Aaron S. "Bunny" Lapin shoots his creation -- Reddi-Whip -- on a slice of pie. "Gentlemen," he told a group of doubtful can manufacturers in 1947, "this is the beginning of pressure-propelled packaging."
On Jan. 5, 1917, Aaron "Bunny" Lapin was born in St Louis. His brainchild would eventually change the way most of us experienced our Thanksgiving desserts.
He began his career as a clothing salesman but switched to the food business in the early 1940s, selling Sta-Whip, a wartime substitute for whipping cream made mostly from light cream and vegetable fat. For bakers and other commercial customers who wanted to whip Sta-Whip, he also offered what he called a Fount-Wip, a crude aerating gun.
In 1946, when the first seamless, lined and lithographed aerosol canister was introduced, he became one of the first customers. He put his product in aerosol cans under the brand name Reddi-wip, initially selling it through milkmen in St. Louis.
Within five years, he was worth millions. In 1951, the Post-Dispatch called him "Bunny Lapin, Whipped Cream King." Aerosol Age, a trade publication, wrote: "He bought Cadillacs two at a time and lived in Gloria Swanson's furnished mansion in Hollywood."
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Reddi-wip, with its iconic red-and-white label, designed in 1954, became a product celebrity and made Lapin famous, too.
Reddi-wip earned him a mention in Time magazine as one of the 20th century's most influential inventors. Now, one out of every two cans of aerosol topping eaten in the United States each year is Reddi-wip. Besides packaging Reddi-wip, Lapin's company, Clayton Corp., also made and sold its own valves.
In 1963, Lapin lost control of the company and his post as president. He also sold his interest in Reddi-wip and started another company, Bunlap Corp. Reddi-wip is now manufactured by Beatrice Foods Inc. in Waukesha, Wis.
The aerosol food products marketed by Bunlap - Touch and Shake, a milkshake, and Touch and Spred, a food spread that was, in essence, cinnamon-flavored margarine - did not take off as Reddi-wip had, and Lapin lost several million dollars.
Soon, though, he reacquired Clayton Corp. and focused on manufacturing and selling various types of valves. The company, through its Convenience Products subsidiary with facilities in Fenton and Pacific, used its own valve technology for products like Touch and Foam, a home-insulating foam. He was chairman of Clayton Corp. at the time of his death in 1999.
Lapin earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia and attended Washington University School of Law, where his fellow students learned that "lapin" means rabbit in French and thus hung the handle "Bunny."
This advertisement for Reddi-wip, apparently the first to appear in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was published on July 25, 1948.
