Talk:May West

Untitled
I added several informations about this cake that come from the family of René Brousseau, the inventor of the May West (called Mae West at the time). While I am still looking to find other sources to corroborate these information, I would like for the information to be left on the page. Mr. Brousseau is still alive today, but he is in fact quite sick and may not be long for this world. Out of respect for the man, and in recognition of his contribution to the Junk Food heritage of Quebec, I request that the info be kept until I can find other sources (and possibly more information).Archiesteel 01:48, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * All right, it seems the media did pick up on René Brousseau's death, and so I was able to add sources. Archiesteel 23:54, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Unresolved inconsistencies
There are problems with the dating found in the cited sources (Vachon web site, Brousseau obituary).
 * First about the date of invention. René Brousseau's version says he invented the Mae West during the Second World War. A plausible date would be 1942, but not 1932 (as quoted by Vachon). A WW2-era date seems more likely from a cultural point of view: the influence of the Mae West life-preserver, and the lesser likelihood of such a product being introduced at the nadir of the Great Depression.
 * Second problem is about the change in spelling. There exist newspaper advertisements from the 1970s with photographs of the Stuart box with the May West spelling.

A further difficulty stems from the corporate history. Vaillancourt was purchased by Vachon in 1972. Stuart was purchased by Weston at some point, then sold by Weston to Vachon in 1979. It seems plausible that Montreal-based Stuart may have made the cakes under license in the Montreal area, while Quebec-based Vaillancourt distributed them around Quebec City. In any case Vachon would have been involved with them prior to the Stuart acquisition.

Since Wikipedia is not a place for original research, and moreover the research is incomplete, we are left with an unsatisfactory story awaiting further work. — Justinbb (talk) 05:37, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

New information
Advertisements for the radio program Nazaire et Barnabé published in the newspaper L'avenir du Nord in August 1939 (available at banq.qc.ca) make reference to the May West by Stuart. So it was already around in the 1930s after all. Was the Stuart version the same as the Vaillancourt version, or are these two separate snacks that later became confused or merged? — Justinbb (talk) 03:37, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
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 * May West cake package.jpg