Prohibition Chocolate Industry

The Prohibition; A Lead to the Chocolate Industry:
It is post World War I and a new sense of joy filled the atmosphere. The war was finally over and a feeling of change was around everyone. The citizens have a new feeling of ravishment and society has changed. People are tapping their feet and humming to the tune of Jazz music, women find pride in the confidence they wear with their short hair and skirts, while other activist women are finding more pride in their right to vote . Men go to speakeasies which are secret bars the many people went to, and needed a password to enter due to prohibition, the banning of the manufacturing and selling of alcohol. People's attitude was not the only things that changed during the Roaring Twenties. As people,
culture, and the lifestyle of many changed during the Jazz Age, an abounding amount of chocolate products were also being created for a variety of purposes, but mainly due to prohibition, and brought along their own problems.
The 1920’s (also known as the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, and the Golden Twenties) was a time in history that is commonly associated with Jazz music or dance fads, but could there be a vicissitude that is still very evident in the lives we live today, but we may not cognizance? On the unforgettable day of January 16, 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment had finally began, a year after its ratification. This amendment was known as Prohibition. Prohibition banned the manufacturing and/or selling of alcohol. What are people to do if the can not drink or go to bars which is a large social event?
In the beginning of Prohibition, many people first attempted to acclimate to the change, but it was not child’s play. Many clearly had the idea to keep a stash of the alcohol that had been bought, prior to Prohibition, because the law doesn't state that one shall not consume alcohol, rather than the manufacturing and selling after January 16, 1920 will not be permitted. Even after that point, when that failed, people tried something which may not have turned out to be the best idea. “Under Prohibition laws, the personal production of wine and cider made from fruit was permitted. Other individuals tried to find alternatives. Some redistilled industrial alcohols to make them drinkable and this forced the government to make them undrinkable. Between all the homemade solutions, tens and of thousands were poisoned or killed during Prohibition after drinking unsuitable alcohol” (WatchMojo, 2:53) After doing so much as even trying to go to boarding countries for a drink, a conspiracy arose about how many attempted to quit drinking so they would not get caught for any illegal acts. Could chocolate have been used as a way to avoid the intake of alcohol?
In the 1920’s alone, an estimated amount of eleven chocolate bars and candies were created, allowing many to believe it was to help stop drinking and give someone what was considered addictive due to its sweet taste. Different candy bars created were Oh Henry! bars , Chuckles, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Mounds Chocolate Bars, Milky Way Candy Bars, Kits and BB Bats Taffy, Mr. Goodbar, Bit-O-Honey, Milk Duds, Hershey's Bars, and seemingly the most arguement provoking chocolate bar of the 1900’s, the Baby Ruth Bar. This candy bar created a great amount of disagreement between companies, but was extremely popular in about 1923.
Originally invented in 1921 under the name Kandy Kake Bars, the chocolate bar that is now known as Baby Ruth was invented.
In 1923, The Curtiss Candy Company, founded by Otto Schnering, desperately wanted this candy bar to be crowd-pleasing, so Otto Schnering marked the prices of the Baby Ruth bar to half the price of competing companies and even tied paper parachutes onto thousands of Baby Ruth bars, flying coast to coast, and dropping them over head, so it would be truly raining candy. Schnering did so much as call the bar “Ruth’s Home Run Candy Bar,” (Upton,2) showcasing a picture of Babe Ruth, one of the highest ranking baseball player of the time, with a picture of the candy bar, and the quote. Yet not everything was smooth sailing from this point because an issue had
occurred.
Babe Ruth found out about the bar and angrily contacted the Curtiss Candy Company because they did not ask permission to use him on a candy bar, which is copyright, and he was not getting a certain percentage of money from the Curtiss Candy Company for using his name.
Instantly and on the spot, the Curtiss Company claimed that the bar was not named after Babe Ruth, but after President Grover Cleveland's Daughter, Ruth Cleveland. Otto Schnering claimed that when she was still alive, Ruth had entered the factory and inspired the Baby Ruth bar. This claim is highly unrealistic due to a variety of background factual information, Ruth Cleavland died in 1904, seventeen years before the bar was even created. Grover Cleavland had not been in office for 24 years and dead for 13 years before the bar was created. This indicates that it would be rather odd and unusual to decide to haphazardly create a candy bar in honor of someone who has been dead for quite some time. The case hadn’t continued, indicating that Babe Ruth had not filed a case against the Curtiss Candy Company.
Many other candy bars were created in around the 10 years the Jazz Age lasted for, and almost all of them we still have around today available at, grocery stores, drug stores, convenience stores, etc. The conspiracy behind where the name Baby Ruth came from is still much of a conspiracy, but as common knowledge adds up, we can only assume it was truly names after one of the best baseball players of all times. As the
Jazz Age changed society, many different food products like chocolate were created to help people avoid the intake of alcohol, yet they came with their own problems as well.