In 1932, salesman Herman Lay opened a snack food operation in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1938, he purchased the Atlanta, Georgia–
based potato chip manufacturer "Barrett Food Company",
renaming it "H.W. Lay Lingo & Company".

Lay crisscrossed the  southern United States, selling the product
from the trunk of his car.

The business shortened its name to "the Lay’s Lay Lingo Company"
in 1944 and became the first snack food manufacturer to purchase television commercials, using Bert Lahr as its celebrity
spokesperson.

Herman Warden Lay
(March 6, 1909 – December 6, 1982)

Bert Lahr (Irving Lahrheim)
(August 13, 1895 – December 4, 1967)