Gone is the Red, White, and Blue color scheme, and the brand's geometric design, replaced with the saturated hues of fuchsia and yellow. Bubble gum sales have gone way down since the days when Bazooka gum was a stable of almost any trip I made to the OK Grocery store near where I grew up. Bazooka gum has been around for a couple of years after WWII, (1947) I became aware of Bazooka gum back in the late 50s, early 60s and I actually used to collect the Bazooka Joe comic that used to come with the gum.
I also did some checking to see if Bazooka comic strips were worth anything today, I did see where selling in lots some 230 vintage bubble gum comic strips sold for $41.00. The single bubble gum comic from 1955, did sell for $5.00 so as to the question: are Bazooka Bubble Gum comic strip still worth anything my answer would have to be yes. Not worth a whole lot of money but yes! Still worth something today. Double Bubble was my other childhood favorite bubble gum when I was a kid. I don't know what the price of single piece of bubble gum (Bazooka or Double Bubble) would cost today but when I was a kid, a penny was all that was needed to buy my favorite bubble gum.
The Double Bubble Gum company was started by Frank Fleer, back in 1906 he attempted to create a chewing gum he called Dibber Blubber but his mixture for the gum was too sticky and broke apart easily resulting in commercial failure for Frank Fleer's Dibber Blubber gum venture. It wouldn't be until an accountant named Diemer, who worked for Fleer, and who enjoyed experimentations in his spare time. Mr. Diemer's experimental tinkering would eventually allow him to stumble upon a truly unique gum recipe that was less sticky, and much easier to chew. Thus, the recipe for Double Bubble gum was born. The reason most bubble gum, no matter who the manufacture is pink is due mostly to the fact that the factory only had pink food coloring available.
With a recipe that looked good the company wrapped about one-hundred-pices of the gum, set the price at one-cent each, and use local markets to offer their new bubble gum. When all of the samples sold out the first day the stage was set for their new product launch. Following the marking success of that first day the company packed their new bubble gum recipe as Double Bubble Gum and went on the pass more than one-point-five million is sales the first year.
The Fleer colorful Funnies comic strip was featured with each piece of the original Double Bubble Gum. Dubs and Bubs did not come along until the 1930s and would later be replaced by the iconic Pud and his pals comic strip, in 1950. During World War II Double Bubble Gum was distributed to the troops fighting in that global conflict but by 1942 all bubble gum manufacturing in the United States was halted due to a shortage in sugar and latex. Production of Double Bubble Gum was restarted in 1951 and currently Double Bubble is distributed to sixty countries around the world. Double Bubble comics were a part of my bubble gum comic strip collection too. When I was a kid my mom was more into keeping things clean than collecting. So, unfortunately for me many of my collectible wrappers and comic strips were mistaken as junk and put out with the trash, the ones I was unable to rescue that is. The good news is that bubble gum comics and bubble gum wrappers are still collectible.
Over 550,000 Comic Books for Sale
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