Neighborhood News: Cracker Jack is a Chicago treasure…with a prize inside!
“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack…I don’t care if I ever get back!”
“Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer
Chicago is known for its great popcorn (Hello, Garrett’s!) but the first and best-known of all of these is Cracker Jack. The delectable combination of molasses, popcorn, caramel and peanuts is a true Chicago creation, of German immigrant Frederick William (F.W.) Rueckheim and his brother Louis.
According to What’s Cooking America,Rueckheim’s great granddaughter saidthe reason the boxes are red, white, and blue is because, coming off World War I, great-grandfather was German. There was some talk that he wasn’t patriotic enough or something like that. So he started using all red, white, and blue so the public could see he was a patriotic American.
Who invented Cracker Jack?
According to Wikipedia sources,there are two legends of how Cracker Jack originated: The older attributes it to Charles Frederick Gunther (1837–1920), also known as “The Candy Man” and “Cracker-Jacks King”; the other attributes it to Rueckheim, a German-born Chicago immigrant known informally as “Fritz”, who sold popcorn at 113 Fourth Avenue (now known as Federal Street), beginning in 1871. The Rueckheim popcorn was made by hand, using steam equipment. In 1873, Fritz bought out his partner William Brinkmeyer and brought his brother, Louis from Germany to join in his venture, forming the company F. W. Rueckheim & Bro. They operated out of a factory in Bronzeville.
The Rueckheim brothers produced a new recipe, including popcorn, peanuts, and molasses. Around this time, Louis offered the popcorn-peanuts-caramel mixture to a salesman, who declared, “That’s a crackerjack” (a popular slang term meaning very good), hence the name.
It may (or may not) not have happened at the World’s Fair
Many sources connect the popularity of Cracker Jack to its presence at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. According to What’s Cooking America, it was billed as “Candied Popcorn and Peanuts.” People at the Worlds Fair didn’t like the stickiness of the early Cracker Jack because the molasses was too sticky. Louis Rueckheim (1849–1927) invented a secret process that kept the caramel dry and crispy.
However, the Rueckheim’s participation at the Fair has been disputed by other historians, citing a lack of a mention of the product in official records from the Fair.
In 1896, the first lot of Cracker Jack was produced, the same year the product’s name and tagline “The More You Eat, the More You Want” were registered.
The Song
In 1908, Cracker Jack was immortalized in a song that was to become a favorite of baseball fans, according to Encyclopedia.com. In “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” lyricist Jack Norworth (1879–1959) penned the line, “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack.” That said, multiple sources say neither man had ever been to a baseball game. The song was first performed by Norworth’s wife, soprano Nora Bayes at the Ziegfield Follies and, by 1910, was a staple at all big league ballparks in America. The cry, “Getcha’ peanuts, popcorn, and Cracker Jacks!” is still heard at sporting events and carnivals in America.
Where’d they get that prize?
Prizes were included in every box of Cracker Jack beginning in 1912. One of the first prizes was in 1914 when the company produced the first of two Cracker Jack baseball card issues, which featured players from both major leagues as well as players from the short-lived Federal League. Early “toy surprises” included rings, plastic figurines, booklets, stickers, temporary tattoos, and decoder rings.
Today, the prize inside has gone digital, with a link inside the box to a digital game.
Today: Introducing Cracker Jill
Today, Cracker Jack has been a household name for more than 125 years. Since 1997, he Cracker Jack brand has been owned and marketed by Frito-Lay. According to Mashed, the latest addition to the Cracker Jack family is Cracker Jill, introduced in April 2022.
Though it’s the same product with new packaging, Cracker Jill celebrates women in sports and swaps out Sailor Jack on each package for different variations of a new mascot, Sailor Jill. The Sailor Jill packaging is a special-edition option, Frito-Lay says, available only in professional ball parks or when consumers make a $5 or larger donation to the Women’s Sports Foundation (via a special link) while supplies last. In conjunction, Cracker Jack has pledged to donate $200,000 to the Women’s Sports Foundation and even hired music artist Normani to record a new version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” that features Cracker Jill in place of Cracker Jack in the lyrics.
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
