This variety actually predates the 1920s by several decades. As the story goes, a farmer named William Chambers of Greenfield, Massachusetts had grown this variety for years. After his death, a friend of Chambers found some of the sweet corn seeds and sold them to W. Atlee Burpee. In 1902, Golden Bantam was featured in a Burpee catalog.

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Golden Bantam, introduced in the 20's, was the first really successful yellow sweet corn. It set the standard for many years. Most of the earlier sweet corns were white, although there were a few yellows and at least one red prior to 1900. Golden Bantam was early when introduced, but today it would be considered main season (80 day), and prolific. My father always planted Golden Bantam. He had to plant some Black Mexican for my mother who never made the switch to yellow corn. It has a lot more flavor than the sweet corn available in the first half of the 20th century. It also is a compact plant, making it ideal for home gardens. Plant breeders in the 30's, 40's, and 50's worked overtime to develop competitive varieties of yellow corn. It is still a good Su type sweetcorn.

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