Candy of the Day - Oh Henry!

I figured I’d finish up October's tribute to all things cavity producing with an ad that has it all. In the spirit of Halloween, this Burma Shave style clipping from a 1938 issue of Boy’s Life features both candy and a costume! Five years after the 1933 release of the greatest giant monkey film of all time, King Kong, the image of a man in a monkey suit had taken hold of the public imagination well enough to become a vehicle for selling candy to impressionable young boys. Williamson Company of Chicago first introduced the Oh Henry bar in 1920. According to Nestle (the bar’s current owner) the naming has an interesting back story:

"Way back when, there was a little candy shop owned by George Williamson. A young fellow by the name of Henry who visited this shop on a regular basis became friendly with the young girls working there. They were soon asking favors of him, clamoring Oh Henry, will you do this?, and Oh Henry, will you do that? So often did Mr. Williamson hear the girls beseeching poor young Henry for help, that when he needed a name for a new candy bar, he called it OH HENRY! and filed a trademark application the following year."

So, now that we've put the proverbial wrapper on the candy bar, I hope everyone has a happy Halloween. Go out, haunt the night, and fill your bags to overflowing!

Candy of the Day - Beech-Nut Gum

Beech-Nut Packing Company entered the gum making business in 1910 and diversified from there, eventually making everything from catsup to baby food. I can’t say I’ve ever tried Beech-Nut, but my dad always had a pack of their competitors gum (Juicy Fruit) in his shirt pocket. I still remember the story he told me that if the gum didn’t pop it was spoiled, after which he’d give me a new stick.

This 1938 ad from Life Magazine also mentions two other Beech-Nut products: Beechies and Oralgene. Beechies were the equivalent to Chicklets, little candy-coated gums in a box. Oralgene was touted as a dental aid which “gives your mouth, teeth, and gums beneficial exercise...”

Though I have fond memories of these stick gums, I have to admit that any time I got a pack in my Halloween haul my first thought was “wow, that’s weird…”

Candy of the Day - Milky Way and Snickers

Mars candy bars – well, except for the Mars Bar itself. This ad came from a 1938 issue of Boy’s Life and I’m not quite sure if it’s the photography or the scan, but this kid sure looks like the larval form of Lenny from Laverne and Shirley. Oh well, while I face the depressing fact that many of you will actually have to look that one up I’ll get to the specifics.

Frank Mars, the namesake of what would become Mars Candy (back then it was called Mar-O-Bar), created the Milky Way Bar in 1923 and by 1926 he moved his company to Chicago IL so that he could easily ship candy across the country. 1930 saw the birth of Snickers – basically a Milky Way Bar with peanuts added. Both have persisted, even though the other two candies in the ad (Milky Way Vanilla and Snickers Honey Almond) have gone by the wayside.

The ad rings of an adult trying to sound like a kid. Lots of “oh boy” and “I sure”, which probably weren’t the kid vernacular of the time. I also think it’s funny that they went to the length of mentioning that the candies don’t taste the same because they have different ingredients. Really, that’s the reason? I figured the wrapper made all the difference. Huh, the things you learn by reading the ads.

Candy of the Day - Chuckles

Chuckles first appeared in 1921. Eventually Nabisco bought the Chuckles Company in the 1970s and it's changed hands multiple times since. These little pillows of sugar-coated jelly always were a personal favorite and I even seek them out in vending machines.

Candy of the Day - Nik-L-Nips

Remember those little, liquid filled wax bottles? Nik-L-Nips are a candy that came into being in the early 20th century and their name comes from their original cost (a nickle) and the way you get to that liquid (nipping the top off the bottle). I always found Nik-L-Nips interesting in the same way I find a lava light fascinating. That liquid inside seemed to make them special, at least to look at. Taste-wise? Well, they are made of wax.

By the way, it's interesting that Nik-L-Nips come in a replica of the Coca-Cola "skirt" bottle which also first appeared in the early 1900s.

Candy of the Day - Lollipops

The origin of the lollipop is a thing of debate. What can be said, though, is that the term was trademarked by George Smith the owner of the Bradley Smith Company. B. S. and Co. Lollipops are featured in this snipped from a 1914 magazine cover for what seems commonplace in the modern world, printing on cellophane wrappers!

Candy of the Day - PEZ

Though they seem modern, Pez was invented in 1927 and the strange name actually is an abbreviation for the German “pfeffermenz”, which described the only flavor - peppermint. The first dispensers, on the other hand, didn’t come out until 1848 and these didn’t sport beloved characters but looked a little like a disposable lighter. We owe the kitsch look of modern Pez dispensers to the fifties when everything from Santa to robots were made to dole out the tiny rectangular candies along with the introduction of fruit flavored Pez.

Candy of the Day - Black Licorice

I’m a fan of black licorice and I’ve come to appreciate the fact that not everyone is. It sets you apart and puts you into a special club, kind of a candy klatch. Though I realized licorice has been around since ancient times (included in Egyptian tombs, in fact), what I didn’t know about is the close connection between licorice and tobacco.

Take this ad from the April 1914 issue of International Confection magazine. On the surface it’s pretty plain, a wholesaler shilling different sorts of licorice to candy stores and resellers, but take a look at the offerings and you’ll see tobacco terms creeping in. There are licorice cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and plugs and, as a matter of fact, chewing and smoking tobaccos often include licorice as a flavoring agent.

So what gives? Why the connection? Well, to be honest, I’m not sure. I’d speculate that it’s licorice’s long connection with soothing a raspy throat, but the same connection doesn’t seem to exist for horehound which is another herb used in candy which has throat-soothing properties. The best guess (and it is a guess) I can come up with is that, like plug chewing tobacco, licorice is black and that black licorice is sometimes considered an ‘adult’ candy. Whatever the case may be you can see the wide selection of licorice that is available (including cool licorice pipes) at Licorice International’s website.

Oh, in case you're wondering, Red Vines aren’t licorice.

Candy of the Day - Cracker Jack

Frederick “Fritz” William Rueckheim and his brother Louis produced an early version of Cracker Jack for the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893, though the mixture of popcorn, molasses, and peanuts and went by the inventive name "Candied Popcorn and Peanuts".

Three years later Rueckheim determined that by using a kettle mixer and adding a little oil, he could keep the popcorn kernels separate. The first lot of Cracker Jack was produced, garnering its name from the response of an enthusiastic customer.

The Cracker Jack mascots, Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo, were introduced in 1918 and the sailor boy image resonated with the founder of Cracker Jack so much he had it carved on his tombstone. Bingo was based on a real-life dog named Russell, a stray adopted in 1917 by partner Henry Eckstein who demanded that the dog be used on the packaging.

Candy of the Day - Hershey Bar

The Hershey bar undoubtedly is the iconic candy bar of America. It’s not the best, not the fanciest, not the biggest, not the smallest, instead it’s the yardstick by which all other bars are measured. I remember picking all of the Hershey’s minis from my Halloween haul and eating them before anything else. Even today, after gaining an appreciation for dark chocolate and single-source cacao, I’d do the same thing.

Candy of the Day - Necco Wafers

I'm not going to attempt to give you all the info on one of the great American candies. Necco wafers have always been one of my favorites and I'll leave the history to their official site.

This ad comes from the January 1914 issue of The International Confectioner Magazine. It's an unusual color ad for the time.

Candy of the Day - Peconut Crisp

 

Alright, I’ll confess I chose Peconut Crisp as the candy of the day just because I stumbled across the ad while perusing old Rotarian magazines. The smaller ad comes from the August 1914 issue of The Rotarian and the larger ad comes from a January 1915 issue of the University Missourian. As with many turn-of-the-century candies, there are a lot of claims of “good food energy”, but not a hint of how the candy actually tasted. I’m assuming like peanut and coconut.

By the way, the fellow behind the desk with the coconut head and a body formed from peanuts is, prepare for the originality, is the Peconut Boy. I've got an aversion for anthropomorphic foods, they remind me of Douglas Adams' cow that wanted to be eaten.

Time has erased this candy from the face of the earth. Even a troll through Google doesn’t reveal its fate. Like so many small confectioners it’s gone to the big candy dish in the sky.

Candy of the Day - Wacky Packs

One of my favorite childhood memories centers on the discovery of Wacky Packages. Like most Topps products, they consisted of a stick of nondescript gum coupled with an assortment of trading cards and stickers. One of the first acts of self-definition I performed was plastering my bedroom door with the gross and weird wackies. I think it also helped define my love of graphic art – in this case of the hyper-gross, California hotrod art sort personified by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Ratfink.

Candy of the Day - Slo Poke

Supposedly the Slo Poke got its name from the fact the thick, fudgy caramel lasted practically all day long. I’m not sure about this fact, online information on Pokes is scarce at best. I remember regularly getting them in my Halloween haul and they wound up being left among the candy chum with the Tootsie Rolls, Candy Corn, and odd piece of fruit. The thing I remember most was the tooth-sucking stickiness of the Slo Poke. If you bit into one you likely came up missing two or three molars. I’ve never been a fan of candies that include dental work as a premium.


The Slo Poke was introduced in 1926 by the Holloway Candy Company, but the sucker version has been discontinued. For a brief period you actually couldn’t get a Slo Poke anywhere, but eventually the brand and recipe were acquired by the Warrell Corporation which began making Slo Pokes in bar form under their new Classic Caramel Company if you have a tooth in need of pulling and don’t want to bother with Novocain.

Candy of the Day - Pop Rocks (the Space Candy)

First off, Mikey is alive and well and might still be downing boxes of Life cereal. If you’re of a certain age you’ll know that this statement means my next candy of the day is Pop Rocks.


My introduction to Pop Rocks came through a little, old fashioned inventory shrinkage. I had a favorite uncle who worked at an area warehouse which, among other things, stocked several candies including Pop Rocks. Occasionally a box of the fizzy candy would get ‘damaged’ and when we’d visit we’d be rewarded with the spoils which consisted of three or four envelopes of Pop Rocks. The candy fascinated me, not because of its flavor (to me it still tastes like Kool-Aid powder), but because it did something. Interactive candy – who would have thunk it? Any house that gave away Pop Rocks on Halloween would have been the coolest house on the block…consequently I don’t think anyone gave them away.

As for their history, this from the Unofficial Pop Rocks Site:

Pop Rocks were developed in 1956 by General Foods research scientist William A. Mitchell and introduced to the market in 1975 at 15 cents per pack. Then the Pop Rocks rage took off...and continues Today.

Candy of the Day - Candy Corn

There is one candy that comes out every Halloween and inspires dread in my heart. It has polluted every trick-or-treat bag I’ve ever spent an evening filling. The name of this horrid little confection is candy corn. Lately the madness has expanded. Not only are there candy pumpkins (just bigger candy corn) as well as candy corn colored to allow it to invade other holidays. If we don’t stop candy corn it will push out the native candies of all of our holidays. There won’t be any jelly beans, candy canes, gum drops, chocolate kisses, or valentine hears – there only will be candy corn.

Okay, now that my rant is done here are a few facts about candy corn as gleaned from Better Homes Magazine:

"According to oral tradition, George Renninger, a candymaker at the Wunderlee Candy Company in Philadelphia, invented the revolutionary tri-color candy in the 1880s. The Goelitz Confectionery Company brought the candy to the masses at the turn of the 20th century. The company, now called Jelly Belly Candy Co., has the longest history in the industry of making candy corn -- although the method has changed, it still uses the original recipe."

Candy of the Day - Candy Cigarettes

Without trying to sound like an old guy, I can remember buying packs of candy cigarettes from one of those register-side candy racks. The ones I knew came in one flavor, sugar, and had the texture of chalk. If you really spent you could get a version that came wrapped in paper. This wrapper was filled with some kind of powder that would puff out when you blew through it. Of course, this was in the days of big tobacco companies steadfastly denying the science that showed a link between smoking and cancer and Joe Camel became an advertising pariah. The controversy around candy smokes has been around for a long time though and critics long have claimed the candy is a gateway to smoking. The sale of candy cigarettes even has been banned in Finland, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia


There was an attempt to reform candy cigarettes, renaming them “Candy Sticks”, but that somehow name lacks allure. Kids want to be adults and candy sticks don’t seem adult any more than juice boxes.

Candy of the Day - Ford Gum

The Ford Gum and Machine Company, as the name implies, makes gum and machines to dispense gum. The barbershop I went to as a kid had a Ford machine sitting by the front door. It was a Lion's Club sponsored machine that dispensed Ford's imitation of chicklets and you'd get three for a penny. Oh how times have changed.

So, what does this have to do with Halloween and what winds up in your bag? Well the gumball machine side of Ford's business has practically nothing to do with your Halloween take, but Ford is also the maker of a couple gums that fall into what I broadly call the gross category. I’m talking about Hot Dog and Bologna gum.

Now, before you get your hopes (or bile) up, let me say both of these gums are fruit flavored. It’d be interesting if they actually tasted like hot dogs or bologna, but note I didn’t say it’d be good! Having tried bacon flavored mints, I’m pretty much on board with gum tasting like gum and not a meat dish.

Candy of the Day - Chick-O-Sticks

The Chick-O-Stick is one of those truly unique candies. I mean what is it? Toffee? Wafer? Truth be told it’s a mutant combination of peanut butter, sugar, and toasted coconut that kind of tastes like the crispy center of a Butterfinger bar. Chick-O-Sticks have been made by the Lufkin, TX based Atkinson Candy since 1954 and is based on two rival candy novelties: the Chicken Bone and Turkey Leg and apparently Atkinson found the sweet spot, because it’s outlived both.

Candy of the Day - Baby Ruth

In the 40’s Curtis Candies jumped on the dextrose bandwagon, touting the fact their product contained processed corn syrup as a good thing. If you’ve seen my earlier post regarding the 40’s and 50’s push to rehab the image of dextrose you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s possible to argue that knowledge about processed foods has grown over the years and this Curtis ad is a lot less harmful than the cigarette ads of the era that sighted smoking as healthy. What’s not so easy is to excuse the blatant mistake in claiming grapes contain dextrose (I checked, they contain glucose, fructose, and sucrose).

The Baby Ruth bar came into being in 1920 when Chicago native Otto Young Schnering developed a new addition to his Curtis Candy Company line. This new bar was an adaptation of another Curtis product called the Kandy Kake which had a pastry center topped with nuts and coated with chocolate. The newly dubbed Baby Ruth bar was introduced in 1921 and it eventually replaced the Kandy Kake bar. Baseball enthusiasts like to argue that the Ruth got its name from legendary player George Herman Ruth, better known as Babe Ruth. To me Otto Schnering, the man at Curtis, puts this argument to rest. He stated that the Baby Ruth was named after the daughter of President Grover Cleveland, Ruth Cleveland and not Babe Ruth. Yes, I know there are Wall Street Journal articles which seem to link the athlete and the candy bar, but I’d point out that the first image of Babe Ruth associated with the Baby Ruth bar came from Nestle in 1995. The source material and facts don’t support a link.

I can remember getting Baby Ruth bars as a part of my Halloween haul every year. They were an old fashioned candy, usually handed out by a grandmotherly woman in her upper sixties who partially bought the bars out of nostalgia. For my brother and me, they fell somewhere below Three Musketeers in the candy pecking order, but were popular none the less. Baby Ruth bars also produced one of my favorite comedy moments (warning, brief nudity):