Leo Hirschfield: Difference between revisions

| image = Leo Hirschfeld.jpg

| death_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| occupation = [[Confectioner]], businessman,

'''Leo Hirschfield''' was an Austrian-American candymaker known as the inventor of the [[Tootsie Roll]], the first individually wrapped penny candy,<ref name=NYTimes8.7.10>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/weekinreview/08manny.html|title=Let Us Now Praise the Great Men of Junk Food|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author=Fernandez, Manny|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=August 7, 2010|archive-date=AugustSeptember 511, 20242012|archive-url=https://archive.ph/w0BO}}</ref> and [[Bromangelon]], the first commercially successful gelatin dessert mix, which preceded [[Jell-O]] by two years.<ref name=CandyCentury>{{cite book |last1=Kawash |first1=Samira |title=Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure|date=2013|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=9780374711108|page=72|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NyTUwbHrGMC&q=bromangelon+first+commercially+successful&pg=PA72|language=en-US|url-status=live|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.is/PknYE}}</ref><ref name=MyRecipes>{{cite web|url=https://www.myrecipes.com/extracrispy/what-is-bromangelon|author=Kaufman, Jared|title=Before There Was Jell-O, There Was Bromangelon|publisher=MyRecipes|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=July 26, 2018|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/qWNHc}}</ref>

Details of his early career are disputed. The more common version has him starting a candy shop in Brooklyn that later merged with Stern & Saalberg. Another version has him starting at the factory and rising to a senior development position.<ref name=CandyProfessor>{{cite web|url=https://candyprofessor.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/tootsie-roll-mystery/|title=Tootsie Roll Tragedy: The Real Leo Hirschfeld Story|author=Kawash, Samira|publisher=Candy Professor|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=February 3, 2010|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/wip/f3UkT}}</ref> According to the Tootsie Industries' official company history, he started his own career in the candy business at a small shop or factory in New York City in 1896.<ref name=CompanyHistory/> However, this version of events, which is repeated in sources such as the ''Cleveland Jewish News'',<ref name=ClevelandJewishNews/> is disputed by [[Rutgers University]] Professor Emerita Samira Kawash, who addressed the conflicting origins of the candy on her blog ''Candy Professor''.<ref name=CandyProfessor/><ref name=Time>{{cite web|url=https://time.com/4230820/tootsie-roll-history-origins-name-120th-anniversary/|title=How Tootsie Rolls Got Their Name|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|author=Waxman, Olivia B.|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=February 23, 2016|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/m0CW3}}</ref> Citing a 1913 ''[[Pittsburgh Press]]'' interview,<ref name=Time/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qMEaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JUkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3922%2C3618658|title=From Steerage to Fortune|newspaper=[[The Pittsburgh Press]]|page=55|via=[[Google News]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=April 13, 1913|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/Elu7l}}</ref> Kawash states that Hirschfield had been workingworked for Stern & Staalberg before moving to Manhattan to work there in the early 1890s. He invented the candy in 1907,<ref name=Time/> and named it after his then-5-year-old daughter Clara, whose nickname was "Tootsie."<ref name=Time/><ref name=CompanyHistory/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112343544/tootsie-roll-logs-100-sweet-years/|title=Tootsie Roll logs 100 sweet years|newspaper=Indiana Gazette|location=Indiana, Pennsylvania|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=December 16, 1978|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/It0pl}}</ref> HeThat same year, he appied for a patent on the unique texture of Tootsie Rolls, thatciting sameits yearunique texture, and was awarded one in 1908. In 1909 Stern & Staalberg began marketing Tootsiethe Rolls a year latercandy. KawashBased concluded fromon the patentsavailable issuedevidence, forKawash theconcluded candythat betweenthe 1907 and 1908notion that the inventioncandy ofhad Tootsiebeen Rollscreated in 1896 in Hirschfeld's Brooklyn candy store was a myth. In addition, Kawash points out that Tootsie was also the name of the child spokesperson for Bromangelon, leading Kawash to surmise that while the Tootsie Roll may have been "christened" in Clara's honor, she firsthad "didbeen herthe timenamesake asfor thesomething childthat spokes-modelhad forpreceded fruity gelatinit."<ref name=Time/>

Before the adoption of modern refrigeration technology, candy sellers would spend hot summers selling candy that did not easily melt, such as taffy and marshmallows. This precluded chocolate, which melts easily. Since Tootsie had a nominally chocolate taste, it was a first for summer candies. Its patent describes that the moderately hard texture of Tootsie — in contrast to the light, porous texture of other pulled candies — was achievedachived by baking it at a low temperature for about two hours, giving it "a peculiar mellow consistency" that maintained its shape and did not melt.<ref name=Smithsonian>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tootsie-rolls-were-wwii-energy-bars-180962202/|author=Eschner, Kat|title=Tootsie Rolls Were WWII Energy Bars|magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=December 16, 1978|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/Elu7l}}</ref> It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped,<ref name=NYTimes8.7.10/><ref name=DodgeLegal>{{cite web|url=https://dodgelegal.com/general/government-contracts/|title=Government Contracts: How Tootsie Rolls Helped us Win World War II|publisher=Dodge Legal Group, SPC|url-status=live|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/48cRV}}</ref> and its low price led to its remarkable growth, making it a [[Depression-era]] favorite. During [[World War II]], when the need for shipping food that did not spoil quickly to battlefront soldiers prompted considerable development in the field of processed food, Tootsie Rolls, which stayed fresh for a long period of time, became part of soldiers' ration packs, further solidifying Americans' love for the candy.<ref name=Smithsonian/><ref name=DodgeLegal/>

By early 1922, Hirschfield was wealthy, and his businesses were doing well. However, he was despondent over his long illneesillness and his wife's mental breakdown, which left her committed in a sanitarium. On January 13, 1922, while staying at the Hotel Monterey in New York City, he took a revolver and intentionally killed himself via a gunshot to the head. He left a note stating that he was "sorry, but could not help it." He was declared dead at [[Knickerbocker Hospital]]. He was survived by his daughter, who was married to an Arthur Ludwig.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/01/14/archives/kills-himself-in-hotel-illness-and-wifes-breakdown-are-blamed-for.html|title=Kills Himself in Hotel: Illness and Wife's Breakdown Are Blamed for Candy Man's Suicide|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|date=January 14, 1922|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/cZ77g}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52702201/kills-himself-in-hotel/|title=Kills Himself in Hotel: Illness and Wife's Breakdown Are Blamed for Candy Man's Suicide|page=13 (S 22)|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=January 14, 1922|access-date=August 5, 2024|archive-date=August 5, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.ph/wip/DCXmq}}</ref>

* {{official website|https://www.tootsie.com}}

[[Category:American1922 people of Austrian descentsuicides]]