A Sweet Story

Vintage Advertisement of the Week – August 22, 2024

Any kid who grew up in the United States and Canada remembers these treats. The Life Saver Christmas Story Books were an affordable gift to give your friends when you had mere coins to spend on Christmas gifts in the school days of our youth.

This particular advertisement comes from Life magazine’s, December 15, 1941 issue. The candy box contained 12 classic flavors, some now lost to history:

• Pep O Mint
• Spear O Mint
• Wild Cherry
• Five Flavor
• Cola
• Assort O Mint
• Wint O Green
• Clove
• Lemon
• Butter Rum
• Chryst O Mint
• Orange

A Brief History of the Company

Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio, invented Life Savers in 1912 as a summer candy alternative to chocolate. The first flavor was Pep O Mint. They were made with a special punch by a pill manufacturer. The hole in the middle gave the hard candy the look of a life preserver, hence the name Life Saver was born.¹

After registering his trademark in 1912, Crane sold the company and the rights to the name to Edward Noble in 1913 for $2,900,² equivalent to $92,137.90 in 2024 dollars. Life Savers would change hands in the centuries to come several times. Here is a brief outline of how often the company changed ownership:

• 1912 – Clarence Crane Invents the Life Saver
• 1913 – Edward Noble buys the company from Crane and expands on the flavors and brand for decades to come
• 1956 – Life Savers Merged with Beech Nut Packing Corporation
• 1968 – Beech Nut Life Savers Merged with Squibb Corporation
• 1981 – Nabisco Brands, Inc. buys Life Savers
• 2000 – Kraft (a subsidiary of Phillip Morris Companies)buys Nabisco
• 2006 – Wrigley’s purchases Life Savers from Kraft/Phillip Morris
• 2008 – Mars acquires Wrigley

Manufacturing Tidbits

The candies used to be wrapped in tin foil to keep them fresh. This was done entirely by hand, until Noble’s brother Robert Peckham Noble, an engineer, designed a machine that streamlined the process. Robert Noble became the company’s CEO for the next 40 years.³

Interesting flavors, now defunct are: Lic O rice, Cin O mon, Vi O let, Choc O let, Hot Cin O mon, Sweet Orange, Sweet Mint and last, but not least, Malt O Milk. Apparently the Malt O Milk (1920) variety was not well received.⁴ I wish they would bring it back. I would love to try it.

Life Savers Ad; from the 1930’s.

Prices sure have gone up for this holiday treat. In 1941, the Christmas Storybook cost just .49¢ ($10.48 in 2024’s dollars). Walmart is currently selling the gift for $14.59. ⁵ I suspect this price will drop as the holidays near.

There is a ton of information out there on Life Savers. So many interesting ad campaigns exist for this company throughout the decades. I’ll be sure to post more in the future.

Nearly everyone has a favorite Life Saver memory or flavor. What’s yours? My favorite flavor is Butter Rum. Now if they could only bring back Vi O Let and Malt O Milk. Maybe they would give Butter Rum a run for its money.

1. Crane, Clarence (1875-1931). http://www.trumbullcountyhistory.com/crane-clarence-1875-1931/.
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2. “The History of Life Savers Candy.” ThoughtCo, http://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-life-savers-candy-4076664.
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3. (ThoughtCo.) ↩︎
4. (ThoughtCo.) ↩︎
5. “Walmart.com | Save Money. Live Better.” Walmart.com, 2020, walmart.com.
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