Field Trip: See's Candies
We make a lot of fuss about grandmothers at Urban Home Blog. We even have a content area devoted to her kitchen -- when you're done reading this article just move your mouse to the right, and click on "Grandma's Kitchen." It is no secret how important my grandmother was to me. Writing about that is a cornerstone of Urban Home Blog; in fact is much of the reason I write about lifestyle to begin with. I have also written about a German nana and a French grandmère, but all grandmothers are important. Some make fudge and some make moonshine, some go to church and some dance on pool tables, some grow lavender and some grow hemp. No matter the grandmothers you have, you are lucky to have them. And, universally, their symbol is the kitchen.
If ever there was a grandma whose kitchen's output you want to have access to, it is Mary See. And, luckily for your taste buds if not exactly for your waistline, you can. For Mary See was not just the inspiration for but the expertise around which a candy empire was built, and still revolves. Mary See was the See in See's Candies, an iconic confectionery, a good ole American success story and, most importantly, just about the best candy you will ever scarf.
It was not all that long ago that candy-making was an expected part of a homekeeper's repertoire of skills. Yes, professional confectioners existed, and an occasional splurge there was welcome, but in that time, the barometer of excellence was the home kitchen rather than the professional one. Just as households canned their own jam and bottled their own ketchup, so did they make their own candy. These skills were sources of pride, pursued with the intention of achieving excellence. As with canning and bottling, candy making is both an art and a science, and domestic guidebooks from the times contained highly detailed instructions for these special skills. As with any artful kitchen skill, some cooks discovered they had an affinity for candy-making.
One such was Mary See. Though See's is associated with California, Mary Wiseman was born in Canada, in a small town in the Thousand Island area of the St. Lawrence River. Mary and her husband Alexander See ran an area resort. Charles, the oldest of their three children, would become the candy company's founder.
In 1919, Mary found herself a widow. Concurrently, Alexander, a successful pharmacist, lost his business to fire. This was post gold rush and post Armistice, and Alexander found himself competing for work with veterans of both. He got a job as a salesman for a bulk chocolate manufacturer. He was as successful at this as he was at pharmacy, which reinforced the enterprising dimension of Charles' character. In 1920, the world's attention was on an emerging metropolis far down the American Pacific coastline, where the heretofore unheralded occurrence of a film colony was impelling a burgeoning economy in a land where sunshine was equated with promise. As did many, Charles moved his family to Los Angeles. In a maneuver that would bind the Sees forever to the cultural landscape of California, he brought his mother along.
Mary See had always been known for her candy making. She was a master confectioner whose recipes had been perfected during decades of work. She insisted on the highest quality ingredients and her awareness of process and detail -- crucial qualities for any cook, but drawn into sharp focus in candy making -- was legendary. She had been making candy so well and for so long that it was little effort for her to translate her proprietary recipes from small batch to large batch. And that was fortunate, for her son envisioned a string of shops selling her candy, made with her legendary prowess and packed into boxes stamped with her picture.
The first See's Candy Shop opened on Western Avenue in 1921. A gleaming kitchen was in the back, while the selling floor out front was decorated, appropriately for the early days of the movie colony, in what would become See's signature black and white style, which in turn referred to Mary's sparkling clean kitchen. Graphic black and white is a hallmark of the early days of art deco, and those influences are visible in photos of early See's shops from the streamlined lighting fixtures to the curvy uniforms of the attendants. But, as is perhaps distilled in the act of opening a confectionery to begin with, high style was the setting for business acumen: the black and white shops looked vibrant and clean, and made Mary's candy the star of the show.
Actually, it just about leaped out of the case, for See's Candies was almost immediately a success. The second store soon opened in the Graumann's Chinese building, and by 1925 there were a dozen shops in Los Angeles. Mary's candy and Charles' business skills were so good that See's weathered the Great Depression not just well but with kindness. In order to keep as many stores open and as many people employed as possible, they lowered the price of the candy -- not incidentally allowing a few more customers to smile than might otherwise have been able to.
As See's was building a successful business, Los Angeles was becoming the largest city on the west coast and, alongside and some would say ahead of New York City and Washington DC, the preeminent metropolitan influence for the country. See's was an undeniable part of this, as See's stores and pavilions opened everywhere from shopping promenades to Worlds Fairs. But in whatever geography you are eating See's candy, you are partaking of a phenomenon as endemic to Southern California as In N Out Burger. Of all of California's contributions and symbols -- from Cobb Salad to sourdough, from wine country to the beach, from Haight-Ashbury to Hollywood -- to find one that has put as many smiles on as many faces as See's Candies, you have to look to the movies themselves.
Mary See died in 1939. Every home keeper leaves a legacy. Mary See's legacy is a testament to the power of domestic talent. Today See's operates over two hundred shops throughout the west as well as licensing kiosks in airports and large shopping centers. The See family no longer owns See's, but Charles' founding principals and, most importantly, Mary's confectionery talents still guide the company. The candy is still made according to Mary's recipes -- and, yes, her picture is still on the box.
If ever there was a grandma whose kitchen's output you want to have access to, it is Mary See. And, luckily for your taste buds if not exactly for your waistline, you can. For Mary See was not just the inspiration for but the expertise around which a candy empire was built, and still revolves. Mary See was the See in See's Candies, an iconic confectionery, a good ole American success story and, most importantly, just about the best candy you will ever scarf.
It was not all that long ago that candy-making was an expected part of a homekeeper's repertoire of skills. Yes, professional confectioners existed, and an occasional splurge there was welcome, but in that time, the barometer of excellence was the home kitchen rather than the professional one. Just as households canned their own jam and bottled their own ketchup, so did they make their own candy. These skills were sources of pride, pursued with the intention of achieving excellence. As with canning and bottling, candy making is both an art and a science, and domestic guidebooks from the times contained highly detailed instructions for these special skills. As with any artful kitchen skill, some cooks discovered they had an affinity for candy-making.
One such was Mary See. Though See's is associated with California, Mary Wiseman was born in Canada, in a small town in the Thousand Island area of the St. Lawrence River. Mary and her husband Alexander See ran an area resort. Charles, the oldest of their three children, would become the candy company's founder.
In 1919, Mary found herself a widow. Concurrently, Alexander, a successful pharmacist, lost his business to fire. This was post gold rush and post Armistice, and Alexander found himself competing for work with veterans of both. He got a job as a salesman for a bulk chocolate manufacturer. He was as successful at this as he was at pharmacy, which reinforced the enterprising dimension of Charles' character. In 1920, the world's attention was on an emerging metropolis far down the American Pacific coastline, where the heretofore unheralded occurrence of a film colony was impelling a burgeoning economy in a land where sunshine was equated with promise. As did many, Charles moved his family to Los Angeles. In a maneuver that would bind the Sees forever to the cultural landscape of California, he brought his mother along.
Mary See had always been known for her candy making. She was a master confectioner whose recipes had been perfected during decades of work. She insisted on the highest quality ingredients and her awareness of process and detail -- crucial qualities for any cook, but drawn into sharp focus in candy making -- was legendary. She had been making candy so well and for so long that it was little effort for her to translate her proprietary recipes from small batch to large batch. And that was fortunate, for her son envisioned a string of shops selling her candy, made with her legendary prowess and packed into boxes stamped with her picture.
The first See's Candy Shop opened on Western Avenue in 1921. A gleaming kitchen was in the back, while the selling floor out front was decorated, appropriately for the early days of the movie colony, in what would become See's signature black and white style, which in turn referred to Mary's sparkling clean kitchen. Graphic black and white is a hallmark of the early days of art deco, and those influences are visible in photos of early See's shops from the streamlined lighting fixtures to the curvy uniforms of the attendants. But, as is perhaps distilled in the act of opening a confectionery to begin with, high style was the setting for business acumen: the black and white shops looked vibrant and clean, and made Mary's candy the star of the show.
Actually, it just about leaped out of the case, for See's Candies was almost immediately a success. The second store soon opened in the Graumann's Chinese building, and by 1925 there were a dozen shops in Los Angeles. Mary's candy and Charles' business skills were so good that See's weathered the Great Depression not just well but with kindness. In order to keep as many stores open and as many people employed as possible, they lowered the price of the candy -- not incidentally allowing a few more customers to smile than might otherwise have been able to.
As See's was building a successful business, Los Angeles was becoming the largest city on the west coast and, alongside and some would say ahead of New York City and Washington DC, the preeminent metropolitan influence for the country. See's was an undeniable part of this, as See's stores and pavilions opened everywhere from shopping promenades to Worlds Fairs. But in whatever geography you are eating See's candy, you are partaking of a phenomenon as endemic to Southern California as In N Out Burger. Of all of California's contributions and symbols -- from Cobb Salad to sourdough, from wine country to the beach, from Haight-Ashbury to Hollywood -- to find one that has put as many smiles on as many faces as See's Candies, you have to look to the movies themselves.
Mary See died in 1939. Every home keeper leaves a legacy. Mary See's legacy is a testament to the power of domestic talent. Today See's operates over two hundred shops throughout the west as well as licensing kiosks in airports and large shopping centers. The See family no longer owns See's, but Charles' founding principals and, most importantly, Mary's confectionery talents still guide the company. The candy is still made according to Mary's recipes -- and, yes, her picture is still on the box.
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