Anyone Seen A Ducky Wucky Bar?

[thecatspajamas]

I was researching something unrelated in The Sporting News archives earlier, and ran across this little tidbit. Anyone ever seen one of these "Ducky Wucky Bar" (named for Joe Medwick) wrappers? I'm just curious as to what they look like.

[ksfarmboy]

I've never seen or heard of one until now. I do have this from Dizzy Dean's beef and burger restaurant that was in Wichita.

[TomKovacs]

I haven’t seen one either and I have been looking for a long time. A large part of my collection focuses around Medwick. There is a great story around Medwick and the Ducky Wucky bar wrappers from 1932. The story was originally told by Medwick to Robert Hood in his 1976 book “The Gashouse Gang”. Hood did an interview with Medwick for his book a year before he passed away in 1974. Here is an excerpt from the book:

While playing in Houston, “Joe picked up the name “Ducky” when a fan compared his walk to that of a duck. The comparison did not please him, but the creation of a candy bar in his name, called the “Ducky-Wucky” candy bar, did, especially since he shared in the proceeds. Medwick played in the city until late August 1932, when the Cardinals called him up to St. Louis.”

Joe hit a homerun over the left field wall in his last at bat with Houston. At that point in time he was hitting .354.

“A glorious way to leave town, a big bouquet for the departing hero? Not exactly. According to Medwick’s recollection, there were thorns among the roses. “I was so damn angry”, he said. “They used to give you a traveling bag or some damn thing when you leave the city. They didn’t give me nothing. And then the fellow who had the candy bars wanted me to leave them there and I said “Hell, no!” And they had to take all the wrappings off the bars. We had an agreement if I left (Houston) they couldn’t sell them.”

“The comical picture of all those “Ducky-Wucky” bars without wrappings made me want to laugh out loud, but I knew better than to test the Medwick temper. A resentment that smolders for more than forty years is too deadly to challenge.”

Thomas Barthal wrote a similar passage in his book “The Fierce Fun of Ducky Medwick”
“After the game, the man who was in charge of handling the candy bar approached Medwick, asking if he would let the sale of the candy bars continue even though he had moved to St. Louis. Medwick asked how many were left unsold, and the man took Joe underneath the stands and showed him cases of he candy bars. “I want all the wrappers. You’re not going to sell this candy without me getting my share,” Medwick said. “When I leave Houston, you can’t sell my candy bars. So give me all the wrappings now.” Medwick stood by while the distributer did just that. Medwick shoved all the paper into a bag, leaving the candy man with all that chocolate and no wrappers; he would not be exploited. He resented the fact that someone would try to take advantage of him. Medwick had his way.”
I’d consider this wrapper the “holy grail” for my Medwick collection. These stories give me hope that there might be one left hiding out there somewhere. Below is a clipping from the Houston Post circa 1932.

Tom

[Chris Counts]

I understand Joe didn't like being called "Ducky-Wucky" and was known to clobber players who called him that ...

[thecatspajamas]

Wow, I didn't realize from the one little blurb I found that the distribution of the Ducky Wucky bars was limited to just while Medwick was in Houston. No wonder nobody seems to have seen one!

Nice Dizzy Dean piece too, by the way. Is that a gum ball, or something else?

[ksfarmboy]

Nice Dizzy Dean piece too, by the way. Is that a gum ball, or something else?[/QUOTE]

Thanks. It's made of styrofoam and is at least the size of a baseball.

[Jay Wolt]

Tom great information.
Hopefully a wrapper will eventually turn up for you

[jerseygary]

I've been a Joe Medwick fan for years and have been wanting to do an illustration of him with Houston for my website. I haven't done so because I have been waiting to see if a Ducky-Wucky wrapper ever surfaces - I want to do the illustration with him holding one up. I check on line every so often for one but have never came across it, maybe now that Net54 is on the case one will surface.

[Wite3]

Lance and Tom...

From the St. Louis Baseball Reader by Richard Peterson

Talking about Joe leaving Houston...

"A glorious way to leave town, a big bouquet for the departing hero? Not exactly. According to Medwick's recollection, there were thorns among the roses. "I was so damn angry," he said. "They used to give you a traveling bag or some damn thing when you leave the city. They didn't give me nothing. And then the fellow who had the candy bars wanted me to leave them there and I said, "Hell no!" And they had to take all the wrappings off the bars. We had an agreement that if I left [Houston], they couldn't sell them.

The comical picture of all those Ducky Wucky bars without wrappings made me want to laugh out loud, but I knew better than to test the Medwick temper."

So, fellas...good luck in your quest...probably not going to find any wrappers...but maybe there is a hoard of them somewhere...who knows?

Joshua

[jerseygary]

Being a big Joe Medwick fan and still dying to see one of these, thought I'd give it a bump...