Tag Archives: history

Chewing Gum

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Old Food

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TheseGuys

The Wrigley’s Man and Santa Anna. What do these guys have in common?

According to an article from Chemical & Engineering News (of all places), the average American chews 300 sticks of gum per year. However, gum has been around far longer than the United States; the ancient Greeks chewed a chewy tree sap they called “mastiche”, and in the Americas, the Mayans and Native Americans in the New England region also enjoyed their own region specific varieties of tree-sap.

Wrigleys1953

1953 Wrigley’s Gum advertisement from Boy’s Life magazine.

The first attempt to produce gum in America occurred in the mid-1800s when a man named John Curtis attempted to sell small sticks of spruce-sap chewing gum. His “Maine Pure Spruce Gum” failed to be chewy enough to satisfy customers and the product never caught on. It wasn’t until Santa Anna (a Mexican political leader and the same Santa Anna that fought against Texas forces during the Texas Revolution) and an American inventor, Thomas Adams collided that chewing gum as we know it appeared. In 1869, a decrepit, aging Santa Anna was exiled in Staten Island, New York and planning to raise money to take over Mexico City. Santa Anna hoped to cash in on the booming rubber business and to fund his machinations by importing a specific type of rubber produced by the sapodilla tree, called chicle. Although chicle never worked out as a substitute for rubber, Thomas Adams discovered that heating up the substance and adding some sugar produced a delightful treat.

By the 1870s, Adams had created a gum manufacturing machine and his own company, Adams & Co. which produced the flavored gum called Blackjack. Soon other gum manufacturing companies such as Wrigley’s popped up. The event of WWII and the inclusion of gum in soliders’ ration packs increased the popularity of chewing gum world-wide. Unfortunately, for sapodilla trees, the demand for chewing gum exceeded what they could produce. Synthetic alternatives were subsequently created, and nowadays, Glee Gum remains the only chewing gum in the United States still containing chicle.

DentyneAds

Dentyne advertisements from Life Magazine published in 1940.

Beech-NutGum2

“One of America’s GOOD Habits” – 1940 Beech-Nut Gum ad published in LIFE Magazine

Beech-NutGum

Another Beech-Nut Gum advert, also from 1940.

LeatMintGum

Post WWII Leafmint Gum Advertisement from Confectioner’s Journal, 1945

Sources
Beech-Nut Gum. “Beech-Nut Gum.” Advertisement. LIFE Magazine, August 29, 1940.
———. “It’s So Good….So Long.” Advertisement. LIFE Magazine, July 1940, 62.
Burks, Raychelle. “Chewing Gum.” Chemical & Engineering News 85, no. 32 (August 6, 2007): 36.
Dentyne Gum. “I Just Saw My Dentist Flinch.” Advertisement. LIFE Magazine, July 1940, 34.
———. “My Dentist is a Great Guy.” Advertisement. LIFE Magazine, July 1940, 40.
Leaf Gum Company. “Leaf Mint Gum.” Advertisement. Confectioner’s Journal, November 1945, 50.
Wrigley’s Gum Company. “It’s Really Keen!” Advertisement. Boy’s Life, June 1953, 28.

Hotels of Atlantic City Past

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in Atlantic City

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Surf House, Atlantic City

The Surf House circa 1875. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.

In the early days of the resort, before the shoreline was dotted with the palacial hotels and exotic architecture commonly associated with Atlantic City, luxury hotels on the island were much more demure.  In the resort’s youth, there were four principle first-rate hotels on the island. These were, according to a publication from 1868, the United States Hotel, The Surf House, Congress Hall and Mansion House.

Comfort, tranquility and seaside elegance, can be found in abundance at the Surf. The combination of pleasure, comfort and luxury of a shady park, awaits the guest of the “United States;” while at Congress Hall, gaiety, hops, jolly life and all the sweets of good digestion wait upon the visitor. Those, for who the real pleasure is to be derived from nightly hops, card parties and social amusements, usually patronize the whole-souled, whole-hearted Mr. Henckle, who, during the past season, has improved Congress Hall, at an expense of several thousand dollars. The Surf [House], too, holds out all the inducements of a first class hotel, as well as the happiness of a house. (Carnesworthe, 70-71)

Below is a hotel directory from “A Complete Guide to Atlantic City” published in 1885 containing information such as hotel size and rates — the United States Hotel and Mansion House are both included. Absent is Congress Hall which was closed for remodeling.

Shopping Guide Hotel Directory 1885

Hotel Guide from an 1885 guide, "For things you ought to know inquire within, where you will find valuable and useful information, and a reliable shopping guide," located online courtesy of the Library of Congress.

An advertisement for the remodeled Congress Hall published the following year (1886).

Congress Hall 1886

Advertisement from the 1886 edition of "A book of facts, containing valuable and useful information, and a reliable shopping guide," located online courtesy of the Library of Congress.

According to Heston’s Handbook from 1900, The Surf House disappeared in 1880, and eighteen years later, in 1898, Congress Hall followed the same fate.  The Mansion House, which had been located at the corner of Atlantic and Pennsylvania Avenues, was purchased by Atlantic City National Bank and torn down in 1899.

firecongress

Advertisement for Congress Hall from an 1873 guidebook, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Also on the page is an advertisement for "the portable Babcock Exinguisher." Fires were of frequent and legitimate concern to hotel proprietors and guests alike. Complete guidebook available online here. Courtesy of HathiTrust.

Carnesworthe, pseud..Atlantic City : its early and modern history.Philadelphia, 1868. 95pp. Sabin Americana. Gale, Cengage Learning. University of Texas at Austin. 27 December 2012 http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/servlet/Sabin?af=RN&ae=CY3800343288&srchtp=a&ste=14


Heston, Alfred Miller. Heston's Hand-book: Being an Account of the Settlement of Eyre Haven, And a Succinct History of Atlantic City And County During the 17th, 18th And 19th Centuries; Also Indian Traditions And Sketches of the Region Between Absegami And Chicohacki, In the Country Called Scheyichbi. [Twentieth century souvenir ed.] Atlantic City, N.J., 1900.

Atlantic City’s Former Hotels – The United States Hotel

27 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Atlantic City

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The sea-side resorts of New Jersey.

Sketch of the United States Hotel featured in The Sea-Side Resorts of New Jersey from 1877. Courtesy of HathiTrust.

Of the first hotels built in Atlantic City, the United States Hotel, bounded by Pacific, Atlantic, Maryland and Delaware Avenues, was one of the most luxurious and prestigious, costing $250,000 to complete. Although still under construction when the Atlantic and Camden Railroad made its initial stop in the city on July 4th, 1854, it nevertheless was where the island’s first excursionists dined. It was also the choice hotel of President Grant during his stay on the island in 1874, and in the summer of 1892, guests could take a trip on the Pennsylvania Railroad (lunch included) “to sojourn at the famous United States Hotel.” For only $12.75 (for those coming from New York), guests would receive railroad fare, lunch en route and accommodations at the hotel for three nights.

USHotelACMap

Map of Atlantic City in 1872 showing the United States Hotel. From F.W. Beers Atlas courtesy of Rutger’s Historical Map Collection.

As the decades rolled on, the hotel would be downsized and eventually demolished. In 1890, the portion facing Pacific Avenue was removed and the land converted to building lots, and by 1900 the hotel was completely demolished. However, even in its later years, United States Hotel still fetched premium rates right up until its demise. A travel directory from 1900, Rand, McNally & Co.’s Handy Guide to Philadelphia and Environs, cites the hotel’s rate at $3 to $5 a day, more than most other hotels listed.

Now, 150+ years later, the land upon which the United States Hotel used to perch appears to be a parking lot for the Showboat Hotel.  (Wah, wah.)

Atlantic & Delaware Avenue, Atlantic CIty

Current image of the block of land where the United States Hotel once stood. View from the intersection of Atlantic and Delaware looking towards Maryland and Pacific.


The Sea-side Resorts of New Jersey. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott, 1877.

"Advertisement 1 -- no Title." New York Evangelist (1830-1902) Jun 09 1892: 8-. American Periodicals. Web. 27 Dec. 2012.

The Birth of Atlantic City

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Atlantic City

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To the inquiry, ‘Whence came Atlantic city?’ we reply: It is a refuge thrown up by the continent building sea. Fashion took a caprice and shook it out of a fold of her flounce. A railroad laid a wager to find the shortest distance from Penn’s treaty elm to the Atlantic Ocean; it dashed into the water an a city emerged from its train as a consequence of the maneuver.

— Heston Handbook, 1895

Before the boardwalk, before the shore was riddled with hotels, amusements and beach bathers, before rickety railcars carried sweltering city-dwellers to the refuge of the ocean, Atlantic City was nothing more than a destitute strip of land. Sand dunes and scraggy grasses cluttered the isolated coastline which lay undisturbed by none except the occasional wanderer. The first man on record to make this primitive island a permanent home is Jeremiah Leeds. In 1793, Jeremiah built a cabin on the island—making him the first resident of what would become Atlantic City—and slowly acquired control of the unoccupied island. Only seven more cabins were erected on the island in between the years 1793 and 1852. Below is a map of New Jersey created in 1845. The transparent yellow dot shows Absecon Beach. The string bean shaped island near the text will soon become Atlantic City.

Jonathan Pitney

“Absegami: Annals of Eyren Haven and Atlantic City, 1609 to 1904 … – Alfred Miller Heston – Google Books.” Accessed December 7, 2012. Google Books.

(Jeremiah Leeds died in 1838. His grave is located in Northfield, NJ, a town about 8 miles away from Atlantic City on the mainland. The grave still exists today.)

 In 1820, Dr. Jonathan Pitney became a resident of Absecon Village located on the mainland across from the island. Pitney, a well-connected and important citizen, realized the island’s potential, and in 1852 he encouraged a group of Philadelphia capitalists to scout out the island with him, convinced that the tiny island could be transformed into a great watering place if only transportation were available…