It's A Marshmallow World

"Mairzy Doats" was a hugely popular song that became a national sensation after it was recorded in late 1943 by Al Trace and his Silly Symphonists. You can read more about the song here but its release date helps us date another candy bar produced by Topp's' southern plant in Chattanooga.

Friend o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd was kind enough to send along a wrapper scan of the very odd looking Mairzy bar:



In addition to very possibly being the most heinous candy bar wrapper ever devised, malted bran kernels and marshmallow do not exactly bring to mind lip smacking goodness. No matter, marshmallow was a wise choice for a product in 1944, when I presume this bar came out in the wake of the song's popularity. Marshmallow requires far less sugar than ordinary candy filling and products using the air filled morsels would have stretched the scarce supply available for manufacture during World War 2.

I doubt the bar lasted much beyond the end of the war but who knows? Candy bar wrappers of the period seem far harder to locate these days than gum wrappers so it's hard to get a true read.

What's Opera?

In addition to their popular "Changemaker" gum, in the early 1940's Topps also sold a candy bar dubbed Opera, which was a chocolate covered marshmallow confection. The origin of the name is a little murky as there was a much older product with the same name that featured two flavored fondant fillings but whatever its beginnings it was one of the first Topps products.

In anticipation of World War 2 sugar quotas, Topps began buying smaller candy companies and, as the story goes, began shutting them down and keeping their upcoming alltoments. However, in 1943 Topps bought a company called Bennett-Hubbard in Chattanooga, Tennessee and decided to keep their plant running to make candy.

Here's a wrapper from what might be their first confection made in the Chattanooga
plant:



I nicked that scan from the awesome Candy Wrapper Archive by the way. I originally though the wrapper below came first but the black bar at the upper left would have been utilized by a later cutting technology I believe:


(Courtesy of Jeff Shepherd)

Topps closed the Chattanooga plant, which only made candy, in the early 1950's and the The Opera bar does not seem to have survived any much longer either. I have to say it looks like it might have been pretty tasty!