And the man behind the brand is...
Wallace Amos
According to Wallace Amos he was sitting in his friend Marvin Gaye's office talking to his secretary while they munched on some of his homemade chocolate chip cookies. At the same time Amos was chewing on his future in the entertainment business. "Why don't we go into business together selling your chocolate chip cookies?" she suggested. And the first celebrity cookies were born.
Wallace Amos was born to illiterate parents in a black ghetto of Tallahassee in 1936. In 1948 his parents divorced and Wallace and his mother went to Orlando where he stayed only a short time before going to live with his aunt in New York City.
Amos worked part-time through school while dodging street gangs. When a school recruiter told him that "cooks make a lot of money" Amos enrolled in Food Trades Vocational High School. He was assigned to the pantry at the Essex House but became discouraged at only making desserts and dropped out of school.
For the first time Amos drifted. He gambled away his aunt's utility payments and lived on the streets. When he finally returned home the 17-year old Amos convinced his aunt to sign papers allowing him to join the Air Corps where he learned to repair radar and radio equipment.
After his tour of duty Amos came back to New York and worked as a stock clerk at Saks while attending the Collegiate Secretarial Institute. Working hard, he was promoted to an executive position at Saks and was sent to New York University to take retailing courses. Amos found math so troublesome he quit rather than try to be a buyer. He was 25 years old.
Amos next landed a job in the mail room at the William Morris Talent Agency and filling in as a substitute secretary. Again he worked hard and was promoted to become the first black agent at William Morris. Amos found success booking musical acts including the Supremes, the Temptations and Simon and Garfunkel.
By 1967 Amos felt burned out and out of touch with the coming of acid rock in the music business. But more importantly he felt he had gone as far as he could go as a black man at William Morris. He left to manage trumpeter Hugh Maskela but the relationship ended quickly. Amos had bounced from one entertainment job to another when he went to see his friend Gaye.
Amos thought it was a terrific idea to sell cookies but he didn't have any money. He turned to his friends in the entertainment industry. Helen Reddy pledged $10,000 if he found other investors. Herb Alpert chipped in $5,000 and Marvin Gaye clinched the venture with another $10,000. The pivotal secretary suggested the name "Famous Amos" and he called his product the "superstar of cookies."
Amos set up shop at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Formosa Avenue,
a most unsavory location. Next door was the Exotica School of Message emblazoned with the sign screaming "Sindy's Nude, Nude, Nude Girls, Girls, Girls." Across the street was the American School of Hypnosis.
Wallace Amos was a natural showman. He donned a white Panama hat and set out to make his store opening a true Hollywood happening. He sent out 2500 invitations. Over 1500 showed up, including many celebrities who sipped champagne and enjoyed a strolling Dixieland band.
He promoted cookies like rock stars. When celebrities enjoyed his cookies he made certain the Los Angeles papers wrote about it. A friend took some cookies to Bloomingdale's in New York and they agreed to carry the "jet-set cookies."
So did Nieman-Marcus. Amos set up a factory in New Jersey to help meet demand.
In 1977 he left Bloomingdale's for the basement at Macy's with the proviso he could appear in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. For four years Amos marched in front of 20 million viewers becoming a media star himself. By 1979 his factories were baking over three tons of homemade cookies every day. His first store was featured on the Grayline Sightseeing Bus Tour of Hollywood.
As the company grew Amos became less involved in the mundane everyday operations. He moved to Hawaii, further removing himself from the demands of the business. He neglected to franchise the stores, owning only eight.
Other competitors bit into the gourmet cookie market and by 1985 Amos
had to sell all but 8% of the company to private investors.
Amos was not troubled by his shift in fortunes. "I started the cookie business just to make a living and that's still all I'm concerned with," he said. Although not running the business he was still a popular spokesman for Famous Amos and an important campaigner for the literacy Volunteers of America. When the Smithsonian Institute displayed a Business Americana Collection they asked for Amos' trademark embroidered shirt and Panama hat. His was the first food company and he was the first black businessman to be represented.
Showing posts with label Snack and Dessert Brands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snack and Dessert Brands. Show all posts
February 12, 2007
February 7, 2007
Lay's
And the man behind the brand is...
Herman Lay
Herman Lay’s business career started in 1919 when he was 10 years old. He opened a soft drink stand in his front yard in Greenville, South Carolina. Location is everything and the Lay home was opposite the town ball park. Business was so good Herman opened a bank account, bought a bicycle and hired assistants to tend the stand.
His business career was interrupted by schooling. Herman attended Furman University on an athletic scholarship but dropped out after two years, anxious to resume selling. Lay worked at a succession of jobs before setting up as an independent snack food distributor in Nashville in 1932.
By the end of the decade Lay was able to buy a financially ailing snack food manufacturer in Atlanta. He renamed the company H.W. Lay & Company and made Lay’s Potato Chips the star of his line. Over the next two decades Lay’s potato chips became the most asked-for brand in the South. There were no national brands of potato chips at the time but Lay was about to change that.
He merged his company with the Frito Company of Dallas in 1961 to form Frito-Lay. As board chairman of the new company he advertised extensively and Lay’s Potato Chips were soon on grocery shelves across America next to regional brands. In 1965 he negotiated another merger with the Pepsi-Cola Company to form the massive conglomerate Pepsi-Co. In his role as chairman Lay pushed the company into many new product lines.
Although sitting at the pinnacle of corporate America Lay was an active advocate of entrepreneurship. He spoke frequently promoting entrepreneurship and endowed chairs at several colleges to encourage young people to go into business for themselves. When he retired from Pepsico in 1980 he heeded his own advice.
As soon as he departed the corporate world Lay began starting new businesses. He set up several family corporations engaged in real estate and oil and gas exploration. When cancer caught up with him in 1982 Lay was still starting businesses; echoing his early career he had just returned to the food business with the launching of State Fair Foods, a manufacturer of frozen foods.
Herman Lay
Herman Lay’s business career started in 1919 when he was 10 years old. He opened a soft drink stand in his front yard in Greenville, South Carolina. Location is everything and the Lay home was opposite the town ball park. Business was so good Herman opened a bank account, bought a bicycle and hired assistants to tend the stand.
His business career was interrupted by schooling. Herman attended Furman University on an athletic scholarship but dropped out after two years, anxious to resume selling. Lay worked at a succession of jobs before setting up as an independent snack food distributor in Nashville in 1932.
By the end of the decade Lay was able to buy a financially ailing snack food manufacturer in Atlanta. He renamed the company H.W. Lay & Company and made Lay’s Potato Chips the star of his line. Over the next two decades Lay’s potato chips became the most asked-for brand in the South. There were no national brands of potato chips at the time but Lay was about to change that.
He merged his company with the Frito Company of Dallas in 1961 to form Frito-Lay. As board chairman of the new company he advertised extensively and Lay’s Potato Chips were soon on grocery shelves across America next to regional brands. In 1965 he negotiated another merger with the Pepsi-Cola Company to form the massive conglomerate Pepsi-Co. In his role as chairman Lay pushed the company into many new product lines.
Although sitting at the pinnacle of corporate America Lay was an active advocate of entrepreneurship. He spoke frequently promoting entrepreneurship and endowed chairs at several colleges to encourage young people to go into business for themselves. When he retired from Pepsico in 1980 he heeded his own advice.
As soon as he departed the corporate world Lay began starting new businesses. He set up several family corporations engaged in real estate and oil and gas exploration. When cancer caught up with him in 1982 Lay was still starting businesses; echoing his early career he had just returned to the food business with the launching of State Fair Foods, a manufacturer of frozen foods.
Lance
And the man behind the brand is...
P.L. Lance
P.L. Lance always tried to look out for his customers while operating his food brokerage business in Charlotte, North Carolina. Although he dealt primarily in coffee from time to time Lance was asked to obtain peanuts for his customers.
On one such occasion he obtained an order for 500 pounds of peanuts only to have the customer turn down the order at time of delivery. Rather than back down on his bargain with the farmer from whom he obtained the peanuts he decided to roast the goobers in his own kitchen and sell them in small bags on downtown streets.
It was 1913 and, after much deliberation, Lance decided to roast peanuts, make peanut butter and deliver to Charlotte merchants to promote the use of this nourishing food. With $60 to start he installed a peanut roaster and peanut butter mill on the 2nd floor of a downtown building. He called his new venture the Lance Packing Company because the partners actually packed the peanut butter into containers.
The product line expanded in unconventional ways. It was Mrs. Lance who came up with the idea for the company's famous peanut butter cracker sandwich, believed to be the first such combination sandwich ever offered for sale. A soldier at nearby Camp Greene offered the Lances a recipe for peanut brittle and it became a big seller.
Lance products were offered by mail and soon Lance was the largest parcel post business in North Carolina. P.L. Lance died in an automobile accident in 1926 when the company was still mainly a candy manufacturer and peanut processor. The big shift in product line took place during World War II when Lance decided its sugar allotment would go further in crackers than candies. Production shifted to the 5¢ peanut butter sandwich, the staple of the Lance line today.
P.L. Lance
P.L. Lance always tried to look out for his customers while operating his food brokerage business in Charlotte, North Carolina. Although he dealt primarily in coffee from time to time Lance was asked to obtain peanuts for his customers.
On one such occasion he obtained an order for 500 pounds of peanuts only to have the customer turn down the order at time of delivery. Rather than back down on his bargain with the farmer from whom he obtained the peanuts he decided to roast the goobers in his own kitchen and sell them in small bags on downtown streets.
It was 1913 and, after much deliberation, Lance decided to roast peanuts, make peanut butter and deliver to Charlotte merchants to promote the use of this nourishing food. With $60 to start he installed a peanut roaster and peanut butter mill on the 2nd floor of a downtown building. He called his new venture the Lance Packing Company because the partners actually packed the peanut butter into containers.
The product line expanded in unconventional ways. It was Mrs. Lance who came up with the idea for the company's famous peanut butter cracker sandwich, believed to be the first such combination sandwich ever offered for sale. A soldier at nearby Camp Greene offered the Lances a recipe for peanut brittle and it became a big seller.
Lance products were offered by mail and soon Lance was the largest parcel post business in North Carolina. P.L. Lance died in an automobile accident in 1926 when the company was still mainly a candy manufacturer and peanut processor. The big shift in product line took place during World War II when Lance decided its sugar allotment would go further in crackers than candies. Production shifted to the 5¢ peanut butter sandwich, the staple of the Lance line today.
Keebler
And the man behind the brand is...
Godfrey Keebler
Godfrey Keebler opened a small bake shop in Philadelphia in 1853. Around the neighborhood word got out that Keebler was baking the best cookies and crackers in the area. At the time there was no way to expand a bakery business, no matter how good; the available transportation just didn’t allow it. All around the country fine local bakeries like Keebler’s proliferated.
As horses and buggies gave way to automobiles and trucks, fresh baked goods could be delivered in a wider area than the neighborhood; distribution expanded to a regional level. Owners of local bakeries realized that certain advantages, such as purchasing economies and pooled transportation, could be derived by banding together into a business federation.
In 1927 the Keebler family bakery, now passed down from Godfrey, joined a consortium of bakeries to form the United Biscuit Company. The network eventually marketed cookies and crackers in every state east of California under a wide variety of brand names. In 1966 the company decided to operate under a single name. Of all the existing names “Keebler” was judged to be the most sound and memorable. The Keebler elves, created by a Chicago advertising firm in 1968, have made Keebler one of the most recognizable names in America.
Today Keebler is America’s second largest producer of cookies and crackers in bakeries across the country. None, however, operates in Godfrey Keebler’s hometown of Philadelphia.
Godfrey Keebler
Godfrey Keebler opened a small bake shop in Philadelphia in 1853. Around the neighborhood word got out that Keebler was baking the best cookies and crackers in the area. At the time there was no way to expand a bakery business, no matter how good; the available transportation just didn’t allow it. All around the country fine local bakeries like Keebler’s proliferated.
As horses and buggies gave way to automobiles and trucks, fresh baked goods could be delivered in a wider area than the neighborhood; distribution expanded to a regional level. Owners of local bakeries realized that certain advantages, such as purchasing economies and pooled transportation, could be derived by banding together into a business federation.
In 1927 the Keebler family bakery, now passed down from Godfrey, joined a consortium of bakeries to form the United Biscuit Company. The network eventually marketed cookies and crackers in every state east of California under a wide variety of brand names. In 1966 the company decided to operate under a single name. Of all the existing names “Keebler” was judged to be the most sound and memorable. The Keebler elves, created by a Chicago advertising firm in 1968, have made Keebler one of the most recognizable names in America.
Today Keebler is America’s second largest producer of cookies and crackers in bakeries across the country. None, however, operates in Godfrey Keebler’s hometown of Philadelphia.
Harry and David
And the men behind the brand are...
Harry and David Holmes
If one were to list the types of businesses best suited to withstand the Great Depression of the 1930s selling fancy pears would not be on the first page, or likely any page. Harry and David Holmes, both Ivy League-educated, did not need to have their bleak prospects pointed out to them.
Harry, born in 1890, and David, born a year later had returned to Oregon from Cornell in 1914 to take over the family pear orchard in Medford. The star of the orchard was a giant DuComice pear that was served at elegant tables in New York and Europe. The brothers built a steady and reliable income from their pear business, which was threatened directly when the Stock Market crashed in 1929.
Desperate for anything to save the orchard the brothers decided to try and sell gift boxes of fruit by mail. At the suggestion of an advertising friend, G. Lynn Sumner, Harry and David prepared 15 sample packages and sent them by special messenger to some of the most powerful corporate leaders in New York City. An hour later the brothers had their first order; it was from Walter Chrysler. The 15 sample fruit boxes pulled in a total of 467 orders.
Harry and David Holmes were in the mail order fruit business, battling the local produce stand. In their first year they sold 6,000 gift boxes and the next year another 15,000. In 1937 Harry and David founded the Fruit-of-the-Month Club. Each of the millions of catalogs they mailed featured the brothers’ images, clad in a friendly plaid shirt. By the time they died in the 1950s Harry and David were more recognizable to most Americans than their local greengrocer.
Harry and David Holmes
If one were to list the types of businesses best suited to withstand the Great Depression of the 1930s selling fancy pears would not be on the first page, or likely any page. Harry and David Holmes, both Ivy League-educated, did not need to have their bleak prospects pointed out to them.
Harry, born in 1890, and David, born a year later had returned to Oregon from Cornell in 1914 to take over the family pear orchard in Medford. The star of the orchard was a giant DuComice pear that was served at elegant tables in New York and Europe. The brothers built a steady and reliable income from their pear business, which was threatened directly when the Stock Market crashed in 1929.
Desperate for anything to save the orchard the brothers decided to try and sell gift boxes of fruit by mail. At the suggestion of an advertising friend, G. Lynn Sumner, Harry and David prepared 15 sample packages and sent them by special messenger to some of the most powerful corporate leaders in New York City. An hour later the brothers had their first order; it was from Walter Chrysler. The 15 sample fruit boxes pulled in a total of 467 orders.
Harry and David Holmes were in the mail order fruit business, battling the local produce stand. In their first year they sold 6,000 gift boxes and the next year another 15,000. In 1937 Harry and David founded the Fruit-of-the-Month Club. Each of the millions of catalogs they mailed featured the brothers’ images, clad in a friendly plaid shirt. By the time they died in the 1950s Harry and David were more recognizable to most Americans than their local greengrocer.
Drake's
And the man behind the brand is...
Newman Drake
There was nothing in Newman Drake's background that indicated he would have a successful career as a baker. Drake left school in 1873 at 13 and gained employment as a ship's cabin boy and later a carpenter. He worked as a repairman on the Lackawanna Railroad. And now, in 1896, after eight years of preparation in his chosen craft, his first day sales of $3.24 did not bode well for his baking future.
In 1888 Drake was travelling in England selling biscuit machinery when he discovered a fast-selling, mass-produced pound cake called a "slab cake." Grocers would slice slabs of the ready-made cake for customers who didn't feel like home-baking. In America wholesale baking of biscuits was common but cakes were still the exclusive province of daily bakeries and home kitchens.
Drake returned to the United States and set about developing a recipe for wholesale baking of pound cakes and arranging financing. He invented the machinery necessary to mass produce cake. A friend helped construct a bakery in Harlem and Drake's first cakes were ready for sale in 1896. He hired a salesman who reported back with the $3.24 and a disheartening message that delicatessens and groceries were not ready to accept mass-produced cakes.
Drake began extensive missionary work on behalf of his pound cake. He personally visited hundreds of retailers explaining how the slab cakes sold in England. His one consolation was that there was no competition. Slowly his slab cakes gained acceptance among retailers.
In 1899 the emerging colossus of the National Biscuit Company purchased the Drake Baking Company and appointed Newman Drake as manager. But Drake had just begun to taste the success of independent enterprise. He left in 1900 to form the Drake Brothers Company with his brother Charles, who had left the Drake Baking Company in its early days to sell jams and preserves.
The Drake brothers began with $5000 and five horse-and-wagon delivery vehicles. Newman Drake had conquered the skepticism of retailers and now tackled the doubts of housewives. He reduced the portions of his recipes so housewives could replicate his "Pure Food" cakes and compare them with their own.
The strategy worked and sales gradually grew to surpass one million dollars annually by 1913. Wax paper was developed during World War I which enabled Drake to individually package his cakes. Popular Drake coffee cakes were introduced in 1916 and sales surged further.
By the early 1920s Drake's health began to fail and he sought more time for his avocations of travel and hunting. He sold the company in 1924 while remaining as Chairman of the Board in the new organization. Drake spent the remaining years of his life near his birthplace of Andover, New Jersey devoting his resources to Sussex County. He donated a park and erected the town's first movie house. He often had deliveries made to fill coal bins of poor families throughout the area without explanation.
Newman Drake died in 1930 at the age of 70. Drake's was ultimately acquired by Borden's in 1946 and the last family member left the original cake and pie company in 1954.
Newman Drake
There was nothing in Newman Drake's background that indicated he would have a successful career as a baker. Drake left school in 1873 at 13 and gained employment as a ship's cabin boy and later a carpenter. He worked as a repairman on the Lackawanna Railroad. And now, in 1896, after eight years of preparation in his chosen craft, his first day sales of $3.24 did not bode well for his baking future.
In 1888 Drake was travelling in England selling biscuit machinery when he discovered a fast-selling, mass-produced pound cake called a "slab cake." Grocers would slice slabs of the ready-made cake for customers who didn't feel like home-baking. In America wholesale baking of biscuits was common but cakes were still the exclusive province of daily bakeries and home kitchens.
Drake returned to the United States and set about developing a recipe for wholesale baking of pound cakes and arranging financing. He invented the machinery necessary to mass produce cake. A friend helped construct a bakery in Harlem and Drake's first cakes were ready for sale in 1896. He hired a salesman who reported back with the $3.24 and a disheartening message that delicatessens and groceries were not ready to accept mass-produced cakes.
Drake began extensive missionary work on behalf of his pound cake. He personally visited hundreds of retailers explaining how the slab cakes sold in England. His one consolation was that there was no competition. Slowly his slab cakes gained acceptance among retailers.
In 1899 the emerging colossus of the National Biscuit Company purchased the Drake Baking Company and appointed Newman Drake as manager. But Drake had just begun to taste the success of independent enterprise. He left in 1900 to form the Drake Brothers Company with his brother Charles, who had left the Drake Baking Company in its early days to sell jams and preserves.
The Drake brothers began with $5000 and five horse-and-wagon delivery vehicles. Newman Drake had conquered the skepticism of retailers and now tackled the doubts of housewives. He reduced the portions of his recipes so housewives could replicate his "Pure Food" cakes and compare them with their own.
The strategy worked and sales gradually grew to surpass one million dollars annually by 1913. Wax paper was developed during World War I which enabled Drake to individually package his cakes. Popular Drake coffee cakes were introduced in 1916 and sales surged further.
By the early 1920s Drake's health began to fail and he sought more time for his avocations of travel and hunting. He sold the company in 1924 while remaining as Chairman of the Board in the new organization. Drake spent the remaining years of his life near his birthplace of Andover, New Jersey devoting his resources to Sussex County. He donated a park and erected the town's first movie house. He often had deliveries made to fill coal bins of poor families throughout the area without explanation.
Newman Drake died in 1930 at the age of 70. Drake's was ultimately acquired by Borden's in 1946 and the last family member left the original cake and pie company in 1954.
Breyer's
And the man behind the brand is...
William Breyer
Ice cream was known in colonial times; Dolly Madison introduced it to the White House in the early 1800s. But it was troublesome to make and rarely seen on American tables in that time. The first improvement in the manufacture of ice cream was Nancy Johnson’s hand-cranked freezer in 1846.
After the Civil War in 1866 William Breyer took a hand-cranked freezer and made his first ice cream. Breyer used rich cream, cane sugar, fruits and nuts to make his frozen treats. He loaded his wagon and hawked his ice cream to his neighbors on the streets of North Philadelphia. Breyer called his customers out of their homes with a dinner bell. That first year he sold 1,000 gallons of homemade ice cream.
Philadelphia was America’s ice cream capital. Philadelphians enjoyed more ice cream than anyone in its famous public ice cream houses. A frozen concoction of vanilla-and-egg earned the moniker “Philadelphia” and was wildly popular. Amidst such competition William Breyer could afford to make his ice cream from only the freshest natural ingredients.
In 1882 Breyer had sold enough ice cream to move his trade off the Philadelphia cobblestones and into his own retail ice cream store. A manufacturing area was in the back of the shop and a soda fountain out front. It was his last contribution to the firm; he died later that year.
William Breyer was able to survive in the carnivorous ice cream business only by using the purest, highest quality ingredients obtainable. Aware of the legacy entrusted in him when Henry Breyer took over the business in 1882 he wrote a “pledge of purity” that continues to adorn every Breyers ice cream carton today. Breyers, which is America’s largest selling ice cream, still blends it ice cream with the same basic formula William Breyer used in his kitchen in 1866.
William Breyer
Ice cream was known in colonial times; Dolly Madison introduced it to the White House in the early 1800s. But it was troublesome to make and rarely seen on American tables in that time. The first improvement in the manufacture of ice cream was Nancy Johnson’s hand-cranked freezer in 1846.
After the Civil War in 1866 William Breyer took a hand-cranked freezer and made his first ice cream. Breyer used rich cream, cane sugar, fruits and nuts to make his frozen treats. He loaded his wagon and hawked his ice cream to his neighbors on the streets of North Philadelphia. Breyer called his customers out of their homes with a dinner bell. That first year he sold 1,000 gallons of homemade ice cream.
Philadelphia was America’s ice cream capital. Philadelphians enjoyed more ice cream than anyone in its famous public ice cream houses. A frozen concoction of vanilla-and-egg earned the moniker “Philadelphia” and was wildly popular. Amidst such competition William Breyer could afford to make his ice cream from only the freshest natural ingredients.
In 1882 Breyer had sold enough ice cream to move his trade off the Philadelphia cobblestones and into his own retail ice cream store. A manufacturing area was in the back of the shop and a soda fountain out front. It was his last contribution to the firm; he died later that year.
William Breyer was able to survive in the carnivorous ice cream business only by using the purest, highest quality ingredients obtainable. Aware of the legacy entrusted in him when Henry Breyer took over the business in 1882 he wrote a “pledge of purity” that continues to adorn every Breyers ice cream carton today. Breyers, which is America’s largest selling ice cream, still blends it ice cream with the same basic formula William Breyer used in his kitchen in 1866.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
