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Originally a British idea of the mid-nineteenth century, the first commercial 'animal crackers' in the US were produced by Stauffer's Biscuit Company in York, Pennsylvania. Later these would be commercialized mainly by the four-year-old National Biscuit Company (Nabisco), thanks to a marketing promotion.
Fame would come to the little crackers in 1902 when Nabisco saw an opportunity to capitalize on the circus craze and its new little biscuits. According to the Barnum Museum, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus had nothing to do with the Barnum crackers and, to this day, do not receive a licensing fee.
Barry Popik of New York researched this, and here's how he tells the story:
"In 1889, Barnum decided to do something truly nutty, a tour of England with his circus. So after his buddy, Bailey, figured out how, exactly, you get a circus that normally takes up ten rail cars onto a boat, and across an ocean, Barnum's animals made their European debut. The English, meanwhile, had already invented something called animal biscuits. Sensing a marketing moment, several companies started manufacturing animal biscuits with circus packaging and called them Barnum's.
Soon the product migrated across the ocean, where Nabisco's forerunner, the National Biscuit Co., put them on US store shelves in 1902. Originally called 'Barnum's Animals,' they became 'Barnum's Animal Crackers' in 1948."
Read the full story at:
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/barnums_animal_crackers.
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