Harry B. Burt was an American confectioner who developed the ice-cream novelty known as the Good Humor

Good Humor

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...

 bar. Burt is widely credited with revolutionalizing manufacturing, marketing, and distribution techniques for ice-cream products.

Burt's former production plant and confectionery shop in Youngstown, Ohio

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...

, is regarded as a significant U.S. historical site. The structure is currently being transformed into a center of local and regional history.

Product innovation

In 1920, when Burt was operating an ice-cream parlor and confectioner business in downtown Youngstown

Downtown Youngstown

Downtown Youngstown is the traditional center of the city of Youngstown, Ohio, United States. After decades of precipitous decline, the downtown area shows signs of renewal...

, he developed a chocolate coating that was "compatible" with ice cream. According to testimony provided by his widow more than a decade after his death, Burt came up with the idea of inserting a wooden stick into a chocolate-covered bar of ice cream in either 1920 or 1921. This was at least a year before the appearance of the Good Humor bar's closest relative, the Eskimo Pie

Eskimo 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...

.

On January 30, 1922, Burt applied for patents that would cover the process and manufacturing apparatus as well as the product itself. In October 1923, he was granted patents for both the process and manufacturing equipment, but not for the product. Sadly, this development opened the way for legal battles during the years to come.

Marketing innovations

In his campaign to promote the Good Humor bar, Burt established himself as a trailblazer in the emerging areas of branding

Brand management

Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand.The discipline of brand management was started at Procter & Gamble as a result of a famous memo by Neil H...

 and marketing. An article in The U.S. National Archives & Records Administration states: "At a time when standardization of products was relatively unknown, Burt wanted to create a national brand name product that would retain the same ingredients and flavor in all markets". Burt not only standardized production of the Good Humor bar, itself, he also developed a novel means of getting his product to potential customers. Emulating the tactics of "old-time street vendors", he introduced the Good Humor truck, which was a fixture in American neighborhoods until the 1970s.

Legal battles and aftermath

In the spring of 1925, Burt became aware of the growing popularity of other frozen confections on a stick. That summer, he filed suit against the Citrus Products Company and Popsicle Corporation. Negotiations with the Citrus Products Company to secure a license from Burt broke down, and the Youngstown confectioner requested that a suit against the company be dismissed in 1926. Burt evidently believed that the Citrus Products Company was less interested in securing a license than in testing the scope of Burt's patent, which may have been too broad for practical application.

Burt's widow sold the rights to the Good Humor brand some time after her husband's death in 1926. In 2006, the building in downtown Youngstown where Burt created the Good Humor Bar was honored in Parade

Parade (magazine)

Parade is an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 500 newspapers in the United States. It was founded in 1941 and is owned by Advance Publications. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., Parade has a circulation of 32.2 million and a readership of nearly 70...

magazine as one of the places that helped shape America's history and culture.

Historical site

The site of Burt's former candy and ice-cream factory in Youngstown is currently being transformed into a regional history center. In 2008, the Mahoning Valley Historical Society purchased the building from the Ross Radio Company, which had owned the structure since 1935, when Burt's widow sold the property to James Ross. That same year, William Lawson, director of the MVHS, launched a fundraising campaign for the project, with the goal of raising $6 million.