Frank Henry Fleer (1860November 1, 1921) was an American

confectioner Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...

who is thought to have developed the first

bubble gum Bubble gum or bubblegum is a type of chewing gum, designed to be inflated out of the mouth as a bubble. Bubble gum flavor While there is a bubble gum "flavor" – which various artificial flavorings including esters are mixed to obtain – it ...

. Fleer founded the Frank H. Fleer Corporation in 1919 as a gum manufacturer. Fleer's original formulation, called

Blibber-Blubber Blibber-Blubber was the first bubble gum formulation, developed in 1906 by American confectioner Frank H. Fleer. The gum was brittle and sticky, with it containing little cohesion; for these reasons, the gum was never marketed. It also required ...

, was never marketed to the public. It was not until 1928 that

Walter Diemer Walter E. Diemer (January 8, 1904 – January 8, 1998) was an American accountant who, in 1928, invented bubble gum. Life Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Diemer was working as an accountant at Fleer in 1926 when the company pre ...

, an accountant in Fleer's company, was able to refine the formulation and became marketed by Fleer's company as

Dubble Bubble Dubble Bubble is an American brand of fruit-flavoured, usually pink-colored, bubble gum invented by Walter Diemer, an accountant at Philadelphia-based Fleer Chewing Gum Company in 1928. One of Diemer’s hobbies was concocting recipes for chewi ...

. Fleer's company also went on to be innovators in the

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, sta ...

business, adding trading cards in 1923.Stasff report (July 15, 2005)
Fleer auction nets $6.1M.
''Philadelphia Business Journal''

Death

Fleer died, aged 65, of a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

at his

Davidson County, North Carolina Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 168,930. Its county seat is Lexington, and its largest city is Thomasville. Davidson County is included in the Winston-Salem, ...

residence in 1921. He is buried at

West Laurel Hill Cemetery West Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869, is 200 acres in size and contains the burials of many notable people. It is affiliated with Laurel Hill Cemetery in neighboring Ph ...

Belmont Section, Lot 58 in

Bala Cynwyd Bala Cynwyd ( ) is a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. It is located on the Philadelphia Main Line in Southeastern Pennsylvania, bordering the western edge of Philadelphia at U.S. Route 1 (City Avenue). It was originally two separa ...

, Pennsylvania.

References

1860 births 1921 deaths Businesspeople from Philadelphia 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople Confectioners {{US-business-bio-1860s-stub