{"id":391,"date":"2012-02-09T16:08:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T21:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=391"},"modified":"2012-03-02T01:56:51","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T06:56:51","slug":"tribute-to-the-father-of-lemonheads-and-atomic-fireballs-nello-ferarra-1919-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=391","title":{"rendered":"Tribute to the father of Lemonheads and Atomic Fireballs: Nello Ferrara 1919-2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 7th, Nello Ferrara, the man who brought us Ferrara Pan’s Lemonheads and Atomic Fireballs candies (and probably much more), passed away.\u00a0\u00a0 Due to this news, today’s post will be a celebration of two of his creations that were a part of so many of our childhoods.<\/p>\n

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A part of Ferrara Pan's offerings for 1963<\/p><\/div>\n

More than just a candy maker, Mr. Ferrara lived quite an extraordinary life, and I’ve enjoyed learning more about the man, in spite of the circumstance of the news.\u00a0 For more on Nello Ferrara and how he lived, I’d like to recommend this piece by Maureen O’Donnel with the Chicago Sun-Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Lemonheads boxes from the 1970's and 1980's<\/p><\/div>\n

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Lemonheads boxes and flavors from 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Lemonheads were a major part of the candy landscape when I was a kid, but I’ll be honest – they were never my thing.\u00a0 Atomic Fireballs, however, were a big deal for me.\u00a0 While Hot Tamales might have been my go-to cinnamon candy, Atomic Fireballs were what I went to when I needed a serious cinnamon kick, or just wanted a jaw breaker that burned. \u00a0 Ferrara Pan’s Atomic Fireballs were hot.\u00a0 They still are.\u00a0 I’m having a few now, as I write this.\u00a0 It’s a good burn.<\/p>\n

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Ferrara Pan Atomic Fire Ball candy box - late 60's to early 70's<\/p><\/div>\n

Ferrara Pan candy boxes are so iconic, and have been one of the focuses of my candy collecting.\u00a0\u00a0 What’s great is, they’re still around, still have wonderful graphics, and they’re one of the few brands that are still sold in smaller boxes, the same kind they’ve been sold in since I was a kid.<\/p>\n

Without further adieu, here are a few more images of goodies that first came from the mind of Nello Ferrara – thank you for making our lives a little more fun, and a lot more sweet.<\/p>\n

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Chewy Atomic Fire Ball 25-cent candy box - 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

And here’s a wrapper for one I don’t come across too often – the Atomic Fire Ball Lollipop<\/p>\n

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Ferrara Pan - Atomic Fire Ball Lollipops cello wrapper - 2009<\/p><\/div>\n

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UK - Ferrara Pan - Atomic Fire Blast (Fire Ball) candy box - 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

Over in the UK, Atomic FireBalls are called FireBlasts.\u00a0 I’m not entirely sure why (but I will be investigating.)\u00a0 I knew about these and during a recent UK trip, I was finally able to find one.\u00a0 I was not able to find the UK-only spinoff, though – Atomic Sour Balls.\u00a0 It would seem they are no longer in production:<\/p>\n

[http:\/\/www.treasureislandsweets.co.uk\/products\/Atomic-Sourballs.html<\/a>]<\/p>\n

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UK - Ferrara Pan - Atomic Sour Balls candy - 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Let’s close this tribute with a pair of vintage ads, showing a range of Ferrara Pan goodness.<\/p>\n

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Ferrara Pan - trade ad featuring Atomic Fire Balls - 1977<\/p><\/div>\n

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Ferrara Pan line-up from a 1992 trade ad<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On February 7th, Nello Ferrara, the man who brought us Ferrara Pan’s Lemonheads and Atomic Fireballs candies (and probably much more), passed away.\u00a0\u00a0 Due to this news, today’s post will be a celebration of two of his creations that were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,47,46],"tags":[1206,1205,27,10,45,14,16,23,48,25,15,12],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1970s","category-1980s","category-boxed","category-hard-candy","tag-1970s","tag-1980s","tag-70s","tag-candy","tag-collect","tag-collectible","tag-confection","tag-mascot","tag-panned","tag-retro","tag-sweets","tag-vintage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-6j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1791,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/1791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}