Education
Cumming studied piano and voice at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, and later joined with two friends to form a vaudeville trio, "Red, Black and Gold", with hair dyed accordingly.
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Adelaide Cumming
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From 1937 to 1950, she was host of the Adelaide Hawley Program first on National Broadcasting Company Radio and then on Columbia Broadcasting System Radio. A daily news and talk radio show, it was broadcast nationwide, attracting an estimated 3 million listeners. She also hosted the television show Fashions on Parade on DuMont from 1948 to 1949, and on American Broadcasting Company in 1949.
From 1949 to 1964, she played "Betty Crocker", as a living trademark for General Mills.
Billed as America"s First Lady of Food., she became the most recognizable woman in America, second only to Eleanor Roosevelt. Her half-hour Betty Crocker Show was shown on Columbia Broadcasting System from 1950 to 1952, followed by Betty Crocker Star Matinee and Bride and Groom, both for American Broadcasting Company in 1952.
She did walk-on commercials during the George Burns and Gracie Allen comedy series, introduced by lines such as, I don"t know how to bake a cake, Gracie, but here is Betty Crocker to show us how. In 1964, seeking a more sophisticated image, General Mills dropped Cumming.
After being dropped by General Mills, she returned to school, earning a doctoral degree in speech education from New York University in 1967.
That"ll shut them up". Her first husband, Mark Hawley, was an announcer and was known as the voice of the Pathe Newsreels. Laurence Gordon Cumming, and taught English as a second language, which she continued until December 18, 1998, giving her final class three days before her death.
She died on December 21, 1998 at Harrison Hospital, Bremerton, Washington, aged 93.
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Born
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Died
December 21, 1998 (aged 93) -
Nationality
United States