CLASSIC CANDY
Darlene Lacey
A wholesome boy and girl enjoy candy bars in a Curtiss magazine ad from 1954.
SHIRE PUBLICATIONS
A 1950s box of Pangburn’s candy included an irreverent guide to teenage slang.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
AMERICANA
CLASSIC CHOCOLATE
CLASSIC SWEETS
CLASSIC CELEBRITIES
TRENDS AND FADS
CLASSIC HOLIDAYS
FURTHER READING
PLACES TO VISIT
A Curtiss ad aimed at youth culture from a 1958 edition of American Girl magazine.
INTRODUCTION
T
irresistibly charming about American candy from the 1950s through the 1980s.
The candy industry was at its peak in terms of variety, inventiveness, and ability to elicit great
nostalgia to this day from those who enjoyed it. With families reunited and settling down after World
War II and children springing up everywhere, the creative minds in America responded with a burst of
sweet treats for people to eat.
There was seemingly no limit to the variety of candy, the availability of candy, and the fun-filled
ways that candy was packaged and sold. Who could resist a Baffle Bar? Pop Rocks? A Purple Cow? A
Baby Ruth ad proclaimed, “Dig that nutty candy bar,” and that’s exactly what Americans did.
Drugstores, dime stores, and drive-ins displayed tantalizing arrays of candy of all shapes, flavors, and
sizes, colorfully wrapped and cheerfully named, beckoning people to make one their favorite. Should
it be something some light? Something that lasted a long time? Something that burst in your mouth?
Something that wouldn’t melt in your hand? The choices went on and on.
During this period, the Big Three—Hershey, Mars, and Nestle—vied to be number one while other
big names of the time—Tootsie, Peter Paul, Curtiss, Just Born, Ferrara Pan, Hollywood, and Heide—
looked to carve out their share of the market. A multitude of candy bars appeared on the shelves and
then disappeared after a fleeting moment in time, almost as if they were Top 40 records. Candy was a
pop culture phenomenon that rarely took center stage in the media, but was always a supporting player
in the American experience.
Over the decades, consolidation of the industry has caused some of these names to fade while others
have grown stronger. Many favorite candies have vanished from the American scene, although many
also remain. But the excitement and energy from this period no longer exists and may never return,
making it a special time for Americans who fondly remember this golden age of classic candy.
HERE IS SOMETHING
Illustration by pinup artist Gil Elvgren on a 1950s Pangburn’s assorted chocolates box.
AMERICANA
N
where one lived or what one did in America during the decades between the 1950s and
the 1980s, candy was within reach. Almost every type of retail business featured a candy counter
or vending machine, and candy was even sold door to door.
Neighborhood drug store and dime store candy counters were commonplace back then. “Five and
dimes” such as Woolworth’s, J. J. Newberry’s, and Grant’s usually featured a lunch counter or soda
fountain along with a candy counter, a convenience that began to fade by the 1960s due to the growing
popularity of fast food chains.
One of the mainstays of the American candy counter was penny candy, which children would
scrutinize for great lengths of time as they tried to get the most satisfaction out of their allowances.
Popular penny candy included licorice whips, hard candy sticks, jawbreakers, bubblegum, root beer
barrels, caramels, suckers, and peanut butter-flavored Mary Janes.
Larger drug stores and department stores had candy departments featuring boxed chocolate from
Russell Stover, Barton’s, Pangburn’s, and Schrafft’s. These stores also offered a more upscale
selection of candy displayed in glass bins, ready to be scooped and weighed by smartly dressed clerks
working the counter. One might buy bridge mix, malted milk balls, Swedish fish, chocolate stars, and
M&M’s by the pound.
Newsstands, service stations, and convenience stores were especially well stocked with candy. By
the 1970s, summertime for many American children meant enjoying a bag of candy along with a
Slurpee or Icee frozen drink from the local 7-11, Circle K, or Stop-N-Go. Restaurants offered candy,
gum, or mints at the counter, and penny and nickel vending machines stood by the doorways,
dispensing gum or candy such as Boston Baked Beans, Chiclets, and Mike and Ikes by the handful.
Family-owned candy shops, with candy made on the premises, were commonplace during the early
twentieth century. A few, such as Wittich’s Candy Shop in Ohio and McCord Candies in Indiana, still
operate, with very little having changed over the years, thus keeping the old-time experience alive.
O MATTER
A typical Brach’s candy endcap display at a 1973 grocery store.
An assortment of Brach’s Pick-a-Mix candy in a bag one would use at the store.
Some candy companies have grown into empires, most famously Hershey, Mars, Russell Stover,
Tootsie Roll, Ghirardelli, and Necco. Many others also flourished, but were eventually purchased by
larger food companies, causing their brand names to fade over time. These include Curtiss, Ward,
Beich’s, Holloway, Hollywood, Mason, Stark, and Tom’s. Others still continue under their original
brand names: Just Born, Ferrara Pan, Hoffman’s, Annabelle’s, Atkinson’s, Jolly Rancher, Heide,
Palmer, Bonomo, Boyer, Peter Paul, Pearson’s, and Brach’s. Some famous candy companies, such as
Nestle and Pez, have international roots, but their products have become intrinsic to the American
experience, and they have had manufacturing plants in America for so long that they are considered
American.
Some candy companies retained a regional flair to their creations: Washington-based Brown &
Haley with their mounded chocolate, peanut, and vanilla fondant Mountain Bar, Texas-based
Pangburn’s with their pecan-chocolate Millionaires, and Idaho-based Owyhee with their cocoa-dusted
marshmallow Idaho Spud Bar, designed to look like a potato.
Gumball machine art often featured bright, eye-catching illustrations appealing to American
youth.
Another regional favorite stemmed from a highway oasis. For travelers on the road, Stuckey’s
provided a haven throughout the decades. Often found in remote locations along highways in the
South, Stuckey’s stores offered an oasis with gasoline, rest rooms, a snack bar, a gift store, and
homemade candy featuring their famously sweet pecan log rolls and pecan divinity.
Family-run Stuckey’s opened their first store in Eastman, Georgia, in 1937 and became a growing
chain until the late 1970s, when their founder, W. S. Stuckey, died. The family sold the business to
their partner, Pet Milk. Subsequently, Stuckey’s languished and many stores closed. In 1985, the
family bought back the business, and Stuckey’s was able to make a comeback throughout the
Southeast.
Although some candy has remained regional favorites, many favorites transcend place and time.
Classic movie candy is among those favorites. Eating candy at the movies is a longstanding American
tradition, whether at a traditional theater or a drive-in. Drive-in theaters peaked in popularity in the
late 1950s and early 1960s, with carloads of Americans watching double features on screens 50 to 120
feet wide and up to 60 feet high. Acres of land provided parking for hundreds or even thousands of
cars, with many theaters offering multiple screens for five hundred or more cars apiece.
1970s patches of popular candy could be sewn or ironed on to clothing.
This 1961 magazine ad for Stuckey’s illustrates the many reasons for travelers to stop at one
of their roadside stores.
Ads for the snack bar ran before the movies and during intermission. These reels sometimes ran for
so many years that the colors faded, with the food taking on unappetizing hues, but this didn’t stop
customers from racing to the snack bar as soon as intermission was in sight. With the huge volume of
people at the drive-ins, the stands would be clogged with long lines of frustrated people, anxious to
return to their cars (if they could find them in the dark) before intermission was over. Drive-in
theaters began to wane by the latter part of the 1960s due to various factors such as increasing
property values, and most had vanished by the end of the 1980s.
“Movie candy” typically had the following traits: it came in bite-size pieces that could be shared, it
was quiet to eat, and it lasted a long time. Classic movie candy has long included M&M’s, Raisinets,
Goobers, Sno-Caps, Bit-O-Honey, Sugar Babies, Hot Tamales, Boston Baked Beans, Junior Mints,
Kits, Jujyfruits, Jujubes, Starburst, Skittles, and Dots.
If a theater-goer craved licorice, there were Twizzlers, Switzer’s licorice, Red Vines, Black Crows,
or Good and Plenty, a type of licorice pastilles in pink, black, and white. Good and Plenty was created
by the Quaker City Chocolate and Confectionery Company in 1893, making it the oldest branded
candy in the United States.
Good and Plenty and Good ’n Fruity boxes from the 1970s.
It is said that Good and Plenty got its name from a racehorse that a member of Quaker City’s
Rosskam family had bet on at the time. The horse lost, but the name was a winner. In 1959, Quaker
City released a jelly-centered counterpart, Good ’n Fruity. Both candies became concession stand
classics over the years.
Another theater favorite is Milk Duds, bite-sized caramels coated in milk chocolate. Milk Duds
changed ownership many times since they were created by Hoffman and Company in Chicago in 1926,
but many Americans remember them being made by Holloway (1928–85) or Leaf (1986–96). The
unusual name, Milk Duds, was inspired by Hoffman and Company’s efforts to make perfectly round
candies. When they realized that this could not be done, “duds” became part of the candy’s name.
Candy was also sold door-to-door back then. Camp Fire Girls made the rounds each year for their
candy drive, selling their signature mints as well as assorted chocolates, party wafers, and peanut
clusters. The candy drive began in 1950, replacing a doughnut drive, which had begun in 1938. They
switched to mints because they did not go stale as quickly as the doughnuts notoriously did. Each
drive had a theme, such as “Buy one box, buy two, better yet buy a few.” Girls with top sales records
would win merit badges and pins, trips to summer camp, and various girlish delights such as charms,
pillows, and leather patches.
A box of Milk Duds from the 1970s while it was still being manufactured by Chicago’s M. J.
Holloway & Company.
A Camp Fire Girls box of candy from the 1950s featuring a cheerful sales slogan for that
year’s candy drive.
Lesser-known youth groups such as the Salvation Army’s Girl Guard also raised funds with candy,
and if schoolchildren were in the neighborhood during the 1960s or 1970s, it’s likely that some of
them arrived on the doorstep to sell a World’s Finest chocolate almond bar. These candy drives were
typically aimed at affording new band uniforms or athletic gear. In the 1980s, parents became
increasingly uncomfortable allowing their children to go door-to-door, so they took on the sales duties
by bringing the candy bars to work.
In the ensuing decades, dime stores and newsstands vanished, many local candy shops closed, driveins were replaced with real estate developments and multiplexes, and children stopped selling candy
door-to-door. Penny candy has become a nostalgic purchase at specialty stores, and elaborate candy
counters are gone. Brand names continue to narrow down to only the largest and strongest, and older
Americans are left to remember this golden age as a special time of the past.
Custom information pertaining to each fundraising drive appeared on the wrappers of
World’s Finest chocolate bars.
Bags and boxes of M&M’s spanning the 1950s through the 1980s.
CLASSIC CHOCOLATE
A
living in the 1950s through the 1980s enjoyed a wide variety of chocolate candy. They
munched on classics that are still enjoyed today, along with a constantly changing array of
chocolate candy introduced by companies that hoped to win the affections of the American palate and
rise to the top of the industry with the Big Three: Hershey, Mars, and Nestle.
Many of the enduring chocolate candies were introduced in the early part of the twentieth century.
Pennsylvania’s Hershey Chocolate Company introduced their plain milk chocolate Hershey bar in
1900, foil-wrapped conical Hershey kisses in 1907, and the Hershey bar with almonds in 1908. By the
1950s, American consumers had long been accustomed not only to reaching for Hershey bars on store
shelves, but also to setting out bowls of Hershey kisses at parties, cooking with Hershey’s cocoa, and
pouring Hershey’s chocolate syrup on ice cream and into milk.
In 1923, Americans embraced another Hershey offshoot, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, milk
chocolate cupfuls of a sweet peanut butter paste. Harry B. Reese worked for Hershey, but wanted to
start his own candy company using Hershey chocolate. Hershey’s founder, Milton Hershey, gave
Reese his permission; years later, the H. B. Reese Candy Company was sold to Hershey in 1963 after
Harry Reese’s death.
Another Hershey classic, Mr. Goodbar, got off to an unconventional start in 1925. William F. R.
Murrie, Hershey’s longstanding president and general manager, proposed the idea of a chocolate bar
with peanuts, but Milton Hershey was skeptical. He allowed Murrie to test the bar in the market, but
only if the name “Hershey” was not associated with it. Thus, Hershey initially sold Mr. Goodbar under
the alias of the Chocolate Sales Corporation for more than ten years. Mr. Goodbar was a success, and
the alias was dropped in 1937.
In 1938, Hershey introduced Krackel, a milk chocolate bar with crisped rice, to compete with
Nestle’s popular Crunch bar, released a year earlier. Nestle’s lineup also included the Nestle bar,
which, like the Hershey bar, came in plain milk chocolate and with almonds. Nestle was a rival of the
highest pedigree: Henri Nestle, a Swiss chemist, had in fact helped invent milk chocolate in 1875.
Nestle’s neighbor, Daniel Peter, had been struggling for years to find a way to produce milk chocolate
when he asked Nestle for help. When Peter and Nestle combined cocoa powder with Nestle’s
condensed milk, the milk chocolate bar industry was born.
MERICANS
Mr. Goodbar from the late 1930s after Hershey dropped the alias of the Chocolate Sales
Corporation from the wrapper. During the Great Depression, it was marketed as “A Tasty
Lunch.”
In 1899, the people of Fulton, New York, saw the potential of this industry and raised money to
purchase land for a Peter’s Chocolate manufacturing plant. In 1904, Peter’s Chocolate and Nestle
formed an alliance, and Nestle’s domestic production began. Nestle’s chocolate quickly became part
of the everyday American experience, with Nestle’s Quik for chocolate milk and Nestle’s chocolate
chips with their Toll House cookie recipe, an icon of American homemaking from the 1940s onward.
Nestle was not Hershey’s strongest competitor, however; Mars was. Like Milton Hershey, Mars’s
founder, Frank C. Mars, suffered early business setbacks, but in 1923, he had a breakthrough with the
Milky Way bar. Milky Way, with its malt chocolate nougat filling, was unlike anything Hershey had
on the market. Touted as “a chocolate malted milk in a candy bar,” the Milky Way became the number
one candy bar in America.
A 1920s Peter’s Chocolate wrapper produced at the Fulton, New York, plant.
A 1960s Nestle’s Crunch bar with a model car mail-in promotion. Model car kits were
popular with kids during this decade.
Mars released a series of chocolate bars over the next few years: Snickers in 1930, with nougat,
peanuts, and caramel inside; 3 Musketeers in 1932, three chocolate-coated pieces with fluffy
chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry inside; and Forever Yours in 1936, with nougat, caramel, and
almond inside. With this lineup, Mars and Hershey took turns at the top of the sales charts throughout
the decades with Nestle close behind them.
A 1957 Mars bar magazine advertisement was one in a series featuring American kids.
During the golden age, names of candy manufacturers such as Holloway, Luden’s, and
Nabisco were as commonplace at candy counters as Hershey and Mars.
Mars also had a growing business in England, due to Frank Mars’s decision to send his notoriously
ill-tempered son, Forrest, to Europe. Forrest’s company was so successful that he bought his father’s
business in 1960 and combined the two companies.
While in Europe, Forrest Mars saw soldiers in the Spanish Civil War eating small, coated pellets of
chocolate that resisted melting. Forrest thought a similar product could succeed if World War II broke
out. Forrest formed a partnership with William F. R. Murrie’s son, Bruce Murrie, to facilitate the use
of Hershey chocolate in the candy. The result was M&M’s, named after Mars and Murrie. They
introduced plain chocolate M&M’s in 1941, and in 1954, they introduced peanut M&M’s, along with
their plain and peanut candy characters and their famous slogan, “the milk chocolate melts in your
mouth, not in your hand.”
The colors of M&M’s changed over the years. Originally, they were red, brown, yellow, green, and
violet. Peanut M&M’s first only came in tan, but red, yellow, and green were added in 1960. In 1976,
M&M/Mars discontinued the red due to public concerns over the carcinogenic effects of a food
coloring known as “Red Dye #2.” Mars did not use Red Dye #2, but substituted the red for orange to
quell fears.
Urban legends have developed around the colors: green M&M’s were an aphrodisiac, orange
brought good luck, and brown spelled bad luck. If the last M&M in the bag was yellow, one should
stay home sick, and if the last candy in the bag was red, one could make a wish come true.
Mars used its synergistic relationship between Britain and the United States to bring new products
to America in the 1970s. In 1973, Mars introduced the Marathon bar, a long, braided milk chocolate
and caramel bar, similar to Cadbury’s Curly Wurly. Mars discontinued the Marathon bar in 1981, but
it remains a nostalgic favorite.
In 1979, Mars brought the Twix bar to America after having produced it in Britain since 1967. Twix
was cookie-like, with two biscuits topped with caramel and coated with chocolate. Twix PB,
introduced in 1983, replaced the caramel with peanut butter.
Twix’s main competitor was Kit Kat, a chocolate-covered wafer bar brought to America by Hershey
in 1969 through an agreement with Britain’s Rowntree & Company. Nestle acquired Rowntree in
1988, but Hershey retained the rights to distribute Kit Kat (and Rowntree’s chocolate caramel Rolo) in
the United States. In 1986, Hershey advertised Kit Kat with the famously catchy jingle: “Gimme a
break, gimme a break … break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.”
Despite strong new products such as these, the Big Three experienced ups and downs in the 1960s
through the 1980s. Mars failed to impress consumers in 1979 with its Summit bar, two light wafer
bars with peanuts, coated in chocolate. Hershey’s toffee chip-flecked Butter Chip and Rally, a
knockoff of the Curtiss’s Baby Ruth bar, did not enjoy the popularity of Hershey’s core lineup.
Neither did Bar None, a chocolate wafer bar with peanuts that was advertised to “tame the chocolate
beasty” within. In 1978, they released Whatchamacallit, a chocolate peanut butter crisp bar that was
reformulated in 1987, but survived. In 1982, Hersey brought the chocolate toffee Skor bar to America
to compete with the L. S. Heath Company’s popular Heath bar, which Hershey acquired in 1996. In
1989, Hershey had success with the Symphony bar, a bar with creamier chocolate aimed at upper
middle class consumers.
Nestle’s Choco’lite was an aerated, flaky chocolate bar. Although it was a favorite of many in
the 1970s, Nestle discontinued it in the 1980s.
Nestle also faced challenges. They released their $100,000 bar in 1965, but reformulated it and
renamed it the 100 Grand bar in 1985. In 1973, they introduced Choco’lite, a double-whipped
chocolate bar, and in 1987, they introduced the Alpine White Bar with Almonds, but neither bar
endured. In 1984, however, Nestle struck gold by acquiring Raisinets, Goobers, and Sno-Caps, along
with the popular and unusual Chunky bar, a thick square of chocolate, raisins, cashews, and Brazil nuts
from the Ward-Johnson Candy Company.