Curtiss Candy Company

Box of Curtiss' Baby Ruth candy bars at General Store in Portsmouth, North Carolina.

The Curtiss Candy Company was founded in 1916 by Otto Schnering near Chicago, Illinois. Wanting a more "American-sounding" name (due to anti-German sentiment during World War I), Schnering named his company using his mother's maiden name.

Their first confectionery item was Kandy Kake, later refashioned in 1920 as the log-shaped Baby Ruth.[1] Their second confectionery item was the chocolate-covered peanut butter crunch Butterfinger, which was introduced in 1926.[2] In 1931, Curtiss marketed the brand by sponsoring famous air racer, John H. Livingston, in the Baby Ruth Aerobatic Team flying the air-racer Howard "Mike" at airshows, and sponsoring Livingston's Monocoupe racer in the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race.[3][4] The Jolly Jack candy was included in army rations during World War II.[5]

In 1964, Standard Brands purchased Curtiss Candy Company. Standard Brands merged with Nabisco in 1981. In 1990, RJR Nabisco sold the Curtiss brands to Nestlé.

The Baby Ruth / Butterfinger factory, built in the 1960s, is located at 3401 Mt. Prospect Rd. in Franklin Park, Illinois. Interstate 294 curves eastward around the plant, where a prominent, rotating sign, resembling a gigantic candy bar, is seen. It originally read "Curtiss Baby Ruth" on one side and "Curtiss Butterfinger" on the other. It was changed to read "Nestlé" following the acquisition.

A "Curtiss Baby Ruth" sign was on an apartment building across from Wrigley Field for several decades.[6][7] Wrigley and the Curtiss plant are both on Addison Street, although more than 10 miles apart.

References

  1. ↑ Smith, A.F. (2012). Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat. Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of what We Love to Eat. ABC-CLIO. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-0-313-39393-8. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  2. ↑ Batchelor, B. (2008). American Pop: Popular Culture Decade by Decade. Non-Series. ABC-CLIO. p. 311. ISBN 978-0-313-36411-2. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  3. ↑ Dennis Hoffman. "Winged Passion Iowa Aviation Legends". The Iowan.
  4. ↑ Sport Aviation. April 1959.
  5. ↑ Chmelik, Samantha. "Otto Y. Schnering." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 4, edited by Jeffrey Fear. German Historical Institute. Last modified April 04, 2013.
  6. ↑ Johnson, S. (2008). Chicago Cubs Yesterday & Today. MVP Books. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-7603-3246-7. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  7. ↑ Wrigley Field. Potomac Books. 2006. p. 254. ISBN 978-1-61234-411-9. Retrieved October 29, 2017.

Further reading

  • The Great American Candy Bar Book ( ISBN 0-395-32502-1)
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