THE GOOD OLD DAYS:Tasty success story airing on KOCE

Wax paper bags. Thus was born Laura Scudder’s solution to stale and crumbled potato chips, and from there, the largest potato chip manufacturer in the country with four factories and a fleet of more than 300 trucks by the mid-1950s.

Laura Scudder, who was born in 1881 in Pennsylvania, was a nurse, a restaurant keeper, a gas station attendant, a mother and the first female attorney in Ukiah before she became a potato chip and peanut butter pioneer in California and a household name.

But it wasn’t only his grandmother’s determination and ingenuity that prompted John Scudder of Newport Beach to produce “Laura,” a documentary airing on KOCE. Serving as family historian, he is most impressed by her devotion to family and employees.

“I saw a wonderful story about a remarkable woman who achieved a lot in her life,” he said. “I wanted to make a piece that was more than just great moments in her manufacturing story, but also one that demonstrated all the people she embraced and all the lives she touched.”

The business started rather simply in Los Angeles County in 1926, after Laura Scudder’s husband was injured at work and she realized she would have to find a way to provide for their four children. The day after Thanksgiving, the Scudder family peeled 200 pounds of potatoes, later buying a used Ford truck to start distribution.

Then, chips were sold from large glass jars and cracker barrels until Scudder Food Products employees started ironing wax paper into bags, which extended freshness. “Wax bags became the standard of the industry for the next 30 years,” John Scudder said.

After mastering the art of chip-making, Laura Scudder looked to peanut butter and mayonnaise to keep her trucks full year round, as potato chips were eaten mainly as a summer picnic food. Surviving the Great Depression and World War II, her business doubled annually for four years.

Eventually, her product list included caramel corn, pretzels and salad dressings.

“In those days, nobody knew about counting calories and no one could even spell cholesterol,” said John Scudder, owner of an avocado and flower farm in San Diego.

As a businesswoman, Laura Scudder put quality ahead of everything else, and her company was the first to put a freshness date on its food products. On one occasion, she interrupted a family vacation in Santa Barbara to visit the home of a dissatisfied customer.

“A lot of women were conjured up by marketing divisions to lend credibility to products, but she was a real woman,” John Scudder said. “She was her product, and she stood by her product, and she was always there for you.”

“Laura” will air at 10:30 a.m. today and again at 8 p.m. on June 30. Anyone interested in showing the film for educational purposes can e-mail John Scudder at [email protected].