{"id":17282,"date":"2015-08-24T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T14:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=17282"},"modified":"2015-08-24T13:39:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T17:39:37","slug":"a-century-of-history-for-ghirardellis-and-tjerrilds-chocolate-flicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=17282","title":{"rendered":"A Century of History for Ghirardelli’s (and Tjerrild’s) Chocolate Flicks!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_Flicks<\/p>\n

Flicks chocolate wafer candies are a treat that should be well-known to those who grew up on the West Coast of the United States but for people outside of that part of the country they probably won’t be so familiar.<\/p>\n

While their earliest origins are said to date back to the late 1800’s, the candy allegedly didn’t get its name until 1904 with the trademark for “Flicks” not registering until 1915, exactly one century ago.\u00a0\u00a0 So on the 100th anniversary of that trademark registration, I wanted to take a look back at some of the colorful packaging and history of the Flicks brand.\u00a0 Make the jump to check it out.<\/p>\n

Originally produced by the Ghirardelli Company of California (whose “Mother Nature” bars I covered here last year<\/a>), Flicks were a classic treat for generations.\u00a0 Served up in colorful foil-covered cardboard tubes, Flicks were striking and always distinctive.\u00a0 Though no intact packaging is known to have survived from the brand’s earliest days, I do have a paper Flicks band-wrapper that would have identified and wrapped a foil tube of the product.\u00a0 This paper band wrapper likely dates back to the 1920’s-1930’s.\u00a0 It’s a striking piece and is a great look at what is currently the oldest known piece of Flicks candy packaging known to exist:<\/p>\n

\"Ghirardelli's

Ghirardelli’s – Flicks – 1 1\/2 oz chocolate candy wrapper band – circa 1920’s 1930’s<\/p><\/div>\n

That early wrapper band stands as a bit of a lonely island for the Flicks brand packaging ancestry, as I don’t have any images or examples of packaging for the next few subsequent decades.<\/p>\n

The next-earliest wrapper I have comes from the late 1960’s\/early 1970’s.\u00a0 By this point, Ghirardelli’s had moved to a single-piece, colorful foil wrapper.\u00a0 And while the historical graphics and design of that old wrapper-band were incorporated into the new design, the band itself was now represented and printed onto the foil, rather than being its own separate piece.\u00a0 Here it is:<\/p>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavor wafers – red – 10-cent 1 1\/2 oz foil candy wrapper – late 1960’s early 1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

Note that by this time, Ghiarardelli had moved to a “chocolate flavor wafer” rather than using milk chocolate, which seems to be what was used during the brand’s earlier days.<\/p>\n

The next iteration of wrapper I have comes from 1975, and features a number of significant changes from the last.\u00a0\u00a0 The most striking difference being the change from an all-caps typeface to lower case for the logo, along with the introduction of a UPC code.<\/p>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavor wafers – gold – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1975<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavor wafers – green – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1975<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavor wafers – blue – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1975<\/p><\/div>\n

[Editor’s note:\u00a0 During my time as a comic book editor for Marvel Comics, I learned that the word “flick” was not allowed to be used within our character’s dialogue, and the reason might surprise you.\u00a0 It is because traditionally, comic book lettering was done in all caps, and if the kerning (i.e. the spacing between letters) in FLICKS was a little off, the “L” and “I” could easily merge together to form a single letter “U” – and obvious trouble would follow.\u00a0 I suspect there was a similar reason behind the change of the Flicks name from all-caps to not so.]<\/p>\n

In 1976 or 1977, “Chocolate Flavor” became “Chocolate Flavored” on wrappers (perhaps a labeling requirement change?):<\/p>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavored wafers – blue – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1976-77<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1978, Girardelli began including metric gram measurements along with the ounces that had been indicated on wrappers previously:<\/p>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavored wafers – blue – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavored wafers – red – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavored wafers – green – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli – Flicks – chocolate flavored wafers – gold – 1 3\/8 oz foil candy wrapper – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s an oddball television commercial produced for Flicks during this later 1970’s\/early 1980’s era, which shamelessly borrows on Superman’s and The Six Million Dollar Man’s mythology:<\/p>\n