Baby Ruth

No secret obituaries are interesting. I just started reading 'Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days that Changed the World' by Chris Wallace. I even gave copies of the book to two friends for their birthdays, knowing, as history buffs, they would enjoy it.

Early in the book, the biographical background of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr. is revealed. Colonel Tibbets was the pilot of the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. It was the beginning of the end of WW II. Japan would surrender nine days later on August 15th after a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Colonel Tibbets's young life is described and how he got interested in flying, despite his father's desire for him to become a doctor.  Chris Wallace's book tells us of Paul at 12, getting into a biplane and dropping Baby Ruth candy bars on a crowd below at a race track. It was a promotional stunt for the new candy car. Paul's father ran a wholesale candy business. The year would have been 1927.

Wow! Was that in the obituary? I remember reading the 2007 obituary for Paul Tibbets, but I can't recall the Baby Ruth part. The obit is easy enough to find.

Yes, the Baby Ruth story is in the obit, but there are more details, that when added to the details in Mr. Wallace's book, we come away with a more complete story of the event.

The race track was Hialeah, which of course means Miami, Florida. The candy bars weren't just flung out of the biplane at the crowd below, but were individually attached to their own small paper parachute that let them drop gently to the ground. Colonel Tibbets, later Brigadier General Tibbets, loved to tell the story and add that it was his first bombing run.

For different reasons, Jackie Gleason did lots of shows from Miami and always proclaimed, "how sweet it is."

When the young Tibbets helped promote the Baby Ruth candy bar in 1927, he made it sweet first.

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