A couple of days ago I talked about the popular candy names when I was growing up. One candy that I didn’t mention was M&Ms. Since I was born in 1938 and M&Ms were released in 1941, you might find that a little strange. It may have occurred to you that Maysville, Oklahoma was probably just a little behind the times and it took them a while to find out about M&Ms. While that may be partially true, that’s not the whole story.
The first M&M that I ever saw was when I was in junior high. A friend had bought a tube (they were originally sold in cardboard tubes) at a place called the “Shack” — a little store that exclusively sold candy and snacks. It was located next to Maysville High School and only operated during school hours.
Mars was granted a patent for manufacturing M&Ms in March of 1941, but the candy was exclusively sold to the military, enabling the heat-resistant, and easy to transport, chocolate to be included in American soldiers’ rations. So not only were M&Ms not available in Maysville, they weren’t available anywhere — except to the military.
Actually, M&Ms have a pretty long and interesting history…. it pretty much started in 1932 when Forrest Mars of the Mars candy company had a falling out with his father and business partner and moved to England, where he began manufacturing Mars bars for troops. As the story goes, it was during the Spanish Civil War that Mars encountered British volunteers eating small chocolate beads encased in a hard sugar shell, that prevented melting. Because there was no air conditioning in those days, sales of chocolate typically dropped off during summer months. Mars was excited at the prospect of developing a product that would be able to resist melting in high temperatures.
When Mars returned to the United States, he proposed a new business venture to Bruce Murrie, the son of Hershey executive William Murrie. Mars was looking for a partnership that would ensure a steady supply of resources needed to produce his idea for a new candy. Murrie received a 20 percent stake in the M&M product, which was named “Mars” and “Murrie.” (This led to the first M&Ms being made with Hershey chocolate!)
As I mentioned earlier, Mars was granted a patent in 1941 and began production in Newark, New Jersey.
After the war ended, M&Ms were made available to the general public. Forrest Mars bought out Murrie’s shares in the company and took sole ownership of the M&M brand. The cardboard tube packaging went away when the brown bag package was introduced in 1948. In 1950 each M&M was imprinted with a black “m.” That was changed to a white “m” in 1954.
Originally, M&M were produced with a brown, red, orange, yellow, green or violet coating, but between 1976 and 1987, there were no red M&Ms. In the early 1970s, a Russian study was released linking FD&C Red Dye No. 2 — then the most widely used commercial food dye in America, to cancer and fetal death. The Food and Drug Administration banned its use in 1976. Due to public demand, red M&Ms were re-introduced in 1987 — by which time Red Dye No. 2 was proven not to be carcinogenic, after all.
If all this isn’t enough, the same qualities that made M&Ms durable wartime rations made them perfect for space travel. They were requested by the crew aboard NASA’s first space shuttle, Columbia, and became the first candy in space.
So whether you eat them by the handful, or sort them by colors before eating, like Emily…. they still melt in you mouth, not in your hand.
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