It’s not really a pie and sure didn’t come from the moon
Yet in one year, it quickly became a nationwide sensation
The men working in the coal mines were hungry, especially during their lunch breaks.
So back in 1917, when traveling salesman Earl Mitchell asked what kind of food would satisfy their empty stomachs, one worker said, “something big.”
Earl stood there, thinking over what the man had said.
His brain was swirling with ideas. These men are hungry. Since it’s their break, they don’t have time to eat a full meal. What they need is a snack, but it has to be fulfilling.
Then Earl had an idea.
Back at the bakery, he remembered how the staff would dip graham crackers into melted marshmallow, and then set it on window ledge to harden.
His idea was simple: Make a cookie using graham crackers but instead of dipping, put a glob of marshmallow in the middle like a sandwich.
It certainly would be a tasty snack and thick enough to curb the men’s hunger.
He asked what they thought of his cookie idea.
One worker replied while pointing up to the sky, “That cookie has to as big as the moon.”
After leaving the coal workers, Earl headed straight back to the company he worked for … The Mountain City Flour Mill, which also happened to own The Chattanooga Bakery.
Use It or Lose It
Now the Chattanooga Bakery had been around for several years. In fact it was founded in 1902 as part of the Mountain City Mining District, located in Tennessee near the border of Kentucky.
It’s a small town with only a few thousand people living there. And as you probably already guessed, it was a mining town.
In its early days, Mountain City was a boom town, filled with miners and mining companies. And it stayed that way until coal’s dizzying decline sent people away.
The Chattanooga Bakery had a handful of loyal customers but wasn’t making a lot of money.
Actually in many ways, the bakery was sort of an experiment for the Mountain City Flour Mill founded in 1888 by William Campbell.
Mr. Campbell had served with Company G of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry during the Civil War.
On his discharge, he settled in the Mountain City Mining region, where he started the Mill and two other businesses … The Campbell & Company Furniture Manufacturers and the Park Woolen Mill.
Back then amber fields of grain could easily be found along the highways that ran through Chattanooga. And it was because of those many acres of wheat that Mr. Campbell got the idea to start his flour mill.
The Mountain City Flour Mill was famous for churning out oriental flour, crystal meal, and feed for hogs, poultry, and cattle. Earl served as the salesman and manager of the mill.
But the mill had a little problem. There was always left over flour from the milling process. So William figured he could use that left over flour to start a bakery. It was a “use it or lose it” situation.
If he didn’t use the left over flour, he’d wind up throwing it away.
In order to prevent that from happening, he formed the Chattanooga Bakery as an outlet for his mill.
The Little Bakery That Could
When Earl returned back home, he told the staff at the bakery about the discussion he had with the coal workers. And also about his idea of creating a cookie … hearty enough to tame their stomach cravings.
They went about experimenting with several different versions of Earl’s cookie until finally they got the right combination of marshmallow and graham crackers, which they coated in a thick layer of chocolate.
Now that they had perfected the recipe, they sent out samples of the new cookie for taste testing. Whoever they gave one to instantly loved it. In fact everyone was talking about the new marshmallow cookie.
This was a pivotal moment for the bakery. They recognized they were onto something big. But before they could start selling the cookie, they had to give it a name.
Well Earl never forgot his chat with those coal miners, especially the man who remarked the snack had to be as big as the moon.
To The Moon
That conversation inspired the bakery to name their newfound creation MoonPie.
Now that it had a name, The MoonPie was ready for public debut.
And it did so at the low price of just five cents each.
That’s because the folks living in the Mountain City Mining area didn’t have a lot of money.
In fact in the early 1900’s, coal miners earned a meager $1.60 a day for a ten-hour shift.
They couldn’t afford to spend their hard earned money on lavish things. And especially not on extras, such as snacks.
But the MoonPie was different.
It was too big to be considered a cookie and too small to be a real pie. In fact it was four inches in diameter. It was as Goldilocks says in the story of the three bears and the bowls of porridge, “this one is just right.”
The MoonPie was an enormous success. They were now a regular feature of the bakery. And miners were buying them up.
It was so popular that by 1919, the bakery registered MoonPie for trademark rights.
Everyone Wants a MoonPie
By the 1930’s, the MoonPie was the “talk and treat” of the South. After all it was considered a bargain for its size and low cost.
It quickly became known as the working man’s lunch because it was so filling. And it certainly was the perfect size for a coal miner to put inside a lunch box.
Heck, it was so delicious that workers even paired the MoonPie with an RC Cola, making it the perfect break time snack.
The lunch-sized snack grew in popularity and by 1940’s, it was being shipped out to U.S. troops stationed in Europe.
By 1950’s, it was the inspiration for the hit country music song, “Give Me an RC and A MoonPie.”
The demand for MoonPies was unprecedented. The Chattanooga Bakery decided to make nothing else but MoonPies.
One Flavor Doesn’t Please All
The MoonPie formula stayed exactly the same -- graham crackers covered in chocolate all the way up until 1970’s.
But what about people who aren’t fans of chocolate? How do you please them?
Well you add more flavors of course. And that’s exactly what the Chattanooga Bakery did. It created the new banana flavored MoonPie.
And to make it even more distinguishable from the original version, it was now a double-decker. (no, not the bus). That’s two layers of marshmallow sandwiched between three graham crackers.
The whole Pie is then covered with a yellow coating that taste like banana.
Today, MoonPies comes in seven flavors: chocolate, vanilla, banana, strawberry, lemon, orange, and caramel.
Toss Those Pies
The MoonPie craze has grown so wildly that they’ve found a permanent home in Mobile, Alabama during Mardi Gras.
But in the weirdest kind of way.
I don’t know how this tradition started, but during Mardi Gras people would take to the streets and throw Cracker Jack boxes during parades.
As you can imagine, tossing a Cracker Jack box in the middle of a crowd could be a little dangerous.
You could poke a person’s eye out.
So what’s the next best thing to throw … yep, a MoonPie.
Tory Johnston, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Chattanooga Bakery says the company sells millions of Pies during Mardi Gras.
They are so well known in Mobile that the city often drops a gigantic MoonPie to kick off the New Year.
And the bakery releases special limited-edition flavors during Mardi Gras, such as coconut and salted caramel.
Across the Globe
The urge to taste a MoonPie spread from the South to all over the U.S.
MoonPies were being shipped everywhere, even across the globe.
In 1992, they were being distributed in Japan, where they are called “Massi Pies” (the Japanese word for marshmallow.)
The popularity of MoonPie hasn’t slowed down in all of these years. About one million Pies are made each day.
And the little bakery that had just a few people working for it in 1917 now has 159 employees. As for sales, the MoonPies alone generate roughly $38 million a year. That doesn’t include the spin-off merchandise and accessories you can buy at the MoonPie General Store.
There are even Pie festivals held throughout the year to celebrate MoonPie madness.
The MoonPie story shows that if you listen to what people are saying, you might come up with just one good idea.
Awesome Quotes by Awesome People
“Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”— Bernard Baruch
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TY Mike. The next issue has something to do with bugs.
Interesting! And an entertaining read.