Schwartz, took over operation of the company in the early 1930s. Schwartz, most likely a relative of co-founder John V. During peak candy season, it expanded to seven days a week and made 500,000 Dum-Dums a day.Ĭurt A. The company manufactured Dum-Dums with cane sugar, corn syrup and “pure fruity flavors.” Among the 10 earliest flavors were lemon, lime, orange, raspberry, cherry, grape, butterscotch, chocolate, anise and root beer.ĭum-Dums sold for a penny apiece, but the company made the math easier for young children, noting: “5 for 5 cents.”Īs the candy flew off store shelves across the country, the company increased production until it operated around the clock for six days a week. “Our chief business is naturally with the children, and it is a word a 2-year-old can say,” Bahr explained. The company didn’t know what to call it until Bahr suggested “Dum-Dum,” a reference to a British hollow-point bullet from World War I that had been named for a city in India. In 1924, Bader invented a round lollipop on a paper stick. “All you need is a little sugar and a stove.”Ī catchy name also helped. “The candy business is a piker’s business,” sales manager C. The company specialized in cream chocolates, caramels, nougat rolls, coconut candy, peanut brittle and taffy. More than a dozen companies were destroyed, including the new candy firm. Bachtel.Ī month later, the Hower Building collapsed in flames after a gas lantern exploded in the basement. Its officers were President Schwartz, Vice President Bader, Secretary Jesse B. Schwartz in the formation of a new business, the Akron Candy Co., which was incorporated for $5,000 in February 1909. The partnership soured almost immediately, dissolving in 1908 and falling into receivership.īader joined rival candy maker John V. Heckman opened a candy factory in late 1907 at the brand-new Hower Building, a seven-story complex on West Market Street near the Ohio & Erie Canal. “The world’s best pop,” the manufacturer boasted.Ĭonfectioners Lloyd D. The fruit-flavored lollipop was the perfect size for little hands to unwrap and hold on Halloween night. Its signature product was the Dum-Dum, a small, spherical sucker known to trick-or-treaters everywhere. cranked out a half-million lollipops over three shifts during a 24-hour cycle. In Akron, it was more like 500,000 per day.ĭuring its prime in the 1930s, the Akron Candy Co.

Dum dums lollipops