The Mark 7 monorail at Disneyland, Anaheim

1912

1919

The Oreo cookie was born in the U.S. on March 6, 1912 when the National
Biscuit Company (later re-branded Nabisco, and even later merged with Kraft)
sold its Oreo Sandwiches for the first time to a grocer in Hoboken, N.J. Over
491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since they were first introduced,
making them the best selling cookie of the 20th century.

1951

                             HAPPY BIRTHDAY OREO!

A 1915 ad promoting Houdini’s appearance at the Orpheum Theater. The
the building was torn down in 1976 to make way for a Nordstrom’s Dept.
Store.

Harry Houdini

Postcard depicting the Orpheum Theater in 1916

Eskimo Pie, the chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar wrapped in foil, was the invention of Danish Immigrant Christian Kent Nelson, who was a school teacher
and the owner of a candy store. He got the inspiration for Eskimo Pie in 1920 in
Onawa, Iowa when a young customer couldn’t decide between ice cream or a
chocolate bar. After experimenting with various ways of coating bricks of ice
cream with melted chocolate, Nelson began selling his discovery under the
name of “I-Scream Bars”.

In 1921, he filed for a patent and obtained an agreement with local chocolate
maker Russell C. Stover to mass-produce them under the new trademark
name “Eskimo Pie” (a name suggested by Mrs. Stover). After a patent was
issued to the Eskimo Pie Corporation on January 24, 1922, Nelson soon
franchised the product. One of the earliest advertisements for Eskimo Pie
appeared in the November 3, 1921 issue of the Iowa City Press-Citizen,
shown below.

Christian Kent Nelson

Edith Young

Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories was a 15-minute radio soap which aired from
January 18, 1937 to November 16, 1956 on CBS and was sponsored by Spry
Shorting. Aunt Jenny (full name Jennifer F. Wheeler) was played by Edith
Young. The show offered cooking tips along with some homespun
philosophy.