Who Am I? Week #815

[kingchuck69]

Welcome to the 815th edition of Who Am I?, the weekly game where I dish out a daily clue to a subject and you have to guess who or what it is.

Every day, the clues get easier. The winner of this week's game gets a piece of my gratitude.

This week's subject is a THING.

CLUE #1: I was founded nearly 150 years ago.

 

[Listener]

Bell Telephone Company

 

[scotchandcigar]

Edison Electric Company

 

[Wolf]

King Arthur Baking Company

 

[Channel98]

The F.W. Woolworth Co., founded in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth. At its peak in 1982, there were than 8,000 Woolworth stores worldwide.

 

[JHDK]

Bell Telephone Company

That would have been my first guess.

Ahoy-hoy!!!

My second guess is: the phonograph.

 

[HecticArt]

May Department Stores

 

[sadchild]

Cash register

 

[Channel98]

Bell Telephone Company is a good guess. Bell Brand potato chips were sold from 1921 until 1995 when the company went out of business. Their slogan was "If it's Bell, it's swell!" Alexander Graham Bell should have sued for copyright infringement.

 

[Madison]

Winchester Model 1892

"The Rifleman" s rifle

 

[kingchuck69]

CLUE #2: My founder's grandson was a politician.

 

[JHDK]

Heinz.

 

[Listener]

Chatham Manufacturing

 

[Madison]

Puppy Chow

(Purina)

 

[scotchandcigar]

General Electric (GE)

 

[Wolf]

Eli Lilly and Company

 

[Channel98]

Ach du lieber, I tink I haff gott it! The Mennen Company, founded by German immigrant Gerhard Mennen in Newark, New Jersey.

 

[kingchuck69]

Ach du lieber, I tink I haff gott it! The Mennen Company, founded by German immigrant Gerhard Mennen in Newark, New Jersey.

Congratulations, Channel98!

This week's subject was The Mennen Company, founded in 1878 by Gerhard Heinrich Mennen, a German immigrant. Its first product was a talcum powder, but over the years, they moved onto deodorants and shaving creams like Speed Stick and Teen Spirit, a brand immortalized in Nirvana's 1991 classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Gerhard's grandson, G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams was the Democratic governor of Michigan 1949-1961 and served as the assistant secretary of State of African Affairs until 1965 and the Ambassador to Philippines. He was a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1971 until 1987. He died a year later at 76.

The Mennen family sold their company to Colgate-Palmolive in 1992. The Mennen name is vastly retired, though many of the brands still survive today.



New game next week!

 

[Channel98]

Oh boy, I'm a winner! Danke schön!

In July 1979, long before he became famous for Roseanne, Raising Arizona, King Ralph, Monsters Inc., The Flintstones and The Righteous Gemstones, 27-year-old John Goodman appeared in – and acted like a moron in – this commercial for Mennen Skin Bracer:

 

[Channel98]

Of course more recently the Mennen name lives on in a series of four movies starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones: Mennen Black.