question: How did Popcorn become the go-to food for movie theaters?
comment: It is a cheap snack that became popular at theatres during the depression, but the main reason it got so big is that it doesn't crunch like chips or other foods so the sound of people eating didn't ruin the moviegoing experience.
passages: As movie theater attendance grew through the 1920s, Cretors began designing machines that could pop and hold more of the product. Popcorn continued to grow in popularity through the Great Depression due to its low cost.
  
  Section::::History.:During World War II.
   BULLET::::- A popcorn machine, also called a popcorn maker, is a device used to pop popcorn. Commercial popcorn machines are usually found in movie theaters and carnivals, producing popcorn of the oil-popped type, which has approximately 45% of its calories derived from fat. The first commercial popcorn machine was invented by Chicago resident Charles Cretors in 1885. His business that he founded, C. Cretors & Company, still to this day manufactures popcorn machines and other specialty equipment.
  
  1885 Photographic film
   Popcorn's accessibility increased rapidly in the 1890s with Charles Cretors' invention of the popcorn maker. Cretors, a Chicago candy store owner, created a number of steam-powered machines for roasting nuts and applied the technology to the corn kernels. By the turn of the century, Cretors had created and deployed street carts equipped with steam-powered popcorn makers.
   Charles Cretors took his new popcorn wagon to the Midway of Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and introduced the new corn product. After a trial period where Cretors gave away samples of his new popcorn product, people lined up to purchase bags of the hot, buttered popcorn. The smell of roasting peanuts and of hot buttered corn being popped in its seasoning before the buyers' attracted attention and sales.
  
  Section::::History.:1900s through 1930s.
   Also, complimentary popcorn was given to customers to eat while waiting for their meal to be brought to their table.
  
  Section::::Advertising.
   Popcorn as a breakfast cereal was consumed by Americans in the 1800s and generally consisted of popcorn with milk and a sweetener.
   Section::::Cooking methods.
  
  Popcorn can be cooked with butter or oil. Although small quantities can be popped in a stove-top kettle or pot in a home kitchen, commercial sale of freshly popped popcorn employs specially designed popcorn machines, which were invented in Chicago, Illinois, by Charles Cretors in 1885. Cretors successfully introduced his invention at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. At this same world's fair, F.W. Rueckheim introduced a molasses-flavored "Candied Popcorn", the first caramel corn; his brother, Louis Ruekheim, slightly altered the recipe and introduced it as Cracker Jack popcorn in 1896.
   A chance meeting happened between Cretors and a traveling salesman who purchased a bag of roasted peanuts. The salesman, J.M Savage, was very intrigued with the new peanut roaster, and offered to sell it in his territory. Cretors agreed to the proposal, and hired his first salesman.
   When referring to multiple pieces of popcorn, it is acceptable to use the term "popcorn".
  
  When referring to a singular piece of popcorn, the accepted terminology is kernel.
  
  Section::::Consumption.
  
  Popcorn is a popular snack food at sporting events and in movie theaters, where it has been served since the 1930s. Cinemas have come under fire due to their high markup on popcorn; Stuart Hanson, a film historian at De Montfort University in Leicester once said, "One of the great jokes in the industry is that popcorn is second only to cocaine or heroin in terms of profit."
   Retail is currently a huge area of expansion with many companies in the U.S. offering a wider range of snacks, including hot dogs and nachos. Some movie theaters feature a wider selection than simply snacks and popcorn. These "dine-in" theaters allow patrons to purchase "meals" (ranging from pizza slices to hamburgers and more) that can be consumed while watching the movie. Many theaters have embraced the "brew and view" concept, serving alcoholic beverages, in addition to snacks and popcorn. Some movie theaters such as the Living Room Theaters or Alamo Drafthouse offer full restaurant service at one's seat, though this is not as widespread. McMenamins is a chain of restaurant/brewpub establishments in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington, many of which have full movie theaters. By the mid 1940s in some smaller theaters popcorn alone was paying the overheads, even sometimes bringing in more revenue than ticket sales. One theater company in Kansas City had about 4000 acres producing popcorn, and an unnamed person commented "Find a good popcorn location and build a theater around it."
   In 1970, Orville Redenbacher's namesake brand of popcorn was launched. In 1981, General Mills received the first patent for a microwave popcorn bag, with popcorn consumption seeing a sharp increase by tens of thousands of pounds in the years following.
   Section::::History.
  
  Wyandot Popcorn Company was founded in Wyandot County, Ohio during the Great Depression by Hoover and Ava (King) Brown. Mrs. Brown was the daughter of George W. King, one of the founders of the Marion Power Shovel Company. In 1936, as a way to diversify their family's farming income from grains and livestock, the Browns planted their first 100 acres of popcorn and entered the business of growing and selling raw popcorn. Popcorn became a popular treat in America at the time given its affordability.
   Charles Cretors took his new popcorn wagon and peanut roaster to the midway of Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and introduced the new corn product to the public in a newly designed machine that included a popcorn wagon. After a trial period where Cretors gave away samples of his new popcorn product, people began to line up to purchase bags of the hot, buttered popcorn.
  
  Section::::Variants.
   At the time of the Mealhow purchase, K&K Popcorn was sold through Fareway stores. The Mealhows were initially unsuccessful in convincing Whole Foods Market to carry their product. One store manager in Chicago ultimately agreed to stock the product for a month; the manager contacted the family 10 days later to request additional stock after it sold out. The company's popcorn was eventually carried in every Whole Foods store in Chicago. By 2000, the company's popcorn was advertised as being the world's smallest; Gene Mealhow stated, "The smaller the kernel, the better the flavor."
   Rubin got the idea after watching popcorn being made in Oklahoma City around 1930. There is some uncertainty about whether Rubin was the first to sell popcorn in theaters — his daughter and a former partner do not remember Rubin selling popcorn in quantity until the 1950s — but he is widely recognized for popularizing the practice.
  
  Rubin sold other snacks as well, and is responsible for creating large, "movie sized" candy bars and boxes.
   By 1893, Cretors had created a steam powered machine that could roast 12 pounds of peanuts and 20 pounds of coffee, pop corn, and bake chestnuts. Popcorn was becoming the next popular choice for snackfood. Cretors redesigned his automated roasting machine so it would roast peanuts and pop popcorn at the same time. Cretors' machine design offered several advantages over the hand operated process. First as a machine, it made operation more predictable and it provided an attraction for both the retailer and the customer.
   Section::::History.
   Charles Cretors traveled the Midwest and settled in Fort Scott, Kansas for a few years, and then Decatur, Illinois. He spent his time working in the painting and contracting business, opened a bakery, and eventually a confectionery shop. As each venture led to the next, Cretors discovered he had a passion for how things worked.
   After Richard Kelty retired from the military in the mid-1970s, he obtained a handful of the corn from a relative and planted it on his farm in Urbana, Iowa. Eventually, Kelty and his wife, Rita, annually planted four rows of popcorn behind their house, which later increased to ten rows after their friends and neighbors requested more for their consumption. Kelty then chose to begin selling the popcorn, and founded K&K Popcorn in 1981. Kelty operated the business with his wife. 
   BULLET::::- A popcorn bag is a specially designed, microwaveable bag that contains popcorn, along with oil, spices and seasoning. The bag is typically partially folded when it is placed in a microwave oven, and inflates as a result of steam pressure from the heated kernels. The earliest patent for the popcorn bag, U.S. patent #4,267,420 was filed on October 12, 1978 by William A. Brastad of Minneapolis and issued on May 12, 1981.
  
  1978 Bulletin board system
   As an addition to the confectionery shop, Cretors purchased a peanut roaster to broaden his offerings to include fresh roasted peanuts. Not satisfied with how the machine worked, he redesigned it to work better. It was at this time that Cretors moved his wife and family to Chicago where he felt he could become a commercial success by selling his new machine. It was 1885.
   In 1948 a subsidiary, Popped-Right Corn Company, was established initially to sell ready-to-eat (RTE) popcorn to movie theatres. Popped-Right, in conjunction with local Marion candy company Shirk's, created one of the first formulas of caramel popcorn for broad commercialization.
   At least six localities (all in the Midwestern United States) claim to be the "Popcorn Capital of the World;": Ridgway, Illinois; Valparaiso, Indiana; Van Buren, Indiana; Schaller, Iowa; Marion, Ohio; and North Loup, Nebraska. According to the USDA, corn used for popcorn production is specifically planted for this purpose; most is grown in Nebraska and Indiana, with increasing area in Texas. As the result of an elementary school project, popcorn became the official state snack food of Illinois.
  
  Section::::Popping mechanism.
   Popping of the kernels was achieved by hand on the stove-top through the 19th century. Kernels were sold on the East Coast of the United States under names such as "Pearls" or "Nonpareil". The term "popped corn" first appeared in John Russell Bartlett's 1848 "Dictionary of Americanisms". Popcorn is an ingredient in Cracker Jack, and in the early years of the product, it was popped by hand.
   Popcorn maker
  
  A popcorn maker (also called a popcorn popper) is a machine used to pop popcorn. Since ancient times, popcorn has been a popular snack food, produced through the explosive expansion of kernels of heated corn (maize). Commercial large scale popcorn machines were invented by Charles Cretors in the late 19th century. Many types of small scale home methods for popping corn also exist.
  