By: Rénald Fortier
Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
“Forget that times are tough and grim, cheer up and smile with Sunny Jim” – The crunchy saga of Force Food Company’s Force, the 1st commercially successful wheat flake breakfast cereal on Earth, part 1
The stand of Force Food Company of Hamilton, Ontario, at the 1904 edition of the Central Canada Exhibition, Ottawa, Ontario. Anon., “The Central Canada Exhibition at Ottawa.” The Canadian Grocer, 30 September 1904, 61.
To paraphrase the world-famous American actress / dancer / singer Judy Garland, born Frances Ethel Gumm, will you meet me in Ottawa, tawa, meet me at the Ex, my reading friend? The 1904 Central Canada Exhibition, of course, using your solar-powered time machine.
And yes, I do hope that the American lyricist Andrew Benjamin Sterling will not haunt me for mangling the lyrics of the popular 1904 song Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis, created in cooperation with the American composer / music publishing executive / violinist Kerry Mills, born Frederick Allen Mills, on the occurrence of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, between April and November 1904, but back to our story.
The scene at the main entrance and ticket office on the first day of the 1904 edition of the Central Canada Exhibition, Lansdowne Park, Ottawa, Ontario. The dome of the Aberdeen Pavilion can be seen near the centre of the image. Anon., “Formal Opening of Ottawa’s Great Exhibition Today.” The Evening Journal, 19 September 1904, 1.
Had we met in Ottawa, tawa, Ontario, in September 1904, my reading friend, we could have strolled the grounds of the 18th edition of the Central Canada Exhibition, held at Lansdowne Park, during the second half of September, between the 16th and 23rd to be more precise.
One of the many kiosks we could have visited at the Central Canada Exhibition belonged to the Canadian subsidiary of the firm at the heart of this issue of our incomparable blog / bulletin / thingee. Now, please accept my apologies for the poor quality of the image with which I began this article.
Even a wingnut like me would have found something to satiate his cravings at the 1904 edition of the Central Canada Exhibition. You see, an American fairground aeronaut / parachutist, Professor Hutchison, in real life Edmund Rayne Hutchison, was on hand with his spouse, Retta Danzelle, born Flora Ames, an American aeronaut / parachutist known as the Queen of the Clouds, and a fairground hot air balloon sponsored by Empire Tobacco Company Limited of Granby, Québec, a subsidiary of American Tobacco Company of Canada Limited of Montréal, Québec, itself a subsidiary of an American firm, you guessed it, American Tobacco Company.
As you undoubtedly know, yours truly would like nothing more than pontificate on the death-defying jaunts of those aerialists but today is not the day. Nay, it is not. All right, all right, if you insist, but I will be brief and… No rolling in the aisles, please.
To begin with, the moniker Professor by which fairground aeronauts / parachutists were known had nothing to do with the teaching profession. It gave those aerialists a modicum of prestige, I guess.
Weather permitting, Hutchison might have ascended into the clouds on a daily basis. He ascended with his spouse at least once. On at least one other occasion, he was fired in mid air from some sort of cannon. I kid you not.
During each of his ascents, Hutchison showered the crowd of spectators with various tags which could be exchanged for various premiums (baseballs, playing cards, photograph frames, pocketknives, baseball mitts, stick pins, purses, spoons, etc.). Mind you, he might also have dropped samples of plug chewing tobacco.
Hutchison was one of the aeronauts hired by Empire Tobacco in 1904 to advertise its cancer-causing products. A Professor Belmont had taken to the sky in Toronto, Ontario, in May 1904, for example. A Professor Stewart had done the same in Hamilton, Ontario, in July.
Yours truly wonders if that latter individual was in fact Alphonse Stewart, King of the Air, of Montréal, one of the few francophone Canadian aeronauts / parachutists of his day and a person mentioned in November 2021 and October 2022 issues of our aerial blog / bulletin / thingee.
This being said (typed?), I would be remiss if I did not point out that fairground aeronauts and parachutists had performed at the Central Canada Exhibition both before and after 1904. Indeed, one such individual had been there in September 1888, for the first edition of that exhibition. He too was an American aerialist. Charles W. Williams was his name.
You may wish to note that the following was tragic.
On 26 September, when Professor Williams told the 12 men who were holding steady his fairground hot air balloon to let go of the frail craft, all of them but one did so. For some reason or other, Thomas James “Tom” Wensley did not act fast enough. Carried aloft along with Williams, the young carpenter hung on for as long as he could. Finally, Wensley could hang on no longer and fell in front of the huge crowd which had gone to Lansdowne Park to watch Williams’ parachute jump.
Some people thought that Wensley’s ascent was part of the act. Their shock was the greater when they realised what was happening.
Unable to help Wensley, Williams left his perch under the hot air balloon soon after and made his jump. He landed safely near Dow’s Lake, not too far from Lansdowne Park.
Almost incredibly, Williams made another ascent only 2 days later. Everything went well.
Wensley’s death was the first known aviation related fatality on Canadian soil.
Yours truly would again be remiss if I did not point out that the president of the Central Canada Exhibition Association (CCEA) between 1895 and 1906, the Canadian mill owner / businessman and federal Commissioner of Exhibitions William H. “Bill” Hutchison was not related to Professor Hutchison.
Would you believe that, as part of his work for the federal Department of Agriculture, Hutchison, yes, the Commissioner of Exhibitions, played a role in organising Canada’s contributions in major exhibitions held
- in the United States (Louisiana Purchase Exposition of St. Louis in 1904, Panama California Exposition of San Diego in 1915 and Panama–Pacific International Exposition of San Francisco in 1915),
- in Japan (5th Naikoku Kangyō Hakurankai of Ōsaka-ichi / Osaka in 1903),
- in Italy (Esposizione internazionale di Milano of… Milano / Milan in 1906),
- in Belgium (Exposition universelle de Liège of… Liège / Lîdje / Luik in 1905),
and possibly elsewhere?
And yes, you are quite correct, my reading friend, sleeping and dining accommodations were apparently at a premium in the notional, err, sorry, national capital of Canada in September 1904. As Ottawa hotels filled up, the (large?) overflow apparently had to be taken care of by citizens with one or two rooms available for rent to individuals or families. Individuals and families looking to rent or to book a room were invited to place small advertisements in Ottawa newspapers.
Let us not forget, Ottawa counted only 59 930 or so residents in 1901, compared to 267 730 or so for Montréal and 208 040 or so for Toronto.
Which reminds me that we should be looking into the history of a well-advertised breakfast cereal named Force, and… Why examine an American product, you ask, my flag-waving reading friend? Well, for one thing, yours truly is the one typing this stuff, which means I get to choose my topics. Besides, the saga of Force is pretty cool.
That saga began with the acquisition of Hornsby Oatmeal Company, an American firm founded in the 1870s in Craigville, New York, by Alexander Hornsby, when the latter passed away, in the late 1880s. The acquisitor was an ambitious young gentleman, Edward Ellsworth.
In 1890, Ellsworth moved his new business to Lockport, Illinois. Around 1893, he moved it again, this time to Buffalo, New York.
H-O Company, as the firm became, seemingly came into existence around that time. Back then its headquarters might have been located in New York City, New York.
For some reason or other, H-O Oats, the hot breakfast cereal produced by that pioneer in the manufacture of prepared breakfast food, proved highly popular with consumers in North America and beyond. Indeed, by 1897, the firm claimed to have foreign depots in places as diverse as Sankt-Peterbúrg / Saint Petersburg (Russian Empire), Rotterdam (Netherlands), London (United Kingdom), Kristiania, today’s Oslo (Norway) and Cape Town (Cape Colony).
Mind you, again, H-O also produced animal feed as well as hominy, a human food produced from dried maize / corn kernels which have been nixtamalized or, in simpler terms, treated with a limewater solution, but I digress.
By then a mustachioed and gray-haired businessman with a distinguished look, a commanding presence and a passion for poker, “Duke” Ellsworth, as Edward Ellsworth was known at the time, formed Force Food Company of Buffalo in 1901, quite possibly as early as June, and here is proof…
An early advertisement for Force, the breakfast cereal produced by Force Food Company of Buffalo, New York. Anon., “Force Food Company.” Buffalo Evening News, 28 June 1901, 4.
A box of Force sold for US 15 cents back then, a sum which corresponded to about $7.60 in 2024 currency.
And yes, in all instances, the 2024 currency mentioned in this article will be Canadian. What did you expect? Klingon darseks? (Hello, EP and EG!)
To paraphrase the lead singer of the American new wave band Talking Heads, in its 1981 (!) hit song Once in a lifetime, you may ask yourself why Ellsworth chose to launch a product like Force. You see, Ellsworth wanted to get rich, or richer than he already was. He thought he could achieve that goal by marketing a breakfast cereal which could be go on the shelves of grocery stores and remain there for some time without spoiling, a breakfast cereal which did not require as much preparation as a hot one, because it was served cold.
As was and still is the case with many new ventures, early sales figures were not exactly spectacular.
Even so, the management of an American firm formed in 1889 took umbrage at the competition it was now facing. You see, again, a patent for flaked cereals and the process to produce them had been issued to one of the founding heads of Sanitas Nut Food Company Limited back in April 1896. A variety of cereals, including corn and wheat, were covered by said patent, and…
Yes, yes, corn. As in corn flakes. You see, the founding head of Sanitas Nut Food whose name could be found on the patent was none other than the American businessman / inventor / physician and sanitarium director John Harvey Kellogg, and…
No, not that Kellogg. The individual who, in 1906, founded Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, a firm which became Kellogg Company in 1922, was one of Kellogg’s younger brothers, Will Keith Kellogg. The two had major fallout in 1906, but back to our story.
The management of Sanitas Nut Food took so much umbrage at what Force Food was doing that it sued that firm, as well as H-O, not to mention Edward Ellsworth & Company, their actual owner, I think, in January 1902, and that for copyright infringement. Said management also sought to extract mountains of dough from all three firms for the damage it claimed it had suffered as a result of their activities.
From the looks of it, that matter was settled out of court. This being said (typed?), Force Food survived. Actually, it did not only survive, it thrived. Force thus became the first commercially successful wheat flake breakfast cereal on planet Earth.
Indeed, business was so good in mid-1902 that Force Food had to increase by a full third the salary given to the young women who packaged the cereal and glued the 3-part (top, bottom and 4 sides) and 3-colour label on each box. By a full third! I kid you not. Those young women were said to be the best paid persons in their category in the whole of Buffalo.
At least, that was what was written in newspapers at the time.
Would you believe that the firm which produced said labels allegedly had to order 19 or so metric tonnes (19 or so imperial tons / 21 or so American tons) of ink to deal with Force Food’s order? Wah! I know, I know. I too have problems believing that piece of news.
And yes, as Force Food tried to fob off the attack of Sanitas Nut Food, its satisfied consumer advertisements continued to be, err, well, hard hitting at times.
A typical hard-hitting advertisement issued by Force Food Company of Buffalo, New York. Anon., “Force Food Company.” Buffalo Evening News, 11 June 1902, 7.
A cynical person but not yours truly, of course, might have wondered if the testimonies of satisfied consumers bore any relationship to reality.
Would you believe that Force Food claimed that boxes of Force were flying so fast off the shelves of stores in some unspecified locations that the factory could not keep up, which forced the firm’s management to remove its all too successful advertisements from newspapers in those unspecified locations, until a second mill came into operation that is?
I know, I know. This feels like the sort of thing my late mom described as American b*llsh*t. Anyway, enjoy the ads.
A rather original advertisement issued by Force Food Company of Buffalo, New York, which claimed that boxes of Force were flying so fast off the shelves of stores in Topeka, Kansas, that the factory could not keep up, which forced management to remove its all too successful advertisements from local newspapers. Anon., “Force Food Company.” The Topeka Daily Capital, 19 June 1902, 1.
A visually more interesting advertisement issued by Force Food Company of Buffalo, New York, which claimed that boxes of Force were flying so fast off the shelves of stores in some unspecified locations that the firm’s management had to remove its all too successful advertisements from newspapers in those unspecified locations, until a second mill came into operation that is. Anon., “Force Food Company.” The Wichita Daily Eagle, 29 July 1902, 1.
Another visually interesting advertisement issued by Force Food Company of Buffalo, New York, which claimed that boxes of Force were flying so fast off the shelves of stores that the firm’s management had to remove its all too successful advertisements from newspapers in unspecified unknown locations, until a second mill came into operation that is. Anon., “Force Food Company.” Neenah Times, 20 August 1902, 1.
Incidentally, one or more of those advertisements could be found in a great many American newspapers from June 1902 onward. In the summer and fall of 1902, they could also be found in several, if not many Canadian newspapers in at least 4 provinces (Québec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and British-Columbia).
The growing success of Force owed a lot of the advertising campaign initiated by Force Food. In turn, the success of that campaign owed a lot to a character which became synonymous with Force, namely Sunny Jim.
Sunny Jim was the brainchild of two young Buffalo women who were, it was said (typed?), very handsomely paid for their trouble, to the tune of US $ 5 000, a sum which corresponded to about $250 000 in 2024 currency. In truth, the pair was seemingly paid US $100, a sum which corresponded to about $5 000 in 2024 currency, which was far from a huge sum.
One of those young women was 16 or so year-old Dorothy Goddard Ficken. That brilliant artist drew Sunny Jim to accompany the jingles composed by the originator of the concept, a 22-year-old freelance writer of jingles and children’s verses for newspapers, Minnie Maud Hanff.
Force Food’s advertising manager, William Bogert Hunter, had approached Hanff during the winter of 1901-02 to see if she could write advertising material for use on streetcars. The fact that the young woman’s stock and trade was jingles did not impress him much, to paraphrase a line of a 1998 (!) song made famous by Canadian singer / songwriter Eilleen Regina “Shania” Twain, born Edwards, but he chose to give her a chance to write something for Force.
Given the 5 or so years of experience she had under her belt, Hanff had some idea of how to create good copy. For example, she was quite turned off by the doctor’s prescription style of the typical breakfast cereal advertisements of the time. Hanff thus created Sunny Jim to put some human interest and imagination in such advertisements, using the brief and humorous jingles she was familiar with. This being said (typed?), she made sure to include in her ditties the benefits, real or imagined, of eating grain products that the average consumer was familiar with.
Hanff submitted her first batch of jingles to Hunter in March 1902. Almost in spite of himself, he liked them. Ellsworth was less enthusiastic, however. His conversations with advertising professionals had all but convinced him that jingles did not work. Even so, Hanff’s suggestion that illustrations could improve their appeal met with Ellsworth’s approval. She then set out to find an illustrator.
Raymond Fuller Ayers, the children’s page editor of the New York Herald, a… New York City daily, to whom Hanff had sold some of her children’s verses, suggested that she get in touch with Ficken. The teenager read the jingles and listened to Hanff. She then produced some drawings that Hanff took to the main office of Force Food. Ellsworth loved them and agreed to use Hanff’s jingles and Ficken’s drawings as the core of his firm’s advertising campaign.
Incidentally, Ayers and Hanff got hitched, seemingly in 1903.
Given her age and her family’s prominence, Ficken’s name was kept secret. This led to speculation that the artist behind Sunny Jim was James Kenneth Fraser, an employee of the famous American advertising firm Calkins & Holden Incorporated, I think, who, in 1900, had launched the Spotless Town advertising campaign for Enoch Morgan’s Sons Company’s Sapolio abrasive soap, arguably one of the greatest advertising campaigns of all times.
A brief digression if I may. Many years later, in July 1926 in fact, Dorothy Goddard Gwynne, born Ficken, gave birth to the American actor / artist / author Frederick Hubbard “Fred” Gwynne, a very tall (1.96 or so metre / 6 feet 5 inches or so) gentleman well known for his starring roles in the American television situation comedies Car 54, Where Are You? (1961-63) and The Munsters (1964-66), not to mention his supporting role in the very popular 1992 American courtroom comedy film My Cousin Vinny. End of digression.
The Sunny Jim imagined by Ficken and Hanff was a slim, somewhat odd-looking and elderly chap with a distinctive pigtail, which reminded me a scorpion’s tail, who wore an old-fashioned costume with tails, as well as a waistcoat and top hat. Oh yes, and he had a walking stick.
You may ask yourself, again, what this odd-looking chap had to do with a breakfast cereal. If truth be told, an advertisement does not always have to make sense. Its primary function is to be memorable, and Sunny Jim was very memorable indeed.
The drawings and jingles seemingly began to appear in American newspapers in June 1902. They soon multiplied in numbers as Sunny Jim began to appear in countless newspaper and magazine advertisements, not to mention on billboards and streetcars in major American cities. And yes, the design of the carboard box in which Force was sold was modified so that a drawing of Sunny Jim could be inserted on the front panel.
By the way, here is one of the earliest jingles:
Jim Dumps had been for weeks so cross,
‘Twas plain he’d met with some great loss;
But since once more these ads. make clear
That what he missed at last is here,
And ‘Force’ can be supplied to him,
Jim Dumps has changed to ‘Sunny Jim.’
Was that ballyhoo successful, you ask, my reading friend? That is for me to know and you to find out, in a few days. Sorry.
Rénald Fortier
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