History
Originally posted on March 2, 2025 @ 10:22 pm
The Food That Built America Recap for Movie Theatre Munchies
-This week’s episode of The Food That Built America focuses on movie theatre snacks.
-In June 1905, the first movie theatre opened in Pittsburgh. It was called the Nickelodeon and set the path for movie theaters everywhere. More and more theatres would open, with people not only enjoying motion pictures, but food being sold in the aisles, much like they did in ball parks.
-One customer was unhappy, but not with the snacks. Jim Blumenthal was part of a struggling family business that sold confections. There was a lot of competition selling extracts, so he decides to work on making chocolate powder. This would help his family business without becoming a direct competitor for Milton Hershey, who brought us the Hershey bar.
-The Blumenthal family pool their savings to work on this new product. They initially hired someone to help, but fired him for coming into work drunk. This puts a damper in their plans.
-In Philadelphia, Jack Beresin is working at a theatre and pitches the idea to sell concessions in the lobby during intermission. It would not cost the theatre anything and he promises to not only split the costs but also clean up after everyone. This would one day set the stage for concession stands in theatres worldwide.
-The Blumenthal family is broke and struggling to keep their business afloat. They take a gamble by working with a man who allowed them to get the cocoa beans on loan.
-Jack is working his concession stand at The Met and it is a huge success. It allows him to make enough money to get married and soon goes on to open concession stands on other theatres. By now, movie palaces are opening, and Jack wants in on the action. His new plan is making vending machines, so they cut out the middleman. These machines were used for other products, but not for food. The idea is to add basic movie food and beverages, but nobody wanted the popcorn since it was considered too messy. Jack now had to find a way to sell snacks that would be theatre friendly and work in his machines.
-Meanwhile, the Blumenthals are dealing with new competition. The men would soon meet and their worlds would change forever.
-The Blumenthals decide to work on making their own candies. However, since they were so small, they weren’t that successful. Jack, who is inspired by the candy bar craze going on in the world at the time, decides to talk to the Blumenthals and is interested in their chocolate covered peanuts and raisins. He finds the candies delicious and thinks they could be a good alternative for popcorn. The men make a deal to work together, selling both concoctions, along with nonpareils….the latter of which they make into smaller, bite sized pieces.
-Joseph’s brother Moses makes special boxes for the candies and before long, Sno-Caps, Goobers and Raisinets are on the market.
-While all this is happening, Milton Holloway is working at a candy company in Chicago. He idolized Milton Hershey and wanted to follow in his footsteps. He decides to buy equipment to make his own candy, much to the chagrin of his family. At the time, Chicago was known for making sweets, so the odds were not on his side.
-However, he buys the company and invents caramel on a stick , aka the Slo-Poke. One of his employees takes it to the next level and adds chocolate. He wants to make them into marble shaped, bite sized pieces, but it doesn’t work the way he wants. They think it is a dud…which it is….the MILK DUD! They keep the shape and invent one of the most iconic candies of all time.
-Back in Philly, Jack and the Blumenthals are working on selling their candies. The theatres were not keen on selling messy treats, but once they are offered a piece of the pie, a deal is made. Now Jack wants to take this to the next level and make it go national.
-Despite the release of Milk Duds, Milton is facing a lot of competition and on the brink of failure.
-The Blumenthals are offered the opportunity to have their candies in other vending machines, leading Jack to have to change direction to keep himself in business.
-In 1929, the stock market crash led to The Great Depression. Despite this, movie theatres were still popular, as were the treats. Jack is still trying to keep his business afloat, so once he is presented with the Milk Duds, he decides to add it to his vending machines, helping bring success to both him and Milton. This helped set the stage for snacks and concessions in theatres worldwide and for people to fall in love with movie treats.
-Jack continues to add many different candies and snacks to his vending machines, building his success. Theatres love these snacks so much that they added popcorn to the list of foods offered.
-The Blumenthals continue their success under the name Nestle.
-Milton becomes a multimillionaire, even after selling his business.
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