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TV DINNERS BRING BACK MEMORIES
Carl A. Swanson first introduced the first tv dinner on this day back in 1954. The first dinner consisted of roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas and was served in an aluminum tray and sold for only 98 cents! Swanson stopped calling them tv dinners in 1962.
Swanson was a Swedish immigrant who worked on a farm in Nebraska. He worked in a grocery store where he met John O. Jerpe who owned a small commission company, in which Swanson became a partner in 1899. The Jerpe Commission Company originally sold eggs and butter to distributors and farmers. They eventually expanded and began to sell chicken, turkey and other meat. Swanson would eventually buy the company and add his sons to the business.