[Narrator] Before it fizzled,
made you pucker,
or broke your jaw,
hard candy was either medicinal.
And they were a way to make
taking medicine more palatable.
The spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.
[Narrator] Or something outside the reach
of most Americans.
Candies were originally the treat for the rich.
It was very, very expensive.
[Narrator] Until one underestimated confectioner
happens upon a new kind of sweet.
There's a texture
unlike anything anyone has ever had before.
What do we call it?
Tootsie.
[Narrator] His genius will inspire a jobless salesman
to reimagine candy.
Tropical fruits were something
that people can't normally get.
[Narrator] Creating a novelty that will sweep the nation.
[Jacob] They'll be the biggest thing in candy
in the next decade.
[Narrator] They'll catapult a treat
that costs a mere penny.
Charms and Tootsie are not just that kind of candy brands.
They're really part of our lineage.
[Narrator] Into a $15.4 billion industry.
This was a legendary innovation
and one that completely changed everything.
[suspenseful music]
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] At the turn of the 20th century,
a new sensation is sweeping the nation.
In 1900, the Hershey Bar
has sparked an unprecedented craze for sweets in America
Milton Hershey
was really the Henry Ford of chocolate.
What he did is really revolutionized chocolate
by making it available to the masses.
Before this, candy,
specifically hard candy and chocolates
were originally the treat for the rich.
It was very, very expensive.
[Narrator] As Hershey democratizes chocolate,
sales of his bar skyrocket to $600,000 in the first year,
over $21 million today.
But beyond Hershey, the candy landscape is largely dominated
by local sweet shops.
[bright music]
Candy in America is small scales.
So when you went to a candy shop,
it's the candy shop that's making that candy.
Candy would've been made by hand
in five, 10-pound batches at a time.
A shopkeeper would have to take a jar down and scoop out
and put it on a scale and into a little bag,
and that's how candies were sold.
[Narrator] The success of Hershey's chocolate bars
inspires a new breed of sweet makers,
eager to grab their share of a potential new market.
[suspenseful music]
In New York City, one ambitious employee
at a confectionary company called Stern and Salberg
is desperate to make his own mark on the business.
He was an Austrian immigrant
who had a family history of candy making.
He really wanted to make a name for himself,
but so far it's the company
that's reaping all the benefits of his hard work.
[Narrator] His name is Leo Hirshfield.
He'll go on to create one of the most popular candies
of all time that one day will earn $600 million a year.
But right now, Hirshfield's company is not known for candy.
For five years- - Okay.
[Narrator] He's been innovating
with a different kind of sweet,
the first successful instant gelatin called Bromangelon.
[upbeat music]
Bromangelon.
That's just, it's crazy.
I don't think you'd ever use a term like Bromangelon.
You go, "God, that sounds delicious."
Despite its complex name, Bromangelon makes the process
of making gelatin remarkably simple.
Before, you really could only get gelatin
through the very long process of boiling bones
to extract the gelatin from it.
All the user has to do is add boiling water, stir it,
and put it in a mold,
and they've got a gorgeous gelatin dessert.
Okay.
People wanted something quick,
easy, and affordable.
Then Bromangelon comes along
and the packets cost 10 to 15 cents each,
and they're available in a wide variety of flavors.
[upbeat music]
[Narrator] And Hirshfield's Bromangelon
becomes a sensation.
Magazines publish new and interesting ways to use it
beyond dessert.
People really just sort of went a little crazy with it,
serving roast Turkey with cherry Bromangelon
or the shredded wheat
apple gelatin sandwich.
Why?
As odd as it sounds,
yes, people were putting meat inside these gelatin molds
and people were eating it up literally and figuratively.
Okay.
[Narrator] Hirshfield's success
sparks a wave of copycats.
[upbeat music]
And soon, one small startup unseat Bromangelon
as the country's most popular gelatin.
Leo.
Oh my.
In 1904, a product called Jell-O launched in America.
Their sales soar past Bromangelon.
It was my creation.
And the name Jell-O becomes synonymous
for the product that Leo Hirshfield invented.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] By 1906, Jell-O's newest flavor
is already its best seller.
Jell-O's beaten them to the punch
by sweeping in on the newest trend, chocolate flavor.
Bromangelon starts to fall behind.
[Narrator] As sales of Jell-O hit the modern equivalent
of $8 million, Hirshfield is desperate to fight back.
He feels he's come up with a hit product once,
he can do it again
or both he and the company will pay the price.
[Narrator] Hirshfield begins experimenting
with creating his own chocolate version of gelatin.
Leo Hirshfield is a very smart man,
and he knows that if he can create a new chocolate treat
that he can package and sell, that that is a surefire win.
[Narrator] Hirshfield starts trying out
different techniques, hoping to create something unique.
He's tinkering in the lab,
he's working with his chocolate gelatin,
trying to figure out different ways he can use it.
So Leo Hirshfield decides
he's gonna take his chocolate gelatin and bake it
because why not?
[Narrator] As he heats his gelatin mold,
an unexpected creation takes shape.
Oh.
There's a texture unlike anything
he or anyone has ever had before.
It's sort of like a denser, more chewy marshmallow.
It's not really a taffy, it's not really a caramel.
It's gummy and chewy,
but it doesn't fit easily into any category.
He's thinking, "This is tasty,
it's delicious, but what is it?
Maybe this isn't a dessert at all."
Maybe this is something entirely different.
[Narrator] Tasked to create a Jell-O killer,
Hirshfield instead creates a candy with hit potential.
It doesn't melt.
There's no air conditioning,
so a lot of places can't even sell chocolate
in the summertime.
So melting is a huge issue.
This could be bigger than your gelatin.
[suspenseful music]
Company head, Julius Stern,
can see that Hirshfield's creation
might just give Hershey a run for his money.
What do you call it?
I was hoping to name it after my daughter, Tootsie.
Leo Hirshfield's daughter, Clara.
Her nickname was said to be Tootsie.
The Tootsie Roll is released nationwide in 1908,
priced at just a penny each.
He really felt that these had to be sold in bite-sized.
But the way bite-sized candies were being sold,
they were sold in jars.
And he realized that if they put a bunch of these in a jar,
they're just gonna stick together.
So he did something
that no other bite-sized candy manufacturer
or seller was doing.
[Narrator] Even more revolutionary than its taste
is the way it's sold.
So Tootsie is the first individually wrapped candies.
This was unlike, I mean, anything else
that was on the market.
This was a major change.
It reduced labor for the operations of the store.
It allowed the candy to be sold self-serve
so anyone could grab it.
[Narrator] Tootsie Roll is also the first penny candy
with its brand name printed right on every piece.
That was incredibly innovative
because it allowed a consumer
to know that they were getting that same quality
every single time.
[Narrator] Sales from the outset are more than Hirshfield
could ever have imagined.
After the Tootsie Roll,
you see a lot of individually wrapped candies coming out.
You see things like the Hershey Kiss coming out.
Other candies are being wrapped either in aluminum foil
or paper, and suddenly all these other companies
are swooping in.
Thanks to Hirshfield's creation,
the company Stern and Salberg
pivot from being just a gelatin dessert producer
to being one of the first national candy producers
in the country.
But their meteoric rise
is about to fuel fierce challengers.
[upbeat music]
[Narrator] Just 20 miles west of Manhattan,
a high school dropout named Walter Reid Jr.
is struggling after a recent string
of failed business ventures.
Walter Reid Jr.
had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age.
Even as a kid, he was coming up with schemes
to collect parts from the local factory
where he lived in Baltimore and resell them to toy makers.
He most recently worked as a salesman
for a local New Jersey chewing gum producer,
and he spent a lot of time in candy shops.
He started to see what Hershey and Tootsie Roll
were doing with their wrapped chocolates and other candies,
and he wondered if there was an opportunity to seize
with other types of candies.
He tried a bunch of different business ideas.
None of them really worked.
And so he was looking to do something
no one had seen before.
[Narrator] What Reid is about to stumble upon
will transform candy and make him the head
of one of the biggest candy companies in the world.
But today, he just needs a job.
[suspenseful music]
[Narrator] In 1912, only a few years
after the launch of the Tootsie Roll,
a former gum salesman, Walter Reid,
is searching for inspiration.
Reid is 32 at this point.
He's still young, but he hasn't found something
he can really wrap his arms around yet as a businessman.
[Narrator] Reid sees his chance
to finally make his mark on the candy industry
by adopting Tootsie Roll's approach.
But he wants to do it with totally new flavors.
He realizes he wants to do something
that people can't normally get.
I know it sounds weird at the 21st century
when we can walk into any supermarket at any time of year
and get any fruit we want.
But in the early 1900s, tropical fruits like oranges
or delicate things like strawberries,
they were rare, they were luxuries,
and they were flavors that people were seeking out.
Fruits at this time were still seasonal
and very much regional.
There weren't refrigerated trucks
regularly crisscrossing the country
and refrigerated train travel was still in its infancy.
If you lived in northern state,
the idea of eating a fresh orange from California
or Florida was completely unthinkable.
[ambient music]
[Narrator] Walter Reid pours his life savings,
$2,000 or nearly 65,000 today
into creating his all new candy.
Unlike Leo Hirshfield,
Reid does not have a background in confectionary,
but he is a born salesman.
These could be lighter.
Reid understands people.
He knows what they like
and he knows how to get their attention.
[Narrator] But Reid's strategy
hinges on repurposing a candy
traditionally reserved for medicinal purposes.
Originally, hard candies actually
started out as medicine
and they were a way to make taking medicine more palatable.
A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.
Like if you wanted to solve upset stomachs,
add iron to it.
If you wanted to solve depression,
add an extractive heroin to it.
All these ingredients
are not allowed anymore,
but they didn't know what
it would do long term.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] To bring hard candy into the future,
Reid works with a confectioner
to create an all new rainbow assortment
of fruit flavors he deems exotic.
They are lemon, lime, grape, orange, and cherry.
Those seem pretty basic now
if you look at any sort of fruit-flavored candy.
But in 1912, they were considered tropical flavors.
So Reid cuts each piece in a small square,
about three quarters of an inch on each side,
and about half an inch thick.
It's the perfect size to pop in your mouth.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] Like Tootsie Rolls,
Reid aims to sell his hard candy in wrapped packages
distributed nationwide.
He's even come up with a way to undercut Tootsie on price.
So he puts 10 in a package and then charges 5 cents.
So each piece of candy costs less than one penny.
[Narrator] But he's finding his pack of candies
has major issues.
So the individual candy starts sticking to each other
as soon as the package gets near heat
or is exposed to moisture.
So instead of 10 individual pieces of candy,
you got one big sticky chunk.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] Reid recognizes that each candy square
must be individually wrapped before being encased in a pack.
He's leveraged every penny he has.
He's been at this for two years.
As good as Walter Reid's candies are,
unless he could find some kind of packaging,
he can never take them to the marketplace.
[Narrator] At the end of his financial rope,
Reid discovers a new invention
that's fascinating European manufacturers.
[dramatic music]
Created in France four years earlier,
this unique material is the brainchild of chemist
Jacques Brandenberger.
He's experimenting with making cloth waterproof,
and he applies a liquid viscose rayon to his fabric.
And ultimately, this process creates a fabric
that's just way too stiff to be useful.
But in the process of this failure,
he notices this thin film that peels off of the fabric.
He says, "You know what? This could be something."
[Narrator] Brandenberger names his creation
after cellulose, its main component.
And the word diaphane, which means transparent.
He calls it cellophane,
available in the United States only recently.
So far, it's used to protect boxes, not food.
Whitman, the chocolate company,
famously began using this newfangled
plastic-like product of cellophane to wrap the box.
[ambient music]
Walter Reid says, "Wait a minute.
This may be the solution to all my problems."
People had never seen something you could see through
to see the product that you were going to eat.
It looked like glass, but it was flexible like paper.
It was amazing.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] With a shiny new product
that can be shipped nationwide,
Walter Reid believes he can revitalize hard candy.
They were one of the first to package hard candies
that were portable so that somebody could take a piece
and save it for later.
You could hand a piece to your friend,
they could save it for later,
and that was huge.
Reid releases his hard candy creations in 1914.
Their bright colors and fruity flavors
inspire their name, Tropical Charms.
[dramatic music]
Charms had really merged the concept of jewels
and candy being something kind of beautiful
with all the colors.
Reid understood that people wanted candy
for fun as well.
[Narrator] Reid's product proves so popular
that not even the first World War can hamper its momentum.
In fact, the war helps Reid to expand his business.
So when the US enters World War I in 1917,
Reid goes to the war department and convinces them
that Lemon Charms would make a fun, delicious,
and wholesome addition to field rations.
Before you know it, we start shipping them the candy.
If you can be the brand
that's in your soldier's ration pack,
you've got a customer for life
and they're gonna get their kids into your brand.
He sees a huge opportunity in front of him.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] Although Charms is gaining fast, by 1918,
Tootsie Roll is still the bestselling penny candy brand
in the US.
So at this point,
in over 700 million Tootsie Rolls have been sold.
It's a runaway success.
Stern and Salberg changed the name of their operation to
the Sweets Company of America, and then they go public,
becoming the very first candy company traded on the floor
of the New York Stock Exchange.
[Narrator] Things are looking bright
for the business that launched the Tootsie Roll.
That is for everyone but the man that invented it,
Leo Hirshfield.
What's this?
An agreement.
The entire world knows Tootsie Roll,
but no one knows Leo Hirshfield
and he's still ultimately an employee.
From now on, I'd receive a piece of the profits.
When this company goes public
and suddenly there's all this wealth flowing in,
he's not entitled to any of it
and he really feels he should be a partner.
He even feels he should be the president of the company.
You get paid very well.
That's not the point.
I invented it.
[dramatic music]
It's not gonna happen.
Leo Hirshfield undoubtedly has incredible talents,
but he doesn't really have the business acumen
and the business knowledge to negotiate,
and ultimately he realizes
he's never going to have ownership
of this incredibly big hit that he has created.
[Narrator] Without the means to gain more control
over his creation, Hirshfield sees his dream slipping away,
and he's lost all hope of reclaiming it.
[suspenseful music]
[brooding music]
[Narrator] By 1922, Leo Hirshfield has created
one of the most successful candies in the country,
but his bosses, Stern and Salberg,
are reaping all the rewards.
At this time, Leo Hirshfield's wife becomes very sick
and she ends up being sent to a sanitarium to recover.
All of the aspects of his life are kind of falling apart.
At that point, he does hit some hard times.
Life was tough and I think he was really troubled.
[Narrator] Hirshfield makes a tragic decision.
[gunshot firing]
[somber music]
On January 13th, 1922,
Leo Hirshfield takes his own life.
Leo Hirshfield, despite his sad ending,
made his mark on America.
You see someone really living the American dream.
He came from another country.
He revolutionized a candy industry with both confections
and machinery and just remembering him
and eating a Tootsie Roll
is a great way to pay homage to his memory.
[Narrator] It's a sad end for Hirshfield.
And now, the company that profited from his genius
must learn to survive without it.
[upbeat music]
In New Jersey, Walter Reid's company
is facing its own challenges.
Of course, he's been chasing Tootsie since the outset,
but now there's this whole group
of individually wrapped candies he has to compete with.
You got Hershey's kisses,
you got Chuckles fruit jellies, you got Mary Jane's.
There's all these different candies now.
[Narrator] As he confronts a barrage
of competitors eroding his profits,
Reid feels fresh heat from an emerging newcomer,
a brand of hard candy known as LifeSavers.
So LifeSavers' origins were really
in the world of candies that aided digestion.
The flavors were peppermint or winter green.
[Narrator] By 1925,
LifeSavers is taking direct aim at Charms.
LifeSavers releases fruit flavor drops
in orange, lime, and lemon,
and they're consistently experimenting
with new flavors like cola, root beer, and butter rum.
The more they innovate,
the more attention they take away from Charms.
[Narrator] Fruit-flavored LifeSavers
explode in popularity,
transforming the company into a $1.5 million operation.
Walter Reid's probably shaking in his boots.
He understands that he has to grow his business
through different types of candy.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] Then Reid finds an interesting confection
that's recently become popular around the northeast.
Confectioner George Smith
is the one said to have invented it in 1908.
So he has the genius idea of taking a hard candy
and putting it on a stick.
[Narrator] Smith names his invention
after a popular racehorse called Lollipop.
Candy on the stick becomes the next big trend.
You see individualized versions
being sold in local beach town candy shops
in New England and New Jersey
and the name lollipops becomes universal.
[fast-paced music]
[Narrator] Reid Jr. realizes that a Charms' lollipop
could be a perfect new product,
and he begins producing them in his factories.
The advantage there is mainly practical
because he can use the equipment
he already has been using to make his Charms.
All he has to do is add sticks and it becomes a lollipop.
[Narrator] However, his production line
runs into a problem.
He basically had to heat up your sugar mixture,
let it cool, put a stick in.
Lollipops had been completely round
and they were a little difficult to produce.
The lollipops are not cooling even,
compromising their structure.
Round lollipops, they're harder to make
because the center is thicker than the top and the bottom,
and so it takes longer for that center part to cool.
So they do crack a little bit.
[Narrator] If Reid can't solve
his lollipop manufacturing problems,
LifeSavers stands ready to dominate the hard candy market.
[upbeat music]
With new national competitors breathing down his neck,
Walter Reid is struggling to figure out
how to make lollipops on an industrialized scale.
Round lollipops are just a big challenge
to manufacture in large numbers.
If you're a small shop, you can do the nice,
slow, cool, right?
But if you are trying to create in bulk and fast,
that's gonna create voids.
It doesn't give you the nice sort of lollipop ball
that we have today.
[bright music]
[Narrator] Reid comes up with a novel solution.
The answer doesn't lie in cooling the round pops,
but rather in a bold re-imagining
of their very shape,
the flat lollipop,
Because it's flatter, it allows the candy
to cool more uniformly and more quickly.
Not only did it allow Reid to mass produce his lollipops,
it was also cheaper for him to ship them around the country
because the flat shape took up less space in a box.
[Narrator] After first revolutionizing hard candy,
Reid now aims to transform the lollipop
from a small time New England delight into a national brand.
He calls his creation Charms Pops.
This is perfect.
So he releases 11 flavors
and they're sold for 5 cents a piece,
which is really steep for hard candy,
but he thinks that the shape and the packaging
will make it feel more premium
than the hodgepodge of handmade lollipops
already cluttering up the candy shelves.
The packaging itself, again, back to cellophane,
branded cellophane.
And as a consumer, you could see the candy you were getting.
So it's totally innovative, it's totally unique.
[Narrator] Ever the salesman, Reid markets Charms Pops
as a superior candy experience,
attracting not only kids, but also adults.
The Charms flat lollipops become a huge hit,
and they become associated with flapper girls
wearing their flapper dresses going from parties
sucking on lollipops,
which is one of the most iconic parts of the Roaring '20s.
[Narrator] By 1926, Charms is producing
a quarter of a million lollipops.
but Reid's success is short-lived.
[pensive music]
In October 1929, the US stock market crashes
and the country spirals into the Great Depression.
Candy sales suffer instantly.
People wanted
not to be spending money on little candies.
They need a full meal.
That really upended the industry
and the approach to candy making.
Penny Candy can't compete with candy bars,
which now start adding ingredients like coconut, nuts,
and even toffee to their chocolate.
Brands like Snickers, Zag Nuts, and even Heath Bar
become cheap meals.
[brooding music]
[Narrator] Sweets Company of America
is among the candy makers taking a hit.
Julius Stern and Jacob Salberg
have now lost their great inventor,
their sales are tanking,
and they're trying anything they can
to keep their company afloat.
[Narrator] As the Depression shutters 80,000 businesses,
the company makes a desperate gamble.
[foreboding music]
They try by adding peanuts
and caramel to the Tootsie Roll,
trying to bulk up the candy
like other popular candies at the time,
and no one is interested in them.
And they're actually quite unappetizing.
In a precarious financial position,
they reach for one more Hail Mary
Stern and Salberg turned to their employees
to come up with new ideas and new ways to sell Tootsie Roll.
One of his employees comes up with a great idea.
Luke Weisgram is chewing on a Tootsie Roll at home
when his daughter offers him a lick of her lollipop,
and he licks it while chewing that Tootsie Roll
and inspiration strikes.
And he says, "What if you put the two together?"
So he pitches a lollipop with a Tootsie Roll inside of it.
In today's day and age,
combining two completely different foods is commonplace,
but at the time, this is revolutionary.
[Narrator] By 1931,
the company's shares have tumbled some 43%.
Tootsie Roll's owners are really hoping
that by combining the lollipop with the Tootsie Roll,
they could turn things around for the company.
They're scrambling to get it on shelves.
[Narrator] Desperate to hang on long enough
to release their new lollipop,
the company is struggling to keep creditors at bay.
All we're asking for is another 60 days.
I already gave you 60 days.
You're not the only ones that are stretched thin right now.
They owe money to people on the ingredient side,
on the packaging side, including Bernard Rubin's company,
which has sold Tootsie Roll boxes,
display boxes from the beginning.
This is what I wanted to show you.
They'll be the biggest thing in candy in the next decade.
Just imagine them displayed in one of your boxes.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] Since Tootsie Roll is his biggest client,
Rubin can't pressure the owners for payment
without jeopardizing his own company.
But he gets an idea.
Bernard Rubin is a savvy businessman.
This is a very smart man.
He got a preview and he really thinks with that product,
there's life in that old dog.
And so he sees this as his opportunity to strike.
[Narrator] Rubin devises a clever plan
that promises to rescue his key contract
and more intriguingly,
might land him the reigns of a candy empire
[suspenseful music]
In late 1931,
the Tootsie Roll Company finally unleashes
its secret new creation, the Tootsie Pop.
It's sweet, it's tangy, it's fruity, it's chocolatey.
It's a hard candy, but it's also a chewy candy inside.
Making Tootsie Pops is still a closely guarded secret.
Even when they've done their factory chores,
they won't let people entirely see how they finish.
[Narrator] The Tootsie Pop launches with
strawberry, watermelon, and chocolate flavors.
Even during these hard financial times,
it provides a crucial lifeline for the company.
While the Tootsie Pop
certainly saves them from going under,
they're not exactly raking it in.
They did have a lot of debt,
and it takes time to get a return on your investment.
[Narrator] As shareholder confidence waivers,
Bernard Rubin devises a cunning plan.
Bernard Rubin was crafty.
He takes an outsider's perspective
by looking at Tootsie Roll from every angle
and really sees it's troubled.
Rubin contacts shareholders one by one
to offer them an opportunity to unload a losing asset
by selling their shares to him.
[Narrator] Bernard Rubin
completes his ingenious strategy in 1935.
Rubin managed to buy 6,200 shares in the company,
which gave him controlling interest in the company.
Thus, he names himself president.
With all his money now tied up in the company,
Rubin needs to do something
to pull it back to profitability.
The Tootsie Roll really fell off
during the Great Depression, but what Rubin recognized
is that people wanted a bigger product.
One of the things about Tootsie Roll
is it's also not the meal replacement
that a candy bar was.
[Rubin] Longer.
[Narrator] Rubin aims to meet consumer demand,
but a bigger Tootsie Roll alone won't cut it.
He needs to boost profit margins.
He looked at the candy from a sizing perspective
by looking at packaging suppliers,
the cost of the ingredients, everything,
and really cuts costs across the board.
One of Rubin's biggest changes he makes
is by adjusting the recipe
to use more cost effective ingredients.
He's basically thinning it out to make it go further.
Make them all this long.
So he took the Tootsie Roll
from an original size of about two to two and a half inches
and increased the size to three and a half inches.
So if you look at original wrappings, they're thick.
He was able to make them a little bit thinner, longer,
and give people the perception
that they were buying something larger,
but cut the cost of the Tootsie Roll to produce.
He's able to use the bigger size on packaging
to justify a price increase.
[Narrator] Increasing the price from two to 5 cents,
the new cost-effective Tootsie Roll
helps return the company to its former glory.
He increased sales 12 times.
He's able to start turning more of a profit again.
Bernard Rubin basically saved the company.
Soon after he takes over the company,
he moves them into 120,000 square foot factory
in New Jersey.
He is really putting the pedal to the metal now.
[Narrator] Rubin boosts production
and funnels additional resources into advertising.
In the 1940s, they're doing ads
with stars like Gene Autry.
Frank Sinatra is famously a fan of the Tootsie Roll.
He actually had it in his contract
to have Tootsie Rolls in his dressing rooms.
Legend has it that Ol' Blue Eyes
was actually buried with some Tootsie Rolls in his coffin.
Ring a ding, baby.
[Narrator] As Rubin Reinvigorates the Tootsie Roll,
Walter Reid struggles.
[dramatic music]
With the Tootsie two-in-one lollipop,
the Charms' flat pop is under threat,
and the company needs fresh perspective.
And this is the lab.
Research, development, it all starts here.
[Narrator] Walter Reid Jr., the founder,
brings in his son, Walter Reid III.
Reid III is a recent grad
of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
He's got a lot of ambition and a business degree.
So his father gives him a job
in the family business right out of college.
He's thinking he's been groomed to run the company
and he think he's just gonna stroll
right into the executive offices
and take his seat at the top of the mountain.
[Reid III] When do I start?
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] Walter Reid III
will one day bring the company back from the brink,
becoming a millionaire,
and creating one of the most beloved sweets of all time.
But to do it, he'll have to begin at the bottom.
You can start with the floors.
This place is a mess.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] By the late 1960s,
control of Tootsie Roll has passed to Bernard Rubin's niece
and her husband, who now face a fresh challenge,
appealing to a new generation.
Tootsie Roll was one of the first advertisers
on children's programs,
and they understood the power of TV
and understood the power of advertising
before a lot of candy companies did.
[Narrator] Tootsie introduces
one of the most iconic commercials of all time in 1970.
What it does is it poses a question
that people never knew they wanted to know.
How many licks does it take
to get to the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop?
A good question.
Let's find out.
One, two, three.
Three.
The brilliance of this commercial
is not only is it introducing you to a product,
it's giving you something to do with it.
Kids are trying to lick.
How many licks does it take
to get to the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop?
The Tootsie Roll Company actually commissioned
a scientific study to ascertain the real number.
364 licks will get you to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
Go ahead, look it up right now. I'll wait.
See, told you 364.
[foreboding music]
[Narrator] Walter Reid III, succeeding his late father,
now steers the company towards a future
dominated by the Tootsie Pop craze.
The business is floundering
and they're really looking for a new hit product
that will make them a household brand like Tootsie Rolls.
Charms and Charms Pop are staying afloat,
but it's not what anyone would call cool.
It's the candy your grandparents give you.
It's not something that kids in the '70s
are considering groovy.
No, no, no.
It's two flavors layered on top of each other.
Something unique.
[Narrator] Determined to rival the beloved Tootsie Pop,
Reid is prepared to go all in on developing a similar
two-in-one candy concept.
I never said it was gonna be easy.
[dramatic music]
I'll call you back.
[Narrator] In 1972, Reid finds a potential answer.
[upbeat music]
[Reid III] Thank you.
He figures out a way to wrap gum
around a stick, and then using that
coat hard candy on the top.
[Narrator] It's the first lollipop
with a soft bubblegum center
and an entirely new approach to making lollipops.
[suspenseful music]
Would you look at that.
It starts out with like a classic
just lollipop experience,
but the inside is a bubble gum.
If you can make your candy have like stages of experiences,
it's like going on a ride.
And it's a catchy name
and it perfectly tells you what is gonna happen.
[Narrator] It's called the Blow Pop.
Blow Pop immediately gets the idea across of this lollipop
with bubblegum in the center
that you can then blow bubbles with.
It was totally simple and a great marketing idea.
[Narrator] In 1973,
the Blow Pop debuts in five fruit flavors.
It was just like you turned a lollipop
into just hours of entertainment for a kid
'cause after licking a lollipop
for the better part of an hour,
they have this bubblegum prize inside
that they're then able to chew.
[Narrator] Before long, they're churning out
5 million Blow Pops a week with $38 million in sales,
beating out Tootsie Pops
as the largest lollipop company in the world.
Yet their reign is short lived.
Tootsie Roll's response to Charms
by making a bid to take them over.
It's a classic case of if you can't beat them, buy them.
Walter Reid III doesn't necessarily wanna sell,
but many shareholders were willing to sell to Tootsie
for $65 million.
[Narrator] In 1988,
the sale makes Tootsie Rolls Incorporated
the largest lollipop manufacturer
and one of the largest candy makers in the world.
Charms and Tootsie Roll,
they pretty much created the sort of national branded
penny candy industry, right?
It can't be overstated how important that was
and how it led to hundreds and hundreds of brands
that followed in the decades since.
[Narrator] Today, there are over 44,000 Tootsie Rolls
produced every minute, about 740 a second,
and $68 million worth of Charms candies,
are still sold anually- Charms and Tootsie,
these were candies that I have shared with my mom, my dad,
my grandparents, my great-grandparents.
But what's so cool
is the fact that you can still get these candies.
They're really part of our lineage,
the warm and truly sweet moments of our lives.
[triumphant music]