The first ice cream truck was credited to Harry Burt of Youngstown, Ohio, who was the creator of the Good Humor brand. Burt was already delivering ice cream from a motorized vehicle when he had the idea to place chocolate covered ice cream bars on a stick. His new Good Humor ice cream "sucker" was easy and clean to eat, which gave him the idea to sell it directly from his truck to consumers on the street.
Ice cream sold in parlors or stores became a luxury item during the Depression. But ice cream trucks such as Burt’s Good Humor brand were able to survive the Depression due to the product’s low-cost. Many consumers couldn’t afford big ticket items, but they could afford a nickel for an ice cream treat.
Following the introduction of the electric truck in the early 1900s, other companies were able to launch their own versions of the ice cream trucks that we know today. The sound of an ice cream truck jingling and jangling down the block is etched on the memories of generations of American kids. In 1920, Harry Burt created a block of ice cream like one would find in an ice cream sandwich. Burt inserted a lollipop stick and created the now-famous Good Humor bar. He then took his invention a step further and built the first refrigerated ice cream trucks — the Good Humor truck.
The history of ice cream street vendors dates back to the nineteenth-century and is shaped by advances in technology and sanitation. It is the song that has launched children into action for generations—as soon as they hear the twinkling sound of "Pop Goes the Weasel" or "The Entertainer," children abandon playground equipment or pick-up ball games, and race to catch the ice cream truck.
By the mid-1800s, ice cream had become such a common indulgence that Ralph Waldo Emerson warned about America’s bent toward materialism and gluttony, hailing ice cream as a chief example. In the 1860s, thousands of New York City peddlers were selling penny licks and ice cream sandwiches to ravenous crowds.
On a winter evening in 1920, Harry Burt was puttering around his ice cream shop in Youngstown, Ohio. Ruth Burt described the new ice cream treat her father concocted as a brick of vanilla ice cream encased in chocolate. Harry Burt Sr., a confectioner, had previously developed the Jolly Boy, a hard-candy lollipop on a wooden stick. But ice cream on a stick was so novel that the process of making it earned Burt two U.S. patents, thus launching his invention, the Good Humor bar.
Ice Cream Trucks are a defining icon of modern culture. These mobile food vendors deliver soft-serve ice cream, popsicles, and novelties to customers on the street. Although food delivery has been around for thousands of years, ice cream trucks first became popular in the early 20th century when automobile technology made it possible to transport food directly to homes. These iconic vehicles are painted white with colorful slogans and have maintained that iconic look throughout the twenty-first century.