Red.

Reach for it

The Sun-Maid Girl

Represented Exclusively for
Print, Video & Film by

YOUR NAME
HERE

Lorraine (The Sun-Maid Girl)

DESCRIPTION:
Height: 5 5
Weight: 125 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Hobbies: Im an elementary school teacher by day, and when Im not at school, you can usually catch me
cooking up a storm in my kitchen, watching a movie, listening to music, or trying out the latest fitness
fads, though my all-time favorites are yoga, surfing, and hiking. Ill grab my suitcase and travel any chance
I get, though I always love coming back home to the California sunshine.
BIO:
Born and raised in Californias Central Valley, Lorraine, known to millions as The Sun-Maid Girl, has been
a staple of Americana for more than a century. Having been discovered by talent agents as she dried her
curly locks in the warm California sun as a young girl, Lorraine has demonstrated tremendous versatility
by excelling at nearly everything shes ever tried. While its true that shes traveled the world many times,
The Sun-Maid Girl is a true California girl who exudes a natural healthfulness and has appeared in
hundreds of magazines and television commercials. Lorraine is the absolute total package who cooks
and promotes fitness making it a mission to help millions of people eat healthy and get in shape.
Producers, directors, and promoters would do well to hire the versatile girl known by millions as a little
ray of sunshine, as she can literally do anything!
PARTIAL CREDITS:
Paddington
The Simpsons

Readers Digest
Monopoly
Seinfeld
Sesame Street
Smithsonian
Institution

Special Edition HarperCollins Paddington features introduction by The Sun-Maid Girl. 2015
The Simpsons Episode #400 features Marge baking her famous raisin sponge cake for the Springfield
Elementary school bake sale. 2007
Readers Digest named The Sun-Maid Girl the best lasting logo for its annual Americas Best issue. 2007
Sun-Maid Monopoly Board Game is introduced. 2006
Seinfeld Episode #63 features box of Sun-Maid Raisins that mysteriously disappears.1993
Snacks on Parade episode runs on Sesame Street. 1987
Sun-Maid Girl bonnet displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. marking the 75th
anniversary. 1988

The Sun-Maid Girl

Represented Exclusively for
Print, Video & Film by

YOUR NAME
HERE

THE

Sun-Maid Girl
Many people want to know if a real person was the original Sun-Maid Girl.
The answer is Yes, and her name was Lorraine Collett (Petersen). In May 1915,
San Francisco was still recovering from its 1906 earthquake and celebrated
its rebirth by welcoming the international community to the Panama
Pacific International Exposition. Lorraine Collett attended this event with a
number of other girls as representatives of the recently formed California
Associated Raisin Company, later Sun-Maid Growers of California.

AT THE EXPOSITION
The Sun-Maid girls handed out raisin samples to visitors of the
Panama Pacific International Exposition while wearing white
blouses with blue piping and originally BLUE sunbonnets.

LORRAINE COLLETT
As Lorraine would later tell, It was only after we returned to
Fresno that I was seen by Sun-Maid executive Leroy Payne
wearing my mothers red bonnet in my backyard that the bonnet
color was changed from blue to red, because red reflected the
color of the sun better.

THE FIRST PAINTING

While working at the Expo in San Francisco, Collett posed at
the Post Street studio of artist Fanny Scafford in the morning,
then spent the rest of the day working the Expo, where the
Sun-Maid girls were by then all wearing RED bonnets. The
artist experimented with a variety of positions and props,
finally settling on the iconic pose with an overflowing tray of
grapes and a glowing sunburst in the background.

TOP STORY
This photograph of Lorraine
(far right) appeared in the San
Francisco Bulletin in 1915 and
promoted Sun-Maids
activities at the Exposition.

A NATIONAL TREASURE
In celebration of Sun-Maids 75th
anniversary, the treasured original
sunbonnet, by then faded pink, was
donated to the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C. on January 26, 1988,
in the presence of U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Dick Lyng.

THE RED BONNET

In 1915, life was much
simpler, more rural,
and sunbonnets were
still part of womens
fashion in California.
Lorraine kept her original
red bonnet carefully folded
in a dresser drawer from 1915
until she graciously presented
it to Sun-Maid in a small
ceremony in 1974.

THE ORIGINAL SUN-MAID

After the Exposition, Miss
Collett did further modeling
and appeared in the 1916
Cecil B. DeMille film Trail of
the Lonesome Pine. Lorraine
Collett Petersen, as she was
known after marrying, later
became a nurse and until
her death at the age of 90,
continued to make special
appearances as the original
Sun-Maid Girl.

THE

Panama Pacific
INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION

In 1915, San Francisco hosted the Panama Pacific International Exposition,

which celebrated the completion of the Panama Canal and the host citys
recovery efforts following a devastating earthquake and fire in 1906. From
February to December of 1915, visitors were treated to grand buildings and
displays among statues, murals, fountains, lakes, and gardens, including a
working model of the Panama Canal and a replica of the Greek Parthenon.
Attractions showcased the greatest arts, transportation, machinery, and
agriculture of the timeand Sun-Maid had its own exhibit. The exposition
lasted nine months and Sun-Maids wide exposure there helped launch the
brand to worldwide recognition.

A CITY SHOWCASED
It took three years to construct the 630-acre
fairgrounds, which were built on more than
70 cleared city blocks and filled-in mud flats
at the northern part of San Francisco, now
known as the Marina. The buildings, which
were made only to last for the year of the
Exposition, were constructed of wood and
covered with plaster and burlap fiber that
could be molded and sculpted.

THE CALIFORNIA BUILDING

Sun-Maid, then known as the California Associated Raisin Company,
had its display in the California building within the Expositions
horticultural palace. Other Exposition attractions included exhibits,
performances, and parades from countries around the world, as
well as American states, counties, and businesses.

RAISIN SEEDER
Sun-Maids raisin seeder in the horticultural palace
was such a popular attraction that a second raisin
seeder was added in the food products palace. As part
of the live demonstration, Muscat raisins with seeds
were placed into the machine, and instantly, seeded
raisins came out to be enjoyed by Exposition visitors.

THE FIRST SUN-MAID GIRLS

At the start of the Exposition, Lorraine Collett had yet to
pose for the now-famous watercolor that would become
Sun-Maids logo. Throughout the Exposition, Collett
(pictured second from right) served with other young
women as raisin ambassadors, passing out samples of
raisins to visitors.

IN THE NEWS
The Fresno Morning Republican reported on
Exposition events and encouraged local residents
to attend special celebrations including Fresno
County Day in March, 1915. In turn, the Expositions
Fresno County visitors participated in parades and
giveaways of raisins and raisin bread to encourage
Exposition visitors to attend Raisin Day festivities
held in April, 1915 in Fresno.

THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS

The Palace of Fine Arts is the only
remaining building from the 1915
Exposition. With assistance from
Sun-Maid, the 2010 Campaign for
the Palace of Fine Arts worked to
retrofit the building and preserve it for
future generations. Today, Sun-Maids
participation in the 1915 Exposition is
featured in one of six new interpretative
panels surrounding the Palace.

SUN-MAID SAMPLES
The Exposition attracted visitors
from around the world, many
who were only just sampling
raisins for the first time. In
addition to enjoying raisins,
visitors could view what was
called a stereomotograph, a
device displaying 3 x 3 threedimensional scenes of raisin
growing and production in the
San Joaquin Valley.

INTERVIEW WITH

Lorraine Collett Petersen

Los Angeles Times writer Dave Larson was the last to interview Mrs. Petersen. It was not long before the 1982 grape harvest
that Larsen published his story. It was among the best written an most widely read interview of the famous lady.

Inside the vault of a sprawling industrial structure here (in

Kingsburg), stored like a treasure among the confidential
corporate records, is a faded red bonnet.
The youthful head that it once covered is snowy white now,
the body is stooped and the gait is measured, as one should
expect from a person 90 years of age.
But the hazel eyes of Lorraine Collett Petersen still sparkle
even as they did in May 1915, when the girl was discovered
drying her black curls in the sunny backyard of her nearby
Fresno home.

POSED WITH TRAY OF GRAPES

She was asked to pose for a painting while holding a tray of
grapes, a trademark that has since taken her likeness into
homes of raisin eaters throughout the world. One of the most
reproduced faces in history.
That original watercolor, priceless, now hangs in the
presidents conference room at the Sun-Maid Growers plant
here, a gift eight years ago from the woman who made
it all possible.
From time to time Petersen visits this, the largest raisin plant
in the world, pops a few into her mouth and lets her mind drift
back to how her unlikely fame came about.
The year was 1915, Albert Einstein postulated his general
theory of relativity, the US Coast Guard was established,
Henry Ford developed a farm tractor, and the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition was in progress in San Francisco.
PASSED OUT SAMPLES
Two other girls and I were sent as representatives of the
California Associated Raisin Company, Petersen recalled. We
walked among the fairgoers with platters of Sun-Maid Raisins
and passed out samples.
Not only that, but every afternoon one of her chores was to
ascend in a light plane and, as a promotion, drop a rainfall of
raisins over the crowd.
Otherwise, wearing blue bonnets and white blouses, with
blue piping, the girls filled the routine ambassadorial roles
of a fair.
She was given permission in 1915 to take a brief leave from
the San Francisco Exposition in order to participate in her
home towns Raisin Day Parade.

It all began when Miss Collett, (second from right) was selected to represent
Sun-Maid at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in February, 1915.

It was a Sunday morning, and my mother had just finished

washing and setting my hair, she said. My mother always
counted as she made eight long black curls that hung down.

Considering her current age, the former Lorraine Collett, has

remarkable recall on some details. She remembered that while
she was in the yard of her Fresno home, wearing her mothers
red bonnet, a group of visitors stopped by a Sun-Maid
executive Leroy Payne, plus an executive of the San Francisco
exhibit and his wife.

At long last, the raisin had a symbol.

The painting eventually wound up in my possession, Petersen
said. I displayed it first in the convalescent home I ran, and
later hung it in my living room.
GAVE BOTH TO CO-OP

She wanted to know why I hadnt been wearing a red bonnet

at their fair, and I replied that I wasnt drying my hair then.
Mr. Payne was impressed by the effect of the sun on the
red bonnet, and not only did we all wear that color for the
remainder of the fair, but I was asked to pose for a trademark
when I returned to San Francisco.
In effect, she did it for nothing. The modeling assignment was
part of her daily job at the Exposition for which she received
$15 a week.
WENT TO STUDIO DAILY
My mother had rented an apartment in San Francisco. Every
morning at 10:00, I had to show up at a womans art studio on
Post Street. I would sit until about noon, when I had to leave
for my work at the fair. This went on for a couple of weeks.

There it remained, along with the bonnet (folded in a dresser

drawer), until eight years ago. At that time, Petersen presented
both the artwork and the hat to the company for safekeeping.
The president, F.R.Light, gave her a gift of $1,700, and
everyone on hand for the ceremony enjoyed punch made
from raisins, sugar syrup, lemon and ginger ale.
As for the wooden tray with the artificial fruit still attached,
Petersen said she plans to give that to the company too. The
arm bracelet she wore for the painting disappeared while she
was at the hotel.
Down through the years, the Sun-Maid trademark has been
modernized, but has always been based on the original pose.
LED TO FRINGE BENEFITS

First, the former Lorraine Collett recalled, a pose was tried

without the red cotton bonnet. Then a profile was considered,
and rejected. A basket with handles was tried, but discarded
in favor of a wooden tray overflowing with rubbery
artificial grapes.
The full color painting, a sunburst glowing at the back of a
smiling lass, was fairly completed. It was displayed in the
horticulture building at the fair until the end of the year, when
the model said, it was hung in Paynes office.

That smiling lovely

young lady in the
red bonnet, who has
graced billions of
Sun-Maid packages
around the world and
appeared in thousands
of advertisements, is
among Americas best
known trademarks.

The innocent little modeling adventure led to all manner

of fringe benefits. I rode a horse in a movie, Trail of the
Lonesome Pine, Petersen said. I was asked to model clothes
in stores. I appeared in booths at fairs. I received letters from
around the world. Somebody even manufactured dolls that
looked like me.
Nowadays, she still gets around, often dining out, often
resplendent in earrings, chokers and bright red nail polish.
Except when trout fishing, which is another of her pursuits.
Other than that, she is ever available for conversation about
events, current and currant.
During the interviewing years,
Mrs. Petersen modeled,
appeared in some movies,
operated a cattle breeding
ranch, became a nurse,
operated a convalescent
home, and appeared on
television shows, like The Mike
Douglas Show, as the original
Sun-Maid Girl.

RAISINS IN

Popular
Culture
Sun-Maid Raisins not only hold a place in
history, but also a place in the hearts of children
and adults across the globe. Sun-Maids status

MONOPOLY

as the most well-known and highly regarded

name in raisins makes the brand a natural
choice to be featured in numerous forms of
pop culture.

Sun-Maids library of artwork, advertising, and historical

AMERICAS BEST

documents provided plenty of colorful material for the

In 2007, Readers Digest named The

Sun-Maid Monopoly game, created in 2006.

Sun-Maid Girl the Best Lasting Logo

for its annual Americas Best issue.

Throughout the years, Sun-Maid products

have appeared on early-morning and latenight talk shows, and even featured in a
MasterCard Priceless commercial as one
of the necessary items for building the best
snowman on the block.
Consumers around the world recognize
the iconic red raisin box, featuring the bright
California sun and The Sun-Maid Girl and
red bonnet. Sun-Maid Raisins in the red
and yellow box are seen everywhere, from
childrens books and television programs to
magazines and video games, all the while
evoking the healthful, wholesome qualities

THE SIMPSONS

embraced by the Sun-Maid brand.

The 400th episode of The Simpsons aired in 2007 and featured

Marge baking her famous raisin sponge cake for the Springfield
Elementary school bake sale. Finding her carton of Sun-Made

MAD RAISINS

raisins empty, she went to the grocery store where she fought with

By the fall of 1988, the California Dancing Raisins were at

Helen Lovejoy over the last box of Sun-Made raisins on the shelf.

SEINFELD
Sun-Maid made its Seinfeld debut in 1993 in an
episode named The Pilot where the red box of
raisins mysterious disappeared.

the height of their popularity and appeared on the cover

of humor magazine Mad alongside the magazines mascot,
Alfred E. Neuman.

SESAME STREET

BLUES CLUES

In 1987, the award-winning childrens show Sesame Street

The 2007 childrens book Healthy Snacks with Blue!

aired an animated segment evoking the Sun-Maid brand by

featured Nickelodeons favorite dog, Blue, and her

featuring a woman in a red bonnet. Titled Snacks on Parade,

friend Joe preparing a healthy snack to share with

the cartoon explained Sun-Maids process of sun-drying raisins,

Blues class. Blue and Joe use Sun-Maid Raisins as

packaging them in red and yellow boxes, and sending them out

one of the ingredients in the fruit salad they make to

for the rest of the world to enjoy.

celebrate Healthy Snacks Day.

INTERVIEW WITH

The Sun-Maid Girl,

BRAND ICON; SUN-MAID GROWERS OF CALIFORNIA

Q: Tell our readers about Sun-Maid. What is your main line of business?
A: Many people know Sun-Maid from the little red boxes of raisins. What they might not know is that Sun-Maid Growers of
California was founded over 100 years ago in 1912. This century-long history as the worlds largest processor of raisins means
that if you laid out end to end all the raisins Sun-Maid has sold during our 100 years, they would stretch from the Earth to
beyond the Sun! Ive represented the brand since 1915, when I posed for the brands trademark wearing a red bonnet and
holding a tray of grapes.
Q: What information is important to know about raisins and dried fruits?
A: Dried fruits serve as important healthful snacks worldwide, and are nutritionally

equivalent to fresh fruits. Ive known this because Ive seen our growers harvest grapes
and dry them in sun thats all that goes into our raisins: grapes and sunshine!
Because of their nutritional value and enjoyable taste, raisins have been popular as a
healthy food for a millennia. They are known as natures candy and counted among the
most nutritious dried fruits globally.

Become a fan of The Sun-Maid Girl on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SunMaidGirl to comment on all

things Sun-Maid, ask questions, share photos, and stay up-to-date on the latest Sun-Maid events.

Become a fan of the Sun-Maid Girl on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SunMaidGirl to comment on all

things Sun-Maid, ask questions, share photos, and stay up-to-date on the latest Sun-Maid events.

Q: What would you say makes your company unique?

A: Sun-Maid is the worlds largest processor of raisins and dried fruit, and when
people see our brand, they might assume were a Fortune 500 company. In reality,
Sun-Maid is an American cooperative of family farmers, which means that the
750 family farmers that grow our raisins also own the company. I love that our
100-year-old company is owned by the people who actually harvest the product
and take it to market. In some cases, the grape vineyards have been farmed by
the same families for generations.
Q: If you werent so famously identified with raisins, what would you
rather be doing?
A: Most people dont know this, but I would love to be the
lead singer in a rock band!

Q: What does the future hold for you and Sun-Maid?

A: As the health benefits of our products continue to be researched

and better understood, I plan to travel the world and help share this
information and work to promote healthier eating habits around
the world. Sun-Maid is the worlds largest processor of raisins
and dried fruits and distributes products to more than
50 countries worldwide, which means that Ive got
a lot of places to visit!

Q: Has the social media bug bit The Sun-Maid Girl?

A: Funny you should say! I use my Facebook
page regularly to reach our customers and stay
engaged in what interests them. In fact, if you go to
www.facebook.com/SunMaidGirl youll find information
about our latest promotions, microsites, recipes and nutrition.
We also use Twitter @SunMaidRaisins to connect. For example, we
recently encouraged people to upload a photo related to their workout
or exercise routines using #RaisinYourWorkout and they received a free
Sun-Maid Raisin workout shirt for participating. We have QR codes on all
our packaging that link to our mobile sites. And, of course we have a lot of
information on our website www.sunmaid.com and international sites
available through www.sunmaid.org.

After 90 years on the little red box, The Sun-Maid Girl got a
digital makeover in 2006 and as part of her coming out party
was featured in newspapers across the country.