On this episode of Our American Stories, before Mars became one of the most powerful private companies in America, it was a struggling family candy shop. Frank Mars had failed time and time again before his son, Forrest, stepped in with a bold vision and zero interest in playing by industry rules. With names like M&M’s, Snickers, and Pedigree under its belt, Mars would go on to quietly outgrow Hershey, Kellogg’s, and even McDonald’s. Simon Whistler from Today I Found Out and The BrainFood Show tells the story of a father and son, an empire built on chocolate, and the cutthroat decisions that made it a global giant.
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we continue with our American stories. The world famous
Mars Corporation is a multi billion dollar confectionery giant. This
one small time family run sweet shop is now a
bigger brand than McDonald's Kellogg's and even four times as
big as Hershey. Their biggest competitor here to tell the
(00:35):
story of Mars Candy is Simon Whistler from the Today
I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister, the Brain
Food Show podcast. Let's take a listener, Hold your breath,
make a wish Count three.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's the legendary roll doll book Charlie in the Chocolate
Factory from nineteen sixty four and it's subsequent Twothilm adaptations
nineteen seventy one and two thousand and five told the
story of a magical candy factory and its eccentric and
mysterious owner, Willy Wonka. A chocolate river, a gun that
is a whole turkey dinner, never ending gobstoppers, and of course,
(01:15):
the singing and dancing Perlumpers are just a few of
the surprises that waited inside the doors of the famously
secretive factory. Of course, in a real life candy empire,
there are a lot more failures, a lot more hard work.
There are fathersome disputes, and an unfortunate lack of unperlumpers.
The story of Mars Candy starts in Newport, Minnesota, southeast
(01:37):
of Saint Paul, with the birth of Franklin Clarence Mars
on September the twenty third, eighteen eighty three. Frank was
the son of a gristmill operator grinding grains into flower,
who only moved to Minnesota from Pennsylvania with his wife Alva,
months prior to Frank's birth. When Frank was little, he
battles polio, which left him disabled for the rest of
his life. As you might imagine from this, he was
(01:59):
rather immobile kid, so we spent a lot of time
watching his mother Bacon cook, including watching her go through
the difficult and tedious process of making fresh chocolates. He
got so into candy that he began selling Taylor's molasses
chips and creating his own candy recipes while still in
high school. By the time he graduated, he had a
pretty successful career, going selling candy wholesale to stores in
(02:20):
the Minneapolis Saint Paul area. In nineteen oh two, he
married F. L. G. Kissock, a school teacher. About a
year later, Frank's first son.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Forrest, was born.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was also around this time that the candy markets
became oversaturated, with Hersheybar having been introduced in nineteen hundred
of the United States' first mass produced candy bar, a
post of other locally owned candy chains popped up.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
The competition was.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Fierce, especially in the Minneapolis area. Brands like Chickastick, Pearson's,
and Cherry Hump started in Minnesota and all are still
around today, so it wasn't a huge surprise when Frank's
wholesale business went under to add a little and juice
to his fresh wound. In nineteen ten, Ethel divorced Frank
for being unable to support at She also won sole
(03:06):
custody of Forest, who she promptly sent to live with
her parents in Canada. The onliness of the divorce wasn't
a good omen for Frank and Forest's future relationship.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
They would rarely see each other until years later.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
With tensions still running high, Frank, never a man to
get too down, tried again, this time marrying another Ethel,
Ethel v Heally and moving to Seattle, Washington to go
back into the candy business. He failed again with wholesaling
and creditors started taking his stuff. He moved thirty miles
south to Coma and again struggles. In nineteen twenty, Frank
and Ethel the Second moved back to Minnesota to be
(03:38):
closer to their families. At this time, Frank had only
four hundred dollars to his name, but despite his constant
struggles with candy, he continued to try, this time making
his own at three am every morning, with his wife
doing the selling. The candy bar was the Marrow Bar,
made out of chocolate, nuts and caramel. It was tough,
but they started to make a little money, and then
(03:59):
a good amount more. After years of trying, Frank Mars
had finally carved out a somewhat lucrative career in candy.
They were even able to buy a house and would
have been comfortable being local candy suppliers, but the invention
of the Milky Way changed all of that. It was
also around this time that Frank's son, Forrest, was establishing
(04:20):
a mighty fine business sense.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
After attending college.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
At Berkeley and later Yale, he became a traveling salesman
for camel cigarettes. As the legend goes in Chicago. One night,
Forest went a little overboard, plastering ads across the city
for camel. He was arrested, but his estranged father bailed
him out. While at a soda counter, Forest looked into
his chocolate malt glass and said, why don't you push
(04:45):
a chocolate malted.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Drink in a candy bar.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Newgar had been invented in Italy in the fifteenth century.
That a variation of whipped egg whites and sugar syrup
instead of the normal honey, was invented by the Pendergast
Candy Company in the early two twentieth century. They were
based in yes Minneapolis, and the new Gar became known
as Minneapolis Nougar frag. Mars It started using this newga
in his candies in nineteen twenty In fact, he called
(05:10):
the company the Newgar House for a time, but this
time in nineteen twenty three, he mixed it with chocolate
and put caramel on top of it. Using his cosmic
name as an inspiration, he called it a milky Way.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It was introduced in that same year.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Within a year, Mars' sales jumped by tenfold, grossing about
eight hundred thousand dollars that's about eleven million dollars today,
said Forest. Later that thing sold with no advertising. Mars
company quickly launched into orbit. They moved their headquarters to
near Chicago, and by nineteen twenty eight, just five years
(05:47):
after introducing the Milky Way, they were making twenty million
dollars in gross revenue. That's about two hundred and seventy
three million dollars today. In nineteen thirty they introduced the
Snickers Bar, named after Frank's favorite horse, and soon after
the Three Musketeers, Frank started living in Graham's fashion, buying
fast cars, big houses, and a horse farm for his wife. Meanwhile,
(06:10):
Forrest didn't like what he saw. Knowing that there was
more profit and security to be had by cutting costs
and expanding the business into other areas, he tried to
convince his father to give him a third of the
company and let him expand to Canada, Forest's home country.
Frank refused, dans Forrest later recounting a conversation with his father,
I told my dad to stick his business up his
(06:31):
if he didn't want to give me a third, Right then,
I said, I'm leaving. In the end, Frank gave Forrest
fifty thousand dollars and foreign rights to the Milky Way
to basically leave his company alone and move to Europe.
Fortunately for the company, that is exactly what Forrest did.
While in Europe, Forest learned from Switzerland's Nestle Chocolate company
about how to make good, sweet European style candy. He
(06:51):
tweaked the recipe of the Milky Way to make it
more sweet.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
He called it the Mars Bar.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It sold even better than the Milky Way in Europe,
saying Forest his own considerable fortune. Frank passed away in
nineteen thirty four at the young age of fifteen. His
wife Ethel took over the company. Then Frank's half brother,
William L. Slip Kroopen Baker. When Effel was too ill
to run it. In nineteen forty five, Efore passed away,
The company moved to the next of.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Kin, the business Sally Forest.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Forrest took over the company and immediately diversified, turning Mars
into more than just a candy company. He worked with
a European pet food supplier and eventually created Whiskers cat food.
He worked with a Texas salesman to create ready to
make rice that became Uncle Ben's Rice. Besides being a
brilliant money making businessman, he was also known to have
(07:39):
a violent temper and demands for perfection.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
For example, he was known.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
To throw chocolate bars out of windows if they didn't
meet his quality expectations. Remarkably quickly, he turns a regional
candy maker into a worldwide food empire. Today it is
his three kids who are reaping the benefits, John Forrest Junior,
and Jacqueline. They are some of the richest people in
the world, each owning a third of the Mars company,
(08:04):
which employs over seventy five thousand people and is valued
at around seventy billion dollars, making his approximately the sixth
largest privately held company in the world.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And now for a.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Bonus fact, in nineteen forty one, Forest Mars Senior struck
a deal with Bruce Murray, son of famed Hershey president
William Murray, to develop a hard shelled candy with chocolate
at the centre. Mars needed Hershey's chocolate because he anticipated
there would be a chocolate shortage in the pending war,
which turned out to be correct. As such, the deal
gave Murray a twenty percent steak in the newly developed Eminem.
(08:38):
This stake was later bought out by Mars when chocolate
rationing ended at the end of the war. The name
of the candy thus stood for Mars and Murray, the
co creators of the candy.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
As for he got the idea.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
The Eminem was modeled after a candy forest encountered while
in Spain during his XR from Mars in the nineteen
thirties during the Spanish Civil War. There he observed soldiers
eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate.
This prevented the candies from melting, which was essential when
included in their rations. Not surprisingly, during World War II
production of Eminem skyrockets due to the fact that they
(09:10):
were sold to the military and included as part of
the United States soldiers' rations. This also worked great at
marketing because is when the soldiers came home many were hooked.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And a terrific job on the production at editing by
our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Simon
Whistler for telling one heck of a story about some
of our favorite candies. And to think that out of
one company came Milky Way, Snickers, and three Musketeers, and
that they've been around for a century in a world
(09:41):
where brands come and go. What an achievement. The story
of Mars, which is, of course the story of Milky Way,
Snickers and three Musketeers, and Eminem's do here on our
American stories.
And we continue with our American stories. The world famous
Mars Corporation is a multi billion dollar confectionery giant. This
one small time family run sweet shop is now a
bigger brand than McDonald's Kellogg's and even four times as
big as Hershey. Their biggest competitor here to tell the
(00:35):
story of Mars Candy is Simon Whistler from the Today
I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister, the Brain
Food Show podcast. Let's take a listener, Hold your breath,
make a wish Count three.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's the legendary roll doll book Charlie in the Chocolate
Factory from nineteen sixty four and it's subsequent Twothilm adaptations
nineteen seventy one and two thousand and five told the
story of a magical candy factory and its eccentric and
mysterious owner, Willy Wonka. A chocolate river, a gun that
is a whole turkey dinner, never ending gobstoppers, and of course,
(01:15):
the singing and dancing Perlumpers are just a few of
the surprises that waited inside the doors of the famously
secretive factory. Of course, in a real life candy empire,
there are a lot more failures, a lot more hard work.
There are fathersome disputes, and an unfortunate lack of unperlumpers.
The story of Mars Candy starts in Newport, Minnesota, southeast
(01:37):
of Saint Paul, with the birth of Franklin Clarence Mars
on September the twenty third, eighteen eighty three. Frank was
the son of a gristmill operator grinding grains into flower,
who only moved to Minnesota from Pennsylvania with his wife Alva,
months prior to Frank's birth. When Frank was little, he
battles polio, which left him disabled for the rest of
his life. As you might imagine from this, he was
(01:59):
rather immobile kid, so we spent a lot of time
watching his mother Bacon cook, including watching her go through
the difficult and tedious process of making fresh chocolates. He
got so into candy that he began selling Taylor's molasses
chips and creating his own candy recipes while still in
high school. By the time he graduated, he had a
pretty successful career, going selling candy wholesale to stores in
(02:20):
the Minneapolis Saint Paul area. In nineteen oh two, he
married F. L. G. Kissock, a school teacher. About a
year later, Frank's first son.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Forrest, was born.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was also around this time that the candy markets
became oversaturated, with Hersheybar having been introduced in nineteen hundred
of the United States' first mass produced candy bar, a
post of other locally owned candy chains popped up.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
The competition was.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Fierce, especially in the Minneapolis area. Brands like Chickastick, Pearson's,
and Cherry Hump started in Minnesota and all are still
around today, so it wasn't a huge surprise when Frank's
wholesale business went under to add a little and juice
to his fresh wound. In nineteen ten, Ethel divorced Frank
for being unable to support at She also won sole
(03:06):
custody of Forest, who she promptly sent to live with
her parents in Canada. The onliness of the divorce wasn't
a good omen for Frank and Forest's future relationship.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
They would rarely see each other until years later.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
With tensions still running high, Frank, never a man to
get too down, tried again, this time marrying another Ethel,
Ethel v Heally and moving to Seattle, Washington to go
back into the candy business. He failed again with wholesaling
and creditors started taking his stuff. He moved thirty miles
south to Coma and again struggles. In nineteen twenty, Frank
and Ethel the Second moved back to Minnesota to be
(03:38):
closer to their families. At this time, Frank had only
four hundred dollars to his name, but despite his constant
struggles with candy, he continued to try, this time making
his own at three am every morning, with his wife
doing the selling. The candy bar was the Marrow Bar,
made out of chocolate, nuts and caramel. It was tough,
but they started to make a little money, and then
(03:59):
a good amount more. After years of trying, Frank Mars
had finally carved out a somewhat lucrative career in candy.
They were even able to buy a house and would
have been comfortable being local candy suppliers, but the invention
of the Milky Way changed all of that. It was
also around this time that Frank's son, Forrest, was establishing
(04:20):
a mighty fine business sense.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
After attending college.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
At Berkeley and later Yale, he became a traveling salesman
for camel cigarettes. As the legend goes in Chicago. One night,
Forest went a little overboard, plastering ads across the city
for camel. He was arrested, but his estranged father bailed
him out. While at a soda counter, Forest looked into
his chocolate malt glass and said, why don't you push
(04:45):
a chocolate malted.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Drink in a candy bar.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Newgar had been invented in Italy in the fifteenth century.
That a variation of whipped egg whites and sugar syrup
instead of the normal honey, was invented by the Pendergast
Candy Company in the early two twentieth century. They were
based in yes Minneapolis, and the new Gar became known
as Minneapolis Nougar frag. Mars It started using this newga
in his candies in nineteen twenty In fact, he called
(05:10):
the company the Newgar House for a time, but this
time in nineteen twenty three, he mixed it with chocolate
and put caramel on top of it. Using his cosmic
name as an inspiration, he called it a milky Way.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It was introduced in that same year.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Within a year, Mars' sales jumped by tenfold, grossing about
eight hundred thousand dollars that's about eleven million dollars today,
said Forest. Later that thing sold with no advertising. Mars
company quickly launched into orbit. They moved their headquarters to
near Chicago, and by nineteen twenty eight, just five years
(05:47):
after introducing the Milky Way, they were making twenty million
dollars in gross revenue. That's about two hundred and seventy
three million dollars today. In nineteen thirty they introduced the
Snickers Bar, named after Frank's favorite horse, and soon after
the Three Musketeers, Frank started living in Graham's fashion, buying
fast cars, big houses, and a horse farm for his wife. Meanwhile,
(06:10):
Forrest didn't like what he saw. Knowing that there was
more profit and security to be had by cutting costs
and expanding the business into other areas, he tried to
convince his father to give him a third of the
company and let him expand to Canada, Forest's home country.
Frank refused, dans Forrest later recounting a conversation with his father,
I told my dad to stick his business up his
(06:31):
if he didn't want to give me a third, Right then,
I said, I'm leaving. In the end, Frank gave Forrest
fifty thousand dollars and foreign rights to the Milky Way
to basically leave his company alone and move to Europe.
Fortunately for the company, that is exactly what Forrest did.
While in Europe, Forest learned from Switzerland's Nestle Chocolate company
about how to make good, sweet European style candy. He
(06:51):
tweaked the recipe of the Milky Way to make it
more sweet.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
He called it the Mars Bar.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It sold even better than the Milky Way in Europe,
saying Forest his own considerable fortune. Frank passed away in
nineteen thirty four at the young age of fifteen. His
wife Ethel took over the company. Then Frank's half brother,
William L. Slip Kroopen Baker. When Effel was too ill
to run it. In nineteen forty five, Efore passed away,
The company moved to the next of.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Kin, the business Sally Forest.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Forrest took over the company and immediately diversified, turning Mars
into more than just a candy company. He worked with
a European pet food supplier and eventually created Whiskers cat food.
He worked with a Texas salesman to create ready to
make rice that became Uncle Ben's Rice. Besides being a
brilliant money making businessman, he was also known to have
(07:39):
a violent temper and demands for perfection.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
For example, he was known.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
To throw chocolate bars out of windows if they didn't
meet his quality expectations. Remarkably quickly, he turns a regional
candy maker into a worldwide food empire. Today it is
his three kids who are reaping the benefits, John Forrest Junior,
and Jacqueline. They are some of the richest people in
the world, each owning a third of the Mars company,
(08:04):
which employs over seventy five thousand people and is valued
at around seventy billion dollars, making his approximately the sixth
largest privately held company in the world.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And now for a.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Bonus fact, in nineteen forty one, Forest Mars Senior struck
a deal with Bruce Murray, son of famed Hershey president
William Murray, to develop a hard shelled candy with chocolate
at the centre. Mars needed Hershey's chocolate because he anticipated
there would be a chocolate shortage in the pending war,
which turned out to be correct. As such, the deal
gave Murray a twenty percent steak in the newly developed Eminem.
(08:38):
This stake was later bought out by Mars when chocolate
rationing ended at the end of the war. The name
of the candy thus stood for Mars and Murray, the
co creators of the candy.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
As for he got the idea.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
The Eminem was modeled after a candy forest encountered while
in Spain during his XR from Mars in the nineteen
thirties during the Spanish Civil War. There he observed soldiers
eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate.
This prevented the candies from melting, which was essential when
included in their rations. Not surprisingly, during World War II
production of Eminem skyrockets due to the fact that they
(09:10):
were sold to the military and included as part of
the United States soldiers' rations. This also worked great at
marketing because is when the soldiers came home many were hooked.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And a terrific job on the production at editing by
our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Simon
Whistler for telling one heck of a story about some
of our favorite candies. And to think that out of
one company came Milky Way, Snickers, and three Musketeers, and
that they've been around for a century in a world
(09:41):
where brands come and go. What an achievement. The story
of Mars, which is, of course the story of Milky Way,
Snickers and three Musketeers, and Eminem's do here on our
American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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