Bubble Gum - History of Bubble Gum
Bubble Gum
Bubble gum was first invented by the American businessman and candy maker Frank H. Fleer in 1906. He created a recipe for chewing gum that could be blown in to a bubble, and called the product "Blibbler-Blubber". However, the mixture was too brittle and sticky to be sold. It wasn't until 1928 that an employee of Fleer's company came up with a way to improve the product. Walter Diemer added latex to the bubble gum recipe, and the new mixture was named "Dubble Bubble".
To help sell bubble gum, Walter Diemer went to candy shops and taught the salespeople how to blow bubbles, so that they could show customers how to do it. Dubble Bubble remained the only bubble gum on the market until the Topps Company introduced Bazooka bubble gum in 1947.
- Walter Diemer's original Dubble Bubble formulation was dyed pink because that was the only food coloring available at the Fleer Company factory. Since then, pink has been the most popular bubble gum color.
- Before putting bubble gum into production in 1928, Diemer wrapped 100 pieces of Dubble Bubble, and tested selling it at a local candy shop. The shop sold out in the first day.
- Dubble Bubble was packaged with a color comic strip since it was first released. Bazooka bubble gum introduced a comic strip starting in 1953.
- Bubble gum may be a 20th century invention, but chewing gum has existed for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks, Mayans, and North American native peoples chewed different kinds of gum made from tree sap.
- The first commercial chewing gum was sold by John Curtis in 1848. His product was called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum. He later developed flavored gums that included paraffin wax.
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