{"id":7793,"date":"2012-12-13T22:53:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=7793"},"modified":"2012-12-13T22:53:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T03:53:00","slug":"milk-duds-86-years-and-40-different-packages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=7793","title":{"rendered":"Milk Duds – 86 Years and 40 different packages!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_Milk<\/a><\/p>\n

Milk Duds is a confectionery classic that was first sold in 1926 by the Holloway company of Chicago.\u00a0 It’s a pretty simple bit of candy as so many classics are; a chewy nugget of caramel surrounded by a tasty chocolatey coating.\u00a0\u00a0 Along with Hot Tamales, Milk Duds have always been one of my favorite movie theater go-to candies.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I’ve picked up quite a variety of Milk Duds packages that dot their history, though most of what I have is from the last forty years.\u00a0\u00a0 So today and tomorrow, I’m going to share what I have and walk you through the pieces of Milk Duds history that my collection can shine a light on.\u00a0 Today is what we’ll call the standard Milk Duds chapter and tomorrow it’s going to be the exotic Milk Duds brand extensions.<\/p>\n

Unlike some brands that have seen dramatic changes in colorful packaging and mascots through the years, Milk Duds have been steady and reliable.\u00a0 My earliest box is a yellow hue with brown logo, a look which is still largely the design the boxes retain to this day.<\/p>\n

I’ll admit that it was this very consistency that, for a long time, kept me from giving much thought to the packaging or to putting much effort to collecting it. \u00a0 These days I find that I can celebrate its consistency and the small tweaks it has experienced in its long life.<\/p>\n

But consider this a warning: to the casual observer, you may find that many of the boxes I’m going to share with you today all start to look the same.\u00a0 You have my permission to skim a bit, but if you are curious and want to take a closer look, you’ll note the many subtle design evolutions and company changes along the way.<\/p>\n

The problem with this consistency in packaging style is that it often makes it difficult to precisely date a package.\u00a0 I’ve spent a lot of time to narrow in on ways to define each period and where each design fits along the way.\u00a0 I think I’ve created a pretty good roadmap for dating boxes of the 1970-2012 vintage.<\/p>\n

First up is my earliest Milk Duds box.\u00a0 This one came to me in great shape — so well-preserved in fact, that it’s hard to imagine just how old it is.\u00a0 I like the Art Deco-ish stylings of this one:<\/p>\n

\"Holloway's<\/a>

Holloway’s – Milk Duds – candy box – 1930’s 1940’s<\/p><\/div>\n

Following is a similar box that incorporates illustrations of the Milk Duds themselves.\u00a0 Still retaining much of the look of that earlier box, I determined that this one was later as it included a trademark next to the logo that the previous box lacked.<\/p>\n

\"Holloway's<\/a>

Holloway’s – Milk Duds – candy box – 1940’s 1950’s<\/p><\/div>\n

It is at this point in the timeline of Milk Duds packaging that I must do a bit of hand-waving.<\/p>\n

———————————–<\/p>\n

What I know is, is that the Beatrice company purchased Holloway in 1960, though it continued to operate under its original name into the late 1970’s.\u00a0 I will speculate that the box design seen below might have been one initiated due to the ownership change, though that is merely speculation.\u00a0 The next image of a box I have in my files is from 1963, and by that time it was sporting a very different look than the early, scripted logo style box.\u00a0 This more rigid logo is a design that Milk Duds would carry, off and on, for the next twenty years.<\/p>\n

\"1963<\/a>

1963 Milk Duds box – Candy Trade Ad – 1963<\/p><\/div>\n

Though it’s from a number of years later, I have a very similar design box from the early 1970’s:<\/p>\n

\"Holloway's<\/a>

Holloway’s – Milk Duds 10-cent 1 1 4 oz candy box – 1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1971, Holloway did a baseball card promotion that is likely responsible for the survival of more vintage Milk Duds boxes for that year than all others combined.\u00a0 As a collector, you could consider this the first candy box I ever collected, though I was technically collecting Pete Rose cards when I picked it up.<\/p>\n

\"Holloway<\/a>

Holloway Milk Duds – MLB Pete Rose card box – 1971<\/p><\/div>\n

Though they would later bear the Clark name, in 1972, both D.L. Clark and Holloway were held under the parent company of Beatrice, as you can see in this candy trade magazine ad.\u00a0 I should note, this ad shows us a Milk Duds box with the Good Housekeeping seal — that’s a box I’ve never come across before:<\/p>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Milk Duds & Clark – candy trade ad – February 1972<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

From here things were a little iffy when I first started because many late 70’s Milk Duds boxes look quite similar to the early 70’s boxes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I finally determined reliable groupings using whether or not boxes had UPC codes or not, among other things.<\/p>\n

Here’s another early 70’s variety box:<\/p>\n

\"Holloway's<\/a>

Holloway’s – Milk Duds 10-cent 1 3.8 oz candy box – 1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

————————————-<\/p>\n

By 1974, Milk Duds would receive a significant packaging redesign.\u00a0 For a long time, this box design was difficult for me to track down, a quest which I discussed back in March for my Wacky Wednesdays Milk Muds<\/a> post.<\/p>\n

Here’s what the redesigned box looked like:<\/p>\n

\"Holloway<\/a>

Holloway – Milk Duds – candy box – mid-1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Holloway<\/a>

Holloway – Milk Duds – More Chocolate Taste – candy box – mid-1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s a Milk Duds 9oz Juniors package featuring this mid-70’s design.<\/p>\n

\"Holloway<\/a>

Holloway – Milk Duds Juniors – 9oz multi-pack candy bag – mid-1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve got one of those Juniors boxes, but I’m saving it for the end of today’s post.<\/p>\n

——————————————-<\/p>\n

By 1977, the logo for Milk Duds would be revised back to the way it looked in 1972.\u00a0 I’m not sure why this change was made, only that it was.<\/p>\n

The previous redesigned box featured a “More Chocolate Taste” call-out, so I think it makes sense that when they returned to the more traditional logo design, boxes featuring that same call-out were the first ones 0n shelves:<\/p>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Holloway – Milk Duds – 10-cent .81oz candy box – 1976-1977<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Holloway – Milk Duds – More Chocolate Taste – 1 1.2 oz candy box – late 1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
Beatrice – Holloway – Milk Duds – Famous Holloway Caramels – 1 1.2 oz candy box – late 70’s<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

\u00a0Here’s a fun box that featured a mail-away for a Milk Duds t-shirt.\u00a0 I’ve determined this box was on sale in 1978:<\/p>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Holloway – Milk Duds – 10-cent candy box flat – T-Shirt offer – 1978<\/p><\/div>\n

Here are a few more late 70’s boxes:<\/p>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Holloway – Milk Duds long candy box – 1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Holloway – Milk Duds – 1.75oz candy box – 1978<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Holloway – Milk Duds – 25-cent 1.65oz candy box – 1979<\/p><\/div>\n

———————————–<\/p>\n

By 1980, the Holloway name would be removed from boxes, as the D.L. Clark company would be the parent confectioner in charge of their production, but still under Beatrice.\u00a0 This first one actually replaces Holloway with Clark in the slogan “Famous Clark Caramels”:<\/p>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – Clark – Milk Duds candy box – 1979\/1980<\/p><\/div>\n

Here are the other D.L. Clark Milk Duds boxes I have:<\/p>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – DL Clark – Milk Duds – Famous Caramels – 1.4oz candy box – 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – DL Clark – Milk Duds – 0.7 oz candy box – 1981<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beatrice<\/a>

Beatrice – DL Clark – Milk Duds – Famous Caramels – 2 oz candy box – 1982<\/p><\/div>\n

—————————————-<\/p>\n

This next box from 1982 still features the D.L. Clark ownership, but now gone is any mention of Beatrice.<\/p>\n

\"DL<\/a>

DL Clark – Milk Duds – 15% more candy – 1.61oz candy box – 1982<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DL<\/a>

DL Clark – Milk Duds – Caramels with Real Milk Chocolate – 1.61 oz candy box – 1983<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1983, the Clark company would merge with the Switzer company (best known for their licorice at the time) to form Switzer-Clark.\u00a0 Here’s a trade ad showcasing the new combined company’s offerings:<\/p>\n

\"Switzer-Clark<\/a>

Switzer-Clark candy trade magazine advertisement – 1984<\/p><\/div>\n

From this point until a few years later, Milk Duds boxes had Switzer-Clark, Division of Leaf branding.<\/p>\n

\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf – Switzer-Clark – Milk Duds – Famous Caramels – 2.75 oz candy box – early-to-mid 1980’s<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf – Switzer-Clark – Famous Caramels – 1.4 oz candy box – mid-1980’s<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf – Switzer-Clark – Milk Duds – Sweet Sounds Game – 2oz candy box – 1985<\/p><\/div>\n

The Leaf Switzer-Clark period also saw the release of something that they’d done years earlier; Learn-to-Spell Milk Duds juniors.\u00a0 I’ve always thought these were pretty cool. Here’s the package:<\/p>\n

\"Milk<\/a>

Milk Duds Famous Caramels Juniors – Learn to Spell Boxes – candy bag – 1970’s or 1980’s<\/p><\/div>\n

And here are the different of Learn-to-Spell Juniors boxes I’ve acquired over the years.\u00a0 I’m a long way from having the full alphabet:<\/p>\n

\"Milk<\/a>

Milk Duds Juniors – Learn to Spell boxes – 1970’s 1980’s<\/p><\/div>\n

——————————————-<\/p>\n

From here, it’s on to the late 80’s, when Switzer-Clark became simply, Leaf.<\/p>\n

\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf – Milk Duds – 1.4 oz candy box – late 1980’s<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf – Milk Duds – New Milk Chocolate – MLB All-Star Game – 1.61oz candy box – 1988-89<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf – Milk Duds – Now 15-percent more – 1.85 oz candy box – 1992<\/p><\/div>\n

During this period, Leaf put out Elf-branded boxes for the holidays, though all I have to show of them is this snapshot of an 1993 industry trade.\u00a0 I’d like to find one of these:<\/p>\n

\"Milk<\/a>

Milk Duds with Christmas Elf Mascots 1993<\/p><\/div>\n

The last of the Leaf-branded boxes I have comes from 1995-96:<\/p>\n

\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf – Milk Duds – 1.85oz candy box – 1995<\/p><\/div>\n

——————————<\/p>\n

From this point, we move onto the Hershey period in Milk Duds’ evolution.\u00a0 The boxes now start bringing attention to how much Milk Duds are lower in fat than other similar candies.\u00a0 The earliest box I have starts out with a 40% claim, though subsequent boxes reduce that to 35% and 33%:<\/p>\n

\"Hershey's<\/a>

Hershey’s – Milk Duds – 40-percent less fat – 1.85 oz candy box – Late 1990’s Early 2000’s<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Hershey's<\/a>

Hershey’s – Milk Duds – 35-percent less fat – 1.85 oz candy box – 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

The most recent version of the standard box drops the Hershey logo from the front.<\/p>\n

\"Hershey<\/a>

Hershey – Milk Duds – 1.85 oz candy box – 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

I have a pair of recent movie theater Milk Duds boxes and I’m happy to report that they’ve gone from “chocolatey” to actual “chocolate” – always a welcome change:<\/p>\n

\"Hershey's<\/a>

Hershey’s – Milk Duds – Chocolatey Covered Caramels – movie theater candy box – 2009<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Hershey's<\/a>

Hershey’s – Milk Duds – made with Chocolate & Caramel – movie theater candy box – 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Whew!\u00a0 If you’re still following along, we’ve just tracked 35 different Milk Duds boxes over 80 years.<\/p>\n

——————————————-<\/p>\n

I’m going to close with a pair of fun pieces.\u00a0 The first is a Milk Duds Christmas Holiday box, which is part of a larger series of boxes that have been on sale the last few years.\u00a0 They are made to look like elements of a tiny Christmas village.\u00a0 The Milk Duds is the post office.<\/p>\n

\"Hershey's<\/a>

Hershey’s – Milk Duds – Christmas village Post Office candy box – Holiday 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Last, but not least – I wanted to showcase a mini-timeline of mini boxes.\u00a0 Here are Milk Duds Juniors boxes spanning the early 70’s through to the early 90’s:<\/p>\n

\"Milk<\/a>

Milk Duds Juniors boxes – 1970’s – 1990’s<\/p><\/div>\n

And that is everything for today’s post.\u00a0\u00a0 I told you it was going to be a biggie!<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I’ll be back with a much shorter, much more exotic post.\u00a0 I’ll be wrapping up this topic by covering the flavorful brand extensions of Milk Duds I’ve collected, showcasing no less than three pieces of packaging which have never been seen anywhere on the internet before!\u00a0 You won’t want to miss it!<\/p>\n

See ya next time!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milk Duds is a confectionery classic that was first sold in 1926 by the Holloway company of Chicago.\u00a0 It’s a pretty simple bit of candy as so many classics are; a chewy nugget of caramel surrounded by a tasty chocolatey … 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":[87,49,24,6,35,47,56,134],"tags":[321,316,328,351,332,14,324,78,333,1218,182,678,21,15,12,348,11],"class_list":["post-7793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1950s","category-1960s","category-1970s","category-1980s","category-1990s","category-boxed","category-chocolate-2","category-hershey","tag-candy-collecting","tag-candy-collection","tag-candy-collector","tag-candy-wrapper-collection","tag-candy-wrapper-collector","tag-collectible","tag-collecting-candy","tag-confectionery","tag-confections","tag-hershey","tag-holloway","tag-milk-duds","tag-packaging","tag-sweets","tag-vintage","tag-vintage-candy-wrapper","tag-wrapper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-21H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7793","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=7793"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7887,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7793\/revisions\/7887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}