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Sweetest Day

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Sweetest Day
Observed byMostly Midwest United States
CelebrationsRemembering friends and loved ones, buying cards and candy
DateThird Saturday in October

Sweetest Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region and parts of the Northeast United States (with Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities ) on the third Saturday in October. It is described by Retail Confectioners International (a candy trade organization) as an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed." Critics call Sweetest Day an artificial holiday created solely to boost the revenues of candy and greeting card companies.

Origin of Sweetest Day

The origin of Sweetest day is frequently attributed to candy store employee Herbert Birch Kingston as an act of philanthropy. However Bill Lubinger, a reporter for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, contends that "...Cleveland's top candy makers concocted the promotion 84 years ago and it stuck, although it never became as widely accepted as hoped." This claim is based on the The Cleveland Plain Dealer October 8, 1921 edition, which chronicles the first Sweetest day in Cleveland. According to the newspaper it was planned by a committee of 12 confectioners, who distributed 19,500 boxes of candy to newsboys, homeless people, orphans, and others who had fallen on hard times in Cleveland, Ohio. The Sweetest Day in the Year Committee was assisted in the distribution of candy by some of the biggest movie stars of the day including Theda Bara and Anne Pennington. Leigh Eric Schmidt traces the origin back to 1910 in his book Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays, where he argues that "Sweetest Day" is a later incarnation of the failed attempt to create a "Candy Day" holiday.

In 1921 a committee of 12 men, all confectioners, planned the details of The Sweetest Day in the Year, a new candy-buying holiday where 19,500 of boxes of candy were given by the Candy Industry to the "poor, forgotten and downtrodden" in Cleveland.

File:12 Founders of Sweetest Day 2.JPEG
The 12 Cleveland Committeemen Who Arranged the Details of The Sweetest Day of the Year and Planned It's Success (Image and caption from The Cleveland Plain Dealer published 10/8/1922. Click image to enlarge).

The 12 Candymakers appointed as Sweetest Day in the Year Committeemen were: C.R. Canter, A.E. Barton, R.T. Fuller, J.J. Wilsdon, R.H. Sheehan, W.A. Katzenmeyer, A.A. Sarouch, Louis Hahn, W.J. Nichols, C.C. Hartsell (chairman of the Sweetest Day in the Year Committee), L. Narwood, and L.E. Gruber. Photos of the 12 Founders of Sweetest Day were first published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer on October 8, 1922.

The 12 Founders of Sweetest Day

The First Sweetest Day

File:10,000 CHEERED BY CANDY GIFTS.jpg
10,000 Cheered By Candy Gifts on Cleveland's First Sweetest Day (10/8/1921)(click image to read text of article).
Theda Bara as Cleopatra (1917). On the first Sweetest Day (October 8, 1921), The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Theda Bara distributed 2,000 boxes of candy to poor people in front of Loew's State Park and Liberty Theaters. Hallmark's website reports this event as occurring in the 1930's. Click to enlarge image.)

The 12 founders of Sweetest Day executed a huge candy marketing blitz of Cleveland on October 8th 1921. The first Sweetest Day marketing extravaganza included enormous candy giveaways at Cleveland's Orphanage and Charitable Institutions (10,000 boxes of candy distributed by the Committee). Silent film star Ann Pennington distributed 5,000 boxes of candy to poor people at The Ohio Theater. Actress Theda Bara distributed 2,000 boxes of candy in front of Loew's State Park and Liberty Theaters. Ann Pennington also distributed 2,500 boxes of candy to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's newsboys "for their service to the community." The number of boxes of candy given away to poor people by the Candy Industry totalled 19,500 on the first Sweetest Day, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Second Sweetest Day

The second Sweetest Day, which occurred on October 14th, 1922, was an even bigger media event. On October 8th, 1922, to remind Clevelanders that Sweetest Day was coming, a full section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer was devoted to Sweetest Day advertising and activities. Actor Jimmy Hussey promised candy for all Cleveland. The Commissioner of Health from New York City, Royal S. Copeland, was employed to write an article entitled "Eat Candy As Part Of Meal And Be Happy," telling Clevelanders to "Eat Candy as a Portion of Your Daily Meal and Enjoy the Best of Health." The first Queen of Sweetest Day was crowned in 1922. Her name was Vera Sissons. Ms. Sissons was 82 years old and lived at the Home for Aged Women. By 1924 the Candy Industry and The Cleveland Plain Dealer were telling Clevelanders that Sweetest Day had become a National Institution. Also in 1924, some of the candy advertising for Sweetest Day referred to the day as National Candy Day.

(Click on image to read text of the articles.)

Companies and organizations which advertised in The Cleveland Plain Dealer and participated in the first two Sweetest Days included:

The Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper, The Cleveland Business Exchange, The Cleveland Advertising Club, Hotel Statler, Whitman's Candies, Loew's Park Theater, Loew's State Theater, The Ohio Theater, Apollo Chocolates, F.H. Roberts Company, Crane's Party Box, Ohio Confection Company, Euclid's Chocolates, Nimburger Hahn (Louis Hahn?) Candies, Shoot's Chocolates, Thurston's Magic Box Candies, Johnston's Candies, Hoffman's Candy And Ice Cream Companies, H.M.D Candies, Midland Candy Boxes, Standard Drug Stores (16 locations), Troughton's Sugar Jar Candies, Weideman's Candies, Addison Pharmacy, Alpha Pharmacy, The Bank Lunch, Benfield And Benfield (Benfield Drug Company), Bruggator And Ripley, H.D. Butler, W.W. Brown Company, Buckstein Drug Company, Cleveland Pharmacy, Deklyn's Candies, Deutch And Rosengarten, Fischer Rohr Company, Cedar Drug Company, Geiger Moss Drug Company, Geraldine Ferrar Company, Gerson Drug Company, Glick's Candies, Gordon Square Pharmacy, Hough Avenue Drug Company, The J.M. Gasser Company, Kappus Drug Store, Lakewood Pharmacy, Lake Shore Pharmacy, Liggett's Pharmacy, Marshall's Drug Stores (26 locations), Maxixe Cherries, Miller's Drug Stores, Parkgate Pharmacy, Price Drug Company, J.G. Reed And Company, M. Rinzler, Ritter's Candies, Seltzer Drug Company, G. Schneider-Richards Company, The Superior Peanut Company, H.M. Stage Company, Andrew E. Walleck Company, Weinberger-Euclid Drug Company, J.L. Westaway Company, Winton Hotel Drug Company, W.L.Wilson Company, Wyandotte Pharmacy


Sweetest Day Today

This tradition now largely involves giving small presents such as greeting cards, candy, and flowers to loved ones. While it is not as large or widely observed as Valentine's Day, it is still celebrated in parts of the United States; despite persistent allegations of being a Hallmark holiday.

References

  1. http://www.netglimse.com/holidays/sweetest_day/origins_and_facts_about_sweetest_day.shtml
  2. http://www.retailconfectioners.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=60196&module_id=3418
  3. http://www.retailconfectioners.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=60196&module_id=3418
  4. http://www.theromantic.com/sweetestday.htm
  5. The Cleveland Plain Dealer October 15, 2005
  6. The Cleveland Plain Dealer October 8, 1921 and October 8, 1922
  7. The Cleveland Plain Dealer October 8, 1921 and October 8, 1922
  8. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=5000558728


Further reading

External links

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