SpaghettiOs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SpaghettiOs are a brand of canned spaghetti that consists of small, circular pasta shapes, suspended in cheese and tomato sauce. Besides the "plain" (pasta and sauce only) version, other varieties of SpaghettiOs include miniature meatballs or "franks" (processed meat that resemble slices of hot dogs). They also offer "themed" pasta shapes, often of cartoon characters, and Raviolios, which are round ravioli filled with beef. SpaghettiOs with meatballs are probably the most well-known variety of the brand, the one most often featured in advertisements. SpaghettiOs are marketed primarily to children and feature the "Uh-oh! SpaghettiOs!" jingle sung by Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer).[1] The product was also pitched to parents for its being less messier than standard spaghetti.
It is rumored that the original recipe for this dish was created in Pozzuoli, Italy, around 1884, by a member or members of a family who later emigrated to Brooklyn, New York and acquired the name Kirby. A friend of the family, who later became a product developer at Franco-American, is thought to have obtained the recipe. SpaghettiOs were, indeed, once a product of Franco-American, which was purchased by the Campbell Soup Company in 1915. It is now uncertain, given conflicting claims, whether a Kirby ancestor or Kurt Eberling, Sr, the Franco-American employee, invented them. [1]. Eberling died on March 10, 2008 [2].
On November 18, 2004, Campbell's announced that they were discontinuing the Franco-American brand. SpaghettiOs are now marketed under the Campbell's name.
On October 19, 1965, SpaghettiO's were introduced on television by pop singer Jimmie Rodgers, who had hits in the 1950s with such songs "Honeycomb", "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine", "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling In Love Again", "Secretly", and others:
- The neat new spaghetti you can eat with a spoon: Uh-Oh! SpaghettiOs
"Uh-Oh" was a phrase that was repeatedly sung by Rodgers in "Oh-Oh I'm Falling in Love Again" (The "oh-oh" is pronounced "uh-oh"), so the tie-in was a natural. Kids loved to sing the ubiquitous jingle, and grown-ups took note. The catchy and memorable jingle launched SpaghettiOs, and customers remembered it when in supermarkets. SpaghettiOs have now been on store shelves for over forty years.
The three types of pasta used in SpaghettiOs are anelli, anellini and occhi di pernice.
A similar product is available in the United Kingdom; for example, Heinz produces "Spaghetti Hoops in Tomato Sauce". [3]
