Hostess Cakes Logos and News

It was announced on November 2, 2009 that Interstate Bakeries Corporation was changing its name to Hostess Brands! As a long-time Hostess cakes fan, I thought this was pretty substantial news.

Interstate Bakeries Corporation has also been known at different times as Interstate Brands Corporation, Interstate Brands Companies, IBC Holdings Company and Interstate Baking Company. IBC has a long history before acquiring Hostess in 1995, including Dolly Madison cakes and Drake's cakes among other brands.

I thought I would post a little history of the Hostess brand name and the companies responsible for making such tasty treats as Hostess Twinkies, Hostess Ding Dongs and Hostess Fruit Pies. After doing some extensive research, I found a fair amount of inaccurate information out there on the internet. Here's a summary I put together which should be reliable enough:

• 1919 - Continental Baking Company creates their "CupCakes", though not branded as Hostess yet.
• 1925 - Hostess brand name started as part of Continental Baking Company (CBC) when CBC bought Taggart Bakery, makers of Wonder Bread.
• 1930 - James Dewar invents the Twinkie for CBC in Indianapolis.
• March 1967 - Hostess Ding Dongs are created.
• April 1967 - Hostess Ho Hos are created in San Francisco.
• September 13, 1968 - ITT Corporation (International Telephone and Telegraph) bought CBC, making it a wholly owned subsidiary, forming ITT Continental Baking Company (ITT Continental) with headquarters in Rye, NY.
• 1970-1971 - Hostess mascots such as Twinkie the Kid, Captain CupCake, King Ding Dong and others are created by artist Don Duga to represent products in animated commercials.
• October 9, 1984 - ITT sold CBC to Ralston-Purina (RP). RP retained the CBC name as a subsidiary, headquartered in St. Louis, MO.
• 1984-1995 - As far as I've been able to tell, the Ralston-Purina (RP) name and "checkerboard" logo were never used on Hostess packaging. Products still maintained the Hostess and Continental Baking Company names.
• July 24, 1995 - Interstate Brands Corporation completed purchasing CBC from RP.
• 1995 - The Continental Baking Company name was no longer used at this point.
• 1995 - Interstate Brands Company changes its name to Interstate Bakeries Corporation and the headquarters was in Kansas City, MO.
• 2009 - IBC corporate headquarters moved to Irving, TX (near Dallas) after emerging from bankruptcy.
• November 2, 2009 - Interstate Bakeries Corporation changes company name to Hostess Brands.

Despite all of the changes over the years, the Hostess brand name has remained steady and strong for nearly 85 years!

Here are some Hostess logos over the years.

Late '60s to early '70s bird logo (courtesy of Jason)

1970

1977

1978

1991

2001

2008

2000 IBC

2008 IBC

1978 Freshness Pledge

1991 Freshness Pledge

2000 Quality Pledge

Sorry for the boring post, but as a fan and collector of Hostess items, I think it is important to know some of the history.

For those who stuck it out to the end of this post, you are hereby rewarded with this YouTube commercial posted by FuzzyMemoriesTV and featuring Twinkie the Kid and Fruit Pie the Magician.