Word: gum
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Mayer Bubble Gum and Kipling...
...ubiquitous vending machine, before which Americans stoop, bow and jingle coins as if it were a roadside shrine. The machines usually come through, too, and with less fist-pounding than ever before. Some 4,500,000 of them-or one for every 43 Americans -now dispense everything from gum to gardenias to greeting cards at the drop of a coin...
Hoodlums & Hopefuls. Gum Maker Thomas Adams introduced vending 76 years ago with penny machines on New York City's elevated platforms. The industry blossomed in World War II, with jerry-built soft-drink and snack dispensers in three-shift war plants. But postwar prospects attracted underworld hoodlums and undercapitalized hopefuls. The industry was overbuilt, and fell into such bad repute that long-range credit was difficult to obtain...
...JOHNSON enjoys nothing more than making a speech and mingling with the crowds on a campaign trip. Before it is time for him to speak--while the audience sings the Star Spangled Banner, or local dignitaries deliver their greetings--the President is silent and deep in thought, often chewing gum as he awaits his turn to speak. He begins slowly and softly, with a serene look on his face. As he goes farther into the speech, his drawl becomes more obvious and his words more forceful; he induces a given response from the crowd with his own facial expressions--sometimes...
Tocker says that "the world's largest manufacturer of bubble gum" ($14 million a year) got that way by totally dominating the promotional gimmick of enclosing five baseball players' pictures with every 5? slab of Baseball gum. With $5 binders, Topps persuaded more than 6,500 minor leaguers to sign over the use of their names and pictures under five-year contracts that became effective at $125 per year when the rookies reached the majors. By 1961, says Tocker, the Topps bubble covered more than 95% of all major leaguers, shutting out virtually all Topps's rivals...