Turkish Taffy
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Turkish Taffy was a chewy taffy-like candy bar, which came in several flavors. It was invented by Victor Bonomo (pronounced BAHN-uh-moh) a Sephardic Jew with whose father (Albert J. Bonomo) had emigrated from Turkey and founded the Bonomo Company in Coney Island, New York in 1897, a candy business where saltwater taffy and hard candies were produced. [1]
According to Tico Bonomo, son of Victor, Turkish Taffy "was not really a taffy, but what is technically known as a short nougat," consisting of a batter of corn syrup and egg whites that was cooked and then baked. It was also not Turkish, but created after World War II in the Bonomo factory. It has been marketed in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and banana. Originally distributed through Woolworth's stores in large sheets which were broken off with ball-peen hammers at the counter and sold by weight, in the late 1940s the company released a version in candy-bar size which the purchaser would whack against a hard surface to break it into more bite-sized pieces. Since the pieces were both chewy and slow-melting in the mouth, it was a favorite for the frugal customer.[2] A bar still cost 5¢ in the 1960s.
In 1949, Turkish Taffy became one of the first forms of candy advertised and marketed on television, when Bonomo created and sponsored The Magic Clown on NBC Television. Tico Bonomo specifically cites the decision to use television as instrumental in the popularity of the candy-bar sized taffys.[3]
In 1980 the candy became part of the Tootsie Roll Industries of Chicago line of candies, and was discontinued in 1989.[4]
