The Flapper's Love for Lollipops Saved the Charms Candy Company.

Jun 23, 2024

The lollipop has a sweet history. And for the Charms Candy Company, it was the lollipop that saved their business from financial ruin in the early 1920s by the sweet tooth of the influential flapper. If it was not for those young rebellious women of the Roaring 20s, generations who followed might not have been able to enjoy such lollipops as the bubble gum centered Blow Pop.

A lollipop today is commonly viewed as a hard sugary candy on a stick. However, that was not always the case. During the late-eighteenth century, one could find lolly pops on the streets in England without sticks for sale.1 At that time, the word, lolly, was slang that referred to the “mouth” or the “tongue.”2 So, a lolly pop was a sweet candy meant for the mouth or licking. Naturally, eating candy in this manner can become sticky, so its not surprise to find sources describing that vendors would attach sticks to their candies. And these sources spelled these candies as lolly pops, lollypops, and even lollipops.

The lollipop known today emerged during the early 1900s with inventive entrepreneurs who developed technology that streamlined the candy making business. One such individual was Walter Reid, Jr., the founder of Charms. Before the First World War, Reid was a salesclerk who made an astute observation at his local grocery stores. He watched the process of how store clerks used their unsanitary hands to weigh out candies with heavy handedness, their low priced sales, and which products were the most popular, the “fruit tablets.”3 All this information percolated in this entrepreneur’s head, which led to the following question:

Why not create a fruit tablet that would achieve three goals [that] would eliminate unsanitary handling of the candy pieces; do away with profit losses resulting from careless weighing, and encourage larger unit sales[?]4

Reid’s goals and solutions to the problems he witnessed brought forth investors; and, his business was started in Topeka, New Jersey, in 1912. His popular fruit tablet, Lemon Charms, became a popular item provided in the rations of U.S. soldiers during WWI. Later, with its popularity and sales in stores across the country, ten new flavors were added by 1919.5 But it would not be long before disaster struck for Charms.

In the year 1921, there was “a tremendous drop in the price of sugar,” which put Charms into receivership on July 7th.6 The Associated Press reported that,

The firm bought huge stores of sugar at the high prices prevalent prior to 1921 and when prices dropped faced bankruptcy. Receivers decided to revive the lollypop. They boiled down the sugar, flavored it, [and] wrapped it in brightly-colored paper.7

It was reported that the “receivers had imagination” and thought long and hard on how they could convert their “high-priced sugar directly into hard cash.”8 These savvy businessmen conceived that “the flappers might eat lollypops;” and, they were correct.9 The Charms lollypop became hugely popular among the “sweet toothed flapper…in the wilds of Newark, N.J.”10 The adoption of this sugary treat by these young rebellious influencers created quite a fad, which helped to sell the receiver’s product. Where society once looked down upon these young women in some circles, now they were being hailed as heroines by such newspapers as the New York Herald:

Flappers have at last justified their existence….The flappers have kicked off their oversize goloshes and took up the lollypop. The day was saved.11

According to several sources, sales from their lollypops led to $44,056 in profits.12 When adjusted for inflation, those 1922 profits have the same purchasing power as $823,608 in May 2024. These profits led the court to direct the creditors to accept Charm’s settlement and to enter into a 10 year bond which saved the candy company from bankruptcy.13 So, the next time that you enjoy a Charms lollipop, please remember how the flapper made that possible for you.

HumblyMyBrain’s Newsletter

Discussion about this post