Good Humor
Encyclopedia
Good Humor is an American brand of ice cream
novelties sold from ice cream trucks as well as stores and other retail outlets. Originally, Good Humors were chocolate-coated ice cream bars on a stick, but the line was expanded over the years to include a wide range of novelties. The Good Humor company started in Youngstown
, Ohio, during the early 1920s and covered most of the country by the mid 1930s. Good Humor became a fixture in American popular culture, and at its peak in the 1950s the company operated 2,000 "sales cars".
In 1961, Good Humor was acquired by Thomas J. Lipton
, the U.S. subsidiary of the international Unilever
conglomerate. Profits declined when the baby boomers aged and costs increased because of labor issues, gasoline, and insurance. The company sold its fleet in 1978 but continued to distribute its products through grocery stores and independent street vendors. By 1984, Good Humor returned to profitability. Starting in 1989, Unilever expanded Good Humor through its acquisition of Gold Bond Ice Cream that included the Popsicle
brand. Four years later, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike
and the Breyers
Ice Cream Company. Good Humor-Breyers
is now a large producer of branded ice cream and frozen novelties with nine plants around the country.
. When he heard of the discovery, Harry Burt
(1875–1926), owner of a Youngstown
, Ohio, ice cream parlor, replicated Nelson's product. The story is that Burt's 23-year-old daughter Ruth thought that the new novelty was too messy. Burt's son, Harry Jr. (1900–1972), suggested using a wooden stick as a convenient handle. They tried out the idea in the store's hardening room, where they discovered that the stick formed a strong bond when the ice cream cystallized. Burt outfitted twelve street vending trucks in Youngstown with rudimentary freezers and bells to sell his "Good Humor Ice Cream Suckers" in 1920. The first set was from his son's old bobsled. By 1925, Harry Burt Jr. opened a franchise in Miami, Florida.
In January 1922, Burt applied for patents, which were not granted until October 1923 because the patent office thought Good Humors were too similar to Eskimo Pies. The patents were only granted when Burt Jr. traveled to Washington, D.C,, with samples to demonstrate the difference. When granted, Good Humor's patents were for the equipment and process to manufacture frozen novelities on a stick, but not for the product itself.
During this period, Frank Epperston started marketing frozen ice on a stick and formed the Popsicle
Corporation. Six months after Popsicle received its patent in August 1924, Good Humor sued Popsicle Corporation, and by October 1925 the parties settled out of court. Popsicle agreed to pay Good Humor a licence fee to manufacture what was called frozen suckers from ice and sherbet products. Good Humor reserved the right to manufacture these products from ice cream, frozen custard, and the like.
Harry Burt died in 1926, and two years later his widow sold her interest to the Midland Food Products Company, owned by a group of Cleveland businessmen. They changed the company's name to the Good Humor Corporation of America and started selling franchises with a $100 down payment. Cora Burt retained the license agreement with Popsicle. Thomas J. Brimer (1900–1978) purchased the Good Humor franchise for the Detroit territory and by 1929 opened his second plant in Chicago. The mob demanded $5,000 protection money and destroyed part of the Chicago fleet when Brimer refused. The resulting publicity helped put Good Humor on the map.
(1891–1948), a controversial New York stock speculator who made a small investment in Brimer's operation. When Brimer paid a 25% dividend in 1929, Meehan financed the acquisition of 75% of Good Humor of America for $500,000. Meehan's wife, Elizabeth Higgins Meehan, was the registered owner of the stock along with Mrs. John J. Raskob
, the wife of another New York stock speculator.
The Meehan family’s Good Humor Corporation of America operated in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Detroit, and Chicago. There were also three major franchises: Good Humor of Baltimore/Washington (operated by the Brimer family), Burt’s Good Humor (operated by Harry Burt Jr. in Tulsa, Oklahoma), and Good Humor of California. In addition, distributors served Cleveland, Philadelphia, Albany, Dallas and Miami. In 1931, Good Humor reported a net profit of $452,105, almost as much as Meehan paid for the company.
Good Humor was successful because it provided customers with an inexpensive diversion during the Depression. In addition to trucks, the company used push carts, bicycles, shoulder boxes, and even a boat. At most branches, the season was six months, April through September. Jobs were scarce and Good Humor found all the employees it could use, despite an 80-hour work week and paramilitary discipline. Women were not hired as vendors until 1967. A vendor could be fired for not smartly saluting a customer or saying "Good Humor Ice Cream" instead of the proper "Ice Cream Good Humor". Vendors attended classes for two days at the beginning of the season and the rules were spelled out in a handbook titled "Making Good at Good Humor". While vendors were only paid commissions, it was not unusual for a driver to clear the then princely sum of over $100 per week.
To promote the product, customers won a free Good Humor if they found "lucky stick" stamped on the stick of their ice cream. One in twelve was a winner. However, in 1939 the Federal Trade Commission
outlawed the promotion as an illegal lottery. The company was more successful in attracting favorable publicity by parking trucks outside of motion picture studios. Over the years, Good Humor appeared in over 200 movies. In 1950, Jack Carson
starred in the feature motion picture The Good Humor Man.
In 1937, Michael Meehan became the first broker banned by the Securities and Exchange Commission for stock manipulation and transferred his enterprises to his sons. Two years later, 21-year-old Joseph A. Meehan (1917–1972) became the youngest broker with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and chairman of Good Humor Corporation, a position he held until 1961.
After World War II, the company moved into the expanding suburbs to serve the baby boomers. Fifty-five percent of Good Humor's customers were age twelve or younger, and trucks now accounted for 90% of the company's sales. By 1956, the company's fleet grew to 2,000 trucks, all purchased since the war. That year, Meehan hired 32-year-old David J. Mahoney (1923–2000) as president of Good Humor. Mahoney was the head of the advertising firm serving Good Humor and later became the president of the large Norton Simon conglomerate. In his five years at Good Humor, he increased sales 36%.
. Lipton also purchased Good Humor of Baltimore/Washington from the Brimer family. In a separate transaction, the other franchises agreed to stop using the Good Humor name. Of the distributors, only Philadelphia survived as a company branch. Lipton quickly created a grocery division to sell Good Humor products in supermarkets.
Mahoney left the company after the acquisition, and Lipton executives soon characterized Good Humor as a "problem". Much of the fleet purchased immediately after the war was now at the end of its useful life. Further, as the baby boomers matured, sales on many suburban routes declined. While almost from the beginning Good Humor faced competition from companies such as Jack and Jill Ice Cream
, Bungalow Bar
, etc., it was not until the advent of soft ice cream trucks operated by companies such as Mister Softee
that competition impacted sales. Insurance costs also increased because courts found ice cream vendors responsible for pedestrian accidents while crossing streets to and from the truck.
Good Humor replaced some of its older conventional trucks with large vans designed to compete with Mister Softee. Many of these "inside sales cars" are still operating. However, the size of the fleet gradually declined, and by the early 1970s the number of trucks was down to 1,200. Good Humor also worked with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
to equip vending trucks with school bus “stop” swing arms to reduce pedestrian accidents.
Good Humor was not able to solve its labor problems. The company was unionized early in its history and was struck on several occasions. For example, in 1950 the Teamsters shut down Good Humor's New York operations for three weeks during the critical month of June. Beginning in the 1950s, the labor pool dried up and Good Humor operated over half of its fleet with seasonal employees, mostly college students. On average, new employees lasted only two to three weeks because of the long hours. The entire industry, except Good Humor, stopped using commissioned employees and became distributors who leased trucks to the drivers and sold them their products wholesale. Good Humor adopted this system wherever possible but was prevented from converting most branches because of union contracts.
Good Humor became unprofitable beginning in 1968. An increase in gasoline prices during the early 1970s made the situation worse. After absorbing losses for ten years, in 1978 Good Humor decided to sell the fleet and become a distributor itself. The trucks were sold for $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle, and many of the former Good Humor vendors became independent business owners. As one reported, "I make sure I shut off the engine when I stop now that I'm paying for the gas. Ironically, many former competitors also became distributors of Good Humor products.
With the trucks sold, Good Humor focused on the grocery division, and the company returned to profitability by 1984. Unilever, the world's largest marketer of ice cream products, decided to achieve a similar market position in the U.S, through acquisitions. In 1989, Unilever purchased Gold Bond Ice Cream of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which owned Popsicle
. In 1993, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike
, maker of another chocolate-coated ice cream bar invented in Youngstown in the early 1920s. Also in 1993, Unilever acquired the Breyers
Ice Cream Company and combined these operations into the renamed Good Humor-Breyers
. The company operates nine manufacturing plants in the United States and employs 3,000 people. Since 2000, Good Humor is one of numerous Unilever ice cream subsidiaries to use the international Heartbrand for its logo.
In 1965, the company introduced "Super Humors", initially Chocolate Chip Candy and Chocolate Fudge Cake with a candy center. The next year, all Good Humors became larger Super Humors to justify a price increase. Good Humor also produced a variety of other novelties, including some unique items. The "Humorette" line included an especially popular raspberry sherbet with a peach ice cream center. "Double stix" featured flavor combinations such as raspberry-orange and lemon-lime. In Baltimore/Washington, inexpensive ice pops known as "lollies" were so successful that the company purchased special high-capacity sales cars for some routes. Today, the product line consists of some of the classic Super Humors and items added in the Popsicle and Klondike acquisitions.
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
novelties sold from ice cream trucks as well as stores and other retail outlets. Originally, Good Humors were chocolate-coated ice cream bars on a stick, but the line was expanded over the years to include a wide range of novelties. The Good Humor company started in Youngstown
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, Ohio, during the early 1920s and covered most of the country by the mid 1930s. Good Humor became a fixture in American popular culture, and at its peak in the 1950s the company operated 2,000 "sales cars".
In 1961, Good Humor was acquired by Thomas J. Lipton
Lipton
Lipton is a brand of tea currently owned by Unilever.-History of Lipton Tea:Lipton was created at the end of the 19th century by a grocer, Sir Thomas Lipton, in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1893, he established the Thomas J. Lipton Co., a tea packing company with its headquarters and factory in Hobo ken,...
, the U.S. subsidiary of the international Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
conglomerate. Profits declined when the baby boomers aged and costs increased because of labor issues, gasoline, and insurance. The company sold its fleet in 1978 but continued to distribute its products through grocery stores and independent street vendors. By 1984, Good Humor returned to profitability. Starting in 1989, Unilever expanded Good Humor through its acquisition of Gold Bond Ice Cream that included the Popsicle
Popsicle
Popsicle is the most popular brand of ice pop in the United States and Canada. The first ice pop was created by accident in 1905 when 11-year-old Frank Epperson left a cup of soda on his porch in cold weather overnight. The next morning he went to go get the soda and it was frozen, so he put two...
brand. Four years later, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike
Klondike bar
Klondike is a brand name for a dessert generally consisting of a vanilla ice cream square coated with a thin layer of chocolate-flavored coating. The first recorded advertisement for the Klondike was on February 5, 1922 in the Youngstown Vindicator. They are generally wrapped with a silver-colored...
and the Breyers
Breyers
Breyers is a brand of frozen dessert and ice cream owned by Unilever . They have a large plant in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, outside Boston....
Ice Cream Company. Good Humor-Breyers
Good Humor-Breyers
Good Humor-Breyers is a unit of Unilever that includes the formerly independent Good Humor, Breyers, Klondike Bar, and Popsicle brands. It was based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, now in New Jersey. It was formed by the merger of Good Humor and Breyers in 1993...
is now a large producer of branded ice cream and frozen novelties with nine plants around the country.
1920s
In 1919, Christian Nelson, an Iowa store owner, discovered how to coat an ice cream bar with chocolate, inventing the Eskimo PieEskimo Pie
Eskimo Pie is a brand name for a chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar wrapped in foil, the first such dessert sold in the United States. It is now marketed by Nestlé, owners of Dreyer's of the Western United States, and Edy's of the Eastern United States...
. When he heard of the discovery, Harry Burt
Harry Burt
Harry B. Burt was an American confectioner who developed the ice-cream novelty known as the Good Humor bar. Burt is widely credited with revolutionalizing manufacturing, marketing, and distribution techniques for ice-cream products....
(1875–1926), owner of a Youngstown
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, Ohio, ice cream parlor, replicated Nelson's product. The story is that Burt's 23-year-old daughter Ruth thought that the new novelty was too messy. Burt's son, Harry Jr. (1900–1972), suggested using a wooden stick as a convenient handle. They tried out the idea in the store's hardening room, where they discovered that the stick formed a strong bond when the ice cream cystallized. Burt outfitted twelve street vending trucks in Youngstown with rudimentary freezers and bells to sell his "Good Humor Ice Cream Suckers" in 1920. The first set was from his son's old bobsled. By 1925, Harry Burt Jr. opened a franchise in Miami, Florida.
In January 1922, Burt applied for patents, which were not granted until October 1923 because the patent office thought Good Humors were too similar to Eskimo Pies. The patents were only granted when Burt Jr. traveled to Washington, D.C,, with samples to demonstrate the difference. When granted, Good Humor's patents were for the equipment and process to manufacture frozen novelities on a stick, but not for the product itself.
During this period, Frank Epperston started marketing frozen ice on a stick and formed the Popsicle
Popsicle
Popsicle is the most popular brand of ice pop in the United States and Canada. The first ice pop was created by accident in 1905 when 11-year-old Frank Epperson left a cup of soda on his porch in cold weather overnight. The next morning he went to go get the soda and it was frozen, so he put two...
Corporation. Six months after Popsicle received its patent in August 1924, Good Humor sued Popsicle Corporation, and by October 1925 the parties settled out of court. Popsicle agreed to pay Good Humor a licence fee to manufacture what was called frozen suckers from ice and sherbet products. Good Humor reserved the right to manufacture these products from ice cream, frozen custard, and the like.
Harry Burt died in 1926, and two years later his widow sold her interest to the Midland Food Products Company, owned by a group of Cleveland businessmen. They changed the company's name to the Good Humor Corporation of America and started selling franchises with a $100 down payment. Cora Burt retained the license agreement with Popsicle. Thomas J. Brimer (1900–1978) purchased the Good Humor franchise for the Detroit territory and by 1929 opened his second plant in Chicago. The mob demanded $5,000 protection money and destroyed part of the Chicago fleet when Brimer refused. The resulting publicity helped put Good Humor on the map.
1930–1961
Brimer's father-in-law was a friend of Michael J. MeehanMichael J. Meehan
Michael J. Meehan was a stock trader on Wall St during the 1920s and 1930s. The Securities and Exchange Commission forced him out of trading in 1935 as the first individual they prosecuted...
(1891–1948), a controversial New York stock speculator who made a small investment in Brimer's operation. When Brimer paid a 25% dividend in 1929, Meehan financed the acquisition of 75% of Good Humor of America for $500,000. Meehan's wife, Elizabeth Higgins Meehan, was the registered owner of the stock along with Mrs. John J. Raskob
John J. Raskob
John Jakob Raskob, KCSG was a financial executive and businessman for DuPont and General Motors, and the builder of the Empire State Building. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1928 to 1932 and a key supporter of Alfred E. Smith's candidacy for President of the United...
, the wife of another New York stock speculator.
The Meehan family’s Good Humor Corporation of America operated in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Detroit, and Chicago. There were also three major franchises: Good Humor of Baltimore/Washington (operated by the Brimer family), Burt’s Good Humor (operated by Harry Burt Jr. in Tulsa, Oklahoma), and Good Humor of California. In addition, distributors served Cleveland, Philadelphia, Albany, Dallas and Miami. In 1931, Good Humor reported a net profit of $452,105, almost as much as Meehan paid for the company.
Good Humor was successful because it provided customers with an inexpensive diversion during the Depression. In addition to trucks, the company used push carts, bicycles, shoulder boxes, and even a boat. At most branches, the season was six months, April through September. Jobs were scarce and Good Humor found all the employees it could use, despite an 80-hour work week and paramilitary discipline. Women were not hired as vendors until 1967. A vendor could be fired for not smartly saluting a customer or saying "Good Humor Ice Cream" instead of the proper "Ice Cream Good Humor". Vendors attended classes for two days at the beginning of the season and the rules were spelled out in a handbook titled "Making Good at Good Humor". While vendors were only paid commissions, it was not unusual for a driver to clear the then princely sum of over $100 per week.
To promote the product, customers won a free Good Humor if they found "lucky stick" stamped on the stick of their ice cream. One in twelve was a winner. However, in 1939 the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
outlawed the promotion as an illegal lottery. The company was more successful in attracting favorable publicity by parking trucks outside of motion picture studios. Over the years, Good Humor appeared in over 200 movies. In 1950, Jack Carson
Jack Carson
John Elmer "Jack" Carson was a Canadian-born U.S.-based film actor.Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the 'golden age of Hollywood', with a film career spanning the 1930s, '40s and '50s...
starred in the feature motion picture The Good Humor Man.
In 1937, Michael Meehan became the first broker banned by the Securities and Exchange Commission for stock manipulation and transferred his enterprises to his sons. Two years later, 21-year-old Joseph A. Meehan (1917–1972) became the youngest broker with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and chairman of Good Humor Corporation, a position he held until 1961.
After World War II, the company moved into the expanding suburbs to serve the baby boomers. Fifty-five percent of Good Humor's customers were age twelve or younger, and trucks now accounted for 90% of the company's sales. By 1956, the company's fleet grew to 2,000 trucks, all purchased since the war. That year, Meehan hired 32-year-old David J. Mahoney (1923–2000) as president of Good Humor. Mahoney was the head of the advertising firm serving Good Humor and later became the president of the large Norton Simon conglomerate. In his five years at Good Humor, he increased sales 36%.
1961–present
The Meehan family faced estate planning issues because Mrs. Elizabeth H. Meehan was advancing in years. In 1961, they agreed to sell Good Humor of America to Thomas J. Lipton, a subsidiary of UnileverUnilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
. Lipton also purchased Good Humor of Baltimore/Washington from the Brimer family. In a separate transaction, the other franchises agreed to stop using the Good Humor name. Of the distributors, only Philadelphia survived as a company branch. Lipton quickly created a grocery division to sell Good Humor products in supermarkets.
Mahoney left the company after the acquisition, and Lipton executives soon characterized Good Humor as a "problem". Much of the fleet purchased immediately after the war was now at the end of its useful life. Further, as the baby boomers matured, sales on many suburban routes declined. While almost from the beginning Good Humor faced competition from companies such as Jack and Jill Ice Cream
Jack and Jill Ice Cream
Jack and Jill Ice Cream Company was founded by Max Schwarz in 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Schwarz sold ice cream he carried through the streets of Philadelphia. In 1936, the company purchased its first ice cream truck for selling ice cream. In addition to trucks, the company also sells ice...
, Bungalow Bar
Bungalow Bar
Bungalow Bar was a brand of ice cream sold from trucks to consumers on the streets in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and the Bronx, as well as in Yonkers, during the 1950s and 60s. Bungalow Bar trucks serviced the Bushwick section of Brooklyn during forties...
, etc., it was not until the advent of soft ice cream trucks operated by companies such as Mister Softee
Mister Softee
Mister Softee is a United States-based ice cream truck franchisor popular in the Northeast. It was founded by William and James Conway in 1956 in Philadelphia. It is one of the largest franchisors of soft ice cream in the United States. It has about 350 franchisees operating 600 trucks in 15...
that competition impacted sales. Insurance costs also increased because courts found ice cream vendors responsible for pedestrian accidents while crossing streets to and from the truck.
Good Humor replaced some of its older conventional trucks with large vans designed to compete with Mister Softee. Many of these "inside sales cars" are still operating. However, the size of the fleet gradually declined, and by the early 1970s the number of trucks was down to 1,200. Good Humor also worked with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an agency of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, part of the Department of Transportation...
to equip vending trucks with school bus “stop” swing arms to reduce pedestrian accidents.
Good Humor was not able to solve its labor problems. The company was unionized early in its history and was struck on several occasions. For example, in 1950 the Teamsters shut down Good Humor's New York operations for three weeks during the critical month of June. Beginning in the 1950s, the labor pool dried up and Good Humor operated over half of its fleet with seasonal employees, mostly college students. On average, new employees lasted only two to three weeks because of the long hours. The entire industry, except Good Humor, stopped using commissioned employees and became distributors who leased trucks to the drivers and sold them their products wholesale. Good Humor adopted this system wherever possible but was prevented from converting most branches because of union contracts.
Good Humor became unprofitable beginning in 1968. An increase in gasoline prices during the early 1970s made the situation worse. After absorbing losses for ten years, in 1978 Good Humor decided to sell the fleet and become a distributor itself. The trucks were sold for $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle, and many of the former Good Humor vendors became independent business owners. As one reported, "I make sure I shut off the engine when I stop now that I'm paying for the gas. Ironically, many former competitors also became distributors of Good Humor products.
With the trucks sold, Good Humor focused on the grocery division, and the company returned to profitability by 1984. Unilever, the world's largest marketer of ice cream products, decided to achieve a similar market position in the U.S, through acquisitions. In 1989, Unilever purchased Gold Bond Ice Cream of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which owned Popsicle
Popsicle
Popsicle is the most popular brand of ice pop in the United States and Canada. The first ice pop was created by accident in 1905 when 11-year-old Frank Epperson left a cup of soda on his porch in cold weather overnight. The next morning he went to go get the soda and it was frozen, so he put two...
. In 1993, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike
Klondike bar
Klondike is a brand name for a dessert generally consisting of a vanilla ice cream square coated with a thin layer of chocolate-flavored coating. The first recorded advertisement for the Klondike was on February 5, 1922 in the Youngstown Vindicator. They are generally wrapped with a silver-colored...
, maker of another chocolate-coated ice cream bar invented in Youngstown in the early 1920s. Also in 1993, Unilever acquired the Breyers
Breyers
Breyers is a brand of frozen dessert and ice cream owned by Unilever . They have a large plant in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, outside Boston....
Ice Cream Company and combined these operations into the renamed Good Humor-Breyers
Good Humor-Breyers
Good Humor-Breyers is a unit of Unilever that includes the formerly independent Good Humor, Breyers, Klondike Bar, and Popsicle brands. It was based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, now in New Jersey. It was formed by the merger of Good Humor and Breyers in 1993...
. The company operates nine manufacturing plants in the United States and employs 3,000 people. Since 2000, Good Humor is one of numerous Unilever ice cream subsidiaries to use the international Heartbrand for its logo.
Products
In the parlance of the original company, a "Good Humor" was a three-ounce chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream bar on a stick. By 1960, the product line had grown to 85 flavors or combinations. Other "Good Humors" included chocolate-coated chocolate (also called "chocolate malt") and chocolate-coated strawberry plus bars coated in toasted almond, coconut, chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate éclair. Weekly specials came in a wide assortment of flavors, including a red, white, and blue Good Humor for the Fourth of July. Among the specials that did not become popular were Oregon prune and California fig Good Humors. The company even experimented with tomato sherbet.In 1965, the company introduced "Super Humors", initially Chocolate Chip Candy and Chocolate Fudge Cake with a candy center. The next year, all Good Humors became larger Super Humors to justify a price increase. Good Humor also produced a variety of other novelties, including some unique items. The "Humorette" line included an especially popular raspberry sherbet with a peach ice cream center. "Double stix" featured flavor combinations such as raspberry-orange and lemon-lime. In Baltimore/Washington, inexpensive ice pops known as "lollies" were so successful that the company purchased special high-capacity sales cars for some routes. Today, the product line consists of some of the classic Super Humors and items added in the Popsicle and Klondike acquisitions.
Good Humor lore
The company's history also includes many stories, such as one about a Good Humor vendor's rushing a baby to a hospital for treatment and one about the company's helping to break up a counterfeit money operation in Long Island, New York. During World War II, a Good Humor truck was assigned to follow one of the armies during maneuvers. The commander could not understand how the opposing artillery was quickly locating his position until he realized that the spotters were using the white Good Humor truck as a guide. Rather than deny his troops ice cream, that night he ordered the truck to be painted army green. After the war, a Good Humor vendor took pity on a youngster who was a nickel short and accepted a new magazine in place of the missing five cents. When he returned the next day, the street was lined with stacks of magazines piled by children eager to exchange periodicals for Good Humors.See also
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- Mister SofteeMister SofteeMister Softee is a United States-based ice cream truck franchisor popular in the Northeast. It was founded by William and James Conway in 1956 in Philadelphia. It is one of the largest franchisors of soft ice cream in the United States. It has about 350 franchisees operating 600 trucks in 15...
- Jack and Jill Ice CreamJack and Jill Ice CreamJack and Jill Ice Cream Company was founded by Max Schwarz in 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Schwarz sold ice cream he carried through the streets of Philadelphia. In 1936, the company purchased its first ice cream truck for selling ice cream. In addition to trucks, the company also sells ice...
- Bungalow BarBungalow BarBungalow Bar was a brand of ice cream sold from trucks to consumers on the streets in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and the Bronx, as well as in Yonkers, during the 1950s and 60s. Bungalow Bar trucks serviced the Bushwick section of Brooklyn during forties...