Gustav Grunn (1893-1990) introduces a new “delicious brand shrimp and crab seasoning”. It soon becomes locally popular and is named Old Bay after a Chesapeake Bay steam line.
Brunn creates a successful seasoning and spice business after World War I in Wertheim, Germany. He moves the business to Frankfurt but is arrested and sent to Buchenwald Concentration camp during the 1938 pogrom “Kristallnacht”. Brunn’s wife pays a considerable sum for his release and he emigrates to Baltimore with nothing but a spice grinder.
He soon creates the Baltimore Spice Company and Old Bay Seasoning. McCormick & Co. purchases Old Bay in 1990 and makes it a national favorite in its classic yellow can.
In a twist of fate, the Old Bay Steamboat, President Warfield, often pictured with the seasoning, later becomes the Exodus, the boat carrying Jewish refugees that plays a role in the creation of Israel.
