WHO INVENTED THE ESKIMO PIE?

Abstract

Taken together the Eskimo Pie, the Good Humor bar, and the Popsicle have had a tremendous impact on the ice cream industry. All three were invented between 1919 and 1924 and there has not been a significant new ice cream novelty since. One afternoon in 1919 a young boy entered a candy store in Onawa, Iowa, and ordered an ice cream sandwich but then changed his mind and ordered a candy bar. Christian Nelson, the proprietor, asked the boy if he really knew what he wanted, to which he replied, "Sure I know—I want ‘em both, but I only got a nickel." The lad's comment prompted Nelson, a Danish-born schoolteacher who ran the candy store as a sideline, to conclude that there was probably a market for a confection that combined chocolate candy with ice cream. He experimented with the idea but got nowhere because he was unable to make chocolate stick to ice cream. Weeks later he learned from a candy salesman that cocoa butter improves the clinging ability of chocolate, and he tried again. He succeeded on the first try and dubbed his chocolate-covered creation the "I-Scream Bar." The first five hundred bars were taken to the Onawa Firemen's Tournament, and all were sold. Convinced that his was a money-making creation, Nelson applied for a patent and set out to sell it in Omaha. In 1921, after months of failure during which he was reduced to racking balls in a pool hall for $20 a week, he met an Omaha ice cream company superintendent named Russell Stover who liked the idea, and a partnership was established.