Cracker Jack

A bag of Frito-Lay's Cracker Jack, featuring Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo.

Cracker Jack is a U.S. brand of snack consisting of caramel-coated popcorn [caramel corn] and peanuts. It is also well known for being packaged with a "Toy Surprise Inside" of nominal value.

History

1893: Frederick William Rueckheim (known to friends and family as "Fritzl") and his brother Louis mass produce Cracker Jack and sell it at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. At the time, it was a mixture of popcorn, molasses, and peanuts and was called "Candied Popcorn and Peanuts".

1896: Rueckheim devises a way to keep the popcorn kernels separate. 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. In 1896, the first lot of Cracker Jack was produced. It was named by an enthusiastic sampler who remarked, "That's a Cracker Jack!"

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 re-organized; Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein.

1912: Prizes included in Cracker Jack boxes for the first time. These attained pop-culture status with the term "came in a Cracker Jack box" referring to an object of limited value. In recent years, the toy and trinket prizes have been replaced with paper prizes displaying riddles and jokes.

1918: Mascots Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo, are introduced (though they were not registered as trademark logos until 1919^[1].

1964: The Cracker Jack Company is purchased by Borden after a bidding war between Borden and Frito-Lay.

1997: Borden sells the brand to Frito-Lay^[2].

Popular culture

An old Cracker Jack box, also featuring Sailor Jack and Bingo

• The traditional sailor's uniform with the back flap and neckerchief is referred to as the "Cracker Jack" uniform by the United States Navy.
• Cracker Jack is a staple at baseball games, famously mentioned in the 1908 baseball song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game": "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back." In a report for the National Public Radio program, On the Media, correspondent Mike Pesca contends that this is an example of product placement equivalent to $25 million in advertising.^[3]

See also

• Crunch 'n Munch
• Fiddle Faddle
• Kinder Surprise
• Poppycock
• Screaming Yellow Zonkers
• LesserEvil
• Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs

References

External links

• CrackerJack.com
• Advertisement circa 1933