- Boston, Massachusetts? (distribution/storage warehouse?)
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Company No: 042720937
Business Type: Domestic Profit Corporation
Voluntary Dissolution: 02/13/1981? (purchase by Weetabix)
Jurisdiction: Domestic
Early era: David and 'Goldie' Brody - Owners
Late era: John M. Bailey - CEO, H. Mitchell Gould - CFO
Timeline
1941 - David Brody acquires American Cereals and changes name to Van Brode Milling
1947 - Weetabix ends production agreement with Van Brode.
1955 - Dancing Dolls promoted in Luckies Puffed Wheat
1956 - Dancing Dolls promoted in Luckies Puffed Wheat
1970 - Register a design for a plastic 'Spork'
1981 - Weetabix acquires the Van Brode Milling Company
History
In 1941 the old firm of American cereals were sold to husband and wife team of David and 'Goldie' Brody who renamed the operation Van Brode, they moved into the old Bigelow subsidiary; Clinton Wire Cloth Company's premises, part of the Lancaster Mills complex (now a protected historical site) in Clinton, Massachusetts, and continued the business of milling cereals and making breakfast foods.
Various stories exist for the renaming - that he (Brody) was of Dutch extraction, that he felt people were more likely to but breakfast cereal from a company with a Dutch identity than a Jewish one (there's no evidence of Jewish involvement in either Biglow, American or Clinton Wire?), and so on…I take them with a pinch of salt!
The company should correctly be pronounced 'Van Bro'd' (rhymes with road), but apparently even the workers pronounced it 'Brodie' to rhyme with 'toady'.
The company remained a medium-sized player in the breakfast cereal market, both with its own products and as a contract manufacturer for other brands until 1981 when it was bought as a going concern by one of the past clients; Weetabix.
At some point in the early 1950's a subsidiary company was set-up 'Clinton Manufacturing' to produce - it seems - non-cereal goods as part of a US government contract for the supply of ration packs (C and K 'rats') for the forces fighting in Korea, these would have included a canning and packing sections, along with a plastics operation. There also seems to have been a chemicals/pharmaceutical division, but that may only have involved packaging of supplied products for the DoD.
The plastics included the spoons, 'sporks' bowls and spare lids the packs needed, along with vacuum-packing and cellophane wraps. Over time, while the cereal business held its own against the bigger branded rivals, it was the plastics division which took up more and more of the order-book's pages, making them a target for the Weetabix takeover, as the plastics - while being important to Van Brode - were a drop in the ocean of the plastics industry.
Best known to toy collectors for their male-female couples, 16 pairs were issued for a total of 32 different figures, being marked with the nationality on the front edge of the base, and a company moniker (either: 'Brode', 'Van Brode' or 'Van Brode Co. Inc.') on the back edge or underside. They are of poor style and cartoonish execution; I find several of them to be faintly ridiculous figures.
The figures were issued in Van Brode's Crisp Rice and probably other in-house/ private-label brands, such as Luckies Puffed Wheat in both 1955 and 1956, Fritos and TasteeFreeze. This last one may be where the unknown ice cream premiums sometimes ascribed to Commonwealth are actually residing?
Listing
Dancing Dolls (in-house cereal premiums; individually, by nation)
- Bali Female, Traditional Dancer
- Bali Male, Traditional Dancer
- Burma Female Kachin Dancer
- Burma Male Kachin Dancer
- China Female Hanfu Performer
- China Male Mandolin Player
- Cuba Female Rural Dancer
- Cuba Male Playing Maracas
- Egypt Female (ridiculous 'Laurel & Hardy' dance charicature)
- Egypt Male, (equally ridiculous Pharaoh type)
- England Female, Regency Flibbertigibbet
- England Male, Regency Fop
- Hawaii Female Hula Dancer (pose is reverse of Commonwealth sculpt)
- Hawaii Male Playing Tom-tom Drum
- Holland Female, 'Brode' Being Coy (as per some logos)
- Holland Male, 'Van' Tipping His Hat (as per some logos)
- Hungary Female, Traditional Dancer
- Hungary Male, Traditional Dancer
- Ireland Female Dancing a Jig
- Ireland Male Dancing a Jig
- Italy Female, Dancing
- Italy Male (elderly man with hand organ-grinder on stick-rest)
- Mexico Female, Traditional Dress
- Mexico Male Gaucho
- Scotland Female Sword Dancer (pose is reverse of Commonwealth sculpt)
- Scotland Male, Piper
- Spain Female Flamenco Dancer
- Spain Male Guitarist
- Turkey Female Belly-dancer
- Turkey Male, Ottoman Sword & Shield Dance Performer
- West Indies Female Carnival Performer (pose based on Commonwealth sculpts)
- West Indies Male Carnival Performer
Other Toys / Collectables
Busts (..."Made in W.Germany 'for' Van Brode")
- Brahms
- Chopin
Other Products
Plastic
A139 - 'Waldorf' Soup Spoons (individually wrapped, x1000, boxed, DoD contract)
- Bowls - Picnic/Party Goods
- Bowls - Ice Cream (for TasteeFreeze?)
- Spork
- 8 Triple Strength Sanitary Tasteless Plastic Spoons (three colours)
- 2 Each Knife Fork and Spoon Triple Strength Unbreakable (three colours)
- Airflow Detector (auto-parts, set of two)
Foodstuffs
DoD Contracts
- Combat Ration, Individual - C
- Water Purification Tablets, Iodine, 8mg (100x50 tablets)
Cereals
- Corn Flakes
- Wheat Flakes
- Crisp Rice (Dancing Dolls definitely included at one point)
- Puffed Wheat
- Luckies Puffed Wheat (Dancing Dolls included 1955/56)
What They Say
"Prize'N'Side": the motto on packaging with the figures in.
Links
Justia Trademark Page
Lavasurfer Prize'n'Side
Photobucket Album
Home Blog Article
What This Entry Needs
Whatever anyone's got
I started to work at Van Brode Cereal in Clinton Mass in 1966. By then, Dave and Goldie had moved to California and started Wonder Cup and Wonder Container Corp making Styrofoam products (including heads for the fashion industry to display hats, scarves, etc). I worked as Assistant Data Processing Manager under John Baily, he was then the Accounting Supervisor. Our "computer" was a Univac 1004 Dard Processor using 90 column cards with punched round holes.
ReplyDeleteI once asked why the cereals were sold only west of the Mississippi and was told that Dave said if anyone wanted to complain they would have to come a long way to do it in person.
Main Street Plastics was a company set up to handle the plastics operation (mainly knives forks and spoons). They were made in all colors. Often there was a bad shot (injection molded product) and the plastic was wasted. The colors were kept separate so they could be reground, remelted and reused. Someone had the bright idea to just save time and throw all the bad product (regardless of color) together and regrind it. Thus was born Rainbow-ware LOL. What became a desirable product was made from reground bad plastic product.
As to the name of the company I was told that Dave said "Who would buy cereal made in a Methodist Cereal Factory owned by a Jew? He called his company Van Brode and put the Dutch boy and girl on the label to strengthen the association with the name.
I left Van Brode in 1968 because John would not raise my pay to $125 per week and went to work at American Optical in Southbridge Mass in their computer center which, at that time, was an IBM Beta site. I told John that if I left Van Brode I could be making $10,000 in 5 years. He wished me well but said he doubted that I could do it.
By 1972 I was working at Kwikset Locks in Anahiem Calif making $18,000 per year as a Computer Analyst.
Dean Slone
P.S. Crisp Rice cereal that fell through the production sizing screen at Van Brode as being too small for breakfast cereal was bagged in bulk and sold to Nestle to provide the crunch in Nestle Crunch bars.
Yes I purchased campfire flame starters from somewhere in the package has your name on it they were blue and they were about 3" long and came in a green military Color package When you put a match to it it lit instantaneously
DeleteThanks guys! Dean - sorry I missed you comment, absolutely fascinating reminisces which really 'fill-out' the feel for the company, thanks again.
ReplyDeleteH