Remember Dubble Bubble?

If you are a vintage person such as me, you may remember getting a square piece of pink gum at the candy store back in the day that contained a little wax paper comic in it. This super bubble-blowing gum was a must have in the life of a kid with a handful of pennies to spend. It is still available today although the shape has changed and the comic is gone.

Invented in 1928 by an accountant who worked at the Fleer chewing gum company, the initial batch was test marketed with 100 samples. They sold out in a day!

Mr. Fleer had tried to make good bubble blowing gum years earlier but just couldn’t get the mix right. Mr. Diemer, the accountant who came up with the recipe that worked great, was overjoyed at his success. Just in case you were wondering why it was pink, well, that is just the only food coloring they had at the factory to use.

The great success of this gum was that fact that it wasn’t too sticky. Sales the first year were over $ 1 million! Named Dubble Bubble, Mr. Diemer had to teach himself how to blow a bubble so he could teach others since this was the first commercially produced “bubble” gum.

A little comic was added to the gum featuring characters Dub and Bub who were replaced by a character named Pud in the 1950s. There were also “Fleer Fortunes,” and you could save up the comics and send them in to get prizes such as whistles. The original comics were large but the size was cut down in the 1960s as well as Pud’s waistline. He used to be rotund but slimmed down over the years.

As with most products, production halted during the war although it was distributed to the military in 1941. Production ended in 1942 and didn’t resume until 1951, and its popularity began to grow. Gum was produced in gum ball form and multi-packs.

Dubble Bubble was purchased by Concord Confections, which was then bought out by Tootsie Roll. You can still buy Dubble Bubble in all kinds of flavors although it is no longer square and looks like an extruded piece of pink play-doh that was cut into pieces.

There are a lot of vintage advertising pieces out there for collectors who may enjoy remembering the good old days of childhood bubble gum blowing.

Happy Collecting!

Jillinda Falen has been buying and selling antiques for over 31 years and is a licensed REALTOR and estate liquidation specialist. You can contact her through the Houston Home Journal or via email at jcfalen@gmail.com.

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