Explore Our Candied Past In Sweet Home Chicago
By Amy Cavanaugh in Food on Jan 19, 2013 4:00PM
John Kranz’s store may have been called Kranz's Candies, Kranz Candies, Kranz’s Candy Store, or Kranz’s Confectionary Store. You'll find three different addresses for it. It closed in either 1946 or 1947.
The most basic details may be up for debate, but here’s what isn’t—Kranz’s shop was a wonderland. There were life-size animated swans. Kranz made sugar teddy bears and served chocolate sodas. But he was best known for his candy mice, which were made out of sugar and chocolate. He was world-famous and when the shop closed, the Tribune eulogized, “grope for your handkerchief, wipe away a furtive tear."
Kranz was born in Germany, immigrated to the U.S. in 1860, and learned the confectionary business in Philadelphia before moving to Chicago in 1869. He first opened a shop on the West Side of the city, then headed to State Street. Kranz's shop was probably located where Block 37 is today, and it was just one of many, many locations across the city that helped give Chicago the nickname the “Candy Capital of America.” A show, Sweet Home Chicago: The History of America’s Candy Capital is currently on view at the Harold Washington Library, in the Special Collection Exhibit Hall on the ninth floor. The show was created by the Elmhurst Historical Museum, where it debuted over the summer, and runs at the Library until March 3. Then it sets off on a tour of the Midwest (sans the archival materials that the Special Collections dug out of their holdings).
Chicago got its start in the candy business in 1837, the same year the city was incorporated. John Muir had a hard candy shop on South Water Street. Two years later, there were three candy makers. By 1871, there were 17. What about Chicago made it such a prime spot for candy to flourish? Location, location, location.
Being at a railroad crossroads mean that Chicago could easily get milk from Wisconsin, cornstarch and corn syrup from Iowa and Illinois, and sugar beets from Michigan. Cold winters meant that candy could be made seven months of the year. And immigrants settling here were bringing over tastes of their homeland.
There are many great stories in Sweet Home Chicago. You know Andes Mints? Andy Kanelos had a little store that he started around 1920 named Andy’s Candies.
People loved the chocolates, but men buying candy for their wives or girlfriends didn't take to another man's moniker on the heart-shaped satin box. So [he] changed the name to Andes Candies.
George Williamson launched Oh Henry! bars here in 1920. He decided to sell them for 10 cents, rather than the usual 5 cents, and he launched a serious advertising blitz to get people to spring for the more expensive candy. That included a recipe booklet in 1926 with candy recipes. Want to make Oh Henry! Toast for Afternoon Tea? Toast slices of bread, butter them, then top with thin slices of candy. Slide into a hot oven for three to four minutes until the candy softens. What about Oh Henry! with Toasted Cheese? Cover soda crackers with grated cheese and thin slices of Oh Henry! and bake until the cheese browns and candy melts. And those are the tame ones—there are also recipes for Fried Bananas with Oh Henry! Dressing and Oh Henry! Apricot Pineapple Sauce, though we cannot imagine an occasion on which you would want to serve these.
Candy advertising was also more fun in its heyday—Wrigley sent gum to every single person listed in 1915 U.S. phone books, reasoning that anyone who could afford a telephone could afford to buy gum. Baby Ruth took the aerial route and dropped bars by parachute over 40 U.S. cities from an airplane.
The archival materials primarily relate to Brach’s, which got its start in Chicago in 1904 when Emil J. Brach, the son of German immigrants, scraped up $1,000 and started making candy. He opened the Palace of Sweets on the corner of North and Towne in Chicago. One of the materials is a 1943 ad that encourages "men and women" to "get full pay while you learn” to make candy. The ad promised employees perks like “free laundry,” “music while you work,” and “sports, social activities, and pastimes,” all in a “modern sunlight factory.” Brach’s made many types of candy, including hard candy, jellies, and caramels that were sold for 20 cents a pound. They also made something called Brach’s Perky, which was apparently similar to Chuckles. The wrapper pictured in the show says that the Perky bar had milk chocolate coating, so we're hoping for an alternate filling than jelly candy. They also made Brach’s Swing, which were chocolate-covered, honeycombed, peanut butter bars popular before World War II. With those long-forgotten bars also went Chicago's link to Brach's—here's the state of the factory now.
Milk Duds, Snickers, Lemonheads, and other candies also have ties to Chicago, but we can't get into everything here. So what caused Chicago's candy-making decline? Corporate mergers, overseas competition, and higher prices for sugar in the U.S. Some candy is still made here, but most companies have closed or moved on.
The show presents a wealth of information, but aside from the materials in the cases that came from the Library's holdings, everything is printed on boards. That makes the show very portable, but we would have loved to have seen old candy boxes, more photographs, and other primary materials included in the show. Still, Sweet Home Chicago is a fascinating look at an industry that once defined the city and introduced many of the most famous candies to the world.