With the purchase of a corn chip recipe in 1932, San Antonio businessman Charles Elmer Doolin launched The Frito Company.  Initially producing the chips in his mother's kitchen, the popularity of the snack quickly grew and soon the Frito Company opened factories in Houston and Dallas; headquarters relocated to Dallas in 1933. In 1945, The Frito Company joined forces with the H.W. Lay Company to expand distribution into new regions of the nation.  In 1961 the two companies merged to become Frito-Lay, Inc., and then merged with Pepsi-Cola in 1965.  Frito-Lay is currently headquartered in Plano, Texas.

The TracyLocke company was started in Oklahoma City in 1913 by founders Shelley E. Tracy (of Vernon, TX) and Raymond P. Locke. Within two years, the company began expanding throughout the region, including an office in Dallas, which soon became the company's headquarters. While the company has expanded into several satellite offices around the nation, it has remained one of the premier advertising companies of the Southwest, serving such regional clients as Haggar, Mrs. Baird's, Frito-Lay, Dr. Pepper, and Imperial Sugar. The TracyLocke company is responsible for many branding campaigns that have integrated products into the fabric of everyday culture: they coined the term "slacks" while working with Haggar, created the "10-2-4" slogan for Dr. Pepper, and invented the name "7-Eleven." This film collection came to TAMI courtesy of Mark Beasley at Lucid Post and Richard Brown, formerly of TracyLocke.