A number of events are already launching this week in the lead up to Saturday’s 47th Annual Popcorn Festival in Valparaiso.
I was contacted by a reader from afar looking to track down Gary Redenbacher, the brand personality who became a household name and face and starred in television commercials and print advertising campaigns with his famous grandfather Orville Redenbacher, the latter who died at age 88 in September 1995.
For nearly two decades, both Orville and Gary were annual celebrity guests at Valparaiso’s Popcorn Festival, including being featured in the traditional Saturday parade on an always cleverly themed and constructed float made of popcorn, cornstalks and carefully placed, sculpted and glued kernels.
However, it’s been many years since Gary has been back to Northwest Indiana, now he lives in Northern California with his wife, Renae, and the couple’s twins. Now 30, Mikayla has a degree in studio art and product design, while Bryce has a degree is in architecture design.
The reader who is on the hunt for Gary is Phyllis Karpinski of Coral Springs, Florida.
“I’ve read your columns online about Orville Redenbacher and I’m hoping you can put me in contact with the grandson Gary,” Karpinski said.
“There have been people who have developed problems after working for the popcorn’s parent company Conagra. I’m hoping that If I can reach Gary Redenbacher, he can help connect me with someone I can talk to with the company.”
In answer to Karpinski’s query (she did not clarify the nature of the “problem” she wanted the company to address), Gary, now 70, works as an attorney and owns his own law firm Redenbacher and Brown in Santa Cruz, California with business partner John Brown.
He explains on his law firm website at www.redenbacherlaw.com (where he can be contacted) his firm’s mission: “Redenbacher and Brown is a Northern California civil litigation firm owned by 25-year veteran attorney Gary Redenbacher. The firm’s reputation was built upon a primary founding principle that the practice of law is a privilege — an honor that must be earned and sustained each and every day, case-by-case. Mr. Redenbacher, a member of the California State Bar, understands the imperative of fiduciary responsibility. A lawyer is to always serve the best interest of the client — period. His personalized practice of law exemplifies an unyielding dedication to ethics, to client and to a certain objective: deliver results sooner, not later.”
But as Gary has explained to me and to readers in the past: “I really have no connection at all to popcorn or the company brand, which is the way it’s been for quite a few years, pretty much since Grandpa passed away.”
“Grandpa was the true iconic spokesman for the brand and they kept him on even after he sold the company. I was later brought on to appear with Grandpa for TV commercials and magazine ads as part of a marketing campaign, which is what brought me to the festival in Valparaiso during those years. After Grandpa’s death, the company decided to go a different direction for advertising so I didn’t continue.”
Conagra Brands is the owner of the Orville Redenbacher popcorn brand.
As for Gary, his last visit to the festival was in 2003 for the festival’s 25th anniversary.
The last time I chatted with Gary, he said in today’s ever-changing world, even the family’s famous last name isn’t recognized as much as their previous days of crunchy claim-to-fame.
Gary’s latest chapter includes serving as a school board member for the Scotts Valley Unified School District after winning his seat in the November 2024 election.
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and radio show host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com.