{"id":9071,"date":"2013-03-04T17:34:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T22:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=9071"},"modified":"2013-03-04T17:34:41","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T22:34:41","slug":"the-tale-of-the-forgotten-cristy-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=9071","title":{"rendered":"The Tale of the Forgotten Cristy Bar!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_Cristy<\/p>\n

One of my favorite things to write about and share here on CollectingCandy.com are the forgotten and lost stories of candy history that I’ve been lucky enough to uncover.\u00a0 Today I’m going to share the tale of a bar that few, if any of my readers will remember.\u00a0 It’s something I’d never even heard of until I stumbled upon it during unrelated research;\u00a0 Concorde Confections’ Cristy Bar!<\/p>\n

First announced to the candy trades in August of 1969, the initial advertisement featured a Christy bar spelled with an “h”.<\/p>\n

\"Concorde

Concorde Confections – Cristy Bar – Meet Christy – candy trade magazine ad – August 1969<\/p><\/div>\n

I don’t know if that version of Christy bar ever made it to store shelves, but by April of the following year, Christy would become Cristy (without the “h”), and would be voted one of the two best new bars of 1969:<\/p>\n

\"Concorde

Concorde Confections – Cristy Bar – First Place – candy trade magazine ad – April 1970<\/p><\/div>\n

The design of the logo changed as well as the spelling, so I wonder if the bar seen in that early announcement was merely a prototype or mock-up?\u00a0 Though perhaps there is a Christy-with-an-H bar wrapper out there somewhere, waiting to be found.\u00a0 Here are the two versions brought together:<\/p>\n

\"Cristy

Cristy Bar comparison – First ad version and known production bar<\/p><\/div>\n

I first became interested in the Cristy bar due to the company that launched it, Concorde Confections.\u00a0 You see, Concorde were best known to me as the company who ran the Wonka confectionery brand through most of the 1970’s, with their Oompas<\/a>, Skrunch<\/a>, and Wonka Bars<\/a> to name a few.<\/p>\n

The Cristy bar was touted as Concorde’s very first bar, so my initial thought was that it made it historically significant and connected to the Wonka confectionery legacy – if somewhat loosely.<\/p>\n

\"Concorde

Concorde Confections – Cristy Bar – I’m In Love – candy trade magazine ad – July 1970<\/p><\/div>\n

[Editor’s note: Since the Cristy bar was Concorde’s first bar I’m prompted to speculate an alternative history:\u00a0 Perhaps without their initial Cristy bar success, Concorde wouldn’t have survived and the Wonka candy history that we know would be dramatically different?]<\/p>\n

Due to its current anonymity, at first I thought that the Cristy bar was only around for a year or two at most.\u00a0\u00a0 But I’ve found trade ads for the bar that were dated as late as 1972, leading me to realize it had a longer life:<\/p>\n

\"Concorde

Concorde Cristy Bar – 80-cent free goods offer – trade clipping – May 1972<\/p><\/div>\n

Beyond that 1972 trade clipping, I’ve also managed to track down an even later Cristy bar display box.\u00a0 This display box is an important piece for understanding Cristy’s lifespan as it features a redesigned logo.\u00a0 This would lead me to deduce that Cristy lasted at least through 1973, possibly longer.<\/p>\n

\"Concorde

Concorde Confections – Cristy Bar display box top – new design – mid-1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

So while the Cristy bar began as a brand that I didn’t recall personally and that no one I’d ever asked about could remember – I still developed a keen interest in it due to its place in candy history.<\/p>\n

As my appreciation for the brand grew I wondered if a wrapper for one of these bars might still exist and if, as a collector, I’d ever come across one?<\/p>\n

Earlier this year my question was answered and not only did a Cristy wrapper surface, but I was able to add it to my collection.\u00a0 This next wrapper image, along with most everything else from today’s post, is a CollectingCandy.com exclusive – meaning you won’t find this anywhere else online.<\/p>\n

And here it is:<\/p>\n

\"Concorde

Concorde Confections – Cristy – 10-cent candy bar wrapper – 1970<\/p><\/div>\n

Isn’t that a beauty?\u00a0 I’ve often wondered if this bar was meant to appeal to women and girls, as I think most adolescent boys wouldn’t have wanted to pick up a bar with a girl’s name.\u00a0 Yet the compelling visage of the pretty, smiling girl must have certainly grabbed boys’ attentions and imaginations.<\/p>\n

And it does make me wonder if Cristy Bars were ever racked next to $100,000 bars, when their “kid mascot” wrappers were introduced?<\/p>\n

\"Cristy

Cristy and the $100,000 kid<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m tempted to remark about a “candy wrapper romance”, but seeing the two together does make me wonder if the Cristy wrapper influenced the use of a personality photo on the later $100,000 wrapper design.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the girl on the wrapper – Cristy herself – is out there somewhere, and if she or anyone she knows reads this, drop us a line<\/a> – I’d love to hear the story of how she became the face of Concorde Confections’ very first bar.<\/p>\n

And that everything I’ve got on the tale of the forgotten Cristy Bar.<\/p>\n

See you next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite things to write about and share here on CollectingCandy.com are the forgotten and lost stories of candy history that I’ve been lucky enough to uncover.\u00a0 Today I’m going to share the tale of a bar that … 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":[49,24,164],"tags":[1208,377,1206,317,321,316,328,351,332,14,324,768,78,333,769,21,15,348,11],"class_list":["post-9071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1960s","category-1970s","category-wonka","tag-1960s","tag-1960s-candy","tag-1970s","tag-1970s-candy","tag-candy-collecting","tag-candy-collection","tag-candy-collector","tag-candy-wrapper-collection","tag-candy-wrapper-collector","tag-collectible","tag-collecting-candy","tag-concorde-confections","tag-confectionery","tag-confections","tag-cristy-bar","tag-packaging","tag-sweets","tag-vintage-candy-wrapper","tag-wrapper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-2mj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9071","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=9071"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9110,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9071\/revisions\/9110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}