WHO REMEMBERS CRACKER JACK?: Cracker Jack is an American brand of snack consisting of molasses-flavored candy-coated popcorn and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of trivial value inside. The Cracker Jack name was registered in 1896. The slogan The More You Eat The More You Want was also registered that year. Some food historians consider it the first junk food. Cracker Jack is famous for its connection to baseball lore. The Cracker Jack brand has been owned and marketed by Frito-Lay since 1997. In 1896, the first lot of Cracker Jack was produced, the same year the name was registered. It was named by an enthusiastic sampler who remarked: Thats a crackerjack! (meaning of excellent quality). In 1899, Henry Gottlieb Eckstein developed the waxed sealed package for freshness, known then as the Eckstein Triple Proof Package, a dust, germ, and moisture-proof paper package. In 1902, the company was reorganized as Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein. Take Me Out to the Ball Game, a song written by lyricist Jack Norworth and composer Albert Von Tilzer, gave Cracker Jack free publicity when it was released in 1908 with the line: Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!. In 1922, the name of the Chicago company was changed to The Cracker Jack Company. Mascots Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo were introduced in 1918 and registered as a trademark in 1919. Sailor Jack was modeled after Robert Rueckheim, nephew of Frederick and Louis Rueckheim. Robert, the son of a third and eldest Rueckheim brother, Edward, died of pneumonia shortly after his image appeared at the age of 8. The sailor boy image acquired such meaning for the founder of Cracker Jack that he had it carved on his tombstone, which can still be seen in St. Henrys Cemetery in Chicago. Sailor Jacks dog Bingo was based on a real-life dog named Russell, a stray adopted in 1917 by Henry Eckstein, who demanded that the dog be used on the packaging. Russell died of old age in 1930. The Cracker Jack Company was purchased by Borden in 1964 after a bidding war between Borden and Frito-Lay. Borden sold the brand to Frito-Lay parent PepsiCo in 1997, who quickly incorporated Cracker Jack into the Frito-Lay portfolio. In 2013, Frito-Lay announced that Cracker Jack would undergo a slight reformulating, adding more peanuts to Cracker Jack and updating the prizes to make them more relevant to the times. Cracker Jack is known for being commonly sold at baseball games and is even mentioned by name in the American standard Take Me Out To The Ball Game. On June 16, 1993, the 100th anniversary of Cracker Jack was celebrated at Wrigley Field during the game between the Cubs and the expansion Florida Marlins. Before the game, Sailor Jack, the companys mascot, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. In 2004, the New York Yankees baseball team replaced Cracker Jack with the milder, sweet butter toffee flavored Crunch n Munch at home games. After a public outcry, the club immediately switched back to Cracker Jack.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 07:25:23 +0000
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