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It sounds like there's much at stake here, so we were hoping we could help, but it turns out that we're on the shaky ground of urban legend, where things are seldom what they seem. We figured that the brand name candy bar would have a home page and an official history. We found a Nestle-branded Baby Ruth candy bar web page, with the recently revamped red, white and blue wrapper (replacing the classic red and white version), and the promise of a new site in 1999. Nothing more. Turns out that the origin of the name Baby Ruth is highly contested. There's a long thread chronicling all aspects of the legendary, litigious candy bar controversy at the AFU and Urban Legends Archive, a fabulous repository of fact and fiction. An urban legend,
in the words of the alt.folklore.urban FAQ, "appears mysteriously and spreads spontaneously in varying forms, contains elements of humor or horror, makes good storytelling," and is not always untrue. The Baby Ruth dossier presents all sides of the story. According to the National Confectioner's Association, the candy bar was named for Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth -- although she died in 1904, and the candy was not manufactured until 1920, by the Curtiss Candy Company in Chicago. Another source, quoted in Tom Burnham's 1980 book, More Misinformation, suggests that the chocolate, caramel, nougat, and peanut log was first named for the granddaughter of the president of the Williamson
Candy Company, where the recipe originated. Curtiss Candy gave away thousands of Baby Ruths in promotions and priced the product at five cents, half the going rate. In 1921, when children began sending their candy wrappers to ballplayer Babe Ruth for him to autograph, the Yankee slugger demanded royalties for use of his name on the best-selling product. But the business of sports endorsements was in its infancy, and the courts turned him down. So judge for yourself. We're off to the candy machine.
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