User:Zanimum/Leader Novelty Candy

Leader Novelty Candy was a Brooklyn, New York-based candy marketing firm. Founded in 1921, it operated until at least 1994. In early decades, the company apparently only packaged and marketed candy; by the end, it manufactured hard candy. Contemporarily, the company is perhaps best remembered for their packaging, now considered collectible. These products featured licensed characters including Superman and Mickey Mouse.

Operations
The company was incorporated in Manhattan, under New York State law on April 18, 1921. William M. Freedman, Dora Freedman, and Lewis Borokoff were listed as the directors of the $10,000 firm, and William as the President. It operated from 195 Meserole St, Brooklyn. By spring 1923, it looked for a large Williamsburg, Brooklyn store from which to make candy. They located their new facility at 168 Lorimer Street, within the Broadway Triangle near South Williamsburg, hiring 50 women for packing candy from April to June of that year. As of 1936, the company was located at 23 Marcy Avenue. As of 1942, the company had returned to their first neighborhood, locating at 311 Meserole Street. By 1954, the company was set to leave facilities on 916 Bergen Street, just south of Atlantic Avenue. From at least 1966 to 1974, it was located at 132 Harrison Place, northwest of Knickerbocker and Flushing Avenue.

The company apparently did not make their own product, as of the 1930s. It was cited by the National Association of Broadcasters, for trade literature that implied that it "controls and operates factories and manufactures the candy it sells, when, according to the complaint, these are not the facts." The complaint suggested this claim was used to imply that they were cheaper, as "they eliminate the profits of middlemen." This had changed by the 1990s. The New York Daily News profiled various local firms, ahead of Christmas, describing "a fragrant factory smelling of sugar dush, [where] Leader employees knead huge pillows of molten candy," Old Fashion Mix hard candy. Under third and fourth generation leaders Howard and Gordon Kastin, the company also produced Valentine's Day candy. One of their ready-made stockings included a VHS tape of cartoons. As of the 1990s, the candy was retailed in Kmart, Walgreen's, and Woolworth's. In the late era, it also marketed Freez-A-Pops.

Labor relations
The company caught the attention of New York State Department of Labor, Division of Women in Industry and Minimum Wage in 1939. Industrial Commissioner Frieda S. Miller cited the company as "not complying with wage provisions established under the New York State Minimum Wage Law." As of the 1940s, the company's workers were members of the Wholesale and Warehouse Workers Union, United Retail and Wholesale Employees of America.

Products and short-weighting
The company repeatedly was cited by authorities for short-weighting, which unintentionally provided record of the products it sold.
 * 1953: Leader-Airline Surprise and Candy Chews, Leader Candy Chew and Ring, and Leader Happee Surprise! and Candy Chews
 * 1964: one-pound packages of candy
 * 1966: toffee candy
 * 1978: Kastin's Old Fashioned Peanuts

In 1952, 17 cases of their Leader Carnival Surprises were seized by the Connecticut State Food and Drug Commission, for "deceptive packaging." The state would enforce laws annually, to have something to send to the children in state institutions in December. Connecticut's food agency called the company out on various products, citing them in August 1953 alone on

Collectibles
Various packaging from the company has been deemed as a collectible, including a cardboard suitcase.

The company released color tinted baseball cards in 1929; they are highly valued. Other card themes included the United States Army, Marines, and Navy, college pennants. The company also produced a series of discs ranging from Chilean pirate Vincent Benavides to the insignia of the 11th Bombardment Squadron of the United States Army.

Various Superman items from the company have become collectible, including perforated trading cards, packaging, and the store display box.

As of 1998, Leader Novelty Candy's Superman Candy Ring from 1940 was valued at $25,000 in mint condition; the price had dropped to $20,000 by 2001.