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The late 1800s and early 1900s were boom years for
confectioners. Boston had Bakers Chocolate,
Pennsylvania had Hershey and Chicago had Cracker
Jack and Juicy Fruit.
Those two famous Chicago-born brands, Cracker Jack
and Wrigley's gum, debuted at the Colombian World's
Fair Exposition in 1893. A few years later, both
products would become forever linked with baseball.
"Buy me some peanuts and Cracker
Jack, I don't care if I never get back! Let me root,
root root for the home team, if they don't win it's
a shame, for its one, two, three strikes you're out,
at the old ball game!"
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I can attest that this 1908 tune by Jack Norworth and
Albert Von Tilzer had some serious legs. Fifty years
later it was still being sung enthusiastically by
elementary-age candy connoisseurs.
The YMCA in our town used to organize day trips in
the summer for youngsters and every season included
at least one bus trip into Chicago to a baseball
game, and another to the Museum of Science and
Industry. The baseball games were probably at Wrigley, probably the Sox,
but to my very nearsighted eyes it didn't matter; I looked out at the
diamond and saw moving blurs in a sea of green.
Singing during the bus ride and popcorn made it worth it. I had zero
awareness of a connection between baseball and the
heavenly taste of an entire pack of Juicy Fruit gum
stuffed in my mouth. It is fun now to
connect the dots. A real
extravaganza was a pack too of Black Jack and another of Cloves or Beemansk,
sometimes, if no adult was paying attention, all stuffed in my mouth at one time.
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The Rueckheim Bros. advertisement
is designed to appeal to candy manufacturers rather
than consumers:
"This Sunlight, Sanitary Candy Productory was
Established in 1872. The Present
Building was Completed in 1910, which is built of
brick, stone and steel. Heavy mill construction
style with hardwood floors. Open space all around.
Light and ventilation perfect. Automatic fire
sprinkler protection in all departments. Vacuum
system, steam heating and lighted by 1,852 lights.
Pure sparkling water from two artesian wells and
thoroughly equipped with modern and special
machinery driven by 80 electric motors. Eight long
distance and 50 office and factory telephones. The
floor space of the buildings equals seven acres.
High-class modern buildings where pure wholesome
confections are made."
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