Dolly Madison is an American bakery brand owned by

Hostess Brands Hostess Brands is an American-based bakery company formed in 2013. It owns several bakeries in the United States that produce snack cakes under the Hostess and Dolly Madison brand names and its Canadian subsidiary, Voortman Cookies Limited, pr ...

, selling packaged baked

snack foods A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snacks are p ...

. It is best known for its long marketing association with the ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

'' animated

TV special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

History

In 1937,

Ralph Leroy Nafziger Ralph Leroy Nafziger (November 17, 1887 – September 17, 1965) was the founder of the Hostess Brands, Interstate Bakeries Corporation, which eventually became Hostess Brands. Nafziger was born into a family of bakers on November 17, 1887, in Kan ...

started a snack cake brand in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

called Dolly Madison. The name was inspired by first lady

Dolley Madison Dolley Todd Madison (née Payne; May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) was the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of bo ...

known for elegant parties. The brand's slogan was "Cakes and pastries fine enough to serve at the White House." Although a Dolly Madison Bakery appears in the 1932 movie '' Officer 13'' and was named after

, the wife of President James Madison, although with the first name spelled differently. The name was used for a successful ice cream brand sold for decades in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. The logo featured a silhouette of Dolly Madison. This brand was among the products that were liquidated by Hostess due to its announced plans to go out of business on November 16, 2012.

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...

, who acquired Hostess Brands'

Twinkies A Twinkie is an American snack cake, described as "golden sponge cake with a creamy filling". It was formerly made and distributed by Hostess Brands. The brand is currently owned by Hostess Brands, Inc. (), having been formerly owned by privat ...

in January 2013, also acquired the rights to the Dolly Madison snack cake brands, as well as the official corporate name to Dolly Madison and Hostess Brands, with plans to resume production of the products.

Marketing

Dolly Madison snacks are probably best known for their long association with characters from

Charles M. Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wi ...

's ''

'' comic strip.

Charlie Brown Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American ar ...

and his friends appeared on Dolly Madison packages and in television commercials in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The bakery, along with

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

and

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

, was a major sponsor of the ''Peanuts'' animated specials telecast on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

during that period. Each pie flavor was sold with a different character on the wrapper, including: ::

– cherry and banana crème :: Linus van Pelt – apple :: Lucy van Pelt – lemon ::

Schroeder __NOTOC__ Schroeder is a North German language, German (from Schröder) occupational name for a cloth cutter or tailor, from an agent derivative of Middle Low German , "to cut". The same term was occasionally used to denote a gristmiller as well as ...

– berry ::

Sally Brown Sally Brown is a fictional character in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles Schulz. She is the younger sister of main character Charlie Brown. She was first mentioned in May 1959 and throughout a long series of strips before her first appeara ...

– coconut crème and pineapple :: Frieda – chocolate ::

Peppermint Patty Peppermint Patty is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts''. Her full name is Patricia Reichardt, which is very rarely used in the strip. She is one of a small group in the strip who live across town from C ...

– strawberry and peach ::

Marcie Marcie is a fictional character featured in the long-running syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. Marcie is a studious girl who is sometimes depicted as being terrible at sports. She is friends with the ...

– Boysenberry The wrappers were later redesigned and featured

Snoopy Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recog ...

on all the flavors. Charlie Brown was also on Zingers packages wearing a baseball cap. Snoopy was also on Gems donut packages as well. During the period when the packages featured Peanuts characters, the advertising agency for Dolly Madison products was

Dancer Fitzgerald Sample Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (DFS and later DFS-Dorland) was a Madison Avenue advertising agency during the 20th century. It was founded in Chicago in 1923, and was acquired and merged into the Saatchi & Saatchi network in the 1980s. History The ag ...

's San Francisco branch—primarily due to its proximity to Schulz (based in nearby

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, La Pampa * S ...

Products

File:Chocolate_zingers.jpg , Dolly Madison chocolate

Zingers Zingers is a snack cake produced and sold by Dolly Madison and Hostess, snack food brands owned by Hostess Brands. Product line Zingers come in chocolate, vanilla, and raspberry flavors. Chocolate and vanilla Zingers have a thick layer o ...

File:Hostess-Rspbry-Zingers.jpg , Dolly Madison raspberry

References

Brand name snack foods Hostess Brands brands Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012 {{Food-product-stub

History

Marketing

Products

See also

References