The Good Humor Man (July 12, 1987) скачать в хорошем качестве

The Good Humor Man (July 12, 1987)

10. Ice Cream Truck 07-12-87 11 Includes interviews with former Good Humor man Al Reynolds and current Good Humor Man Ed Ciampi. Reporter: O'Reilly, Bill Good Humor is a Good Humor-Breyers brand of ice cream started in Youngstown, Ohio, US, in the early 1920s with the Good Humor bar, a chocolate-coated ice cream bar on a stick sold from ice cream trucks and retail outlets. It was a fixture in American popular culture in the 1950s when the company operated up to 2,000 "sales cars". Good Humor replaced some of its older conventional trucks with large vans designed to compete with Mister Softee. Many of these "inside sales cars" are still operating. The size of the fleet gradually declined, and by the early 1970s the number of trucks was 1,200.[7] Good Humor also worked with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to equip vending trucks with school bus "stop" swing arms to reduce pedestrian accidents.[25] Good Humor was unable to solve its labor problems. The company was unionized early in its history and was struck on several occasions. For example, in 1950 the Teamsters shut down Good Humor's New York operations for three weeks during the critical month of June.[26] Beginning in the 1950s, the labor pool dried up and Good Humor operated over half of its fleet with seasonal employees, mostly college students. On average, new employees lasted two to three weeks because of the long hours. The entire industry, except Good Humor, stopped using commissioned employees and became distributors who leased trucks to the drivers and sold them their products wholesale. Good Humor adopted this system wherever possible but was prevented from converting most branches because of union contracts.[7] Good Humor became unprofitable beginning in 1968.[2] An increase in gasoline prices during the early 1970s worsened the situation.[27] After absorbing losses for ten years, in 1978 Good Humor closed its street vending operations and became a distributor.[2] The trucks were sold for $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle, and many of the former Good Humor vendors became independent business owners. As one reported, "I make sure I shut off the engine when I stop now that I'm paying for the gas."[27] Many former competitors also became distributors of Good Humor products.[2] With the trucks sold, Good Humor focused on the grocery division, and the company returned to profitability by 1984.[2] Unilever, the world's largest marketer of ice cream products, decided to achieve a similar market position in the US through acquisitions. In 1989, Unilever purchased Gold Bond Ice Cream of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which owned Popsicle. In 1993, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike, maker of another chocolate-coated ice cream bar invented in Youngstown in the early 1920s. Also in 1993, Unilever acquired the Breyers Ice Cream Company and combined these operations into the renamed Good Humor-Breyers.[3] Since 2000, Good Humor has been one of numerous Unilever ice cream subsidiaries to use the international Heartbrand for its logo.[28] It removed the Heartbrand in 2009 but brought it back as part of its logo from 2014 onwards. In June 2020, Good Humor collaborated with music producer RZA to create a new jingle for ice cream trucks to play, to replace "Turkey in the Straw", since that song had been paired in the past with racist lyrics. (Good Humor does not directly operate any trucks, but the company wanted to discourage drivers from playing the song.)[29] The resulting composition was released in August 2020.[30] Folklore[edit source] The company's history also includes many stories, such as one about a Good Humor vendor rushing a baby to a hospital for treatment and one about the company's helping to break up a counterfeit money operation on Long Island. During World War II, a Good Humor truck was assigned to follow one of the armies during maneuvers. The commander could not understand how the opposing artillery was quickly locating his position until he realized that the spotters were using the white Good Humor truck as a guide. Rather than deny his troops ice cream, that night he ordered the truck to be painted army green.[7] After the war, a Good Humor vendor took pity on a youngster who was a nickel short and accepted a new magazine in place of the missing five cents. When he returned the next day, the street was lined with stacks of magazines piled by children eager to exchange periodicals for Good Humors.[5]