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.

King Ding Dong (& 40th anniversary!)

This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of America's favorite snack cakes -- Hostess Ding Dongs!

Originally launched on March 18, 1967, this delicious treat is basically a hockey puck-shaped chocolate cake, with creamy filling and a chocolate-coated shell. In the old days they were individually wrapped in foil, but they switched to plastic years ago. The Ding Dongs name came from the sound of a ringing bell, which was featured on the original boxes and TV commercials.

By 1970, from the creative mind of animator Don Duga, Hostess gave us a character to represent these cakes. A snack cake himself -- complete with mustache, crown and scepter -- the honorable King Ding Dong arrived with the customary pomp and circumstance to rule over Ding Dong Kingdom.


[ Jeff Pidgeon did this great redraw of my iron-on patch. Thanks, Jeff! ]

Let's take a quick break here to watch this vintage Ding Dongs commercial.

For a brief time in the '70s there was an orange-flavored Ding Dongs variety, featuring an orange King on the box. I don't remember the orange variety, but I'm sure they were tasty. I bought this repro magnet on eBay to show as an example.


As for the standard chocolate variety, here's a box I have from 1978 showing the good King doing his thing.

In my years of collecting and devouring snack cakes, I've not come across many premiums or promotional items of the King. Besides the actual cake boxes, some items I've seen include:

• cut-out finger puppet (1970s)
• plastic cup? (1970s)
  
• iron-on (1981)
• t-shirt (1980s)
  
• 2 different pogs (1994)
• lip balm (2005)

Some cool plastic character cups were made of other Hostess characters, probably in the late '70s. I've not seen one with King Ding Dong, but would guess they were made, too.

While I've seen many promotional signs featuring other Hostess characters, it seems that the King just wasn't used as much in advertising. If you know about other items, please let me know.

You may be reading this thinking about a similar cake by a different name. Hostess had three different names for the same cake at different times and in different regions. In the West and Mid-West they were called Ding Dongs. In the East, to avoid confusion with a competing product, they were called King Dons and had the same King but named "King Don". In other regions the cakes were called Big Wheels and had a different character named Chief Big Wheels.

While the product naming is confusing, Hostess eventually ditched the others and consolidated under the original Ding Dongs name.

Here's a pog from 1994. Notice here he's named King Ding Don. This may have been a printing error; otherwise that's the third name they've used for him.

King Ding Dong is no longer used in Hostess advertising, which is a royal shame! I believe he was exiled from product boxes by the late 1980s. He previously had a nice page at the Hostess Cakes website, but even that disappeared around 2004. It's safe to say that the good King is now retired.

Before I get out some foil and wrap up this snack cake memory, I'll leave you with one more Ding Dongs commercial.

Wouldn't it be great if the good folks at Funko made a Wacky Wobbler of King Ding Dong? Certainly that would be a crowning achievement, to say the least! Hopefully someday...

"A chocolate-flavored world in every bite!"

Raiders of The Lost Snacks

I've started a new photo group on Flickr, dedicated to snack food characters. It's called Raiders of The Lost Snacks.

I'm finding there are plenty of cool folks out there who love this kind of stuff too. Please join and contribute if you can.

If you don't know about Flickr, it's a Yahoo photo sharing site. You can get a free basic account which allows you to post up to 200 pictures, join groups and comment on other people's photos.

[ My other favorite group on Flickr is the Sugar Frosted Cereal Museum. ]

Snack away, cyber friends!

Note -- You may not be able to see all of the photos unless you've logged in to Flickr.


[ King Don, also known as King Ding Dong from Hostess Ding Dongs ]

Save Fruit Pie The Magician!

Fruit Pie The Magician has been removed from the Hostess Fruit Pie wrappers. This is really a shame.

Fruit Pie The Magician was created in 1973 by artist Don Duga to represent Hostess Fruit Pies. Hostess snack cakes had some great characters back in the '70s like Twinkie The Kid, King Ding Dong, Captain Cup Cake, Chief Big Wheels and more. Together, those characters made some memorable commercials.

Here's one of the last salvaged Fruit Pie wrappers with the Magician himself on it.


Check out the website to Save Fruit Pie The Magician. Maybe we can complain enough to get Hostess to bring him back.

As of 2006, the new Fruit Pie wrappers have a new design, and have just lost their magic.

Here's a t-shirt iron-on from 1981.




















More talk about Hostess characters coming in the future...