December 26, 2024 • 43 mins
Morgan White filled in on NightSide:
Author and photographer Susan Mara Bregman has covered New England’s candlepin bowling scene to its neon signs. Now, she’s on the hunt for some of New England’s most iconic candy. Bregman joined Morgan to talk about our sweet, nostalgic favorites.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Author and photographer Susan Mara Bregman has covered New England’s candlepin bowling scene to its neon signs. Now, she’s on the hunt for some of New England’s most iconic candy. Bregman joined Morgan to talk about our sweet, nostalgic favorites.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's night Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thirty one degrees here in the Greater Boston area. My
name is Morgan White Junior. This is night Side Dan Ray.
You should know by now who's been on vacation. And
we'll be back Wednesday, the first of January twenty twenty five.
I first interviewed this woman about three or four years ago,
(00:29):
maybe more, and she had written a book about candlepin bowling.
She knew all the names Rosariolikiaraa Stasia, and Ed Zernike,
all of the major names of watching Saturday Morning Candlepin
(00:54):
Bowling on Channel five. And she wrote another book, a
book based on all all the places to stop on
Route one North, whether he wanted something to eat or
for recreational purposes, the big orange dinosaur at the golf course,
(01:15):
miniature golf course. And now she's got another book, a
book about candy that's specific to New England. There's a
lot of candy out there that our general area has produced,
and it's been consumed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont,
(01:41):
New Hampshire, and Susan knows about it all. Susan Brakeman
welcome to Night's Side.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, thank you, Morgan. It's a pleasure to be back,
all right.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And one of these days we're gonna go candlepin bowling
and I'm gonna whoop up on you.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Fine by me.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I'm going to show you no mercy.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Okay, no problem, I'll be ready.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
If you wind up beating me, I'm going to say, well,
I'm seventy one years old. What do you expect you're
near half my age?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, something like that, something like that, something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Let's talk about the Candy book.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, so you know it's actually it's called New England
Sweets and it's not just about candy, although candy's a
big chunk of it. It's New England Sweets and the
subtitle is what is it? Donuts, Bonbonds and Whoopee Pies.
So it's really all sorts of sweet baked things, frozen
things and candies from New England, but a big chunk
(02:46):
of it is candy. We talked about Necho your favorite,
the wal Eco Bar.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, I'm and Joy Peter Paul almenjoy In Mounds were
made in Naugatuck, Connecticut for for years, so all sorts
of candies came from New England.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
What inspired you to write this book?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Uh, you know, I had just finished my book, A
Long Route One, and I was kind of interested in
writing a book about whoopee pies. That was my original idea.
I was in Maine. I was spending a lot of
time in Maine, and you know Mainlay's claim to whoopee pies,
(03:31):
it's the official state treat And I thought that would
be a great book. It has a great story. There's
there's controversy, there's you know, three states claim ownership with
the whoopee pie. There are two competing actually three competing
whoopie pie festivals. So I thought it would be a
fun book and I pitched that to my publisher, Arcadia Publishing,
(03:56):
and they kind of gently suggested I broaden my scope.
I had to look at New England suites and I did,
and I'm glad I did.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Their name came up in my interview with Anthony San
Marco a couple of days ago. Arcadia Press.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, it was a lot of books for years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah. So now that you've got a triple crown of
books out there, what's next, Well, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Let's finish this one. I just turned in the manuscript
three days ago, so it's not out yet. You know,
it's going to go through the editorial process and the
design process and the publishing process, and it'll come out
in July, July twenty twenty five, and then I'm not sure.
(04:53):
I think there's a lot of candy stories that still
need to be told. In Boston, Boston and Cambridge used
to be the candy manufacturing center of the country. There
were just dozens and dozens and dozens of candy companies,
and some of them are just, you know, gone, nobody
even knows who they were. But others were big deals
(05:14):
and they were like major. There was obviously Necho, Yeah,
there was. There was Daggett's, which was there for quite
a long time. Duran Confectionery was there for quite a
long time. James O. Welch Company was there. They made
Junior Mint. And there's just a lot of stories out
(05:34):
there that I think I didn't have enough room in
this book to tell. So who knows, maybe that'll be
my next one.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
All Right, you're in the fifth grade, You're a little
girl in the fifth grade. You had a whole quarter
in your pocket, and in those days, a lot Yeah,
a couple of candy bars and a bag of chips.
What was your first choice growing up?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
My first choice was always Eminem's with peanuts, ah, in
that kind of.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Maroon bag, not the dark chocolate bag, because I.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Feel it was a yellow I feel it was.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
A yellow, yellowish maroon. You know, it wasn't a dark
chocolate bag.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, that's my that's my point. Okay, that's the point.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And how do you feel about the way eminem has
just revamped their advertising in the past ten years and
the red Eminem is a smart alec and the green
Eminem is kind of a vamp. How do you feel
about that?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Eh?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Eh, Okay, I'm not their target audience anymore. I'll just
say that.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, but I bet you still buy.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Them sometimes sometimes, but you know, I'm trying to buy
candies that have a New England connection now and Eminems.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You do not. And you know why M and M's
was invented.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
It was invented for soldiers, right because it didn't melt
and World War.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
One, so a soldier could eat candy chocolate, which is
an energy source, and it wouldn't melt in their hands
and you're handling a rifle after chocolate toll over your hand,
and they didn't want that, the US Army.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's why they were invented. I know.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It's so interesting and a lot of there's a lot
of connection between candy and especially chocolate and the army
because they did want you know, they wanted to give
chocolates to soldiers for energy, for the calories, the energy
and the caffeine. I think so at the beginning of
World War One, I think it was the army solicited
(08:04):
all the chocolate manufacturers to contribute like these big blocks
of chocolate and then the army would slice them down
into like chocolate bars and wrap them up and give
them out to the troops. And then the troops came
back and you know, they had a hankering for chocolate bars.
All of a sudden, there you go, chocolate bar. Chocolate
(08:24):
bar industry exploded in the twenties.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
All right, I've got a news hit. But when we
come back, I want you to put the spotlight as
we both have mentioned my personal favorite candy.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Bar, Walleco, Walleco and other company that.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Put it out and the history and why we don't
have Walco anymore. So you promised to do.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
That for me. I do good.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Susan pregnant, We'll be back. You want to call in
and talk to her six seven, five, four ten thirty
eight eight eight nine to nine, ten thirty. This is
night Side. Dan is off until the new year. I'm Morgan.
Time and temperature here eleven fourteen thirty one degrees.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
On WBZ News Radio. Susan Bragman is my guest, and
she's written a number of books. By the way, are
all of them from Arcadia?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yes, and there's actually New England Sweets is my fourth book.
My first one was called New England Neon, which I
think you and I have never.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Talked about, but we've we've mentioned it, although I've never yes.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yes, done and officially yeah, so yes, they're all for
Arcadia and New England Neon came out in twenty eighteen,
so they've all been in the past, you know a
few years.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Have these books put you in a different tax bracket?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yet?
Speaker 6 (10:07):
No, not yet.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm still waiting.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, everybody go out and buy them. If you hear
my voice and you hear Susan with me, go buy
her books.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
They're great. They're great books, they're interesting, they have a
lot of information, good photographs, and they're a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Let me take a call from Woburn and Gary, welcome
And what am I going to say to you? Gary? Well,
I am going to say that, But what else am
I going to say?
Speaker 7 (10:47):
Hi? Let me continue? That's your puzzle to night.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yes, all right, Gary, turn out. This is your last
call of the week because you've this is your third
call in four days, and you know you're not supposed
to call more than once or twice a week, and
this is your third call. So until the new year,
(11:15):
no more calls for you. But you're here now, doctor Susan.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
All right, Susan, get your favorite candy bars at sixty
one years of age? Or was way back when when
I was a kid? Was the marathon?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The marathon? So that's not a new not a new
England one?
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Is it?
Speaker 6 (11:35):
Not?
Speaker 3 (11:35):
In my book?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
No?
Speaker 7 (11:37):
Okay, I'm sorry, I did even know that.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
It's all right, I can't.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
Think of all new England candy bars.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
But I do have a question.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
What you guys are talking about war and so forth,
of World War two and so forth. My question is
this is did the companies charge the United States government
to give the chocolate to the soldiers?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I'm not sure, I know, I think okay, you I
know if you don't of the United States government paid
the companies.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's like the United States government paid the cigarette companies
to give cigarettes for the soldiers.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Do they recoisition the chocolate? So they yes, yes, so
they purchased it. Yes, Okay.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
Here's my last one?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Is this?
Speaker 7 (12:35):
Uh I'm not even sure if it's noise one, but
here it goes. We've heard of Russell Stova chocolates.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Mm hmm, that's yeah, that's it.
Speaker 7 (12:45):
Go ahead, Well, russell Stova is usually a holiday chocolate
all through the years. And let's face the facts. I mean,
you never really see it all year long. Where is
russell Stova located?
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Not here. I'm not sure where Russell Stover is. I
know there were a whole bunch. There was Whitman's, there
was Russell Stover, there was Shrafts. Shrafts was here. Of course.
It was Cupboard, Oh yeah, candy cupboard and that was
that ultimately became a neco brand that was originally Level
(13:22):
and coverle who rhymed and they were they were a
Cambridge They were a Cambridge company and they made candy cupboard,
and Necho eventually ended up with candy cupboard. They acquired
Level and Cover in nineteen thirty three and ended up
(13:45):
making them a subsidiary and manufacturing the candy cupboards. Russell
Stover is they're in Kansas City.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Okay, very good. My last common says when the Christmas time,
you know, when they mocked on the candy down to
twenty five I have fifty and seventy five percent off. Yeah, okay,
true story. CBS Pharmacy where I live, back about four
years ago, it was down to seventy five percent off.
(14:16):
It was about thirty seven cents each. And I went
in there like a crazy weirdo, and I bought one
hundred and fifty individual Russell Stover candy bars that are
pretty huge at thirty seven cents because they usually cost
them about a buck fifty or more. Yeah, And what happened.
I just passed them out to all friends this that
for like a few weeks this that, and everybody was like,
(14:38):
are you kidding me? Because when you pass out of
Russell Stover candy a chocolate to someone, you made their day.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
What a nice sky you were.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
Yeah, I am and they can be looking. That sound great?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Thank you, Gary. You take care of happy holiday sper
Merry Christmas into Happy New Year. Anyone else wants to do?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
What? Gary? Did?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Your phone number six one, seven, two, five four ten
thirty or eight eight, eight, nine two nine ten thirty.
I've got Susan Brakman here. And do you want to
talk about your previous books as well as the Candy
book or your next book? Where do I Where do
(15:22):
I direct the conversation?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Let's talk about wal Eco bars.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yes, Gary distracted because.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
They will be in New England suites, so they will
be in the forthcoming book. So there was a company
in Brockton called the FB Washburn Company and they started
in eighteen fifty six. Francis Washburn named it after himself,
of course, and it started as yeah, well they all
(15:54):
did at that time. And he opened a bakery. It
was originally a bakery in Brockton, but their most popular
item was a coconut cookie, so he tried to figure
out a way to turn it into a candy. And
the timing is a little fuzzy, but at one point
(16:14):
he wanted to do that and then in nineteen thirty three,
a man named Harry Gilson bought Washburns and he moved
to Brockton from Brooklyn and came here. He had no
particular background in either the bakery industry or the candy
making industry, but he bought Washburns and started making candy.
(16:39):
And one of the candies he made was the Waal
Eco bar, and he did that sometime in Nobody seems
to have an exact date, but it seems to have
been in the late nineteen thirties. And while eco bars
are chocolate covered coconut bars.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Why did he stop? And then why did they stop?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The company stopped again, no official explanation except it seems
they stopped in the eighties and they wanted to focus
on their hard candies. They had just purchased seventy seventies candy,
which made ribbon candy, right, and they wanted to focus
(17:32):
on their ribbon candy. And they were also making Dad's
root beer barrels, They made sower bawls, they made lollipops,
and they made lollipops like for bank lobbies and stuff
like TD Bank where you can get a lollipops. So
that was a big big, big part of their company,
and for whatever reason, they decided to stop making chocolate
(17:57):
bars and focus on the hard candy.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
There's a candy bar route there from England called Bounty
and now it's the closest in taste to the Walleco bar.
Almond Joy or Mounds does not even in my taste
buds make me reminisce about Walleco, but the Bounty bar does. Now,
(18:24):
I know you're focusing on candy made in New England.
Do you know anything about the Bounty bar.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I know it's not sold in the US, right, It's
sold in England and maybe Canada, but I think England
and there are a.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Few stores around here that sell it.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, yeah, but it's it's not I think it was
designed to be an imitation of the Mounds bar, and
yeah sound Mounts. Mounts used dark chocolate, almon Joy uses
milk chocolate.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And almond Joy has the nuts obviously has.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
The almond Yeah, right, and does not right, because sometimes
you feel like a nut, heytimes you don't.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Hey, that phrase, that phrase might catch on. Maybe we'll
make money on your ability to make magic phrases.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yeah, if only I know, I know. So that's the
third well ego, But can I tell you there's a
funny PostScript. Yes, they had in the nineteen sixties when
they were still making the bars, they I think they
(19:46):
tried to get sort of hip and groovy and they
had a competition with local bands to write a radio
jingle and the winning group was called a Flat Earth
Society and they were a akadelic band from Lynn, Okay,
and they won the contest. But they were like so
(20:07):
unprepared that they didn't have enough songs to fill an album,
so they had to write them on the spot and
then it just kind of they landed in obscurity. Nobody
bought the album, so.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That was the end of that. So what are the
odds of somebody buying out the company. I know the
company is defunct, but well, enough money they can be
brought back and maybe they will go back to making
ribbon candy and the wal Eco bar am I Wison
(20:41):
past the graveyard here.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Well, you know, they sold they sold the ribbon candy
line to a company in Henderson, Nevada, Nevada.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
A time.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, and they sold the other hard candies to a
different company. So they sold off all their active candy,
you know, active candy lines, so Washburn's is no more.
(21:19):
I don't know who has the recipe for well Eco bars.
There are still there are still descendants of Harry Gilson
who are around, but I don't know that they have
the recipe.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Okay. Now you mentioned four books, all by Arcadia Press.
Tell my audience the exact title of all four books.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Okay. So my first book was called New England Neon,
and that came out in twenty eighteen, and that looked
at Neon signs, as the title says, in all six
New England states. It looked at you know, existing signs
like the Sitco sign, or the Shell sign or Memorial Drive,
(22:09):
the Hilltop Steakhouse sign when it was still a Neon
sign that said Hilltop Steakhouse. And then you know some
historic signs that have been gone forever, like the White
Fuel Company sign that used to be in Kenmore Kenmore Square.
My second book was called New England Candleton Bowling, and
(22:29):
that came out in twenty twenty, in the middle of
the pandemic, and that was kind of a historical look
at Candleton Bowling. Also looked at some of the people,
like you said before, Stasia Zernike Tommy Olsta and that
that one kind of somehow ended up leading me into
(22:52):
my next book, which was called A Long Route one Maine,
New Hampshire and Massachusetts. And in that book, I looked
at landmarks, historical sites, you know, popular cultural sites like
the one orange dinosaur uh from Fort from Fort Kent,
(23:14):
Maine down to Attleborough, Massachusetts. And that's more of a
historical book. That that drew a lot of a lot
of information from historical societies and libraries and universities and archives.
And then we come to New England Suites, which comes
out next summer.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And I want people to purchase these books because I
want Susan to become independently wealthy and to absolutely I'm
going to take a break here if you want to
call and speak to Susan, maybe mention your favorite favorite
candy product and find out who made it and when
(23:58):
and all those things. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty Here
on night side, where the temperature is thirty one degrees
at eleven thirty one.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Night Side Thought with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So some pregnant is here. We're talking candy and the
origin of maybe some of your favorite candies, and we
talked about Necho New England.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Confection Company Sectionary Company CCO.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Thank you for making me say it the right way.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
They had.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I don't know how to put this a little brew
haha over the candy hearts that we've all eaten when
we were kids and grown up with and the skull
butt had that circumstance caused them moving from Cambridge to Revere. Now,
(25:07):
I don't know if that's true or not, but why
don't you tell that story to people.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
I know?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I know about the move from Cambridge to Revere. I'm
not sure what bruhaha you're talking about. As far as
I knew, they moved because they wanted to consolidate their
real estate holdings and they could get a fortune for
selling their property in Cambridge. They sold it for like
(25:35):
seventy seven million dollars to Novartis and they moved to
Revere in I forget what year it was, two thousand
and four, two thousand and eight, somewhere like that.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
That little walk of land costs how much.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
The Neco factory sold first, I believe seventy seven million
dollars but now I'm going to have to check with
the Nicco.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Factory had that water tower with the word Nicko on
the side.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I know, and it used to be striped.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
They sold it in two thousand and four for seventy
seven million and they painted the water tower. It was
a big building, I know, it was a big.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Building youried with regularity. I mean that was the main way.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It's still a big building.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That was the main way to get into Cambridge Bank
going over the mass at.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Bridge mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It was right there on mass Aft by Main Street.
The one end of confectioner's were ow.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
So how are they doing in Revere?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Well, that was the beginning of the end for them.
They got sold in two thousand and seven. They got
sold to like a you know, a group of investors
who were highly leveraged and incurred a lot of debt.
And you know, they hung on. They hung on for
about ten years, but they were sold. They were sold
in a bankruptcy auction in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And Neco wafers, well they still.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Make Necko wafers, so Necho wafers and Sweethearts and Canada
Mints were all sold to a company Ohio in Ohio
called Spangler. They make those, they make dumb dumb lollipops, yes,
and Spangler. You know, it took a year to retool
whatever they had to do, and they started making Nico
(27:36):
Wafers and Sweethearts again in twenty twenty and Canada Mints also,
and yeah, a few of the Necho products got a
new life after Necho. After Necho went under, So Neco Wafers, Sweethearts,
Canada Mints, Stararars, Skybar. So Skybar is the only former
(28:01):
Neco product that's still made a Massachusetts and they're made
that is a small company in Sudbury and a woman
named Louise, Louise Mawinney, and she rescued Skybar and started
manufacturing them from a storefront on Route twenty in Sudbury.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
And is Skybar the same fourth sections that it was
when we were kids. Yeah, caramel fudge.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, peanut butter or peanut. Yeah, it's like caramel fudge
peanut and like a vanilla kind of yeah, nugats. Yeah,
And the formulas changed over the years. And she, you
know when she bought she boughte you know, all the
intellectual property, so all the old recipes and she experimented
(29:06):
a little bit and went back to you know, either
the original or very shortly after the nineteen thirties era flavors,
and she upgraded the chocolate as well. So they're really
quite good now. But Skybar Skybar had a fun origin
story because you know, they named it. It was there
(29:29):
was actually a Skyline series of candies and Skybar is
the most famous, and it was you know, they were
trying to tap in with the public's fascination with aviation
because this was in nineteen thirty old, okay, and they
launched it. This is like such a good story. They
launched it with a skywriting campaign, so they would you know,
(29:54):
they had a skywrider and he would write, you know,
mile high letters in the sky that said sky Bar.
So yeah, they really they really rolled out all the
stops for Skybar back in the thirties.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
You know what, young lady, you know your stuff, and
I learned.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
A lot of really fun stories.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, I think people should give you credits for what
you do know about our favorite candies.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Well, I appreciate that. I enjoy sharing these stories because
they're really interesting, and you know, not everybody, not everybody
has heard all these details, and some of them are
old stories. So you know, people weren't around. I wasn't
around in the thirties. You weren't around in the thirties.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No, it didn't turn to the fifties.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, but later than that you, Oh, who knows. But
so my website do you want Can I tell people
my website?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yes, I want you to tell your website.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
My website is www dot Rednickel dot com, Red like
the color Nickel, likedthecoin dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And I'm on.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Facebook and Instagram as red Nickel neon, which is a
nod to my first book. Yeah, yes, and red Nickel. Yes, yes,
I was just going to tell you it was sort
of named after a slot machine, which I thought might
be of interest to you.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Oh, definitely of interest. What slot machine? What's it called,
Red Nickel.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Well, it wasn't an actual slot machine. What it was
was a photograph I took many years ago when I
was at the Luxor in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And it wasn't years ago because the luxw did can't
come around to the late eighties.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Okay, Well, it was in the nineties that I took
this picture, and it was a color picture. When the
Luxor when the casino was sort of had a red
Egyptian theme. Yes, And it was a photograph of a
bank of slot machine nickel slots, And so I named
(32:13):
this photograph and I was, you know, putting titles on
my photograph. I called it red Nickel because it was
red and it had nickel slots, and that's where the
name came from.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
When was the last time you were in Vegas?
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Oh, pre pandemic. Oh yeah, it's been a while.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You've got to go back again.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I know, I know. I have a friend in California
and we go to Vegas together. But he's had he's
had family obligations taking up his time and we just
haven't had a chance to to get to Vegas in
a while.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Tell you what, You've got my home number. The next
time we have plans to go to Vegas. Let me know, maybe,
just maybe I can coordinate a trip and I will
take you and your friend to the best restaurant in Vegas,
which is Michaels and Michael's is at the South Point
(33:11):
Hotel on the Strip kind of south. You are at
the corner of the Excalibur Luxor MGM used to be
the Tropicana but they've they've raised the But you go
(33:31):
maybe about four and a half five miles further south,
like you were going to take the long way to
Los Angeles, and that's where the South Point Hotel is
and Michaels is one of the most famous hotels in Vegas.
And I will take you and your friend to dinner
(33:52):
at Michael's my treat.
Speaker 7 (33:56):
It's a deal.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Now, we're just gonna find ourselves in Vegas at the.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Time at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
But if we can coordinate that you're in for, oh
my goodness, the meal. For an example, let's say you
order for an app appetizer. They're seafood Special. They take
a block of ice, and let's say you cut a
(34:26):
bowling ball tenpin in half and it's all all ice,
and they insert they make holes and insert crab, shrimp,
lobster all through that and then there's a candle underneath
(34:46):
it so it's illuminated. Oh you can have that, my treat.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I'll pay and deal unless it become rich and famous
of these books, well.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Then well we'll settle line and were said of what
that figure can be. Susan Brigman is my guests. If
you want to call in. You got roughly ten twelve
minutes of time to say hello to her and talk
candy here on night Side Time eleven forty six thirty
one degrees.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I've got three people waiting to speak to Susan Brigman.
I've got eight minutes to give them their chance.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
To do it.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Let's start with Ken and Bridgewater, Line one. Ken, what's up?
Speaker 8 (35:43):
Yes, Hi Kenny, how you doing tonight?
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Hi? Hi, Susan.
Speaker 8 (35:46):
So I had, first of all, you touched on all
the candy that I liked, the Wallycos my favorite, and
then of course skybars. You gave me information that I
had no idea they were being made. So that's wonderful.
One of the things that has bothered me for a
long long.
Speaker 9 (36:02):
Time is the Nestle's chocolate bar. I always thought the
Nestle's chocolate was way better than a Hershey's bar, and
you can't find them anymore. And I was wondering if
you knew anything about the Nestle's chocolate bar used to
come in a white package with red letters on it.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah, I don't know really much about that because that
wasn't the focus of my research, so I really can't
answer that. I'm sorry to say. You know, I know
that Nestle's, Hershey, and Mars are the three big candy
companies now and they pretty much control the candy bar market.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
So I did.
Speaker 9 (36:49):
I did discover something quite by accident. If anybody's looking
for the Nestle's chocolate bar, which I still think is
the best one ever, is if you if you buy
the milk chocolate morsels, the Nestle's morsels for chocolate chip cookies,
the milk ones, milk chocolate, you could eat like two
(37:11):
or three of those at a time in your mouth.
It's it's just like the old Nestli's chocolate bar.
Speaker 8 (37:18):
All right, How I get my fix?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Melt them down?
Speaker 8 (37:26):
Melt them down? Yeah, sure you could do that too.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Ken, you live in Bridgewater, there is a candy store
East Bridgewater called Pinches and Pounds. Have you ever been there?
Speaker 5 (37:38):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
It's on the intersection of twenty seven and eighteen.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Call them.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
I'm sure you can look up their number and see
if they have the candy product you're looking for. Because
if it's candy, they specialize in older almost forgotten candies.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Okay, perfect, I'll try it. Thank you very much, Ken,
happy too, Thank you. Go to Rick and Bill Rica, Rick.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Good evening, Morgan and Susan.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
How are you Susan? Then, when I was a kid,
how are you happy? Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, happy everything.
When I was a kid in the early late seventies,
early agies, I used to grow up in Burlington, mass
And I used to go to Dale Pharmacy and see
ethel for a watcher m a call it bar and
a package of hockey cards. And right across the shree
(38:34):
was a fanny farmer by the way in Burlington. I
know they came out of Rochester, New York, but and
I just wanted to say I thought I was a
mister cool when when I would smoke those or blow
out the confectionery sugar and the bubblegum cigarettes as a kid,
I enjoyed that. And I know that it's might not
have anything to do with your research, but Bubble Young
(38:56):
Bubble isious. And there was another bubble gum company and
they were so popular in the early eighties. I love
the grape bubble yum and I think it was bubble
ishous that had the orange and that raspberrybody. It was
such a craze to buy chewing gum. But thank you
for your work.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Lots of fun, sure, thank you every week.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Thank you for your call.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
Yeah, absolutely, all right.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Go ahead, Susan Oh.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
I was just going to say there was a gum
company in East Boston for years called Gum Product, very
very clear name, and they made I think during World
War Two they made a bubble gum product called Yank
Yanks Yanks bubble gum, I remember that. Yeah, So they
(39:45):
were around and then they made gumballs also, and they
were around till I think thineteen eighty and then they
got shut down and now now the building is condos
called you know, the bubblegum factory.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
All right, let's go to Adlebur and speak to Michael. Michael,
welcome to night Side.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
Hey, great show as usual. Three quick questions because I
know you don't have the time. Was Charleston choo local?
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yes, So Charleston Choe was originally made in Cambridge by
a company called Oh it's going to come to me.
It was originally made in Cambridge, and then I think
they moved to Everett for a while and then they
got bought and through a whole bunch of corporate transfers,
they ended up back in Cambridge and they are still
(40:40):
made in the last candy factory in Cambridge on Main Street.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know. Is that the one
that makes actually not in Cambridge but Marshall Fluff.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
No, that's a different company. That's Mower Jurkey Mower, know right.
Charleson Chew was originally made by the Fox Cross Company,
but today TUTSI roll owns them and they make Charleston
Choose at eight ten Main Street, which is sort of
at the corner of Main Street and mass Ave. It's
(41:18):
the same building that makes Junior Mints as well.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
All right, this one last cook thing, I know you're
going to hang up real quick. Whatever happened to the
Caravel bar? I was just reading about the seventies. I
loved it. I know, I don't know what a candy,
but I loved that bar. The one hundred grand on
one million grand whatever that one's called. It's close to it,
(41:44):
but it's not the same. And the last thing is
the Neco waves now made in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Are they well? I know they're made by Spangler but
it could be they, you know, manufactured elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
They had to take they had to take the banner
off the label made in America.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
All right, Michael, I gotta get one more on. Thank you, David,
and Lake Placid. You're the last call the night with
Susan Brigman.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Go ahead, David, Yes, I was just wondering whatever happened
to the Coca Cola signs in Allston.
Speaker 9 (42:15):
Oh god, it was.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
It was removed.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
It was supposed to be saved. It was stored temporarily
in the Conrail railroad yard, and it just basically.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Somebody, somebody has it and they keeping me quiet. Bet David,
thank you for the question. By all right, Susan, get
a whole flurry of calls there at the m Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Thank you. And you make your money sell these books.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Hey, I'm working on it, and thank you. Thank you.
Fun to talk about.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Two dates, a candlepin bowling date and a dinner dayton Vegas.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
And a dinner date in Vegas. This is great.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
You take care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Happy new Year, Okay, thank you, Morgan, you Happy new Year.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
There you go, Susan Brakeman. I had George go, hey,
we're gone tonight. I had Cindy Bruce, and I had
Shearffy and Doctor. Thank you to all the ladies here
on night Side and Rob, thank you for being Rob.
Nancy Gray, thank you too. And all the people who
listen to and to are called, thank you for your
(43:34):
participation with Nightside. I'll be here tomorrow and I'm just
gonna say my parting two words by Boston
It's night Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thirty one degrees here in the Greater Boston area. My
name is Morgan White Junior. This is night Side Dan Ray.
You should know by now who's been on vacation. And
we'll be back Wednesday, the first of January twenty twenty five.
I first interviewed this woman about three or four years ago,
(00:29):
maybe more, and she had written a book about candlepin bowling.
She knew all the names Rosariolikiaraa Stasia, and Ed Zernike,
all of the major names of watching Saturday Morning Candlepin
(00:54):
Bowling on Channel five. And she wrote another book, a
book based on all all the places to stop on
Route one North, whether he wanted something to eat or
for recreational purposes, the big orange dinosaur at the golf course,
(01:15):
miniature golf course. And now she's got another book, a
book about candy that's specific to New England. There's a
lot of candy out there that our general area has produced,
and it's been consumed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont,
(01:41):
New Hampshire, and Susan knows about it all. Susan Brakeman
welcome to Night's Side.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, thank you, Morgan. It's a pleasure to be back,
all right.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And one of these days we're gonna go candlepin bowling
and I'm gonna whoop up on you.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Fine by me.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I'm going to show you no mercy.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Okay, no problem, I'll be ready.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
If you wind up beating me, I'm going to say, well,
I'm seventy one years old. What do you expect you're
near half my age?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, something like that, something like that, something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Let's talk about the Candy book.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, so you know it's actually it's called New England
Sweets and it's not just about candy, although candy's a
big chunk of it. It's New England Sweets and the
subtitle is what is it? Donuts, Bonbonds and Whoopee Pies.
So it's really all sorts of sweet baked things, frozen
things and candies from New England, but a big chunk
(02:46):
of it is candy. We talked about Necho your favorite,
the wal Eco Bar.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, I'm and Joy Peter Paul almenjoy In Mounds were
made in Naugatuck, Connecticut for for years, so all sorts
of candies came from New England.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
What inspired you to write this book?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Uh, you know, I had just finished my book, A
Long Route One, and I was kind of interested in
writing a book about whoopee pies. That was my original idea.
I was in Maine. I was spending a lot of
time in Maine, and you know Mainlay's claim to whoopee pies,
(03:31):
it's the official state treat And I thought that would
be a great book. It has a great story. There's
there's controversy, there's you know, three states claim ownership with
the whoopee pie. There are two competing actually three competing
whoopie pie festivals. So I thought it would be a
fun book and I pitched that to my publisher, Arcadia Publishing,
(03:56):
and they kind of gently suggested I broaden my scope.
I had to look at New England suites and I did,
and I'm glad I did.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Their name came up in my interview with Anthony San
Marco a couple of days ago. Arcadia Press.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, it was a lot of books for years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah. So now that you've got a triple crown of
books out there, what's next, Well, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Let's finish this one. I just turned in the manuscript
three days ago, so it's not out yet. You know,
it's going to go through the editorial process and the
design process and the publishing process, and it'll come out
in July, July twenty twenty five, and then I'm not sure.
(04:53):
I think there's a lot of candy stories that still
need to be told. In Boston, Boston and Cambridge used
to be the candy manufacturing center of the country. There
were just dozens and dozens and dozens of candy companies,
and some of them are just, you know, gone, nobody
even knows who they were. But others were big deals
(05:14):
and they were like major. There was obviously Necho, Yeah,
there was. There was Daggett's, which was there for quite
a long time. Duran Confectionery was there for quite a
long time. James O. Welch Company was there. They made
Junior Mint. And there's just a lot of stories out
(05:34):
there that I think I didn't have enough room in
this book to tell. So who knows, maybe that'll be
my next one.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
All Right, you're in the fifth grade, You're a little
girl in the fifth grade. You had a whole quarter
in your pocket, and in those days, a lot Yeah,
a couple of candy bars and a bag of chips.
What was your first choice growing up?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
My first choice was always Eminem's with peanuts, ah, in
that kind of.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Maroon bag, not the dark chocolate bag, because I.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Feel it was a yellow I feel it was.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
A yellow, yellowish maroon. You know, it wasn't a dark
chocolate bag.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, that's my that's my point. Okay, that's the point.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And how do you feel about the way eminem has
just revamped their advertising in the past ten years and
the red Eminem is a smart alec and the green
Eminem is kind of a vamp. How do you feel
about that?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Eh?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Eh, Okay, I'm not their target audience anymore. I'll just
say that.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, but I bet you still buy.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Them sometimes sometimes, but you know, I'm trying to buy
candies that have a New England connection now and Eminems.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You do not. And you know why M and M's
was invented.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
It was invented for soldiers, right because it didn't melt
and World War.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
One, so a soldier could eat candy chocolate, which is
an energy source, and it wouldn't melt in their hands
and you're handling a rifle after chocolate toll over your hand,
and they didn't want that, the US Army.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's why they were invented. I know.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It's so interesting and a lot of there's a lot
of connection between candy and especially chocolate and the army
because they did want you know, they wanted to give
chocolates to soldiers for energy, for the calories, the energy
and the caffeine. I think so at the beginning of
World War One, I think it was the army solicited
(08:04):
all the chocolate manufacturers to contribute like these big blocks
of chocolate and then the army would slice them down
into like chocolate bars and wrap them up and give
them out to the troops. And then the troops came
back and you know, they had a hankering for chocolate bars.
All of a sudden, there you go, chocolate bar. Chocolate
(08:24):
bar industry exploded in the twenties.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
All right, I've got a news hit. But when we
come back, I want you to put the spotlight as
we both have mentioned my personal favorite candy.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Bar, Walleco, Walleco and other company that.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Put it out and the history and why we don't
have Walco anymore. So you promised to do.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
That for me. I do good.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Susan pregnant, We'll be back. You want to call in
and talk to her six seven, five, four ten thirty
eight eight eight nine to nine, ten thirty. This is
night Side. Dan is off until the new year. I'm Morgan.
Time and temperature here eleven fourteen thirty one degrees.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
On WBZ News Radio. Susan Bragman is my guest, and
she's written a number of books. By the way, are
all of them from Arcadia?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yes, and there's actually New England Sweets is my fourth book.
My first one was called New England Neon, which I
think you and I have never.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Talked about, but we've we've mentioned it, although I've never yes.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yes, done and officially yeah, so yes, they're all for
Arcadia and New England Neon came out in twenty eighteen,
so they've all been in the past, you know a
few years.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Have these books put you in a different tax bracket?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yet?
Speaker 6 (10:07):
No, not yet.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm still waiting.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, everybody go out and buy them. If you hear
my voice and you hear Susan with me, go buy
her books.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
They're great. They're great books, they're interesting, they have a
lot of information, good photographs, and they're a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Let me take a call from Woburn and Gary, welcome
And what am I going to say to you? Gary? Well,
I am going to say that, But what else am
I going to say?
Speaker 7 (10:47):
Hi? Let me continue? That's your puzzle to night.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yes, all right, Gary, turn out. This is your last
call of the week because you've this is your third
call in four days, and you know you're not supposed
to call more than once or twice a week, and
this is your third call. So until the new year,
(11:15):
no more calls for you. But you're here now, doctor Susan.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
All right, Susan, get your favorite candy bars at sixty
one years of age? Or was way back when when
I was a kid? Was the marathon?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The marathon? So that's not a new not a new
England one?
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Is it?
Speaker 6 (11:35):
Not?
Speaker 3 (11:35):
In my book?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
No?
Speaker 7 (11:37):
Okay, I'm sorry, I did even know that.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
It's all right, I can't.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
Think of all new England candy bars.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
But I do have a question.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
What you guys are talking about war and so forth,
of World War two and so forth. My question is
this is did the companies charge the United States government
to give the chocolate to the soldiers?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I'm not sure, I know, I think okay, you I
know if you don't of the United States government paid
the companies.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's like the United States government paid the cigarette companies
to give cigarettes for the soldiers.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Do they recoisition the chocolate? So they yes, yes, so
they purchased it. Yes, Okay.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
Here's my last one?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Is this?
Speaker 7 (12:35):
Uh I'm not even sure if it's noise one, but
here it goes. We've heard of Russell Stova chocolates.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Mm hmm, that's yeah, that's it.
Speaker 7 (12:45):
Go ahead, Well, russell Stova is usually a holiday chocolate
all through the years. And let's face the facts. I mean,
you never really see it all year long. Where is
russell Stova located?
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Not here. I'm not sure where Russell Stover is. I
know there were a whole bunch. There was Whitman's, there
was Russell Stover, there was Shrafts. Shrafts was here. Of course.
It was Cupboard, Oh yeah, candy cupboard and that was
that ultimately became a neco brand that was originally Level
(13:22):
and coverle who rhymed and they were they were a
Cambridge They were a Cambridge company and they made candy cupboard,
and Necho eventually ended up with candy cupboard. They acquired
Level and Cover in nineteen thirty three and ended up
(13:45):
making them a subsidiary and manufacturing the candy cupboards. Russell
Stover is they're in Kansas City.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Okay, very good. My last common says when the Christmas time,
you know, when they mocked on the candy down to
twenty five I have fifty and seventy five percent off. Yeah, okay,
true story. CBS Pharmacy where I live, back about four
years ago, it was down to seventy five percent off.
(14:16):
It was about thirty seven cents each. And I went
in there like a crazy weirdo, and I bought one
hundred and fifty individual Russell Stover candy bars that are
pretty huge at thirty seven cents because they usually cost
them about a buck fifty or more. Yeah, And what happened.
I just passed them out to all friends this that
for like a few weeks this that, and everybody was like,
(14:38):
are you kidding me? Because when you pass out of
Russell Stover candy a chocolate to someone, you made their day.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
What a nice sky you were.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
Yeah, I am and they can be looking. That sound great?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Thank you, Gary. You take care of happy holiday sper
Merry Christmas into Happy New Year. Anyone else wants to do?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
What? Gary? Did?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Your phone number six one, seven, two, five four ten
thirty or eight eight, eight, nine two nine ten thirty.
I've got Susan Brakman here. And do you want to
talk about your previous books as well as the Candy
book or your next book? Where do I Where do
(15:22):
I direct the conversation?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Let's talk about wal Eco bars.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yes, Gary distracted because.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
They will be in New England suites, so they will
be in the forthcoming book. So there was a company
in Brockton called the FB Washburn Company and they started
in eighteen fifty six. Francis Washburn named it after himself,
of course, and it started as yeah, well they all
(15:54):
did at that time. And he opened a bakery. It
was originally a bakery in Brockton, but their most popular
item was a coconut cookie, so he tried to figure
out a way to turn it into a candy. And
the timing is a little fuzzy, but at one point
(16:14):
he wanted to do that and then in nineteen thirty three,
a man named Harry Gilson bought Washburns and he moved
to Brockton from Brooklyn and came here. He had no
particular background in either the bakery industry or the candy
making industry, but he bought Washburns and started making candy.
(16:39):
And one of the candies he made was the Waal
Eco bar, and he did that sometime in Nobody seems
to have an exact date, but it seems to have
been in the late nineteen thirties. And while eco bars
are chocolate covered coconut bars.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Why did he stop? And then why did they stop?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The company stopped again, no official explanation except it seems
they stopped in the eighties and they wanted to focus
on their hard candies. They had just purchased seventy seventies candy,
which made ribbon candy, right, and they wanted to focus
(17:32):
on their ribbon candy. And they were also making Dad's
root beer barrels, They made sower bawls, they made lollipops,
and they made lollipops like for bank lobbies and stuff
like TD Bank where you can get a lollipops. So
that was a big big, big part of their company,
and for whatever reason, they decided to stop making chocolate
(17:57):
bars and focus on the hard candy.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
There's a candy bar route there from England called Bounty
and now it's the closest in taste to the Walleco bar.
Almond Joy or Mounds does not even in my taste
buds make me reminisce about Walleco, but the Bounty bar does. Now,
(18:24):
I know you're focusing on candy made in New England.
Do you know anything about the Bounty bar.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I know it's not sold in the US, right, It's
sold in England and maybe Canada, but I think England
and there are a.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Few stores around here that sell it.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, yeah, but it's it's not I think it was
designed to be an imitation of the Mounds bar, and
yeah sound Mounts. Mounts used dark chocolate, almon Joy uses
milk chocolate.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And almond Joy has the nuts obviously has.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
The almond Yeah, right, and does not right, because sometimes
you feel like a nut, heytimes you don't.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Hey, that phrase, that phrase might catch on. Maybe we'll
make money on your ability to make magic phrases.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yeah, if only I know, I know. So that's the
third well ego, But can I tell you there's a
funny PostScript. Yes, they had in the nineteen sixties when
they were still making the bars, they I think they
(19:46):
tried to get sort of hip and groovy and they
had a competition with local bands to write a radio
jingle and the winning group was called a Flat Earth
Society and they were a akadelic band from Lynn, Okay,
and they won the contest. But they were like so
(20:07):
unprepared that they didn't have enough songs to fill an album,
so they had to write them on the spot and
then it just kind of they landed in obscurity. Nobody
bought the album, so.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That was the end of that. So what are the
odds of somebody buying out the company. I know the
company is defunct, but well, enough money they can be
brought back and maybe they will go back to making
ribbon candy and the wal Eco bar am I Wison
(20:41):
past the graveyard here.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Well, you know, they sold they sold the ribbon candy
line to a company in Henderson, Nevada, Nevada.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
A time.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, and they sold the other hard candies to a
different company. So they sold off all their active candy,
you know, active candy lines, so Washburn's is no more.
(21:19):
I don't know who has the recipe for well Eco bars.
There are still there are still descendants of Harry Gilson
who are around, but I don't know that they have
the recipe.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Okay. Now you mentioned four books, all by Arcadia Press.
Tell my audience the exact title of all four books.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Okay. So my first book was called New England Neon,
and that came out in twenty eighteen, and that looked
at Neon signs, as the title says, in all six
New England states. It looked at you know, existing signs
like the Sitco sign, or the Shell sign or Memorial Drive,
(22:09):
the Hilltop Steakhouse sign when it was still a Neon
sign that said Hilltop Steakhouse. And then you know some
historic signs that have been gone forever, like the White
Fuel Company sign that used to be in Kenmore Kenmore Square.
My second book was called New England Candleton Bowling, and
(22:29):
that came out in twenty twenty, in the middle of
the pandemic, and that was kind of a historical look
at Candleton Bowling. Also looked at some of the people,
like you said before, Stasia Zernike Tommy Olsta and that
that one kind of somehow ended up leading me into
(22:52):
my next book, which was called A Long Route one Maine,
New Hampshire and Massachusetts. And in that book, I looked
at landmarks, historical sites, you know, popular cultural sites like
the one orange dinosaur uh from Fort from Fort Kent,
(23:14):
Maine down to Attleborough, Massachusetts. And that's more of a
historical book. That that drew a lot of a lot
of information from historical societies and libraries and universities and archives.
And then we come to New England Suites, which comes
out next summer.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And I want people to purchase these books because I
want Susan to become independently wealthy and to absolutely I'm
going to take a break here if you want to
call and speak to Susan, maybe mention your favorite favorite
candy product and find out who made it and when
(23:58):
and all those things. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty Here
on night side, where the temperature is thirty one degrees
at eleven thirty one.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Night Side Thought with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So some pregnant is here. We're talking candy and the
origin of maybe some of your favorite candies, and we
talked about Necho New England.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Confection Company Sectionary Company CCO.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Thank you for making me say it the right way.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
They had.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I don't know how to put this a little brew
haha over the candy hearts that we've all eaten when
we were kids and grown up with and the skull
butt had that circumstance caused them moving from Cambridge to Revere. Now,
(25:07):
I don't know if that's true or not, but why
don't you tell that story to people.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
I know?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I know about the move from Cambridge to Revere. I'm
not sure what bruhaha you're talking about. As far as
I knew, they moved because they wanted to consolidate their
real estate holdings and they could get a fortune for
selling their property in Cambridge. They sold it for like
(25:35):
seventy seven million dollars to Novartis and they moved to
Revere in I forget what year it was, two thousand
and four, two thousand and eight, somewhere like that.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
That little walk of land costs how much.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
The Neco factory sold first, I believe seventy seven million
dollars but now I'm going to have to check with
the Nicco.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Factory had that water tower with the word Nicko on
the side.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I know, and it used to be striped.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
They sold it in two thousand and four for seventy
seven million and they painted the water tower. It was
a big building, I know, it was a big.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Building youried with regularity. I mean that was the main way.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It's still a big building.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That was the main way to get into Cambridge Bank
going over the mass at.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Bridge mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It was right there on mass Aft by Main Street.
The one end of confectioner's were ow.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
So how are they doing in Revere?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Well, that was the beginning of the end for them.
They got sold in two thousand and seven. They got
sold to like a you know, a group of investors
who were highly leveraged and incurred a lot of debt.
And you know, they hung on. They hung on for
about ten years, but they were sold. They were sold
in a bankruptcy auction in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And Neco wafers, well they still.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Make Necko wafers, so Necho wafers and Sweethearts and Canada
Mints were all sold to a company Ohio in Ohio
called Spangler. They make those, they make dumb dumb lollipops, yes,
and Spangler. You know, it took a year to retool
whatever they had to do, and they started making Nico
(27:36):
Wafers and Sweethearts again in twenty twenty and Canada Mints also,
and yeah, a few of the Necho products got a
new life after Necho. After Necho went under, So Neco Wafers, Sweethearts,
Canada Mints, Stararars, Skybar. So Skybar is the only former
(28:01):
Neco product that's still made a Massachusetts and they're made
that is a small company in Sudbury and a woman
named Louise, Louise Mawinney, and she rescued Skybar and started
manufacturing them from a storefront on Route twenty in Sudbury.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
And is Skybar the same fourth sections that it was
when we were kids. Yeah, caramel fudge.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, peanut butter or peanut. Yeah, it's like caramel fudge
peanut and like a vanilla kind of yeah, nugats. Yeah,
And the formulas changed over the years. And she, you
know when she bought she boughte you know, all the
intellectual property, so all the old recipes and she experimented
(29:06):
a little bit and went back to you know, either
the original or very shortly after the nineteen thirties era flavors,
and she upgraded the chocolate as well. So they're really
quite good now. But Skybar Skybar had a fun origin
story because you know, they named it. It was there
(29:29):
was actually a Skyline series of candies and Skybar is
the most famous, and it was you know, they were
trying to tap in with the public's fascination with aviation
because this was in nineteen thirty old, okay, and they
launched it. This is like such a good story. They
launched it with a skywriting campaign, so they would you know,
(29:54):
they had a skywrider and he would write, you know,
mile high letters in the sky that said sky Bar.
So yeah, they really they really rolled out all the
stops for Skybar back in the thirties.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
You know what, young lady, you know your stuff, and
I learned.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
A lot of really fun stories.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, I think people should give you credits for what
you do know about our favorite candies.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Well, I appreciate that. I enjoy sharing these stories because
they're really interesting, and you know, not everybody, not everybody
has heard all these details, and some of them are
old stories. So you know, people weren't around. I wasn't
around in the thirties. You weren't around in the thirties.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No, it didn't turn to the fifties.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, but later than that you, Oh, who knows. But
so my website do you want Can I tell people
my website?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yes, I want you to tell your website.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
My website is www dot Rednickel dot com, Red like
the color Nickel, likedthecoin dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And I'm on.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Facebook and Instagram as red Nickel neon, which is a
nod to my first book. Yeah, yes, and red Nickel. Yes, yes,
I was just going to tell you it was sort
of named after a slot machine, which I thought might
be of interest to you.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Oh, definitely of interest. What slot machine? What's it called,
Red Nickel.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Well, it wasn't an actual slot machine. What it was
was a photograph I took many years ago when I
was at the Luxor in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And it wasn't years ago because the luxw did can't
come around to the late eighties.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Okay, Well, it was in the nineties that I took
this picture, and it was a color picture. When the
Luxor when the casino was sort of had a red
Egyptian theme. Yes, And it was a photograph of a
bank of slot machine nickel slots, And so I named
(32:13):
this photograph and I was, you know, putting titles on
my photograph. I called it red Nickel because it was
red and it had nickel slots, and that's where the
name came from.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
When was the last time you were in Vegas?
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Oh, pre pandemic. Oh yeah, it's been a while.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You've got to go back again.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I know, I know. I have a friend in California
and we go to Vegas together. But he's had he's
had family obligations taking up his time and we just
haven't had a chance to to get to Vegas in
a while.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Tell you what, You've got my home number. The next
time we have plans to go to Vegas. Let me know, maybe,
just maybe I can coordinate a trip and I will
take you and your friend to the best restaurant in Vegas,
which is Michaels and Michael's is at the South Point
(33:11):
Hotel on the Strip kind of south. You are at
the corner of the Excalibur Luxor MGM used to be
the Tropicana but they've they've raised the But you go
(33:31):
maybe about four and a half five miles further south,
like you were going to take the long way to
Los Angeles, and that's where the South Point Hotel is
and Michaels is one of the most famous hotels in Vegas.
And I will take you and your friend to dinner
(33:52):
at Michael's my treat.
Speaker 7 (33:56):
It's a deal.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Now, we're just gonna find ourselves in Vegas at the.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Time at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
But if we can coordinate that you're in for, oh
my goodness, the meal. For an example, let's say you
order for an app appetizer. They're seafood Special. They take
a block of ice, and let's say you cut a
(34:26):
bowling ball tenpin in half and it's all all ice,
and they insert they make holes and insert crab, shrimp,
lobster all through that and then there's a candle underneath
(34:46):
it so it's illuminated. Oh you can have that, my treat.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I'll pay and deal unless it become rich and famous
of these books, well.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Then well we'll settle line and were said of what
that figure can be. Susan Brigman is my guests. If
you want to call in. You got roughly ten twelve
minutes of time to say hello to her and talk
candy here on night Side Time eleven forty six thirty
one degrees.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I've got three people waiting to speak to Susan Brigman.
I've got eight minutes to give them their chance.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
To do it.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Let's start with Ken and Bridgewater, Line one. Ken, what's up?
Speaker 8 (35:43):
Yes, Hi Kenny, how you doing tonight?
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Hi? Hi, Susan.
Speaker 8 (35:46):
So I had, first of all, you touched on all
the candy that I liked, the Wallycos my favorite, and
then of course skybars. You gave me information that I
had no idea they were being made. So that's wonderful.
One of the things that has bothered me for a
long long.
Speaker 9 (36:02):
Time is the Nestle's chocolate bar. I always thought the
Nestle's chocolate was way better than a Hershey's bar, and
you can't find them anymore. And I was wondering if
you knew anything about the Nestle's chocolate bar used to
come in a white package with red letters on it.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah, I don't know really much about that because that
wasn't the focus of my research, so I really can't
answer that. I'm sorry to say. You know, I know
that Nestle's, Hershey, and Mars are the three big candy
companies now and they pretty much control the candy bar market.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
So I did.
Speaker 9 (36:49):
I did discover something quite by accident. If anybody's looking
for the Nestle's chocolate bar, which I still think is
the best one ever, is if you if you buy
the milk chocolate morsels, the Nestle's morsels for chocolate chip cookies,
the milk ones, milk chocolate, you could eat like two
(37:11):
or three of those at a time in your mouth.
It's it's just like the old Nestli's chocolate bar.
Speaker 8 (37:18):
All right, How I get my fix?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Melt them down?
Speaker 8 (37:26):
Melt them down? Yeah, sure you could do that too.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Ken, you live in Bridgewater, there is a candy store
East Bridgewater called Pinches and Pounds. Have you ever been there?
Speaker 5 (37:38):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
It's on the intersection of twenty seven and eighteen.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Call them.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
I'm sure you can look up their number and see
if they have the candy product you're looking for. Because
if it's candy, they specialize in older almost forgotten candies.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Okay, perfect, I'll try it. Thank you very much, Ken,
happy too, Thank you. Go to Rick and Bill Rica, Rick.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Good evening, Morgan and Susan.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
How are you Susan? Then, when I was a kid,
how are you happy? Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, happy everything.
When I was a kid in the early late seventies,
early agies, I used to grow up in Burlington, mass
And I used to go to Dale Pharmacy and see
ethel for a watcher m a call it bar and
a package of hockey cards. And right across the shree
(38:34):
was a fanny farmer by the way in Burlington. I
know they came out of Rochester, New York, but and
I just wanted to say I thought I was a
mister cool when when I would smoke those or blow
out the confectionery sugar and the bubblegum cigarettes as a kid,
I enjoyed that. And I know that it's might not
have anything to do with your research, but Bubble Young
(38:56):
Bubble isious. And there was another bubble gum company and
they were so popular in the early eighties. I love
the grape bubble yum and I think it was bubble
ishous that had the orange and that raspberrybody. It was
such a craze to buy chewing gum. But thank you
for your work.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Lots of fun, sure, thank you every week.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Thank you for your call.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
Yeah, absolutely, all right.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Go ahead, Susan Oh.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
I was just going to say there was a gum
company in East Boston for years called Gum Product, very
very clear name, and they made I think during World
War Two they made a bubble gum product called Yank
Yanks Yanks bubble gum, I remember that. Yeah, So they
(39:45):
were around and then they made gumballs also, and they
were around till I think thineteen eighty and then they
got shut down and now now the building is condos
called you know, the bubblegum factory.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
All right, let's go to Adlebur and speak to Michael. Michael,
welcome to night Side.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
Hey, great show as usual. Three quick questions because I
know you don't have the time. Was Charleston choo local?
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yes, So Charleston Choe was originally made in Cambridge by
a company called Oh it's going to come to me.
It was originally made in Cambridge, and then I think
they moved to Everett for a while and then they
got bought and through a whole bunch of corporate transfers,
they ended up back in Cambridge and they are still
(40:40):
made in the last candy factory in Cambridge on Main Street.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know. Is that the one
that makes actually not in Cambridge but Marshall Fluff.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
No, that's a different company. That's Mower Jurkey Mower, know right.
Charleson Chew was originally made by the Fox Cross Company,
but today TUTSI roll owns them and they make Charleston
Choose at eight ten Main Street, which is sort of
at the corner of Main Street and mass Ave. It's
(41:18):
the same building that makes Junior Mints as well.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
All right, this one last cook thing, I know you're
going to hang up real quick. Whatever happened to the
Caravel bar? I was just reading about the seventies. I
loved it. I know, I don't know what a candy,
but I loved that bar. The one hundred grand on
one million grand whatever that one's called. It's close to it,
(41:44):
but it's not the same. And the last thing is
the Neco waves now made in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Are they well? I know they're made by Spangler but
it could be they, you know, manufactured elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
They had to take they had to take the banner
off the label made in America.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
All right, Michael, I gotta get one more on. Thank you, David,
and Lake Placid. You're the last call the night with
Susan Brigman.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Go ahead, David, Yes, I was just wondering whatever happened
to the Coca Cola signs in Allston.
Speaker 9 (42:15):
Oh god, it was.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
It was removed.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
It was supposed to be saved. It was stored temporarily
in the Conrail railroad yard, and it just basically.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Somebody, somebody has it and they keeping me quiet. Bet David,
thank you for the question. By all right, Susan, get
a whole flurry of calls there at the m Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Thank you. And you make your money sell these books.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Hey, I'm working on it, and thank you. Thank you.
Fun to talk about.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Two dates, a candlepin bowling date and a dinner dayton Vegas.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
And a dinner date in Vegas. This is great.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
You take care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Happy new Year, Okay, thank you, Morgan, you Happy new Year.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
There you go, Susan Brakeman. I had George go, hey,
we're gone tonight. I had Cindy Bruce, and I had
Shearffy and Doctor. Thank you to all the ladies here
on night Side and Rob, thank you for being Rob.
Nancy Gray, thank you too. And all the people who
listen to and to are called, thank you for your
(43:34):
participation with Nightside. I'll be here tomorrow and I'm just
gonna say my parting two words by Boston
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