This is Rylan's research paper from 7th grade.
Introduction
From soap, to baking powder, then to gum. William Wrigley Jr. started small and made his way to the top of the gum industry. Spending much money on advertising and making many gum brands, he led his company down a very bright future, and made his name one that will be remembered for a long time.
Before The Gum
William Wrigley Jr. was born on September 30, 1861 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was born during the Civil War. His parents were William Mills Wrigley Sr. and Mary Ann Ladley. He was born from Quaker Of English descent that reached back to William Penn. His father founded and was the president of Wrigley’s Manufacturing Company. The core product of this company was Wrigley’s Scouring Soap. Near where he lived was a swimming hole which he loved. Wrigley also played sports as a boy.There were many spearmint plants surrounding the area William lived in, which explains why he loved mint. He would pick the leaves off of the spearmint plants and chew them. After chewing a few he would carry even more spearmint leaves home. As a boy William was also interested in his father’s business and at age 13 started selling his father’s product, Wrigley’s Scouring Soap, in Philadelphia. At age 30, with his wife and daughter, William Wrigley Jr. moved to Chicago where he still sold his father’s product. He offered baking powder with the purchase of some soap. After a while of selling soap he saw that the baking powder was more popular and people were more interested in it than the soap. Wrigley then started selling cans of baking powder, this time offering gum as an extra with the purchase of a can of baking powder. Once again, the secondary product (which was gum) was more popular, and Wrigley made one last switch, this time selling gum. (The Sign Of The Spear)
Wrigley’s Helping in Developments
In 1919, Wrigley bought much of Santa Catalina Island Company until he owned a controlling interest. He then built many things on this island. He built a hotel named Hotel Atwater, a casino, a park named Bird Park, an infrastructure, a reservoir, and more on the island. In 1921, he built the Catalina Country Club, which included the team’s lockers and gave a place for the players to gather. The team trained here during Spring Training, and continued to train there until 1951. In 1929 he built the Catalina Casino, which had the world’s largest circular ballroom and the first theatre designed and built to show talking motion pictures. Philip Knight Wrigley, William’s offspring, continued to do what his father wanted after William Wrigley Jr. passed away in 1932. The island was used by the military as a training facility while World War II happened, and it was closed to the public. Many movies were also filmed on the island. Wrigley bought Wrigley Field, which was originally named Weeghman Park. Once William bought it the field was renamed Cubs Park in 1920. THe park was later named Wrigley Field in 1926, five years after William Wrigley Jr passed away in 1921. They renamed it to Wrigley Field in honor of William Wrigley Jr, who owned the Cubs. In 1937, they constructed bleachers and scoreboards while they were renovating the outfield.
Brands (Wrigley’s Different Flavors or Competition with Wrigley?)
Wrigley’s first two gums manufactured were Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Spearmint, both were manufactured starting in 1893. During the 1800’s there was a lot of competition in the gum selling industry and Wrigley spent more than a million dollars each year advertising his new products. He advertised with other items, such as lamps, pocket knives, cookbooks and more. In 1915, the Wrigley company started a campaign where they would send free gum samples to Americans who were listed in phone books. Another thing they did to promote the Wrigley company was send sticks of gum to every American child on their second birthday. One of Wrigley’s competitors, named Thomas Adams, who was originally an inventor, found a way to make better gum. An ingredient that was first used was a kind of wax called paraffin wax. When Santa Anna arrived in the U.S, he hired Adams to make a substitute for rubber because he believed the riches he wanted to get would help him return to being a powerful man in Mexico. Santa Anna provided Thomas with a chicle and the project soon became a failure. Santa Anna abandoned the project, but Adams developed an idea. Adams soon started making gum with chicle, and it was a success. By the mid 1880’s he had a successful company and was selling gum across the U.S. It was used by many gum manufacturers as an ingredient until companies replaced it with synthetic ingredients around the mid 1990’s. (Chew On This: The History Of Gum)