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{{Short description|Polish-Jewish ice cream entrepreneurs}}
'''Reuben and Rose Mattus''' were American ]s who founded the ] ] business.<ref name="obit">{{cite web|title=Rose Mattus, 90, Co-Creator of Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream, Dies| work=]| date= December 1, 2006| url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/obituaries/01mattus.html | accessdate=21 June 2012 }}</ref> '''Reuben and Rose Mattus''' were ]-] entrepreneurs who founded the ] ice cream business in the United States.<ref name="obit">{{cite web|title=Rose Mattus, 90, Co-Creator of Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream, Dies| work=]| date= December 1, 2006| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/obituaries/01mattus.html | accessdate=21 June 2012 }}</ref>


==Biography== ==Biography==
⚫ Rose Vesel Mattus (23 November 1916 – 28 November 2006) was born in ], ] as '''Rose Vesel''' to ]ish parents who had immigrated from ]. They made theatrical costumes and briefly moved to ] with a theatre company and emigrated to ] in 1921 when Rose was five years old.<ref name="obit"/>


===Reuben Mattus===
Reuben Mattus (1912 – 28 January 1994) was born in Poland of ] parents. He arrived in New York with his widowed mother Lea at about the same time as Rose Vesel.<ref name="obit"/> He started in the ice cream business as a child of 10, joining his uncle who was in the Italian lemon-ice business in Brooklyn, helping his mother squeeze lemons for the ices. By the late 1920s, the family began making ice pops, and by 1929 chocolate-covered ice-cream bars and sandwiches under the name Senator Frozen Products, selling them from a horse-drawn wagon in ].<ref name=Tablet>{{cite web| url= http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/108106/ice-creams-jewish-innovators| title= Ice Cream’s Jewish Innovators| author=Joan Nathan| date= August 2, 2012| work=]| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> Reuben Mattus (December 25, 1912 – January 27, 1994) was born in ] of ] parents. He arrived at the Port of New York on the ] with his widowed mother Lea on March 5, 1921, several months before Rose Vesel.<ref name="obit"/> He started in the ice cream business as a child of 10, joining his uncle who was in the Italian lemon-ice business in Brooklyn, helping his mother squeeze lemons for the ices.<ref name=jewsoftheweek></ref> By the late 1920s, the family began making ice pops, and by 1929 chocolate-covered ice cream bars and sandwiches under the name Senator Frozen Products, selling them from a horse-drawn wagon in ].<ref name=Tablet>{{cite web| url= http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/108106/ice-creams-jewish-innovators| title= Ice Cream's Jewish Innovators| author=Joan Nathan| date= August 2, 2012| work=]| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref>


===Rose Mattus (née Vesel)===
⚫ Rose and Reuben met in ], ], ]. After finishing high school, Rose went to work as a book-keeper at the Senator plant in 1934, and the two married in 1936.<ref name="NYSun">{{cite web| url=http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/rose-mattus-90-co-founder-of-hagen-dazs/44436/| title=Rose Mattus, 90, Co-Founder of Häagen-Dazs| author= Stephen Miller| work=] | date=December 1, 2006| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> Reuben consulted some books and started to make a new heavy kind of ice cream. In 1959, he decided to form a new ice cream company with a foreign sounding name. He invented the Danish sounding 'Häagen-Dazs' as a tribute to Denmark's exemplary ] during the ],<ref name=Tablet/> adding an ] which does not exist in Danish, and even put a map of Denmark on the carton.<ref name="obit"/>
⚫ Rose Vesel Mattus (November 23, 1916 – November 28, 2006) was born in ], ], ], as '''Rose Vesel''' to ]ish parents who had emigrated from ]. They made theatrical costumes and briefly moved to ] in ] with a theatre company, and emigrated to ] as steerage passengers on board the {{RMS|Berengaria||6}} in October 1921, when Rose was five years old.<ref name="obit"/>


===Reuben and Rose Mattus===
⚫ From its launch in 1961, the ice cream was made using cream and natural ingredients for the flavorings, in contrast with competing brands which used cheap, often artificial ingredients. It was high in ] and had less air, which, according to Rose Mattus' autobiography, was the result of a factory accident, when the air injection pump broke.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/community_briefs/article/the_real_scoop_behind_ice_cream_20040730/| date=July 29, 2004| title= The Real Scoop Behind Ice Cream| author=Gaby Wenig| work=Jewish Journal| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> Reuben developed the flavors and Rose marketed the product.<ref name="obit"/> Her first marketing ploy was to dress up elegantly – in keeping with the upmarket positioning of the brand – and give away free samples at local grocers.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rose-mattus-427144.html| title=Rose Mattus Co-founder of Häagen-Dazs | author=Paul Levy | date= December 5, 2006 | work=]| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> Another part of her strategy was to market the brand to university students, and she made certain that ice cream parlors near ] in ] carried Häagen-Dazs. The brand, which grew only slowly through the 1960s, was at first distributed nationally by ] deliveries to college towns.<ref name="obit"/> By 1973, it was sold throughout the United States, and in 1976 the first Häagen-Dazs store opened in Brooklyn.<ref name="Forward">{{cite web| url= http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/139384/frozen-friday-im-related-to-the-makers-of-haeagen/| title= Frozen Friday: 'I'm Related to the Makers of Häagen-Dazs'| author=Naomi Zeveloff| work=]| date= July 1, 2011| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref>
{{further|Häagen-Dazs}}
⚫ Reuben and Rose met in ], ], ]. After finishing high school, Rose went to work as a bookkeeper at the Senator plant in 1934, and the two married in 1936.<ref name=jewsoftheweek/><ref name="NYSun">{{cite web| url=http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/rose-mattus-90-co-founder-of-hagen-dazs/44436/| title=Rose Mattus, 90, Co-Founder of Häagen-Dazs| author= Stephen Miller| work=] | date=December 1, 2006| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> The Senator Frozen Products company was profitable, but by the 1950s the large mass-producers of ice cream started a ]<ref name="huffpost">{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/haagen-dazs-comes-from_n_7266208|title=Häagen-Dazs Comes From Where?!|date=2015-05-13|website=HuffPost|language=en|access-date=2020-03-26}}</ref> leading to their decision to make a heavy kind of high-end ice cream. Reuben consulted some books and started to make a new heavy kind of ice cream. In 1959, they decided to form a new ice cream company with a foreign-sounding name. The name chosen was the Danish-sounding 'Häagen-Dazs' as a tribute to Denmark's exemplary ] during the ],<ref name=Tablet/> adding an ] which does not exist in Danish, and even put a map of Denmark on the carton.<ref name="obit"/>


⚫ From its launch in 1961,<ref>. ]</ref> the ice cream was made using cream and natural ingredients for the flavorings, in contrast with competing brands which used often artificial ingredients, starting with three simple flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee.<ref name=studybreaks></ref> Their ice cream was high in ] and had less air, which, according to Rose Mattus' autobiography, was the result of a factory accident, when the air injection pump broke.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/community_briefs/article/the_real_scoop_behind_ice_cream_20040730/| date=July 29, 2004| title= The Real Scoop Behind Ice Cream| author=Gaby Wenig| work=Jewish Journal| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> Reuben developed the flavors and Rose marketed the product.<ref name="obit"/> Her first marketing ploy was to dress up elegantly – in keeping with the upmarket positioning of the brand – and give away free samples at local grocers.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rose-mattus-427144.html| title=Rose Mattus Co-founder of Häagen-Dazs | author=Paul Levy | date= December 5, 2006 | work=]| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> Another part of her strategy was to market the brand to university students, and she made certain that ice cream parlors near ] in ] carried Häagen-Dazs, as well as upscale restaurants.<ref name=jewsoftheweek/> The brand, which grew only slowly through the 1960s, was at first distributed nationally by ] deliveries to college towns.<ref name="obit"/> In 1966, Häagen-Dazs launched its fourth flavor, strawberry, a flavor that took them 6 years to develop.<ref name=hd></ref> By 1973, it was sold throughout the United States, and in 1976 the first Häagen-Dazs store was opened in Brooklyn by their daughter Doris.<ref name=hd/><ref name=studybreaks/><ref name="Forward">{{cite web| url= http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/139384/frozen-friday-im-related-to-the-makers-of-haeagen/| title= Frozen Friday: 'I'm Related to the Makers of Häagen-Dazs'| author=Naomi Zeveloff| work=]| date= July 1, 2011| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref>
⚫ The business was sold to the ] Company in 1983 for $70 million. The Mattuses were kept on as consultants after the sale until Pillsbury was bought by ].<ref name="obit"/> After this, they launched the Mattus Ice Cream Company in 1992, this time specializing in low-fat products, calling them Mattus' Lowfat Ice Cream.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/01/magazine/lives-well-lived-reuben-mattus-the-vichyssoise-of-ice-cream.html| title=Lives Well Lived: Reuben Mattus; The Vichyssoise Of Ice Cream| author=Ruth Reichl| date=January 1, 1995| work=The New York Times| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> Pillsbury and Häagen-Dazs are now owned by ].<ref name="obit"/>


⚫ The business was sold to the ] Company in 1983 for $70 million. The Mattuses were kept on as consultants after the sale until Pillsbury was bought by ] and their contract was not renewed;<ref name=wapo>. ]</ref><ref name="obit"/> Häagen-Dazs is now owned by General Mills.<ref name="obit"/> After this, they launched the Mattus Ice Cream Company in 1992, this time specializing in low-fat products, calling them Mattus' Lowfat Ice Cream,<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/01/magazine/lives-well-lived-reuben-mattus-the-vichyssoise-of-ice-cream.html| title=Lives Well Lived: Reuben Mattus; The Vichyssoise Of Ice Cream| author=Ruth Reichl| date=January 1, 1995| work=The New York Times| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> a ] line of low-fat ice cream.<ref name=wapo/> Mattus' Lowfat Ice Cream was named one of the "Ten Best Products of 1993" by ].<ref name=supermarketnews/>
==Personal life and death==
The Mattuses lived in ]. Reuben Mattus died on January 28, 1994<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/29/obituaries/reuben-mattus-81-the-founder-of-haagen-dazs.html?src=pm| title=Reuben Mattus, 81, the Founder of Haagen-Dazs| author=Richard D. Lyons| date=January 29, 1994| work=The New York Times| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> and Rose Vesel Mattus died on November 28, 2006.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite web| url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/09/advertising.food | title= Rose Mattus. The woman who sold Häagen-Dazs to America| author= Michael Carlson | work=]| date= January 9, 2007| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> They were known as supporters of ], founding a school of high technology in ] which bears their name,<ref name="Guardian"/> and supporting the ].<ref name="Forward"/> They had two daughters: Doris Hurley and Natalie Salmore and five grandchildren.


==Publication== ==Personal life==
The Mattuses lived in ]. They had two daughters, Doris Hurley and Natalie Salmore, and five grandchildren.
⚫ {{cite book| title=The Emperor of Ice Cream: The True Story of Häagen-Dazs | author= Rose Vesel Mattus and Jeanette Friedman | publisher=The Wordsmithy |year=2004| isbn= 978-0974885704}}

In 1982, Reuben and Rose Mattus received the Golden Plate Award of the ].<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#business}}</ref>

===Activism===
Rose Mattus sat on the board of the ].<ref name=jewsoftheweek/> The couple was known for their support of Rabbi ], founder of the ] and the ] party.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Friedman|first1=Robert I.|title=Kahane's Money Tree|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1987/11/08/kahanes-money-tree/fde5cddd-21d8-4803-8330-0de0c394cf0f/|newspaper=Washington Post|date=November 8, 1987}}</ref> They were known for their support of ], founding a school of high technology in ] which bears their name,<ref name="Guardian">{{cite web| url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jan/09/advertising.food | title= Rose Mattus. The woman who sold Häagen-Dazs to America| author= Michael Carlson | work=]| date= January 9, 2007| accessdate=August 7, 2012}}</ref> and supporting the ].<ref name="Forward"/>

===Death===
Reuben Mattus died on January 30, 1994, after suffering a heart attack.<ref name=supermarketnews></ref> Rose Mattus died in ] on November 28, 2006.<ref name=independent>. ]</ref>


==References== ==References==
{{reflist}} {{reflist}}

==Further reading==
⚫ * {{cite book| title=The Emperor of Ice Cream: The True Story of Häagen-Dazs | author= Rose Vesel Mattus and Jeanette Friedman | publisher=The Wordsmithy |year=2004| isbn= 978-0974885704}}


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Latest revision as of 21:27, 26 December 2024

Polish-Jewish ice cream entrepreneurs

Reuben and Rose Mattus were Polish-Jewish entrepreneurs who founded the Häagen-Dazs ice cream business in the United States.

Biography

Reuben Mattus

Reuben Mattus (December 25, 1912 – January 27, 1994) was born in Poland of Jewish parents. He arrived at the Port of New York on the SS Vestris with his widowed mother Lea on March 5, 1921, several months before Rose Vesel. He started in the ice cream business as a child of 10, joining his uncle who was in the Italian lemon-ice business in Brooklyn, helping his mother squeeze lemons for the ices. By the late 1920s, the family began making ice pops, and by 1929 chocolate-covered ice cream bars and sandwiches under the name Senator Frozen Products, selling them from a horse-drawn wagon in The Bronx.

Rose Mattus (née Vesel)

Rose Vesel Mattus (November 23, 1916 – November 28, 2006) was born in Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom, as Rose Vesel to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Poland. They made theatrical costumes and briefly moved to Belfast in Ulster with a theatre company, and emigrated to New York as steerage passengers on board the RMS Berengaria in October 1921, when Rose was five years old.

Reuben and Rose Mattus

Further information: Häagen-Dazs

Reuben and Rose met in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. After finishing high school, Rose went to work as a bookkeeper at the Senator plant in 1934, and the two married in 1936. The Senator Frozen Products company was profitable, but by the 1950s the large mass-producers of ice cream started a price war leading to their decision to make a heavy kind of high-end ice cream. Reuben consulted some books and started to make a new heavy kind of ice cream. In 1959, they decided to form a new ice cream company with a foreign-sounding name. The name chosen was the Danish-sounding 'Häagen-Dazs' as a tribute to Denmark's exemplary treatment of its Jews during the Second World War, adding an umlaut which does not exist in Danish, and even put a map of Denmark on the carton.

From its launch in 1961, the ice cream was made using cream and natural ingredients for the flavorings, in contrast with competing brands which used often artificial ingredients, starting with three simple flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee. Their ice cream was high in butterfat and had less air, which, according to Rose Mattus' autobiography, was the result of a factory accident, when the air injection pump broke. Reuben developed the flavors and Rose marketed the product. Her first marketing ploy was to dress up elegantly – in keeping with the upmarket positioning of the brand – and give away free samples at local grocers. Another part of her strategy was to market the brand to university students, and she made certain that ice cream parlors near New York University in Greenwich Village carried Häagen-Dazs, as well as upscale restaurants. The brand, which grew only slowly through the 1960s, was at first distributed nationally by Greyhound Bus deliveries to college towns. In 1966, Häagen-Dazs launched its fourth flavor, strawberry, a flavor that took them 6 years to develop. By 1973, it was sold throughout the United States, and in 1976 the first Häagen-Dazs store was opened in Brooklyn by their daughter Doris.

The business was sold to the Pillsbury Company in 1983 for $70 million. The Mattuses were kept on as consultants after the sale until Pillsbury was bought by Grand Metropolitan and their contract was not renewed; Häagen-Dazs is now owned by General Mills. After this, they launched the Mattus Ice Cream Company in 1992, this time specializing in low-fat products, calling them Mattus' Lowfat Ice Cream, a premium line of low-fat ice cream. Mattus' Lowfat Ice Cream was named one of the "Ten Best Products of 1993" by Time Magazine.

Personal life

The Mattuses lived in Cresskill, New Jersey. They had two daughters, Doris Hurley and Natalie Salmore, and five grandchildren.

In 1982, Reuben and Rose Mattus received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Activism

Rose Mattus sat on the board of the Zionist Organization of America. The couple was known for their support of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League and the Kach party. They were known for their support of Israel, founding a school of high technology in Herzliya which bears their name, and supporting the Israeli settlements.

Death

Reuben Mattus died on January 30, 1994, after suffering a heart attack. Rose Mattus died in Westwood, New Jersey on November 28, 2006.

References

  1. ^ "Rose Mattus, 90, Co-Creator of Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream, Dies". The New York Times. December 1, 2006. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  2. ^ Jews of the Week: Rose and Reuben Mattus
  3. ^ Joan Nathan (August 2, 2012). "Ice Cream's Jewish Innovators". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  4. Stephen Miller (December 1, 2006). "Rose Mattus, 90, Co-Founder of Häagen-Dazs". The New York Sun. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  5. "Häagen-Dazs Comes From Where?!". HuffPost. 2015-05-13. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  6. Rose Mattus, co-founder of Haagen-Dazs. The Namibian
  7. ^ 60 Years After Its Founding, Häagen Dazs Remains A Beloved Treat
  8. Gaby Wenig (July 29, 2004). "The Real Scoop Behind Ice Cream". Jewish Journal. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  9. Paul Levy (December 5, 2006). "Rose Mattus Co-founder of Häagen-Dazs". The Independent. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  10. ^ Our history
  11. ^ Naomi Zeveloff (July 1, 2011). "Frozen Friday: 'I'm Related to the Makers of Häagen-Dazs'". The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  12. ^ ICE CREAM KING TAKES ANOTHER DIP. Washington Post
  13. Ruth Reichl (January 1, 1995). "Lives Well Lived: Reuben Mattus; The Vichyssoise Of Ice Cream". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  14. ^ OBITUARY
  15. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  16. Friedman, Robert I. (November 8, 1987). "Kahane's Money Tree". Washington Post.
  17. Michael Carlson (January 9, 2007). "Rose Mattus. The woman who sold Häagen-Dazs to America". The Guardian. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  18. Rose Mattus. The Independent

Further reading

  • Rose Vesel Mattus and Jeanette Friedman (2004). The Emperor of Ice Cream: The True Story of Häagen-Dazs. The Wordsmithy. ISBN 978-0974885704.
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