USA Today

It was the 75th anniversary of the year commercial bubble gum (Dubble Bubble) was invented, and the 50th birthday of bubble-gum comic star Bazooka Joe. North American kids spend half a billion dollars a year on bubble gum.

The credit or the curses goes to Walter Deimer, an accountant who accidentally concocted bubble gum in 1928 in Philadelphia, “the city of brotherly gum.”

While lots of companies today make bubble gum, Concord and Topps, the ones behind Dubble Bubble and Bazooka, are the big chews in the business. It takes a piece of Dubble Bubble about an hour to go from birth to being market ready, says Concord product manager Shannon Cooke.

“It starts in a mixing room where all the ingredients are mixed (five or six). One machine does 2,000 pounds of gum. This is squeezed into a cooling tunnel, where it cools down for 15 minutes before it’s wrapped and then packaged,” Cooke explains.

Dubble Bubble — made almost 24 hours a day — is exported to countries in every continent except Antarctica. The Fleer brand was purchased by Concord in 1998, and Concord makes three varieties of bubble gum: sugar-free, twist wrap and gumball. They produce 20 basic flavours with a hundred combinations.

Cooke says her company did research with kids and adults and discovered that in the United States “people favoured more of a sweet taste rather than the sweet and spice.” Thus their newest bubble-gum flavour was introduced in 1998. Topps, on the other hand, has stuck with the same recipe. “The gum is still the classic Bazooka flavour, the same formula we’ve been using for 55 years now,” says Bazooka brand manager Gail Sirota. “People love to open it and find it has that original smell and the comic with the piece of wisdom or fortune.”

As for Bazooka Joe, the Topps gum began in 1947 as Atom Bubble Gum and featured a comic character named Adam the Bubble Boy. BJ came forth in 1953. The Bazooka Joe comics have been translated into over 50 different languages. A contest will reward some lucky chewer with 50 grand.

Topps is in the midst of changing the graphics of Bazooka gum giving its colour scheme a fresh new look. The Manhattan company is in the confection business as well as entertainment with products such as sports cards.

Meanwhile, Dubble Bubble continues to tout the tale of the modern origin of bubble gum and its inventor, Deimer. “I was doing something else and ended up with something with bubbles,” Deimer once told reporters.

He took about five pounds of it to a local grocery store and it sold out immediately. Fleer folks knew it was a good deal and soon the company was selling accountant Deimer’s bubble gum for a penny a piece. Deimer received no royalties for his gift to “pop” culture, but he didn’t care. “I have no regrets. Bubble gum brought a little happiness to millions of kids.