Diemer was a fledgling accountant for Fleer Chewing Gum Co. in Philadelphia
when he began testing recipes for a gum base -- the part that makes gum
chewy -- in his spare time in 1928, when he was 23. He unwittingly created
the first batch of bubble gum, making it pink because that was the only
shade of food coloring on hand.
"It was an accident," Diemer said in an interview with the Lancaster
Intelligencer Journal in 1996.
- Jim