I found the story quite interesting:
Now, advertising has created many fictitious people (“Betty Crocker” was one); but it does seem that there actually was someone like “Aunt Jemima”.
So my question is: “Uncle Ben” was a character used to advertise a brand of rice: was there such a person?
And, if a person named “Uncle ben” existed, could his heirs sue to get a share of the profits generated by the brand?
I suspect that there was no real person, it was merely a made-up character.
Get real. Now I’ve seen it all.
That article was from last fall. In February a judge dismissed the lawsuit.
The Mars company owns the brand Uncle Ben’s rice, and they’ve always claimed that there WAS a Southern black rice grower known as “Uncle Ben,” and that the rice brand was named after him. They don’t offer any biographical details about the man, however.
The black man whose picture appears on the box is NOT Uncle Ben. No one is sure whose picture it was originally, but some sources say it was a Chicago hotel steward named Frank Brown.
Oddly, I can recall reading two different articles on the origins of well-known advertising characters. Both concluded that Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima were not real, but were just supposed to be generic house slaves when they were created.
Yeah, I’m going to disagree with this, even if it could be proven, which, is doubtful.
I’ve encountered people who didn’t know that Harland Sanders was for-realz.
I am waiting for the first lawsuits against these non-persons trademark owners. They portray black people in a racist manner, much like the confederate flag brings up the antebellum South.
Of course, proving that a character like “Uncle Ben” causes harm to black people might be difficult…I am sure there are some lawyers who would take up the challenge.
I wonder if these trademarks are worth keeping, in this era of PC.
The Mastersaid that Aunt Jemima was fictional but Uncle Ben was real.
The linked article says if Wilford Brimley had been around in the late 1800s that his photo would be on Quaker Oats. I thought Wilford Brimley was around in the late 1800s. :D:p
Not the Master; it’s a SDSAB article by Veg.
Funny thi8ng is, Wilford Brimley always looked a LOT older than he was. If you’ve ever seen Absence of Malice, consider this: Brimley was the same age as Paul Newman!
Here’s a link to the December, 1963 show What’s My Line, featuring Col. Sanders, in full Kentucky Colonel costume – nobody on the panel knew him at all.
According to Wikipedia, Paul Newman was born in 1925, Wilford Brimley in 1934, Newman died in 2008 aged 83, Brimley turns 81 in September.
Better still- Newman was OLDER than Brimley, but was still youthful enough to play the romantic lead in that movie, while Brimley was supposed to be the crusty old man.
No argument here! 
Reminds me of the lawsuit awhile back where some woman claimed that Mad copied her son’s appearance to create Alfred E Newman. I don’t care how much money I thought I could get, I wouldn’t want anyone to know I thought my son looked like Alfred E Newman.
Does anybody but me think the original Aunt Jemima was scary looking?
The suit was dismissed for lack of proof. What if however they did have some evidence that they were related? (In today’s world, maybe something of hers with get cells on it sequenced 23 and me style, enough to prove relationship to a certain degree of closeness.)
If they were provably legal heirs would they be entitled to anything?
Any legal experts want to opine?
Not a legal expert in any sense…but want to opine…
If the original model had signed a model release, then the heirs can go quietly to blazes, as they wouldn’t have a case in hell.
If the original model didn’t sign a release…but no one can actually demonstrate that…then the company can simply say, “We had a verbal agreement with her,” and who can possibly prove otherwise in court?
Only if the heirs can dredge up evidence – letters, remembered conversations, whatever – where the model said, “Darn them! They used my image, and never paid me anything, and I really resent that!” could there even begin to be a case. And even then, the company is covered, if the model never wrote to them to complain about it! Just griping to her friends and family isn’t enough: she would actually have had to have tried to present her grievance.
Sadly recipes get stolen all the time so it might well be a black woman came up with the original recipe for Aunt Jemima pancake mix but how can they prove it?
Chef Boyardee was a real chef (his actual name was Ettore “Hector” Boiardi) who, at age 17, ran the kitchen at the Plaza Hotel in NY. I’ll bet the food there was better than what Con Agra serves up in his cans today.