The Hollywood Candy Company, or Hollywood Brands, was an American

confectionery 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 ...

company formed in Hollywood, Carver County, Minnesota, in 1912 by Frank Martoccio.

History

Martoccio, head of the F.A. Martoccio Macaroni Company, acquired a defunct candy factory in 1911 for the sole purpose of replacing one of his own factory's machines that had burned out. Martoccio was talked into buying the entire Pratt and Langhoft Candy plant and found himself in the confectionery business.2Archived copy
/ref> He purchased another candy company, the Pendergast Candy Company of Minneapolis, in 1927, changing the name to Hollywood Brands in 1933. The Pendergast Company had discovered the method of making a fluffy

nougat Nougat ( , ; ; az, nuqa; fa, نوقا) is a family of confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts are common), whipped egg whites, and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The c ...

for candy bars, which was copied by Frank Mars for his

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

bars. Martoccio invented a synthetic coating for his candy bars to keep them from melting in warm temperatures. He used only the very best ingredients—real cocoa butter, eggs, etc.-- and was still able to sell his milk chocolate bars for 3 cents compared to the 5 cent Hershey bar (1955). That was not continued after the company was sold in 1967. Hollywood Candy Company moved to

Centralia, Illinois Centralia is a city in Clinton, Jefferson, Marion, and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Illinois with the largest portion in Marion County. The city is the largest in three of the counties; Clinton, Marion, and Washington, but is not a co ...

, in 1938. During the 1950s, Hollywood Candy Company owned a Crosley Super Sport, which was painted to look like the Zero candy bar wrapper and employed a midget to impersonate a character called Zero and drive around advertising the candy bar. In 1967, the Martoccio family sold Hollywood Brands to Consolidated Foods, later

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. The Centralia plant was destroyed in a fire in 1980. In 1988 Hollywood Brands was acquired by the

Leaf Candy Company A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

, then became part of

The Hershey Company The Hershey Company, commonly known as Hershey's, is an American multinational company and one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. It also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milksh ...

in 1996.

Products

Amongst Hollywood's confectionery products were: * Butter-Nut (1916) with use of the name successfully defended in a court case challenging the name for use in a chocolate bar *

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...

(1920) White coating that did not melt in heat. A silver wrapper with large blue and silver ZERO across the top. Still produced today (2020) *

Milkshake A milkshake (sometimes simply called a shake) is a sweet beverage made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, fruit syrup, or whole fruit into a thick, sweet, cold mixture ...

(1927) (similar to a

Milky Way bar Milky Way is a brand of chocolate-covered confectionery bar manufactured and marketed by Mars, Incorporated. There are two varieties: the US Milky Way bar, which is sold as the Mars bar worldwide, including Canada; and the global Milky Way bar, ...

, but with malt flavor instead of chocolate flavor only) * Pay Day (1932) Caramel nougat coated with whole peanuts. Still produced today (2020) *Hollywood (dark chocolate coating caramel, nougat and peanuts) *Big Time (a Milkshake bar with peanuts) Purple wrapper with Big Time written across the top *Red Sails *Smooth Sailin (dark chocolate coating walnut-flavored nougat) A blue wrapper with silver sailboats *747 *Almond *Swinger *Buccaneers *Treasure Bar *Nut Sundae Bar *Sno King Candy Bar *Teddy Bear (peanuts, chocolate, nougat) *Nut Patti (almonds, chocolate, nougat) *Tafy Nut / Tofy-Nut *3 Big Bears (three chocolate bars in one) *Top Star (coconut, caramel, nougat)

References

{{reflist Confectionery companies of the United States American chocolate companies

Hollywood Candy Company The Hollywood Candy Company, or Hollywood Brands, was an American confectionery company formed in Hollywood, Carver County, Minnesota, in 1912 by Frank Martoccio. History Martoccio, head of the F.A. Martoccio Macaroni Company, acquired a defunct ...

Companies established in 1912