Hormel Girls

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Doing What They Wanted to Do The Women of the Hormel Girls Caravan by Kerstin Gorham November 2007

“These six months with the Caravan I shall classify as my ‘hey day.’ Never again can I hope to have so much fun with such great gals.” Hormel Girl Jo Manes (later Lane)

Beverly Bower (later Ferguson) grew up in Michigan, enthralled by Sunday concerts at nearby Interlachen. She dreamed of a music scholarship to college and playing the trombone professionally. With the advent of World War II, many big band players entered the service and all-girl bands became popular. Several of these touring bands recruited Bev. She became an accomplished musician and eventually made it to college. In 1951, the Hormel Girls Caravan recruited Bev, and she joined an orchestra to beat the band.

The Hormel Girls were a unique sales force started in 1946 with teams of young ex-servicewomen who originally sold George A. Hormel Company meat products—door to door and store to store. Hormel’s marketing strategy was to combine sales and music. The Girls formed the first all-woman drum and bugle corps and competed at the 1947 American Legion’s National Drum and Bugle Contest, thus gaining Hormel national recognition. By 1950 their uniforms had changed from gray suits to green when the Hormel Girls Caravan was a 65-member orchestra playing nationally on CBS and NBC radio—and performing song and dance routines on stage as they traveled to cities and towns across the country.

For young women like Bev, becoming a Hormel girl seemed the opportunity of a lifetime.  During the war, servicewomen gained a sense of independence and professional skills. And in 1946, the original Hormel Girls consisted mostly of ex-servicewomen. After the war, more young women attended college and wanted to pursue musical careers.  By 1952, three-fourths of the Girls had attended college while one-half had earned college degrees.

The Hormel Girls Caravan provided one of the few opportunities for women to gain professional, well-paid employment. Being a Hormel Girl was a “glamorous job,” recalled Bev. Fellow Hormel Girl Carolyn Wilson (later Eklin) put together a bulging scrapbook that chronicled her “Sixteen Wonderful Months with the Hormel Girls Caravan.” She documented her travels with photos, menus, postcards, and other memorabilia attesting to fun, hardship, and most of all, camaraderie. Two Girls recorded in the group’s newsletter, the Oink Oink, “The most wonderful thing about the group is the incredible esprit de corps. . . . We have learned to laugh at anything.” “More than anything we laughed at everything!” later quipped Bev.

Hormel Girls had “hutzpah,” Bev added. The final issue of the Oink Oink may have captured the “composite Hormel Girl” best:

She heard all the troubles of every grocer from coast to coast. She rehearsed, played food shows, stage shows, paraded, drilled, sold, couponed, taped, danced, sang, tooted, drove, typed, sewed, fitted costumes, set up stages, mapped out store work, took dictation, acted as nurse, and above all she smiled (sometimes when it would have been much easier to cry), always met the public with a pleasing personality and represented the George A. Hormel Co. in a manner above reproach.

The advent of television brought the Caravan to its final performance in Florida in December 1953. “Heartbreaking News” wrote Carolyn Wilson in her scrapbook. But without skipping a beat, Bev Bower bought one of the Caravan’s 30 white Chevies, joined the Ft. Lauderdale Symphony, and found jobs as a bread warmer at the Sea Ranch Hotel and modeling bathing suits for a department store. Ultimately Bev became a teacher, married and raised children, and found a way to continue her passion—playing the trombone in fine orchestras. Once a Hormel Girl, always a Hormel Girl. The hutzpah remains intact.

Sources:

The Hormel Legacy: 100 Years of Quality, George A. Hormel Company, 1991
"The Hormel Girls," pp.204-221, in In Quest of Quality: Hormel's First 75 Years by Richard Dougherty, George A. Hormel Company, 1966
The scrapbook and memorabilia saved by former Hormel Girl Carolyn [Wilson] Eklin
An interview with a former Hormel Girl Beverly [Bower] Ferguson last Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007.