Tootsie Roll CEO, 95, leaves behind a sweet legacy
Melvin Gordon, 95, who was the serving chief executive of Tootsie Roll Industries, a company he had run for more than a half-century, died yesterday. He will be succeeded by his wife, Ellen Gordon, who had been its president and COO.
Traders think the transition will lead to a buyout, which led to a 7.1 percent increase in shares today, according to Bloomberg.
Which leads to the question … Tootsie Rolls are part of a publicly traded company? Well, yes, since 1922 when it was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange as Sweets Company of America. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. in 1966.
This vintage animated commercial from the 1970s is a testament to just how little the brand has changed over the years: The same color scheme, font and signature wrapper have stood the test of time to the present day. “Whatever it is I think I see, becomes a Tootsie Roll to me,” sings a young child as the commercial complements the lyrics by having everything the animated children touch turn into animated, chewy, chocolate candy.
Tootsie Roll Industries is one of the largest candy companies in the United States. It also owns Blow Pop, Junior Mints and Dubble Bubble, to name a few. What is perhaps the brand’s most famous ad campaign asked a question that has been haunting candy lovers for years: How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
The owl’s answer — three — proved to be unsatisfying, since more than one group of students has tried to come up with a more scientific answer. (The Venn diagram of engineers and candy eaters apparently has a significant overlap.) A group at Purdue University created a licking machine that took an average of 364 licks to get to the Tootsie Roll center, while a group at Michigan’s licking machine averaged 411 licks. The cow, the fox, the turtle and the owl don’t know the answer … and neither does anyone else.
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