Walter Diemer, an accountant who invented elastic bubble gum, died in 1998 after creating Dubble Bubble and overseeing experiments that helped establish the product’s enduring flavours and shape.
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Walter Diemer, who worked as an accountant for Fleer Corporation in Philadelphia, is credited with inventing bubble gum, including the elastic, often bright-pink product described as Dubble Bubble.
In 1992, Diemer was living in a retirement village outside a mid-sized city in Pennsylvania at age 87 when he discussed his invention and what he expected it to become.
Diemer described his bubble gum idea as something he did not expect to last, saying, “I never thought it was anything that’d last. I thought it’d be here today, gone tomorrow.”
He said the early work began with a test kettle, adding that “Somewhere in 1928,” the mixture “started to bubble.”
Earlier versions were described as “bubble balloon gum,” but the middle term was later dropped.
By the 1970s, bubble gum was being used as a chewing-tobacco alternative by big-league baseball players, with Topps featuring a bubble-blowing contest that depicted Milwaukee Brewers journeyman Kurt Bevacqua on a 1976 sports card.
Diemer said the recipe included flavours such as cinnamon and wintergreen, which he noted remained part of the Dubble Bubble formula for decades.
He also explained that he made the gum pink because “that was the only food coloring around the factory.”
Diemer died in 1998, and he was said to have been astonished to see bubble gum enjoyed worldwide and used so often that it sometimes ended up stuck to shoes. In his comments, he said, “Wow. All over the world kids are enjoying bubble gum,” and added, “I love knowing that kids are having fun.”
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