We're talking big numbers here today folks, as today would have been the 105th birthday of the mother of frozen pizzas, Rose Totino!
While it may not sound all that impressive to be the mother of frozen pizzas, the fact of the matter is Rose Totino, along with her husband Jim Totino, had to work their asses off to create such a vast empire, an empire so vast that we can safely assume all of you reading at home will no doubt have a frozen pizza tucked away in your freezer somewhere, unaware of the woman that helped create them.
Admittedly Rose's idea for the frozen pizza wasn't a totally new concept, as there was already a company producing them when Rose's hit the shelves, however unlike their rival company's pizzas, Totino's frozen pizzas were actually edible and tasted like pizza, and so all other pisspoor attempts to rake in that sweet sweet frozen pizza fortune were left squarely in the dust.
Hell, when Rose first began selling her pizzas in non-frozen form at the family restaurant, America still wasn't fully accustomed to the dish, as made evident when she applied for a business loan in order to start her restaurant, when the bankers she met with had no idea what one was. However Rose Totino was a force not to be reckoned with, and being the crafty mother fucker she was, all she had to do was bring in a sample for the dudes to try, and they couldn't sign away their money to her fast enough.
News quickly spread of how delicious this fancy new food called "the pizza" was, especially those made by the Totino family, and so before long people were flocking to the shop, resulting in the Totinos sometimes working 18 hour shifts every day, all the while struggling to meet the insane demand for their pizzas.
From this struggle came the idea for the frozen pizza design, which initially begun its run as Totino frozen pasta dishes. These meals led to a very slow start for their venture that almost saw them bankrupt, however once they started stocking frozen pizzas with an all new preparation and freezing method, they were back on their A-game. Within half a decade, the Totino's brand frozen pizza was the best selling brand in the USA.
In 1975 Rose and Jim sold the Totino's business to Pillsbury for a whopping $22 million (hey, that's big money for a frozen pizza company in 1975), with Rose staying on as vice president of the company. Clearly her work with frozen goods wasn't quite finished yet, as she continued to work tirelessly as a spokesperson for the company as well as playing a hand in their research and development division, eventually securing a patent for their "crisp crust" technology.
In 1993, Rose Totino was the first female to be inducted into the Frozen Food Hall of Fame for her contributions to the art of freezing foods that still taste good when they're thawed out, lifting her "female firsts" status from one to two, as she was also the first female vice president of the Pillsbury company.
Tragically, our hero Mrs. Totino passed away in 1994, at the ripe old age of 79. But she left behind a great legacy, and to this day we have her to thank for the bounty of quality frozen pizzas that now reign over the market, so in some ways, she is still always with us.
Happy birthday Rose Totino of Totino's brand frozen pizzas and family restaurant, we honour you for your contributions to this world.
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