Brown Bobby - History

History

The Food Display Machine Corporation was located at 500 North Dearborn Street in Chicago. Its president was H. Adams. In the mid 1920s, through advertisements in Popular Mechanics magazine and perhaps other means as well, these machines were marketed as a way to start a small business. The machine’s manual has 3 parts:

  • 1. Seven Proven Business Plans for Operating a Successful BROWN BOBBY Business
  • 2. How to get the Best Results from your BROWN BOBBY Machine
  • 3. Recipes that Whet the Buying Appetite

The seven business plans described are:

  • 1. Selling Direct to Homes
  • 2. Getting the Restaurant and Drug Store Business
  • 3. Getting the Grocery Business
  • 4. Window Demonstrating and Sampling
  • 5. Getting the Student Trade
  • 6. Selling Through Salesmen
  • 7. Running a BROWN BOBBY Store of your own

Some of the suggested locations for selling included candy stores, theatres, chain stores, bowling alleys, cigar stores, railway stations, dance halls, waiting rooms, garages, filling stations, general stores, and soft drink parlors.

One could also obtain boxes and bags from the company for packaging the doughnuts. The machines are no longer manufactured as the Food Display Machine Corporation has long been out of business. According to the Annual Report of the Federal Trade Commission for 1937 the company was issued a Cease and Desist order for misrepresenting possible or maximum earnings for its potato chip machines.

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