It always bugs me when I hear someone say that the Baby Ruth candy bar was named for baseball player Babe Ruth. Ignorance! The bar was named for Ruth Cleveland, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland.
Or was it?
The Baby Ruth bar was introduced by the Curtiss Candy Company in 1920. The company claimed that the bar was named for Ruth Cleveland. But she had had died 16 years before, and her father had long ago left the White House.
Why would anyone name a candy bar after the long-dead daughter of an ex-president? Maybe because they hadn’t negotiated a royalties deal with an up-and-coming baseball star. The company’s explanation seems fishy, but it passed legal muster in the 1920s.
[Another post from Jill. She’s getting good at this, I may take a vacation. Ruth had a great year in 1920, his first with the New York Yankees. He hit an unbelievable 54 home runs and batted .376.]