Rutt and Underwood began the quest for a trademark "they were searching for Aunt Jemima.
Chris Rutt attended a local vaudeville house in the autumn of 1889. On the bill was a pair of black-face comedians, Baker & Farrell, a team of white entertainers blackened with brunt cork who ridiculed Negroes while portraying plantation material (McGraw-Hill, 143). Blackface shows, much like a symphony, were segregated into separate parts with distinct characteristics. The last section of the minstrel show was of particular importance because it stressed original plantation dances such as the cakewalk and genuine African melodies characteristic of plantation life (Toll 201). The cakewalk act that Chris Rutt witnessed was set to a New Orleans style tune called "Aunt Jemima."" Baker performed this act in an apron and red-bandanna headband, the slave clothing of traditional southern cooks. (McGraw-Hill, 143). Hypnotized by the power of the song and images of the southern cook, Rutt adopted not only the name of Aunt Jemima for his pancake flour, but also, her image as the southern mammy. This was the image that Rutt sought---southern hospitality personified!!! .
Blackface shows centered around white stereotypes and images of the Negro as an inferior, indolent savage. White men would put on burnt cork and guise themselves as plantation "darkies,"" perpetuating the views of cracker culture; essentially, that Blacks were unruly, uncouth inferior beings with no place in society. Out of this repressive environment, Chris Rutt adopted the Aunt Jemima icon. Blackface shows romanticized the plantation days and espoused stereotypic myths that were unrepresentative of both Blacks and slavery. The plantation scenes would seem so realistic with Black men and women singing and carelessly dancing, carrying on with a nostalgic air for "those bygone days- of the Old south (Toll 209). Aunt Jemima became the mammy image portrayed in these scenes as a fat cantankerous cook slaved in kitchens of plantations with a massive mouth and dark black skin.