Candy Bars and Candy: Candy in Popular Culture

For a commodity that was relatively rare in the early 1800s, candy enjoyed such a degree of popularity one hundred years later that Americans considered it a staple food—a necessity. It was thought so essential to the American life and diet that chocolate bars made up part of soldiers’ rations during the two world wars of the twentieth century. In addition, candy became an integral part of American leisure pursuits. Pink clouds of spun-sugar cotton candy were consumed at baseball games and local fairs. Bite-sized sugary morsels, such as Jujubes, Junior Mints, and M&M’s, were part of the entertainment experience at movie theaters. Merchandising of certain goods in the twentieth century went hand in hand with sugar. Children’s products, such as baseball cards, came packaged with sticks of bubble gum. And saccharine products such as cereal, borrowing from the legendary caramel-coated popcorn Cracker Jack, were often accompanied by small premiums meant for children, borrowing from merchandising strategies in the penny candy days.