Frank Landrey, our President, writes,
“In 1966 I went to the Philadelphia Candy Easter Show to demonstrate Odense Marzipan in the booth of Haddon House Foods. I was going to show everyone how to make little ducklings out of Marzipan. At the time, almost all of our business was to Scandinavian distributors, and our total yearly imports were less than 500 cases. The year before, Haddon House had only bought about 15 cases, and they didn’t have any Scandinavian customers. I was there trying to get the products moving.
Harold was my closest friend, and we always shared a hotel room at these trade shows. The night before the show, we got very drunk. About 2 AM Harold told me that I should buy his boat, a 38′ cabin cruiser. I agreed this was a great idea, but I didn’t have any money. Harold asked what I did have, and I said, “Almond Paste and Marzipan.”
The deal was struck. In exchange for the boat, Harold would get $14,000 worth of Odense products (about 50,000 rolls in those days).
Sometime later, maybe 3 AM, Harold called his good friend Marty Dubrow of Penn Food Distributors. Marty was the first person to put imported specialty foods into a supermarket chain (Acme). Harold got Marty out of bed and told him he had to put Almond Paste and Marzipan into every store. “What the f . . . is Almond Paste and Marzipan?” Marty asked. Harold said he wasn’t sure, but he was up to his ass in it!
The next morning we got up feeling very bad, but decided to keep the deal. The word got out that Harold had sold his boat for Marzipan and Almond Paste . . . Must be great selling items! Overnight, we began to get distribution in supermarkets everywhere, and the good news was that it sold!”
