In-store advertisement, ca. 1930

In the 1920s Hershey Chocolate Company wanted to expand its product line and began experimenting with formulas for another nut bar. Samuel Hinkle, who began his career as a plant chemist in November 1924, spearheaded the company’s efforts. He shared vivid memories of developing the formula for Mr. Goodbar in 1925 in his 1975 oral history interview:

“We’d been experimenting with a peanut bar, peanuts being a popular product with the American people,” said Hinkle. “We decided we’d better use Spanish peanuts rather than Virginia peanuts. We came up with this Spanish peanut, a small round peanut, and we left the little red shell on the outside. We called it roasted, but we really were frying the peanuts in fat and combining them with our milk chocolate. We began to think about a name. Actually, it was Mr. Hershey who really came up with the name. Someone said, ‘That’s a good bar.’ And his (Mr. Hershey’s) hearing being a little bad, he thought they said, Mr. Goodbar. So he named it Mr. Goodbar.”

Mr. Goodbar is one of the Chocolate Company’s most enduring products. During the 1930s Depression Era, it was marketed as a “Tasty Lunch” because the peanuts gave it added nutritional value. During these years the bars sold 2 for a 5 cents. In the 1950s and 1960s the bars carried the slogan, “Quick Energy in Every Bar!”

Postcards such as this one were used to promote Milton Hershey's model industrial town.

The early 1900s saw a surge of popularity for postcards. The hobby of collecting picture postcards became the greatest collectible hobby that the World had ever known. The official figures from the U.S. Post Office for their fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, cite 677,777,798 postcards mailed. At that time the total population of the United States was only 88,700,000.

Hershey Chocolate Company included specially sized postcards with their 5 cent milk chocolate bars from 1909-1918.

Hershey Chocolate Company took advantage of the popularity of postcards by designing and printing a series of specially sized cards. These cards were included with Hershey’s Milk Chocolate 5 cent bars. The postcards were first included beginning about 1909 and continued until 1918. At first the cards featured images of the Chocolate Factory and dairy farms.

Early "Bar cards" featured scenes of chocolate making departments such as the Longitude or Conche department where chocolate was mixed for up to 96 hours before being moulded into bars.

Later town attractions such as Hershey Park, Swatara Creek, The Homestead and Chocolate Avenue were featured. The cards enabled Milton Hershey to advertise the quality of his milk chocolate and promote the town as a destination. They also became a popular bonus for consumers of his best-selling product. Over 88 different designs were developed over the years. Hershey’s sophisticated printing equipment made it cost effective to print the cards.  Large quantities were printed.  The local paper, the Hershey Press, (also printed in house), reported that one year 75 milion cards had been printed for inclusion with Hershey’s milk chocolate bars.  Originally the cards were printed in black and white. Later a green tint was added and finally the cards were printed in 4 colors. All of the cards included the phrase “Home of the Hershey Chocolate Company.”  To see more Hershey Chocolate Company “bar cards”  visit the Archives page at www.Flickr.com

Over the years of production, 3 styles of printing were used: black and white, green and black and 4-color. Postcard features scene from Hershey Park, ca1916-1918.