The Real Story of Thanksgiving - Bonus Holiday Episode
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What is the colossal Thanksgiving mistake that led to the frozen meal industry?
Today on Something You Should Know, a special holiday bonus episode. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, you probably think you know the story of the first Thanksgiving. Pilgrims, Native Americans, a big turkey dinner, everyone getting along. Well, not exactly. The story is a lot more complicated and a lot more interesting. The food was different, the reason for the feast wasn't what you think, and even the meaning of Thanksgiving has changed over time. So what really happened at that first Thanksgiving?
So one of the things that we know that happened is that each of them, that's the pilgrims on the one hand and the natives on the other hand, each of them seemed pretty eager to trade with the other.
What are the common myths about the first Thanksgiving?
So that initial moment, is not a moment of enormous suspicion. It seems more a moment of, hey, what can you do for me?
We'll dig into all of that right after this.
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So you're about to discover a lot of interesting intel about Thanksgiving that I bet you didn't know. And you're going to learn how some of the common beliefs about the first Thanksgiving just aren't true, and how some of the things you think happened then never happened. Hi and welcome to this special holiday bonus episode of Something You Should Know. And we start with an interesting fact. And that is that Thanksgiving led to the invention and popularity of the frozen dinner. In 1953, an employee of the Swanson Food Company overestimated the number of frozen turkeys the company should order for Thanksgiving. And the company was left with 260 tons of extra turkey. What do you do with 260 tons of frozen turkey?
What actually happened at the first Thanksgiving celebration?
Well, salesman Jerry Thomas came up with a brilliant idea to create and sell individual turkey dinners, complete with cornbread dressing, gravy, peas, and sweet potatoes, on reheatable trays just like airline meals. Each pre-made feast cost a total of 98 cents. By the end of 1954, a year later, Swanson had sold 10 million frozen turkey meals. And the TV dinner industry was born. And that is something you should know. Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Why?
How did the relationship between Pilgrims and Native Americans evolve?
Well, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared that Thanksgiving be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. And there it stayed. But in 1933, November was a five-Thursday month. So retailers asked President Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving up a week to help get an early start on the Christmas shopping season. He declined. But in 1939, November once again had five Thursdays in it. And this time, President Roosevelt agreed to change it to the fourth Thursday of November. There was a lot of controversy about it. Many people thought he was just bowing to pressure from retailers, which I guess he was. And some states kept their Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. Then in 1941, Congress passed a law making the fourth Thursday of November the holiday of Thanksgiving, and it has stayed there ever since.
But what about the first Thanksgiving? We all heard stories in school about how the pilgrims and the Indians got together to give thanks and they had dinner together. But how much of that story is true? How much of it is a myth? And what really did happen back then? And how has the celebration evolved from then to now? Here with some insight into that is Peter Mancall. He is a professor of history and anthropology at the University of Southern California, and he focuses on early America.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the colossal Thanksgiving mistake that led to the frozen meal industry?
0:02–0:46
2
What are the common myths about the first Thanksgiving?
0:46–2:38
3
What actually happened at the first Thanksgiving celebration?
2:38–3:20
4
How did the relationship between Pilgrims and Native Americans evolve?
3:20–19:36
5
What was the significance of Thanksgiving being celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November?
19:36–24:42
Speakers
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