History of the Goudey Gum Company

The Goudey Gum Company of Boston, Massachusetts, was one of the pioneer bubblegum card manufacturers. The Goudey Gum Company was founded September 18, 1918 by Enos Gordon Goudey (President), Charles Bridge (Treasurer), and Elizabeth Krause (Clerk). These three individuals were also the original board of directors. The Articles of Incorporation from 1918 are shown on the right. The first Annual Board of directors meeting was held January 11, 1919, and at this time Harold C. DeLong was added as Treasurer of the Goudey Gum Company, and Woodbury Rand was added as Clerk. Enos Gordon Goudey was my 4th cousin once removed, or in other words my father's fourth cousin. The original corporate headquarters address was 113 Broad Street, Boston Massachusetts. The chewing gum base was manufactured by the Synthetic Chicle Company owned by Ludwig W. Buckley. The Synthetic Chicle Company factory was Located at 149 California Street in Newton, Massachusetts. A 1922 document shown at the right (Click on the images for a larger view) tells us that Enos Goudey was President, L. W. Buckley was Vice President, and Harold C. DeLong was treasurer. The treasurer (Harold C. DeLong) was the same person that founded the DeLong Gum Company, and issued baseball card premiums in 1933 in competition with Goudey. The first gum produced by the Goudey Gum Company was OH BOY GUM which is advertized in the letterhead of the 1922 document. Like all startup companies The Goudey Gum Company encountered some difficulty. In 1919 they were unable to keep up with demand due to lack of production equipment. Then the economic downturn of 1920 affected their sales, and they were unable to use their increased production capability. By 1922 supply and demand had both improved considerably. In 1921 a new Spearmint Flavor for OH-BOY Gum was introduced to increase sales. The original flaors were Peppermint and Wintergreen, so there were now three flavors. In 1922 a new product PICK-A-NINNY Gum was introduced to take advantage of the improved economic conditions, and was quite a sucess. By 1925 two more flavors (Grape and Orange) were added to the OH-BOY GUM line. A number of advertising campaigns were undertaken about this time to further increase salea and profits. During the 1920s the Goudey Gum Company made it's founder quite rich.

At a January 24, 1924 meeting The Goudey Gum Company decided to purchase a larger facility that was available from the Carton Belting Co. for $60,000.00. This facility was located on Everett Street in Allston. The purchase was financed by a mortgage note to the Carton corporation for $40,000.00, a Loan from the Commercial Security National Bank for $15,000.00, and $5,000.00 in cash. Some or all of the cash may have been raised from the sale of Company Stock. The 1924 Mortgage Note for the move to the new facility is shown on the right. By June 14, 1924 The Goudey Gum Company was operating at the larger facility at 52 Everett Street, Allston, Massachusetts. The mortgage note was paid off by January 15, 1925. The Goudey Gum Company also tried a few other brand names, but OH-BOY was by far the most successful. The following table lists the Owners of the Goudey Gum Company from Enos Gordon Goudey to George C. Thompson.

In 1928 Enos Gordon Goudey who was approaching age 70 decided to sell the company starting December 30, 1928. The Sale was complete by May 15, 1929 just five months before the crash of 1929. This was a very smart move as it allowed him to live out his life as a rich man. E. G. Goudey offocially resigned from the Goudey Gum Company January 13, 1932. The transaction was complete by April 12, 1932 from the letter on the right which has his printed name in the letterhead X'd out. We also see from this letter that A. S. Livingston is Vice President, and W. E. Leary is Treasurer. Enos Goudey remained with the company for a while in an advisory capacity. The Goudey Gum Company was a rival of the Philadelphia-based Frank H. Fleer Company for many years. Goudey in fact, claimed he, not Fleer, invented bubblegum and that Fleer simply beat him to the patent (Walter Deimer, the Fleer cost accountant credited with refining the original bubblegum formula,disputes that claim). The first Goudey cards were of Native Americans ("Indians") and their first stab at bubblegum packed with a card was called "Indian Gum" - those cards are still highly collectible staples of the non-sport hobby. The first Goudey sports card issue was a 1933 issue of 239 baseball players, which included Babe Ruth. They called their gum "Big League Chewing Gum" and the set, in near mint condition, is worth upwards of $100,000. Later in 1933, Goudey issued a 48-card set called "Sport Kings" that included the "first-ever" football cards of the legendary Red Grange, Jim Thorpe and Notre Dame immortal Knute Rockne, becoming the first collectible football cards since the turn of the century tobacco cards of collegiate stars. The Goudey "era" in sports cards spanned just nine years, yet it has stood out at the quintessential name in rare and collectible trading cards. In the late 1930s the Goudey Gum Company again changed ownership. This time it was sold to Alfonso Delehunt of Albany, New York who had been the company treasurer. By 1941 the Goudey Gum Company was using recycled rag paper to make the baseball cards because of the scarcity of cardboard products. World War II rationing of sugar and paper products made life difficult for the gum companues. The Goudey Gum Company managed to remain profitible during the war by making aspirin and laxative gum. After the war in 1947 and 1948 the Goudey Gum Company made an attempt to get back into the collectible card business by issuing a 96 card set of Indian Gum Cards which used images from the original series with a new back and a new numbering sequence. By 1949 they gave up on collectible cards. In 1956 the company again changed ownership. This time George Thompson who had been with the company since 1931, and who was running the company at the time bought the company from Alfonso Delehunt. At this time the Goudey Gum Company was making gumballs and OH-BOY-KISS-GUM. The Goudey Gum company remained at the Allston address until December 1962 when it ceased operations. All of the Goudey Gum brands and collectible card series known to the author at present are listed on the left. These are broken down into Sports Card series, Non-Sports Card series, and Gum Brands without Cards.