Fwd: Re: Popsicle

[victor steinbok]

The bios of Epperson that I found claim that he invented the whole
-sicle line before selling the rights and the company. This seems
somewhat unlikely, as the rights had been sold within a year of the
patent and trademark registration--note the references in the
Practical Druggists to the rights maintained regionally by different
companies, licensing from Epperson. By 1928, there was a "Popsicle
Company of Ohio"--as Epperson is from California, this seems unlikely
to be Epperson's original company, so it's either a licensee or
someone who had already bought out the rights. Either way, since the
same companies sold Popsicles and Creamsicles (and still do), and the
process of shaping and keeping them solid is rather similar, if the
terms were coined by separate companies, we would have heard about the
litigation (and it would have had a direct impact on the iCrap
litigation--being rather familiar with the latter, I don't recall any
relevant litigation involving the -sicle line).

But I stand corrected. Weekly World News says that Popsicle was
derived from Pop, as in Dad. So I must be wrong. (There it is!--Right
next to the weekly horoscope and Noah's Ark found in Iraq!) ;-)

http://books.google.com/books?id=nPMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA43
Weekly World News, Jan 6, 2004, p. 43/1
> The Popsicle was invented in 1905 by an 11-year-old San Francisco kid named Frank Epperson. He called it the Epperson Icicle and then the Ep-sicle. He spent much of his life trying to perfect and sell his idea, and finally got it patented in 1923--then sold the rights, which he always regretted. His son George came up with the name Popsicle--to honor his inventive pop.

VS-)


On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 8:47 PM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> In answer to Wilson, Creamsicles (if you mean vanilla ice cream center w/ an
> outer layer of orange sherbet, on a stick) were very popular in Norfolk VA,
> where I grew up.
>
> Bill Palmer
>
>
>> From Wilson.
>>
>> FWIW, I've always imagined it to be a blend of _(soda)pop(-like)
>> [i]cicle_. Since I came up with this around the age of six, if others
>> find it unlikely, I won't be at all surprised. Were there Creamcicles
>> elsewhere than in Saint Louis?
>>
>> -Wilson

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