Frederick C. Mennen of LaPorte, Indiana, a chemist, inventor and industrialist, is credited with developing the product in 1958. Mennen began marketing Jiffy Pop in 1959. American Home Products purchased Jiffy Pop from Mennen that same year, and within one year the product had reached the national U.S. market. In the 1970s, the stage magician Henri Bouton fils, better known as Harry Blackstone, Jr., was endorsing what the television-commercial jingle called "the magic treat--as much fun to make as it is to eat."