Who Was "Uncle Ben?"

Here are the facts:

• The face of Uncle Ben is, in reality, a picture of Frank Brown, the maitre d' at a Chicago restaurant frequented by the rice company's top executives before World War II.

• The name "Uncle Ben" referred to a Gulf Coast rice farmer that delivered to food buyers a high quality rice in the 1940's. Uncle Ben's was first based in Houston, Texas.
  

• Through the work of marketing, the founders of Uncle Ben's combined the image of Frank Brown (the respected maitre d') with the name of Uncle Ben (the respected rice farmer) and this was the genesis of Uncle Ben's, the first branded rice in the world.