Baby Ruth and Paul Tibbits

Back in August of 2010, I put up a post of a billhead which referred to a sale of Baby Ruth Candy Bars which I obtained from a Michael Popek of Forgotten Bookmarks via SusanE at This Old Paper. It was great fun to put together that post (and the image), primarily because I was to learn a great deal about the way that the candy was merchandised across the country.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was THE Gravy Train for a fellow by the name of Otto Y. Schnering, who not only knew how to make a good candy bar, he also knew how to promote it.

In 1926, Otto hired a barnstorming air racer by the name of Doug Davis to spread Baby Ruth candy bars far and wide - from the air. Davis had three Waco airplanes and two former military pilots with which he was barnstorming the Southern states and he called it the Davis Flying Circus. It was quickly turned into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus. Check the link above for more information about what became a sensation from the skies when Davis started dropping Baby Ruth candy bars tied to rice paper parachutes - in over forty states across the United States.

Even more interesting than the Baby Ruth Flying Circus is the story of Paul Tibbits, who garnered a ride in Davis' Waco to serve as the bombadier for one of the Candy Drops in Florida in 1927.

Paul Tibbets was born in 1915 to Enola Gay and Paul Warfield Tibbets in Quincy, Illinois. In 1924, the Tibbets family moved to Florida. Paul was nine. On a warm summer day in 1927, barnstorming pilot Doug Davis, let twelve-year old Paul ride in his Waco 9 airplane and toss Baby Ruth candy bars to the crowds at Hialeah racetrack and Miami Beach. Tibbets always traced his interest in aviation to that day.

Do you recognize the name of Paul's mother?  On August 6th, 1945, Paul Tibbits flew the B-29 he named the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan, and will be forever remembered in history books, as will his mother.

I've done the Curtiss Baby Ruth airplane twice before, and with this one I'll put the plane in the hanger. My art probably doesn't make you want to go buy a Baby Ruth, but you'll perhaps think of my art the next time you pay 75 cents for a nickel candy bar!

The Parrot Talked - and Walked! PFF #54

Back in November of last year, I posted an image of a Parrot Confectionery receipt - with an image of a  Poll-Parrot Shoes bookmark with which I had "enhanced" the old paper. This Parrot wasn't eating peanuts in my room at the Western Heritage Artists show the middle of March. It flew the coop like the little guy in the return address.

This is the Thank you I sent to a couple of folks who now have Breakfast Brownie Doughgirl and The Walkin' Talkin'  Good Tastin' Chocolate Bookmark.

I'm also in the game today for Postcard Friendly Friday, my 54th. If you like to look at mail art, hop on over to Beth Niquette's The Best Hearts Are Crunchy where she plays hostess for the day.

Neon Cupcake PFF #40

A tasty celebration

For the past week, I've been alternating between doing First Day Covers, my first of the year, and a new fruit jar that I've been working on since the first of the year. I can't seem to stay away from it, although I know I need to be doing the covers just to support my old paper habit if nothing else.

I worked on a neon sign for the new Neon Celebrate Forever stamp, but to do the neon proper, it really takes a stark, very dark background to properly display it in all of its brilliance - fully lit. After four days of struggling with it, I came up with what you see. A small little celebration with neon sprinkles, which I promptly ate after I took a few photographs. Yum.

Be sure you stop by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more delectable delights of the Eye Candy variety. You won't be disappointed as she hosts another Postcard Friendly Friday.

Baby Ruth Flies Again

Back in August of last year, I put up a post of a billhead which referred to a sale of Baby Ruth Candy Bars which I obtained from a Michael Popek of Forgotten Bookmarks via SusanE at This Old Paper. It was great fun to put together that post (and the image), primarily because I was to learn a great deal about the way that the candy was merchandised across the country.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was THE Gravy Train for a fellow by the name of Otto Y. Schnering, who not only knew how to make a good candy bar, he also knew how to promote it.

In 1926, Otto hired a barnstorming air racer by the name of Doug Davis to spread Baby Ruth candy bars far and wide - from the air. Davis had three Waco airplanes and two former military pilots with which he was barnstorming the Southern states and he called it the Davis Flying Circus. It was quickly turned into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus. Check the link above for more information about what became a sensation from the skies when Davis started dropping Baby Ruth candy bars tied to rice paper parachutes - in over forty states across the United States. The second image I've posted above is from a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, newspaper advertisement announcing a Candy Drop over that city.

Even more interesting than the Baby Ruth Flying Circus is the story of Paul Tibbits, who garnered a ride in Davis' Waco to serve as the bombadier for one of the Candy Drops in Florida in 1927.

Paul Tibbets was born in 1915 to Enola Gay and Paul Warfield Tibbets in Quincy, Illinois. In 1924, the Tibbets family moved to Florida. Paul was nine. On a warm summer day in 1927, barnstorming pilot Doug Davis, let twelve-year old Paul ride in his Waco 9 airplane and toss Baby Ruth candy bars to the crowds at Hialeah racetrack and Miami Beach. Tibbets always traced his interest in aviation to that day.

Do you recognize the name of Paul's mother?  Sixty-five years ago last August, Paul Tibbits flew the B-29 Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan, and will be forever remembered in history books, as will his mother.

I acquired the Curtiss Candy Company billhead several months ago, and I decided to do something about putting another Baby Ruth airplane on it. My art probably doesn't make you want to go buy a Baby Ruth, but you'll perhaps think of my art the next time you pay 75 cents for a nickel candy bar!

Baby Ruth From Above

Way back in December, I got a very nice email from Susan E at This Old Paper. Actually, the email was a note telling me that I ought to look at her current post, which I quickly did. It was a HUGE Welcome to Me, combining our mutual fascination with old paper with a fresh idea for some art work on a 'bookmark' of sorts. She provided a link to the Forgotten Bookmarks site, which I had already been following on an almost daily basis. Her suggestion was that it would be really neat if I combined an old ad for Baby Ruth with the old billhead that Michael Popek at Forgotten Bookmarks had found in "The Quarterly Illustrator, Vol. 1 No.4" published in 1893. The line items listed were for one box (120) of Baby Ruth and one box (120) of Butterfinger candy bars. The title for his post on this special find was Someone's Got the Munchies.

To come to the point, I contacted Michael at Forgotten Bookmarks and although I offered to pay for it, he told me he would GIVE me the billhead - and he did.

That was over six months ago. I pulled the piece out of my ever-bulging binder several weeks ago, and although I tried every conceivable layout for the ad that Susan E had suggested, there was just no way I was going to fit that ad on this piece of old paper. So...

I started doing more than just a little research.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was THE Gravy Train for a fellow by the name of Otto Y. Schnering, who not only knew how to make a good candy bar, he also knew how to promote it.

In 1926, Otto hired a barnstorming air racer by the name of Doug Davis to spread Baby Ruth candy bars far and wide - from the air. Davis had three Waco airplanes and two former military pilots with which he was barnstorming the Southern states and he called it the Davis Flying Circus. It was quickly turned into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus. Check the link above for more information about what became a sensation from the skies when Davis started dropping Baby Ruth candy bars tied to rice paper parachutes - in over forty states across the United States.

But I digress. I started looking for images that could be of use to me for a piece of paper about half the size of a regular piece of letterhead. I've include the image of an advertisement for a store in Milwaukee promoting a Rain of Baby Ruth candy bars. I knew I was close, but the image was just not clean enough to do the paper up right, so I continued looking for Baby Ruth airplanes until I found one I could use. What you see is what you get! My art probably doesn't make you want to go buy a Baby Ruth, but you'll perhaps think of my art the next time you pay 75 cents for a nickel candy bar!

La Belle Chocolatière - Again

This one is a little larger than the last, and consequently a little finer. And I know from experience doing the covers that the second time I do an image I'm always happier with the results.

I obtained the image for this rendition from Susan E at This Old Paper, and I'll continue to link to her blog as often as I use this image. I've several more bill heads that have Baker's Chocolate as line items, so this won't be the last.

The paper itself is a bill head for C. W. Rank & Company, a general store in historic Virginia City, Montana. There are a number of interesting line items on this bill head including Fruit of Paradise, which this confectioner did not make. Fruit of Paradise was (and still is) made by the Startup Candy Company of Provo, Utah.

Excuse me while I go make myself some hot chocolate.

La Belle Chocolatière

Or ---- Baker's Chocolate Lady to those who are familiar with one of the first commercial advertising images to be used in the United States. But I digress - I'll begin with the paper.

I looked at a lot of paper last week, most of it was local and none of it was later than 1900. That's right - it was all earlier than 1900. The only problem with paper that's this old is coming up with advertising images which are appropriate for the time period.

I only found one piece of Confectionery paper, and it's dated February 16, 1881. Montana was not a state, but Helena had a Candy Factory! I have yet to determine where in Helena the Montana Candy Factory was located, and I also have yet to determine where J. H. McKnight & Company was located, but I do note that whomever the Candy Factory employee was that sold this candy states on the bottom of the bill head that he "Will send by Gov Team". Apparently, it took men with weapons to deliver your candy in 1881!

In 1760, Jean Ettiene Liotard did a pastel entitled "La Belle Chocolatière". Liotard's model for the pastel was Anna Baltauf, the poor (literally) daughter of a Viennese knight and a chocolate server, who later married Austrian Prince Ditrichstein. The Prince fell in love with Anna one day when he chanced to go in a House of Chocolate shoppe. He later married her and had the pastel commissioned.

In 1852, Walter Baker, the man who founded Baker's Chocolate died and left the business in his will to his brother-in-law Sidney B. Williams and a nephew, Henry L. Pierce. Under the management of Williams and Pierce, Walter Baker & Company, grew into a large chocolate business near Dorchester, Massachusetts.

In 1881, while traveling in Europe, Henry Pierce saw the pastel of La Belle Chocolatiere in a gallery in Dresden, Germany. Immediately, he decided to adopt "this chocolate server" as the trademark for Walter Baker's.

I have a number of bill heads from after the turn of the century which list Baker's Chocolate as a line item, and I intend to portray the Baker's Chocolate Lady on more than one of them. This paper was in such good shape that I simply couldn't resist doing this one as a first effort.

I obtained the image for this rendition from Susan E at This Old Paper, and she's getting a Thank You as soon as I'm through posting this.

CHOCOLATE Fishes

Wow. Wait 'til you hook this one.

This is a letter to Mr. Lundeen of the Mercantile in Fort Peck, Montana, inquiring whether or not he was aware of just how expensive it was to ship FRESH Dolly Varden Trout - from Seattle to Fort Peck - in 1937.

Have you ever heard of Swedish Fish? Have you ever heard of Dolly Varden Chocolates? Consider yourself duly educated.

I of course, went looking for Dolly Varden using Google Images, and guess what I found? A 1928 GMC delivery van with Dolly Varden Chocolate advertising on the side of it. And I'm not talking about "When Words Fail"...

Here's the sales slogan: "Chocolate Creams for the Girl of Your Dreams".

Now you get mine: "Chocolate Fishes for the Girl of Your Wishes".

What do you think? Would you buy a box of Chocolate Fishes from me?

After contemplating this one overnight, I remembered a post that Chuck Pefley had done a few weeks back about a chocolate shop on Pioneer Square. Now I just revisited that post, and what do I find but a whole school of picture perfect Sardines!

I now direct you to the Chocolate Box for Poissons de Chocolat and other fine Chocolate goodies. I will no longer attempt to sell you Chocolate Fishes.

STARTUP With A COKE!

The Startup Candy Company has been in business in Provo, Utah, since 1875. The company is listed in Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the very first candy company to make a filled chocolate candy bar in America. The Startup family still makes that filled candy bar, called the Opera Bar, and still uses some of the same molds and equipment as they did when the company went into business. They were also an early distributor of Coca-Cola, and hence the sale of that product to Mr. L. C. Ford Junior, of Lima, Montana. Mr. Ford's father was the railroad doctor for the Oregon Short Line Railroad. When the Oregon Short Line was purchased by Union Pacific, Dr. Ford was out of a job, and moved himself and his family to the first real settlement of any size on the North side of Monida Pass, which was Lima.

According to the Historical Society in Lima, his kitchen table was also his operating table. Patients were brought in the front door, and if they didn't make it - they were taken out the back. His son opened a Drug Store/Pharmacy directly across the street, and I would bet that among the various glass fronted cases and lidded jars on his counter was an assortment of the candies made by the Startup family.

When I first was given this piece of paper, I thought it would be an easy task to find the right 'ingredients' for a visual fish to hang on the "Startup" hook. It took almost a month to finally find someone who could give me an image of the 'right' Coca-Cola bottle and the 'right' label to go with it. A gentleman from Atlanta, GA, by the name of Mr. Bill Baab was kind enough to send me not only a bottle that is proper for 1908, but also a copy of an original paper label, also proper for the period. And he sent them both to me on HIS DIME. I was blown away by the willingness of a total stranger to send me all the right pieces to put the puzzle together.

Thus, Mr. Baab, this Coke is for you!