If you’ve ever unwrapped a Baby Ruth candy bar, you might have wondered: Who on earth is Baby Ruth? Was it Babe Ruth, the home run king? Was it some long-lost child celebrity? Or was it just a clever way to sell chocolate, caramel, peanuts, and nougat without admitting it? As it turns out, the true origin of the Baby Ruth bar is a story filled with sugar, baseball bats, and a little bit of corporate trickery.
The Baby Ruth bar was introduced in 1921 by the Curtiss Candy Company. At that time, Babe Ruth was smashing baseballs into orbit and basically becoming America’s first real sports superstar. So naturally, people thought, “Oh, this candy must be named after Babe Ruth.” Logical, right? Wrong—or at least, that’s what the candy company claimed. Instead, Curtiss Candy swore on a stack of nougat that the candy was actually named after President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, Ruth. This would’ve been a fine explanation, except for one small detail: poor Ruth Cleveland had been dead for 17 years by the time the candy bar came out. It’s hard to believe America was clamoring for a caramel-and-peanut tribute to a child they hadn’t thought about since the 1890s.
So why the cover-up? Well, Babe Ruth wasn’t exactly thrilled about having his name slapped on a candy bar without his permission. Rumor has it he asked for royalties, and the candy company responded with a very polite version of “Nice try, slugger.” By insisting the bar was about Ruth Cleveland instead of Babe Ruth, they dodged paying the Sultan of Swat a single peanut. A crafty move, considering candy companies are very protective of their nougat margins.
The irony of the whole situation is that Babe Ruth himself actually tried to launch his own candy bar in the 1920s, called the Ruth’s Home Run Bar. Unfortunately, it struck out almost immediately because Baby Ruth was already dominating the shelves. Imagine trying to sell a soda called “Coca-Kola” after Coke already existed—it just wasn’t going to work. So while Babe Ruth may have been the king of baseball, he was benched in the candy aisle.
Today, the Baby Ruth remains a staple in the world of candy, even though most people still assume it was named after Babe Ruth. In a way, it’s the greatest inside joke in American snack history: a candy bar that everyone thinks honors a baseball legend but officially commemorates a president’s long-deceased daughter. If anything, that’s proof that nougat mixed with caramel and peanuts can cover up a lot—including a suspicious backstory.
So the next time you bite into a Baby Ruth, just remember: you’re not just enjoying a candy bar—you’re unwrapping a century-old argument between a candy company and a baseball legend. And if that doesn’t make it taste sweeter, at least you can laugh knowing America once pretended it was nostalgic for a president’s kid just to avoid cutting Babe Ruth a check.
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