Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 19:25, 5 August 2024

Leo Hirschfield (spelled Hirshfield in Tootsie Industries history) was an Austrian-American candymaker known as the inventor of the Tootsie Roll, the first individually wrapped penny candy, and Bromangelon, the first commercially successful gelatin dessert mix, which preceded Jell-O by two years.

Career

Hirschfield was an Austrian Jewish immigrant to the United States of America, the son of an Austrian candy maker.

In 1895, Hirschfield created Bromangelon, the first commercially successful gelatin dessert mix.

Details of his early career are disputed. The more common version has him starting a candy shop in Brooklyn that later merged with Stern & Saalberg. Another version has him starting at the factory and rising to a senior development position. According to the Tootsie Industries' official company history, he started his own career in the candy business at a small shop or factory in New York City in 1896. However, this version of events, which is repeated in sources such as the Cleveland Jewish News, is disputed by Rutgers University Professor Emerita Samira Kawash, who addressed the conflicting origins of the candy on her blog Candy Professor. Citing a 1913 Pittsburgh Press interview, Kawash states that Hirschfield had been working for Stern & Staalberg before moving to Manhattan to work there in the early 1890s. He invented the candy in 1907, and named it after his then-5-year-old daughter Clara, whose nickname was "Tootsie." He appied for a patent on the unique texture of Tootsie Rolls that same year and was awarded one in 1908. Stern & Staalberg began marketing Tootsie Rolls a year later. Kawash concluded from the patents issued for the candy between 1907 and 1908 that the invention of Tootsie Rolls in 1896 in Hirschfeld's Brooklyn candy store was a myth. In addition, Kawash points out that Tootsie was also the name of the child spokesperson for Bromangelon, leading Kawash to surmise that while the Tootsie Roll may have been "christened" in Clara/s honor, she first "did her time as the child spokes-model for fruity gelatin."

Before the adoption of modern refrigeration technology, candy sellers would spend hot summers selling candy that did not easily melt, such as taffy and marshmallows. This precluded chocolate, which melts easily. Since Tootsie had a nominally chocolate taste, it was a first for summer candies. Its patent describes that the moderately hard texture of Tootsie — in contrast to the light, porous texture of other pulled candies — was achived by baking it at a low temperature for about two hours, giving it "a peculiar mellow consistency" that maintained its shape and did not melt. It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped, and its low price led to its remarkable growth, making it a Depression-era favorite. During World War II, when the need for shipping food that did not spoil quickly to battlefront soldiers prompted considerable development in the field of processed food, Tootsie Rolls, which stayed fresh for a long period of time, became part of soldiers' ration packs, further solidifying Americans' love for the candy.

Hirschfield left the company in 1922, shortly before his death.

Death

By early 1922, Hirschfield was wealthy, and his businesses were doing well. However, he was despondent over his long illnees and his wife's mental breakdown, which left her committed in a sanitarium. On January 13, 1922, he took a revolver and intentionally killed himself via a gunshot to the head. He left a note stating that he was "sorry, but could not help it." He was survived by his daugther, who was married to an Arthur Ludwig.

References

1. ^ Fernandez, Manny (August 7, 2010). "Let Us Now Praise the Great Men of Junk Food". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024.
2. ^ Kawash, Samira (December 16, 1978). Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 72. ISBN 9780374711108. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
3. ^ Kaufman, Jared (July 26, 2018). "Before There Was Jell-O, There Was Bromangelon". MyRecipes. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
4. ^ Bloom, Nate (October 27, 2011). "Jewish Stars 10/28". Cleveland Jewish News. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
5. ^ "Welcome to Tootsie: Corporate History". Tootsie Industries. March 6, 2012. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
6. ^ Kawash, Samira (February 3, 2010). "Tootsie Roll Tragedy: The Real Leo Hirschfeld Story". Candy Professor. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
7. ^ Waxman, Olivia B. (February 23, 2016). "How Tootsie Rolls Got Their Name". Time. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
8. "From Steerage to Fortune". The Pittsburgh Press. April 13, 1913. p. 55. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024 – via Google News.
9. "Tootsie Roll logs 100 sweet years". Indiana Gazette. Indiana, Pennsylvania. December 16, 1978. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
10. ^ Eschner, Kat (December 16, 1978). "Tootsie Rolls Were WWII Energy Bars". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
11. ^ "Government Contracts: How Tootsie Rolls Helped us Win World War II". Dodge Legal Group, SPC. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
12. "Kills Himself in Hotel: Illness and Wife's Breakdown Are Blamed for Candy Man's Suicide". The New York Times. January 14, 1922. Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
13. "Kills Himself in Hotel: Illness and Wife's Breakdown Are Blamed for Candy Man's Suicide". The New York Times. January 14, 1922. p. 13 (S 22). Archived from the original on August 5, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Official website
• "Tootsie rolls toward second century". AllBusiness.com. August 1, 1994. Archived from the original on December 14, 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2024.

• 1922 deaths
• American people of Austrian descent
• 20th-century American businesspeople
• 20th-century Austrian businesspeople
• Businesspeople in confectionery
• 1922 suicides
• Suicides by gunshot
• Founders of American schools and colleges
• The Hershey Company