Tootsie Roll Pops
Encyclopedia
Tootsie Pops are hard candy
lollipops filled with chocolate
-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll
. They were invented in 1930 by Lukas R. "Luke" Weisgram, an employee of The Sweets Company of America. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries
in 1966.
The candy debuted to the public in 1931. In addition to chocolate
(the original flavor), Tootsie Pops come in cherry
, orange
, grape
, raspberry
, strawberry
, watermelon
, blue raspberry, and now, pomegranate
, banana
, and green apple flavors. Another release of Tootsie Roll Pops, named Tropical Stormz, features six swirl-textured flavors: orange
pineapple
, lemon
lime
, strawberry
banana
, apple
blueberry
, citrus
punch
, and berry
berry punch
.
In 2002, sixty million Tootsie Rolls and twenty million Tootsie Pops were produced every day.
While the original commercial is 60 seconds long, an edited 30-second version and 15 second version of this commercial are the ones that have aired innumerable times over the years. The dialogue to the 60-second version is as follows:
In another version of the 60-second ad, Mr. Owl returns the spent candy stick, and the boy's final line is replaced with a reaction shot
and a beat of silence.
The 30-second commercial dialogue:
The 15-second commercial (which still airs today) only shows the boy with Mr. Owl and a different narrator (Frank Leslie) speaks the same above line, but without the scene showing the Tootsie Roll pops slowly disappearing with a different tune playing in the background. The question still stands unanswered. The dialogue is as follows:
After the commercial, Mr. Owl became the mascot
for Tootsie Roll Pops, appearing in marketing campaigns and on the packaging.
In the 1990s, a new commercial was made featuring a boy asking a robot and a dragon how many licks it takes to get to the center.
In the early 1970s, Tootsie Pops were the initial lollipop of choice of the titular character in the TV series Kojak
, and are seen prominently beginning in the December 12, 1973 episode "Hot Sunday" when Lt. Theo Kojak decides to favor them instead of cigarettes.
Some stores redeemed lollipop wrappers with the "shooting star" (bearing an image of a child dressed as a Native American aiming a bow and arrow at a star) for a free sucker. This was clearly up to the store owner and not driven by the lollipop manufacturer. Since 1982, Tootsie Roll Industries has been distributing a short story, The Legend of the Indian Wrapper, to children who mail in their Indian star wrappers as a "consolation prize". A superstition of the same wrapper is that it gives the bearer good luck for the rest of the day.
A student study at the University of Cambridge
concluded that it takes 3,481 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Another study by Purdue University
concluded that it takes an average of 364 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop using a "licking machine", while it takes an average of 252 licks when tried by 20 volunteers. Yet another study by the University of Michigan
concluded that it takes 411 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. A 1996 study by undergraduate students at Swarthmore College
concluded that it takes a median of 144 licks (range 70-222) to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Harvard Grad students created a rotating mechanical tongue and concluded 317 licks. It took 404 licks on one attempt for a normal raspberry Tootsie Pop to get the center showing.
Candy
Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...
lollipops filled with chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll
Tootsie Roll
Tootsie Roll is a brand of chewy candy. It is a form of candy that has been manufactured in the United States since 1896. The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois.It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped....
. They were invented in 1930 by Lukas R. "Luke" Weisgram, an employee of The Sweets Company of America. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries
Tootsie Roll Industries
Tootsie Roll Industries is a manufacturer of confectionery in the United States. Its best-known products have been Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops....
in 1966.
The candy debuted to the public in 1931. In addition to chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
(the original flavor), Tootsie Pops come in cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
, orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
, grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...
, raspberry
Raspberry
The raspberry or hindberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus, most of which are in the subgenus Idaeobatus; the name also applies to these plants themselves...
, strawberry
Strawberry
Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...
, watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
, blue raspberry, and now, pomegranate
Pomegranate
The pomegranate , Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between five and eight meters tall.Native to the area of modern day Iran, the pomegranate has been cultivated in the Caucasus since ancient times. From there it spread to Asian areas such as the Caucasus as...
, banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
, and green apple flavors. Another release of Tootsie Roll Pops, named Tropical Stormz, features six swirl-textured flavors: orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
, lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
lime
Lime (fruit)
Lime is a term referring to a number of different citrus fruits, both species and hybrids, which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are a good source of vitamin C. Limes are often used to accent the flavors of foods and...
, strawberry
Strawberry
Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...
banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
, apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
, citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
punch
Punch (drink)
Punch is the term for a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from India to England in the early seventeenth century; from there its use spread to other countries...
, and berry
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
berry punch
Punch (drink)
Punch is the term for a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from India to England in the early seventeenth century; from there its use spread to other countries...
.
In 2002, sixty million Tootsie Rolls and twenty million Tootsie Pops were produced every day.
The Making
At an office meeting employees were asked to share any ideas for new candies. Mr. Weisgram had been thinking beforehand. Just the other day, Clara, his daughter, had shared a lick of her lollipop, at the same time, Weisgram had a tootsie roll in his mouth. He thought about how good it tasted and up popped an idea. The board loved his idea and began to plan for the creation of this new candy. Committees were formed and changes made until finally everything was ready. Tootsie pops are produced up to this day and additional flavours are added once every while.Commercials
Tootsie Roll Pops are known for the catch phrase "How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?". The phrase was first introduced in an animated commercial which debuted on U.S. television in 1970. In the original television ad, a boy poses the question to a cow, a fox, a turtle and an owl. Each one of the first three animals tells the boy to ask someone else, explaining that they'd bite a Tootsie Pop every time they lick one. Eventually, he asks the owl, who starts licking it, but eventually bites into the lollipop, much to the chagrin of the boy.While the original commercial is 60 seconds long, an edited 30-second version and 15 second version of this commercial are the ones that have aired innumerable times over the years. The dialogue to the 60-second version is as follows:
- Questioning Boy (Buddy Foster): Mr. Cow...
- Mr. Cow (Frank Nelson): Yeeeeesss!!?
- Boy: How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?!
- Mr. Cow: I don't know, I always end up biting. Ask Mr. Fox, for he's much cleverer than I.
- Questioning Boy: Mr. Fox, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?!!
- Mr. Fox (Paul FreesPaul FreesPaul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago...
): Why don't you ask Mr. Turtle, for he's been around a lot longer than I! Me, heheh, I bite! - Questioning Boy: Mr. Turtle, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
- Mr. Turtle (Ralph JamesRalph JamesRalph Torrez James was an American voice and character actor. Although he did a few voices for the Looney Tunes, James might be remembered best for performing the voice of Mr. Turtle in the classic commercials for Tootsie Pops which ran throughout the 1970s...
): I've never even made it without biting. Ask Mr. Owl, for he is the wisest of us all. - Questioning Boy: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop!?
- Mr. Owl (Paul WinchellPaul WinchellPaul Winchell was an American ventriloquist, voice actor and comedian, whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s...
): A good question. Let's find out. A One... A two-HOO... A tha-three.. - (crunch sound effect)
- Mr. Owl: A Three!
- Questioning Boy: If there's anything I can't stand, it's a smart owl.
- Narrator (Herschel BernardiHerschel BernardiHerschel Bernardi was an American film, Broadway, and television actor....
): How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? - (crunch sound effect)
- Narrator: The world may never know.
In another version of the 60-second ad, Mr. Owl returns the spent candy stick, and the boy's final line is replaced with a reaction shot
Reaction shot
Reaction shot is a term used in motion picture production and cinematography referring to a basic unit of film grammar. It is a shot which cuts away from the main scene in order to show the reaction of a character to it....
and a beat of silence.
The 30-second commercial dialogue:
- Questioning Boy: Mr. Turtle, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
- Mr. Turtle: I've never even made it without biting. Ask Mr. Owl.
- Questioning Boy: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
- Mr. Owl: Let's find out. A One... A.two-HOO...A three..
- (crunch sound effect)
- Mr. Owl: A Three!
- Narrator: How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
- (crunch sound effect)
- Narrator: The world may never know.
The 15-second commercial (which still airs today) only shows the boy with Mr. Owl and a different narrator (Frank Leslie) speaks the same above line, but without the scene showing the Tootsie Roll pops slowly disappearing with a different tune playing in the background. The question still stands unanswered. The dialogue is as follows:
- Questioning Boy: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
- Mr. Owl: Let's find out. A One... A.two-HOO...A three..
- (crunch sound effect)
- Narrator (Frank Leslie): How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.
After the commercial, Mr. Owl became the mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
for Tootsie Roll Pops, appearing in marketing campaigns and on the packaging.
In the 1990s, a new commercial was made featuring a boy asking a robot and a dragon how many licks it takes to get to the center.
In the early 1970s, Tootsie Pops were the initial lollipop of choice of the titular character in the TV series Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
, and are seen prominently beginning in the December 12, 1973 episode "Hot Sunday" when Lt. Theo Kojak decides to favor them instead of cigarettes.
Rumors and set attempts for Tootsie Pop
At some point, a rumor began that the lollipop wrappers which bore three unbroken circles were redeemable for free candy or even free items like shirts and other items. The rumor was untrue, but some shops have honored the wrapper offer over the years, allowing people to "win" a free pop.Some stores redeemed lollipop wrappers with the "shooting star" (bearing an image of a child dressed as a Native American aiming a bow and arrow at a star) for a free sucker. This was clearly up to the store owner and not driven by the lollipop manufacturer. Since 1982, Tootsie Roll Industries has been distributing a short story, The Legend of the Indian Wrapper, to children who mail in their Indian star wrappers as a "consolation prize". A superstition of the same wrapper is that it gives the bearer good luck for the rest of the day.
A student study at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
concluded that it takes 3,481 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Another study by Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
concluded that it takes an average of 364 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop using a "licking machine", while it takes an average of 252 licks when tried by 20 volunteers. Yet another study by the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
concluded that it takes 411 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. A 1996 study by undergraduate students at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
concluded that it takes a median of 144 licks (range 70-222) to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Harvard Grad students created a rotating mechanical tongue and concluded 317 licks. It took 404 licks on one attempt for a normal raspberry Tootsie Pop to get the center showing.
External links
- Official page on Tootsie Pops from the manufacturer