Oscar Mayer

Oscar F. Mayer (1859–1955) was a German immigrant who started out working in the Chicago stockyards. In 1883 Mayer joined his brother, a sausage‑maker and ham‑curer, in opening a small retail butcher shop in a German neighborhood on the city’s Near North Side. In 1924 the Mayers offered sliced bacon wrapper in a package. Five years later they took the bold step of putting their own name on their products and began selling America’s first brand‑name meats, which included bockwurst, liverwurst, bacon, frankfurters, and bologna. In 1929 the Oscar Mayer company further distinguished its products by placing a yellow paper band around retail bundles of hot dogs—a product that until then had been sold in bulk, with no trademark or advertising attached.