July 20th recognizes National Lollipop Day as a way to celebrate this enduring and ever-popular treat. Pick up your favorite flavor to savor!
- The first known use of the word lollipop was in the mid-1780s. Charles Dickens used it to refer to stick-less candies.
- In the United States, confectionaries and medicine shops as early as the 1860s sold lollipops in various forms.
- George Smith of New Haven, Conn., in 1908 invented the modern-style lollipop.
- In 1931, Smith trademarked the name which came from his favorite racing horse, Lolly Pops.
- 1934 – In the movie Bright Eyes, Shirley Temple sang the song “On the Good Ship Lollipop.”
- 1939 – The Wizard of Oz brought us a world of characters, including the Lollipop Guild. Armed with a giant spiral sucker, The Lollipop Guild welcomed Dorothy to the Land of Oz.
- 1969 – How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. The Tootsie Pop (the trademark name for Tootsie Roll’s lollipop) commercial debuted on U.S. television. The 60-second advertisement included a boy, cow, fox, turtle, owl, and the narrator.
- 1973-1978 – How do you make a lollipop look tough? Put it in the hands of Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. The lollipop-loving detective was played by Telli Savalis in the TV series Kojak. At the same time, the candy did no harm to the tough guy’s persona.
- Lollypop means “tongue slap” because “Lolly” meant tongue and the word “pop” means slap in old English.
- Russian immigrant Samuel Born also contributed to the development of Lollipop candies. In 1912, he invented the machine that can insert a stick into a candy. To honor the invention, people named the machine Born Sucker Machine.
- Cotton Candy is the most common flavor for lollipops.
- Dum Dum’s mystery flavor is a pretty simple recipe. They’re created as one flavor batch is running out and the next one is beginning, whatever those two may be.
- Dum Dums were originated by Akron Candy Company in Bellevue, Ohio, in 1924. I.C. Bahr, the early sales manager of the company, named the ball-shaped candy on a stick and figured Dum Dums was a word any child could say.
- The world’s largest lollipop was made in 2012. The confectioner behind the job was See’s Candies of California, and their creation weighed over 7 thousand pounds. It was chocolate-flavored.
- Russian immigrant Samuel Born also contributed to the development of Lollipop candies. In 1912, he invented the machine that can insert a stick into a candy. To honor the invention, people named the machine Born Sucker Machine.
- The original lollipop machine would produce 40 Lollipops per minute but the modern ones make 5,900 a minute.
- In the Midwest, Lollipops are known as Suckers.
- The term ‘lollipop’ was recorded by English lexicographer Francis Grose in 1796.
- The world’s largest lollipop maker, Tootsie Roll, turns out 16 million lollipops per day.
- Chupa Chups are the most popular lollipops in the world. The Chupa Chups logo was designed by famous artist Salvadore Dali.
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