BLOOMFIELD — Lucille LaCapra is shown performing a quality-control weight check on candy manufactured by the Charms Candy Co. of Bloomfield in a photo from the late 1960s.

According to the Charms Division of Tootsie Roll Industries, the Charms Candy Co. was founded in 1912 by Walter Reid Jr. as “Tropical Charms,” which were the square-shaped fruit-flavored hard candies he manufactured, among the first candies to be individually wrapped in cellophane. Located on Bloomfield Avenue, the company, now known as Charms Candy, had its products included in U.S. Army combat rations during World War II, a tradition that continues to the present with the candies included in military Meals Ready to Eat (MREs).

Following World War II, Charms faced difficult times due to both the instability of the post-war sugar market and the growing popularity of other hard candies, including Lifesavers. Walter Reid III, the son of the company’s founder, returned from active service and took charge of the company; he was running Charms when Blow Pops — lollipops with a bubble-gum center — were invented in the early 1970s. Blow Pops became the company’s best-selling product of all time.

The Charms factory relocated from Bloomfield to Freehold in 1973. In the 1980s, Reid hired business consultant Mitt Romney, who suggested a merger with the Toostie Roll Co., which was finalized in 1988. Shortly thereafter, using Blow Pop technology, Tootsie Roll began producing the Tootsie Pop, a hard candy lollipop with a chocolate center.

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