Toy Good Humor "Chocolate Eclair" Promo Ice Cream Truck, 1940 Ford

Description

Up for sale is a small die-cast 1940 Ford Good Humor Ice Cream Truck by Golden Wheel. It is an official licensed product of the Ford Motor Company.
The decals on the pickup truck promote the Chocolate Eclair (Cake Coated Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Flavored Fudge) and pay tribute to the Good Humor Man (seen on the door panels). The Pickup has an opening hood and was made in China (undated). It measures approximately 5.5 inches long which makes it 1:32 Scale.
The Good Humor company started in Youngstown, Ohio. In 1920, Harry Burt, who was a candy maker in Youngstown, Ohio had just invented the Jolly Boy Sucker, a lollipop on a stick. Later on, he developed a chocolate coating for ice cream, but it was too messy to eat. Mr. Burt’s son gave him the idea to freeze the concoction on a flat wooden stick, and the Good Humor ice cream bar was born.
Originally, Good Humor Ice Cream Truck Drivers wore an all-white suit, black shoes, a black belt with an attached coin changer, and a policeman style hat. Mr. Burt believed this would give customers a sense of safety and cleanliness. The Good Humor man was cordial and polite, tipping his hat to the women, and saluting the men. He had to shave every day, and his hair had to be off the collar. Mr. Burt expected all of his drivers of the Good Humor Ice Cream Trucks to exemplify “good humor,” and he believed that he could put his customers in a “good humor” by pleasing their taste buds.
Good Humor products covered most of the country by the mid-1930s. Good Humor became a fixture in American popular culture, and at its peak in the 1950s the company operated 2,000 "sales cars".
So, almost 100 years ago, Good Humor started an ice cream revolution with the first ice cream on a stick and then, the very first ice cream truck.
Today, Good Humor is a brand of ice cream novelties sold mostly in stores and other retail outlets. Originally, Good Humors were chocolate-coated ice cream bars on a stick mentioned above, but the line was expanded over the years to include a wide range of novelties.