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Via/ Wiki Commons

When the Baby Ruth candy bar came out in 1921 George “Babe” Ruth was slugging away for the New York Yankees and making baseball one of the most popular sports in the U.S. At the same time the Curtiss Candy Company used the name “Baby Ruth” to re-formulate one of its existing candy bars, the Kandy Kake, to great success. But, how were they able to use a name so similar to the great Bambino’s?

The new candy was only one letter off from the sports star’s nickname. Probably because of the perceived association with the baseball player, the candy bar took off, becoming something of a phenomenon itself. However, the crunchy peanuts surrounded by nougat and caramel and then coated in chocolate probably also had something to do with the candy’s popularity.

When Babe Ruth decided he was sick of them cashing in on his name he created his own candy company in 1926 called the George Ruth Candy Company, producers of the Babe Ruth Home Run Bar. At the time Baby Ruth was one of the few candy bars to sell for only a nickel a piece when other candy bars were sold for a dime. Babe Ruth’s candy bar was conspicuously also sold for one nickel.

Babe Ruth in 1921
Via: Via: Bain News Service/Library of Congress

When the Curtiss Candy Company sued the George Ruth Candy Company over the use of the name, they actually won against the slugger! But, how did they do it?

The story given in court during the trial was that the name of the Baby Ruth candy bar was inspired by President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, Ruth, who the press had hounded the family for pictures of when she was born in 1891 (and who sadly died at only age 12 from diphtheria). However, this unlikely candy namesake had not been in the news for decades when the candy was released.

There is a widely-held belief that the president’s deceased daughter was not the actual inspiration as she died 17 years before the candy bar was named.

Many folks think that this story was simply a cover so that they could continue to sell candy bars using the fame and notoriety of Babe Ruth.

Via/ Vintage Ad Browser

In 1931 the court ruled in favor of the Curtiss Candy Company because the name was not identical and the given backstory was seemingly unrelated to the baseball star. The Curtiss Candy Company sued over the name because the “Babe Ruth Home Run Bar” was too close to their Baby Ruth bars.

The Baby Ruth candy bar continued to have stellar sales well into the decades that followed the lawsuit, but the Curtiss Candy Company never paid any royalties to Babe Ruth.

Via/ iCollector

And what became of Babe Ruth’s candy line? Today almost no one has heard of it and that’s because the candy ceased production after the court ruling. Babe Ruth’s “own candy” was only made from 1926 until 1931. The Curtiss Candy Company continued to have stellar sales of Baby Ruth candy bars well into the decades that followed the lawsuit, while never once paying royalties or a settlement to Babe Ruth himself. However many years later Nestlé, who owned the candy by that point, did use the slugger’s likeness for marketing – with permission from his estate.