In November 1950, this dark-haired girl saved the lives of 12,000 U.S.
troops.
Her name was Tattling Tootsie and she was the face of a new dessert that
would eventually become Tootsie Rolls.
The chocolate candy would become a life saver for the U.S.
Marine troops during the Korean War – but not because they ate them.
Running low on ammunition, they radioed in for 60mm mortar rounds, but
instead of being sent ammunition, they received Tootsie Rolls by mistake.
Unwrapping each candy, they soon realized the mistake was a blessing in disguise.
Tootsie Rolls, the candy, was about to bring them to safety.
On that day in 1884, Leo Hirschfeld’s new life began in America, the land of opportunity.
The 13-day voyage aboard a steamship had taken him a world away from his home in Austria,
across the Atlantic, and to New York City.
There, without any friends or family, Leo was forced to rely on
what he knew in order to survive.
Back home, his father had been a candy maker.
So with next to nothing, Leo followed in his father’s footsteps.
He made candy and sold it to the local children in Brooklyn to make enough to survive.
Little did he know, his new venture was the first step on a path that
would save tens of thousands of lives.
Ten years later, his homemade candy business turned into a career.
Leo had gone from selling candy on the streets of Brooklyn, to working on the assembly line
for Stern & Saalberg, a local candy company.
There, he learned more about the candy industry — enough to invent three machines
that helped make large quantities of candy.
He patented these machines, but never got to keep the inventions for himself.
Instead, Leo gave half of each patent to his employers, likely because he made them
with company equipment or on company time.
But Leo had another invention up his sleeve…
Before the year was through, Leo proved that he hadn’t lost his touch when it came to candy.
Pouring over a new creation, he managed to make a delicious gelatin dessert.
No, not Jell-o.
A new product called Bromangelon.
Stern & Saalberg launched it in a rainbow of different flavors, including
strawberry, lemon, orange, peach, raspberry, chocolate, and cherry.
It flew off the shelves.
Leo was rewarded for his creations.
A mere year after Bromangelon launched, Leo was lifted up through the ranks, promoted
to supervise the candy assembly line.
Bromangelon had hit the market at the perfect time: Jellied foods were all the rage,
and soon Leo’s dessert could be found in restaurants, cookbooks, newspaper articles,
and filled the shelves at grocery stores.
America loved it, and wherever they found Bromangelon it was accompanied by its
dark-haired mascot, a girl named Tattling Tootsie — based off Leo’s daughter, Clara.
But Leo wasn’t done yet.
He saw untapped potential in his new dessert.
What if he made a candy from Bromangelon?
Leo went back to work, and soon had a new creation.
A new technique that could pull his gelatin dessert into a tasty, taffy candy.
Typically taffy is made by boiling a sugar mixture, then putting
it on forks to pull and cool.
This resulted in tiny air bubbles in the candy, which lightened the color
and resulted in a chewy texture.
Once cooled, the taffy could then be cut and packaged.
Leo realized that by baking the candy at a low heat for two hours between the pulling
and shaping steps, the taffy would rise up like a cake, becoming lighter and more porous.
At the end of the process, Leo was left with a product with a chewy
texture and chocolate flavor.
Stern & Saalberg loved it and trademarked and sold it under a familiar name…
“Tootsie Rolls”.
He might not have realized it, but Leo had created a product
that would reshape the industry.
From the moment they hit the market, Tootsie Rolls were an instant hit.
They were flying off the shelves, Americans just couldn’t get enough.
But this success had a cost – it would come at the expense of his health.
Knock-off Tootsie Rolls were flooding the market, and Stern & Saalberg
were desperate to solve the issue.
They had to print ads in the newspaper to warn customers.
As Tootsie Rolls soared to greater heights, Leo rose through the ranks too and was
promoted to vice president of Stern & Saalberg.
1917.
Tootsie Roll sales have soared, hundreds of millions of them are selling across America.
Stern & Saalberg had become America’s candy company, and so
they changed their name to reflect.
Stern & Saalberg became The Sweets Company of America.
Only two years later, they became publicly traded, but Leo wouldn’t
share in its swelling success.
By then, Leo was ready to strike out on his own.
He was returning to his roots, running a candy company of his own.
He left his post as vice president and formed Mells Candy.
But Leo would never see what his new company could become.
Only a year into business, Leo was forced to put his plans on hold.
His wife had fallen so seriously ill that she had to recover in a sanatorium, and
Leo himself contracted a stomach disease.
Leo was at the end of his rope.
A loaded gun sat in his hotel room in the Big Apple; the city where he's sought to start
a new life all those years ago., Leo didn’t see any way forwards, and only one way out.
On January 13, 1922, Leo left a note for his attorney that read, “I’m sorry, but I
couldn’t help it.” and then took his own life.
Two years later, the doors at Mells Candy were locked.
The company had gone bankrupt.
But even without Leo, Tootsie Rolls would continue to be an American favorite,
and even help save 12 thousand lives…
1929.
The Great Depression fell over America, ruining the lives of millions.
But even in those dark times, Tootsie Rolls remained a favorite treat throughout America.
And not only did Tootsie Rolls survive, the line thrived, expanding with a
new instant hit product: Tootsie Pops.
The candies were so popular that even in the depth of the Great Depression, Tootsie
Roll production lines were backed up.
The demand was so great that The Sweets Company of America needed to upgrade.
So, they moved their operation across state lines to New Jersey.
There, they set up operations in a new, larger, modern factory which was perfect
for producing more of the hit candies.
And then America went to war.
Like with so many other businesses, the Second World War had a dramatic
impact on The Sweets Company of America.
Production lines churned out candies, and as food rationing took effect,
Tootsie Rolls soon filled an important need: A source of quick energy.
But not only were Tootsie Rolls popular on the home front, they were also
feeding soldiers on the front lines.
Since the candies stayed good for a long time, they were included in military rations
as a source of quick energy for soldiers too.
And that wasn’t the last time Tootsie Rolls would save soldiers in the heat of combat…
A decade later, the United States was embroiled in the Korean War.
Embroiled in a battle on the front lines, a division of U.S.
marines were running low on ammunition, stranded thanks to holes
in the fuel lines of their vehicles.
Desperate for supplies, they radioed in for 60 mm rounds, codenamed “Tootsie Rolls”.
But when the supplies arrived, they were shocked at what was inside.
Tootsie Rolls.
The candies.
It was a blessing in disguise.
The candies provided much needed nourishment for the soldiers, and more
importantly, helped them evacuate.
The marines discovered that if they heated the taffy up, they could apply
it to the holes in their vehicles fuel lines, patching the leaks and giving
them the chance to evacuate to safety.
Today, Tootsie Rolls are still known as one of America’s favorite candies, and
is now sold in more than 75 countries.
Sales for the chocolate taffy candy number in the millions, and Tootsie Rolls have been
solidified as a part of American culture.
As for Leo, his legacy lives on as the genius mind that created Tootsie Rolls, and his story
has been added to the National Confectionery Sales Association’s Candy Hall of Fame.
Despite his tragic end, Leo eventually received the recognition that he had deserved in life.
This is the story of how a man traveled around the world to start a new life,
and made a candy that would go on to save the lives of thousands of marines, and
become one of America’s favorite snacks.
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