Good Humor facts for kids
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| Product type | Ice cream brand |
|---|---|
| Owner | Good Humor-Breyers (Unilever) |
| Country | Youngstown, Ohio, U.S. |
| Introduced | 1920 |
| Markets | United States |
| Previous owners | Good Humor Corporation of America |
Good Humor is a famous brand of ice cream. It was started by Harry Burt in Youngstown, Ohio, USA, in the early 1920s. The first product was the Good Humor bar. This was a chocolate-covered ice cream bar on a stick. It was sold from ice cream trucks and in stores. Good Humor became a big part of American culture in the 1950s. At that time, the company had as many as 2,000 "sales cars" (ice cream trucks). Today, Good Humor is part of Good Humor-Breyers, which belongs to the big company Unilever.
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The Story of Good Humor
The first Good Humor company began in Youngstown, Ohio, in the early 1920s. By the mid-1930s, it had spread across most of the country. In 1961, a company called Thomas J. Lipton bought Good Humor. Lipton is part of the huge international company Unilever.
Over time, Good Humor faced challenges. Costs went up, and sales changed as people grew older. In 1978, the company sold its fleet of ice cream trucks. But it kept selling its products in grocery stores and through independent street vendors. By 1984, Good Humor was making money again.
Starting in 1989, Unilever made Good Humor even bigger. They bought Gold Bond Ice Cream, which owned the Popsicle brand. A few years later, Unilever also bought Isaly Klondike and the Breyers Ice Cream Company. Because of these purchases, Good Humor-Breyers is now a very large maker of ice cream and frozen treats. It is part of Unilever's international Heartbrand family of ice cream brands.
How it Started in the 1920s
In 1919, a store owner named Christian Nelson invented the Eskimo Pie. He figured out how to cover an ice cream bar with chocolate. When Harry Burt heard about this, he tried to make his own version. Burt owned an ice cream shop in Youngstown, Ohio.
The story goes that Burt's daughter, Ruth, thought the new ice cream bar was too messy. Burt's son, Harry Jr., suggested putting it on a wooden stick. They tried this idea in the store's cold hardening room. They found that the stick stuck firmly when the ice cream froze.
In 1920, Burt set up twelve street vending trucks in Youngstown. These trucks had small freezers and bells. He used bells from his son's old bobsled. He sold his "Good Humor Ice Cream Suckers" from these trucks. By 1925, Harry Burt Jr. opened a Good Humor business in Miami, Florida.
In 1922, Harry Burt applied for patents for his invention. A patent protects an invention. It took until 1923 for the patents to be approved. The patent office thought Good Humors were too much like Eskimo Pies. But Harry Burt Jr. went to Washington, D.C., with samples. He showed how they were different. Good Humor's patents were for the special equipment and process to make frozen treats on a stick. They were not for the ice cream product itself.
Around this time, Frank Epperson started selling frozen ice on a stick. He created the Popsicle Corporation. In 1924, Popsicle got its patent. Six months later, Good Humor sued Popsicle. By October 1925, they settled their disagreement. Popsicle agreed to pay Good Humor a fee. This allowed Popsicle to make frozen treats on a stick from ice and sherbet. Good Humor kept the right to make these products from ice cream and frozen custard.
Harry Burt passed away in 1926. Two years later, his wife sold her share of the company. A group of businessmen bought it. They changed the company's name to the Good Humor Corporation of America. They started selling franchises, which allowed others to sell Good Humor products.
Growing Bigger: 1930–1961
Good Humor became very successful. It offered people an affordable treat during the Great Depression. The company used trucks, push carts, bicycles, and even shoulder boxes to sell its products. Most places sold Good Humors for six months of the year, from April to September.
Jobs were hard to find back then. Good Humor had many employees, even though the work week was long. Vendors worked about 80 hours a week. The company had strict rules, almost like a military. For example, vendors had to salute customers. They also had to say "Ice Cream Good Humor" instead of "Good Humor Ice Cream." Women were not hired as vendors until 1967.
Vendors went to classes for two days at the start of the season. The rules were in a handbook called "Making Good at Good Humor." Vendors were paid based on how much they sold. It was common for a driver to earn over $100 a week, which was a lot of money back then.
To make the product popular, Good Humor had a "lucky stick" game. If you found "lucky stick" stamped on your ice cream stick, you won a free Good Humor. One out of every twelve sticks was a winner. However, in 1939, the government stopped this game.
The company also got good attention by parking trucks near movie studios. Good Humor appeared in over 200 movies over the years. In 1950, actor Jack Carson starred in a movie called The Good Humor Man.
After World War II, many families moved to the suburbs. Good Humor followed them to serve the "baby boomers" (children born after the war). Most of Good Humor's customers, about 55%, were age twelve or younger. Trucks made up 90% of the company's sales. By 1956, the company had 2,000 trucks.
By 1960, Good Humor had grown a lot. It offered 85 different treats. These included sundaes, single-serve cups, and various flavored bars.
Modern Times: 1961–Present
In 1961, the Meehan family, who owned Good Humor, decided to sell the company. Thomas J. Lipton, a part of Unilever, bought Good Humor of America. Lipton also bought other Good Humor businesses. Lipton then created a new part of the company to sell Good Humor products in supermarkets.
After the sale, Good Humor faced new challenges. Many of their trucks were getting old. Sales on some routes went down as the baby boomers grew up. Good Humor also had competition from other ice cream companies. Insurance costs went up because ice cream vendors were sometimes held responsible for accidents.
Good Humor replaced some of its old trucks with larger vans. These "inside sales cars" were designed to compete with other ice cream trucks. The number of trucks slowly went down. By the early 1970s, there were 1,200 trucks. Good Humor also worked with safety groups. They added school bus "stop" signs to vending trucks to help prevent accidents.
Good Humor also had problems with its workers. The company had unions early on and faced strikes. For example, in 1950, a union strike stopped Good Humor's New York operations for three weeks. Many employees were seasonal, often college students. They often didn't stay long because of the long hours. Other companies in the industry changed how they paid workers. They leased trucks to drivers and sold them products wholesale. Good Humor tried to do this too, but union contracts made it difficult.
Good Humor started losing money in 1968. Rising gasoline prices in the early 1970s made things worse. After losing money for ten years, Good Humor stopped its street vending operations in 1978. They sold their trucks. Many former Good Humor vendors became independent business owners. As one vendor said, "I make sure I shut off the engine when I stop now that I'm paying for the gas." Many other ice cream sellers also started distributing Good Humor products.
With the trucks sold, Good Humor focused on selling its products in grocery stores. The company became profitable again by 1984. Unilever, a huge ice cream company worldwide, wanted to be just as big in the US. So, they bought other ice cream brands. In 1989, Unilever bought Gold Bond Ice Cream, which owned Popsicle. In 1993, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike, which also made a chocolate-covered ice cream bar. Also in 1993, Unilever bought the Breyers Ice Cream Company. All these companies were combined into the new Good Humor-Breyers.
Since 2000, Good Humor has used the international Heartbrand logo. This logo is used by many Unilever ice cream brands. They removed the Heartbrand in 2009 but brought it back as part of their logo from 2014 onwards.
In June 2020, Good Humor worked with music producer RZA. They created a new song for ice cream trucks to play. This was to replace an old song called "Turkey in the Straw", which had been linked to racist lyrics in the past. Good Humor doesn't run trucks directly, but they wanted to encourage drivers to stop playing the old song. The new song was released in August 2020.
Good Humor Products
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When the company first started, a "Good Humor" was a three-ounce vanilla ice cream bar on a stick, covered in chocolate. By 1960, the company had 85 different flavors and combinations. Other "Good Humors" included chocolate-covered chocolate (also called "chocolate malt") and chocolate-covered strawberry. They also had bars covered in toasted almond, coconut, chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate éclair.
Each week, they had special flavors. These included a red, white, and blue Good Humor for the Fourth of July. Some special flavors didn't become popular, like Oregon prune and California fig Good Humors. The company even tried making tomato sherbet.
Fun Stories and Folklore
The history of Good Humor includes many interesting stories. One story is about a Good Humor vendor who rushed a baby to the hospital. Another is about the company helping to stop a fake money operation.
During World War II, a Good Humor truck followed one of the armies during training. The army commander couldn't figure out how the other side was finding his position so quickly. Then he realized that the enemy was using the white Good Humor truck as a guide! Instead of taking away his troops' ice cream, he ordered the truck to be painted army green that night.
After the war, a Good Humor vendor felt sorry for a child who was five cents short. The vendor accepted a new magazine instead of the missing money. When he came back the next day, the street was full of children with stacks of magazines. They were all eager to trade their magazines for Good Humors!
See also
