Cracker Jack is an American brand of snack consisting of molasses-flavored, caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of trivial value inside. The Cracker Jack name was registered in 1896. A 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. Frito-Lay announced in 2016 that the prizes would no longer be provided, replaced with a QR code which can be used to download a baseball-themed game.
Video Cracker Jack
History
Early beginnings
Frederick William Rueckheim--a German immigrant known informally as "Fritz"--sold popcorn at 113 Fourth Avenue, now known as Federal Street, in Chicago beginning in 1871. The popcorn was made by hand using steam equipment. In 1873, Fritz bought out his partner, William Brinkmeyer, and brought his brother Louis Rueckheim over from Germany to join in his venture, forming the company F.W. Rueckheim & Bro.
In 1896, Louis discovered a method to separate the kernels of molasses-coated popcorn during the manufacturing process. As each batch was mixed in a cement-mixer-like drum, a small quantity of oil was added--a closely guarded trade secret. Before this change, the mixture had been difficult to handle, as it stuck together in chunks.
According to an urban myth propagated in the 1960s by then-owner Borden Food, Rueckheim produced a popcorn confection and first presented it to the public at the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago's first world's fair) in 1893. There is no known evidence that Rueckheim had an exhibit at the Columbian Exposition.
Naming and packaging
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: "That's a crackerjack!" (a colloquialism meaning "of excellent quality"). The product's tagline--"The More You Eat, the More You Want"--was also introduced in 1896. 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.
Faces of Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack's mascots Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo were introduced as early as 1916 and registered as a trademark in 1919. Sailor Jack was modeled after Robert Rueckheim, grandson of Frederick. Robert, the son of the 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. Henry's Cemetery in Chicago. Sailor Jack's 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.
Ownership
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, and Cracker Jack was quickly incorporated into the Frito-Lay portfolio. In 2013, Frito-Lay announced that Cracker Jack would undergo a slight reformulating, adding more peanuts and updating the prizes to make them more relevant to the times.
Cracker Jack'D
On April 30, 2013, Frito-Lay expanded the Cracker Jack product line to include other salty snacks in the spirit of the original Cracker Jack. Called Cracker Jack'D, it is distinct from the original Cracker Jack by using black packaging instead of the traditional red and white, as well as showing a close-up version of Sailor Jack & Bingo. In addition, unlike the original Cracker Jack, Cracker Jack'D has not featured prizes in its packages. One of the products available under the Cracker Jack'D line, Cracker Jack'D Power Bites, gained much criticism before its official launch due to accusations of unhealthy amounts of caffeine in the Power Bites.
Connections with baseball
Cracker Jack is known for being commonly sold at baseball games and is mentioned in the American standard "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".
Each July from 1982 to 1985, Cracker Jack sponsored an Old-Timers Classic game featuring former MLB players, held at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
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 company's 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 public outcry, the club switched back to Cracker Jack.
Maps Cracker Jack
Advertising
The Cracker Jack Company began advertising, on television, in 1955. Cracker Jack sponsored CBS Television's On Your Account, which was televised on 130 stations nationally.
Actor Jack Gilford appeared in many TV commercials for Cracker Jack from 1960 until 1972, and was most recognized as the "rubber-faced guy on the Cracker Jack commercials" for a dozen years.
Puppeteer Shari Lewis and her puppet Lamb Chop appeared in Cracker Jack commercials in 1961.
A new television ad for Cracker Jack ran during Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31, 1999. It was the first advertising for the Cracker Jack brand on television in 15 years.
Toys
Cracker Jack originally included a small "mystery" novelty item referred to as a "Toy Surprise" in each box. The tagline for Cracker Jack was originally "Candy-coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize", but has since become "Caramel-coated popcorn & peanuts" under Frito-Lay.
Prizes were included in every box of Cracker Jack beginning in 1912. One of the first prizes was in 1914, when the company produced the first of two Cracker Jack baseball card issues, which featured players from both major leagues as well as players from the short-lived Federal League. Early "toy surprises" included rings, plastic figurines, booklets, stickers, temporary tattoos, and decoder rings. Books have been written cataloging the prizes, and a substantial collector's market exists.
Until 1937, Cracker Jack toy prizes were made in Japan. They were designed by Carey Cloud from 1938. Many metal toys were also made by TootsieToy who also made Monopoly game markers. During World War II prizes were made of paper.
The prizes attained pop-culture status with the catch-phrase "came in a Cracker Jack box," particularly when applied sarcastically to engagement and wedding rings of dubious investment value. Under Frito-Lay, toy and trinket prizes were replaced with paper prizes displaying riddles and jokes, then temporary tattoos. In 2013, some prizes became codes for people to play "nostalgic" games on the Cracker Jack app through Google Play for Android-powered devices. The announcement was made in 2016 that these gameplays would replace tangible prizes.
See also
- Caramel corn
- Crunch 'n Munch
- Fiddle Faddle
- List of popcorn brands
- Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs
- Poppycock
- Prizes
- Screaming Yellow Zonkers
- Food portal
References
External links
- Official website
- The Cracker Jack Collectors Association
- Feeney, Susan (August 26, 2002). "Cracker Jack". NPR (Archived ed.). Archived from the original on November 26, 2009. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link) History.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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