Ford,

and trying to navigate

the future of the
company, without him.

- World War II ends

and the demand for
Ford Motor Company cars

is more than Ford Motor
Company can even manage.

Then Henry Ford dies.

And here's the company trying
to keep up with the demand

for the American
public, for its cars.

- And at this point,
they make a very rational

business decision to say, we
are gonna focus on our cars.

- Ford Motor Company sells
Ford Charcoal Briquets

to a group of Michigan
business leaders,

and these business leaders
rename it Kingsford Charcoal,

after Edward Kingsford.

- [Narrator] Though
neither Kingsford nor Ford

lived to see Ford's
vision come to life,

their briquets paved the
way for another innovator

to create the key missing piece

of the backyard barbecue puzzle.

- He was at the metal works,
looking at maritime buoys

they were building and he
kind of glimpsed the future.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] It's the
middle of the 20th century

and Americans are experiencing
a post-war economic boom.

- What you had was you
had all these soldiers

come back from World War II.

By 1950, people were
starting families

and people were buying
homes in new suburbs.

- It's like all part of
this package of this kind of

happy domestic life,
which is shaped

by that moment in history.

- So now people wanted to
embrace this outdoor space,

this little green piece of
heaven that they never had.

- A lot of men
during World War II

had learned to cook outside

as part of their
military service.

There were these pocket stoves
that American soldiers had,

that they used when
they were deployed,

in order to cook in very
extreme temperatures.

And that was not, I would say,

a fun kind of
relaxing experience,

but it certainly was
a socializing one.

So as GIs start coming
home from World War II,

they also have these
skills to cook outside.

- [Narrator] But grill
options are limited.

- Until the 20th century,
barbecue meant a big event.

It was a food that was cooked
at a political gathering

or a town celebration,

and it was almost
always cooked in a pit

that was dug in the ground,

a trench with maybe with
masonry sides on it.

And then you started to
have recreational cooking.

- In the fifties, backyard
grills were a static structure,

usually made of brick.

They were hard to clean,

you couldn't really take
the grill off to wash it

or clean it, remove
the charcoal debris,

and during winter months,
it took up real estate

in your yard.

You couldn't wheel it away,

you couldn't move
it out of the rain.

- [Narrator] Plus many
Americans don't have the means

to have the permanent
grill structure built.

The only affordable
or portable option

is the primitive brazier grill.

- They would burn too intensely

and would shoot hot splinters
of wood into the food.

They are so dangerous.

- [Narrator] In
Chicago, a father of 12

is growing frustrated, trying
to grill for his family.

- George Steven began as a
hardworking blue collar guy.

He was a welder.

- [Narrator] He's begun cooking

with an alternate fuel source,

that's now gaining
in popularity,

charcoal.

But it doesn't solve
the other big issue

the brazier poses.

- Without a lid, the grill
is open to the elements.

Maybe it starts raining,
maybe it's windy,

and all of these things
really annoyed George.

He wanted a better grill.

- He loved steak and he
wanted to find a better way

to cook steak.

- [Narrator] Stevens is
employed by Weber Metal Works,

a shop that produces buoys.

- He was at the metal works
looking at maritime buoys

they were building, and he
kind of glimpsed the future.

- He sees these
buoys and he says,

"I think I can do
something with this."

- The thing about
George Steven is,

even though he's doing
this very respectable

hard day's work, for an
honest day's pay kind of jobs,

he's a dreamer.

- He thought if I cut
this into two pieces

and one side is
used for a fire box,

and the other side is used as
a lid to control smoke,

this would work
out a lot better.

- [Narrator] George believes
a deeper, rounder shape,

will better concentrate not
just the charcoal's heat,

but the unique smokey flavor.

- He just kept
tinkering with it.

He had in mind
from the beginning

to build something new.

Most grills at that
point were rectangular.

- Anyone that's a dreamer,

anyone that dares
to break new ground,

try something that's
never been tried before,

usually will meet with a lot
of doubt, a lot of derision,

a lot of naysayers,

and a million different
reasons to say no.

- [Narrator] He's
working around the clock

on his new charcoal
grill prototype.

- George's barbecue
had some shortcomings,

which he discovered
as he used it.

It had a round bottom
but the top of it,

had a flat lid that was almost
like the lid of a skillet.

- [Narrator] The lid
is a key element,

but it creates a major issue.

- By putting a lid on it,

it basically meant that you
could choke off the fire.

- [Narrator] George's invention
is looking like a failure.

- Like so many dreamers
and so many visionaries

before and since, people
always laughed at him.

- His neighbors laughed
and called it Sputnik.

- [Narrator] But George
will get the last laugh

when his grills one day bring
in 2.5 billion dollars a year,

and he's dubbed the
father of modern barbecue.

But for now, George can't
get his grill to stay lit.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] It's 1951 and
George Steven

has been working tirelessly

to solve a major problem with
his charcoal grill prototype.

- The charcoal, it
wouldn't stay lit.

- By putting a lid on it,

it basically meant that you
could choke off the fire.

- [Narrator] After
hours of frustration,

a quick tip from a neighbor
changes everything.

- George, give it some air.

- Every good fire pit,
every good smoker,

and every good grill,

needs to have good air flow,

so there's constant supply
of oxygen going to that fire.

(metal clanging)

- The air holes were crucial
to keep the flame going.

- [Narrator] But George's
satisfaction is short-lived

as he soon discovers
another problem.

- He got really frustrated

because there was no
way to control the heat.

It was just burning
everything up.

At the metal works, he was
making changes to the product.

At home, he was testing
it and using it,

and saying what
would make it better?

- [Narrator] Steven knows
he must perfect a way

to control the temperature.

- Having louvers meant that
you control the airflow,

you control the
intensity of the fire.

He added two sets of louvers.

They are the top
louvers above the fire,

and then there are
the ones underneath.

When you're cooking,

you have to control
both of those louvers.

If you get it
properly controlled,

you can just get
wonderful smoke flavor.

imbued in it.

(George laughs)

- [Narrator] In 1952 with
his prototype complete,

George is eager to have

the metal works
company produce them.

But there's still the question

of whether the American
consumers will bite.

- George's barbecue kettle
marketed for $29 and 95 cents.

Sounds like nothing
now, but with inflation,

it's the equivalent of
something like $275 or $300.

So it was a high-end
product from the beginning.

This was not a cheap grill.

- [Narrator] So the company
runs a limited trial.

- He only issues 50 of them,

and it was a real gamble to
wonder if, men especially,

were gonna spend this much
money on a domestic item.

- America was in a time
of peace, prosperity,

and there was a desire
for status symbols.

And the Weber will A,
definitely be a status symbol,

B, give you incredibly good
results, time and time again.

- [Narrator] They sell
out almost immediately,

prompting George's
employer Weber Metal Works,

to create a barbecue
division, run by George.

- I mean it's a well
made, well welded,

solid piece of steel
that's durable.

They're easy to
clean, easy to move,

and you can put it in the
garage when you're not using it.

- [Narrator] By 1958, Steven's
grill is doing so well,

that he buys out the
remaining shares of Weber.

But even he isn't
sure it will last.

- When he turned it
into a barbecue company,

he made the name Weber Steven.

He did not make it just Steven

because he was afraid
the barbecue thing

might not catch on, and they
were gonna have to go back

to making hinges and buoys.

He was hedging his bets.

- [Narrator] And it pays off.

George's entrepreneurial
endeavors

spark a new national hobby.

- George Stevens embodies
the American dream.

He's a metal worker,
he's a welder,

and he gave America a
product that they needed.

- It's starting
to become national

as growing numbers
of barbecue cookbooks

start coming out in the fifties.

- Cooking out in
America exploded

and is this new found passion.

- George Steven
took his brainchild

from a mere idea in his head,

into something in the
backyards of nearly

everybody in America.

- [Narrator] Today, the
Weber grill remains a leader

in the barbecue industry,

worth over 2.3 billion dollars,

with 30 million units
in American homes.

They're also now top of the
game in gas and electric grills.

And their original
charcoal kettle

remains a best selling icon.

- It was a great piece
of industrial design.

It's to barbecue what a
pink Cadillac is to cars

in the fifties.

- And it becomes an heirloom,

something that can
legitimately be passed down

from generation to generation.

I don't have a Weber grill,

I have two of them.

- [Narrator] It took
almost four decades,

but Ford's vision of outdoor
cooking is a reality.

And Kingsford Charcoal
becomes the top selling brand

in America, with sales
of $500 million annually.

- So you look at what Stevens
did by creating Weber grill,

well, he now created
a need for charcoal.

You got hotdogs now
that are a great item

to throw on the grill, right?

This is a guy who's a
metal worker and a welder.

He helped all these
spinoff industries

where people were able to
generate tremendous wealth.

- [Narrator] And at
the heart of this,

is the home hotdog industry,

since Americans can finally
replicate the grilled taste

of restaurant hotdogs.

- 1950s, demand for
hotdogs is soaring,

and it became very
popular at home.

- Americans are carnivores,
so they want meat,

especially hotdogs.

If it's crunchy on the outside

and soft on the
inside, it's perfect.

Hotdogs are an essential
part of the American cookout.

- [Narrator] With
demand soaring,

Oscar Mayer revolutionizes

the hotdog industry
process again.

They invent the wiener tunnel,

which allows for
mass production.

- Oscar Mayer has
this big huge machine

that internalizes all the
functions of hotdog making,

and the only people there,
there's people there

at the front of the machine,
who are guiding the meat.

- Production goes from
a thousand an hour

to 36,000 sausages an hour.

- [Narrator] In 1963, they
debut a new ad campaign.

♪ Oh, I'd love to be
an Oscar Mayer wiener ♪

It becomes one of the
most iconic jingles

in American history.

By 1968, Oscar Mayer sales
reach a record $481 million.

- What Oscar Mayer
was very good at,

was not just being
creative in advertising,

but creating a brand image.

- [Narrator] Today,
Oscar Mayer sells

92 million hotdogs each year.

And after a four decade hiatus,

the Wiener Mobile
returned in 1988

and still roams America today.

For thousands of years,

cooking out referred
to the primitive notion

of hanging wild catch over
some form of flame pit.

But in a span of only
the last hundred years,

the ritual was refined,
perfected, and delivered

into the backyard.

- As Americans in
the 21st century,

we are very blessed
to live in a country

that for most of us is
a country of abundance,

and we gather,
and cook outdoors.

We gather those nearest
and dearest to us.

It's a sense of community,

a sense of the enjoyment
of good food and drink,

and a sense of celebration.

- You light up the grill.

I mean, there's
just something about

the flavor of that food,

being in the outdoors together,

that you just can't
get any other way.

- When you think about
the backyard barbecue,

the smell of whatever's
cooking on the grill

and the charcoal burning
in your backyard,

it's baseball, apple
pie, and grilling out.

It is America.