The Ties to St. Louis History
By now, most people know Vincent Price was born in St. Louis, Mo in May, 1911. But what most don’t know is the full story of his family and the historic contribution they made.
Vincent C. Price
Baking powder, extracts and flavorings. Items used everyday in every home around the world. Often taken for granted, but who invented them? A Dr. and chemist named Vincent Clarence Price. After moving back home with his parents after his family grew with two kids and a wife, he was watching his mother bake biscuits and wanted to help. With a background in pharmacy and chemistry he set out to find a better way to make the biscuits rise.
He patented the invention and thus began Dr. Price’s Cream Baking Powder. Next he conducts more experiments and came up with fruit and herb flavorings and vegetable colorings and manufactured breakfast foods.
St. Louis and The National Candy Company
So, how do the Price family get to St. Louis and what is the candy connection? V.C. Price and his son, the first Vincent L. Price (father of the actor) started selling all the goods traveling the country. When they heard that St. Louis, Mo was to hold the Olympics and a World’s Fair, V.L Price decides to move his family to the big city and buy his father’s company. The National Candy Company was formed by merging several local and national companies and the headquarters was the STL location.
as a Uhaul facility.
The National Candy Company was incorporated in 1902 and is comprised of in part by: the O.H. Peckham Co., J. Waters Candy Co., F. D. Seward Confectionery Co. and others. It was, at one time, the largest manufacturer of candy in the United States
The National Candy Co. specialized in jaw breakers and jelly beans. Thousands of new kinds of candy bars appeared in the 1920’s and one of the best sellers for National was the Bobcat bar. The top seller sold for .5 cents.
New building
In 1927 a new building opened in south St. Louis with 9 floors and air conditioning. The A/C was a big deal at the time as it allowed certain candies to be made all year. The new building included a printing shop, a cooking area, a box facility and a shipping department. The building, on the National Registry of History places, is currently in use as a Uhaul facility.
The company was sold in 1948 to the Chase Candy Co. The building sat vacant for several decades before being bought by Uhaul.
Actor and art connoisseur
Vincent L. Price Jr., the Master of Horror, appeared in over 100 movies and hundreds of television shows. He went to Yale and attended an art institute in London. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and one on the St. Louis Walk.
Some of his most well known movies are The House on Haunted Hill, The Raven, House of Wax and Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. Two of my favorites are not of the campy horror genre, but one, a thriller called Shock, where he plays a Dr. who tries to get a witness to think she is going crazy. The other is The Last Man On Earth, where he thinks he is the last man alive after a plague/pandemic but there are a few others hiding and there are zombie type people trying to get to him. In the ’80’s he drew more fans from his famous ‘rap’ in Michael Jackson’s song Thriller. His last screen appearance was in Edward Scissorhands.
Among the several books he authored are cookbooks and art books. He had an art museum named after him and a cooking program on British tele. On October 25, 1993, Vincent Price passed away. One of St. Louis’ most famous sons will live on in the hearts of his many fans.
My Catahoula Leopard dog is named Vincent Price. He is not scary…most days.
What is your favorite Vincent Price movie? Did you know of the family/St. Louis connection?
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