While delivering one of his customary stemwinders in 1967, Fidel Castro announced that customers at Havana's ice-cream parlors would soon be able to choose from among 42 flavors, up from 26. The smorgasbord would "put U.S. ice-cream producers to shame," the bearded dictator told a cheering group of steelworkers.
Possibly incensed but more likely grabbing some free publicity, Irvine Robbins called Cuba's minister of industry and informed him that while BaskinRobbins Ice Cream offered only 31 flavors at a time, it boasted a total arsenal of some 290 flavors. The revolution had a ways
to go.
Mr. Robbins, who died May 5, at age 90, was half of the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream chain, which he co-founded with his brother-in-law, Burt Baskin, in reading "Super Banana Treat" 1948.
Declaring "We sell fun, not of ice cream, a slice of banana, just ice cream," Mr. Robbins's company offered offbeat choices such as Navy Grog Ice, a Cocoa a Go-Go and Lunar Cheesecake, inspired by the moon shots.
Baskin-Robbins early to franchising and grew rapidly from its Southern California base, where it prospered as a dessert stop alongside such midcentury burger successes as McDonald's and Carl's Jr. The timing was ideal as the nation let out its waistline after the war. In 1946, the ice-cream industry had its first billion-gallon year.
The son of Eastern European immigrants, Mr. Robbins grew up working in his father's Tacoma, Wash., dairy store, where ice cream was sold alongside milk and sandwiches. He showed an early knack for marketing, doubling sales for one sundae by substituting a sign reading "Super Banana Treat" for one that read "three scoops of ice cream, a slice of banana, two kinds of topping." When he got out of the Army after World War II, he resolved to have a store of his own.
At a time when most people's experience with ice cream was vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry, dipped at the local drug store, it was Mr. Robbins's brainchild to open a store devoted solely to the treat. Inspireed by a trip to Minsky's Burlesque in Chicago, where 21 girls were on display, he put up a big sign proclaiming "21 Flavors 21" at his Glendale, Calif. shop.
With his father's backing, he opened more outlets, each name Snowbird Ice Cream. Meanwhile, Mr. Baskin opened his own ice-cream parlors, starting in nearby Pomona. In 1948, Messrs. Baskin and Robbins became partners, settling on the order of their names with the flip of a coin.
Among the early flavors Mr. Robbins developed were Rocky Road and Chocolate Mint, a forerunner of mint chocolate chip. With eight stores between them, the two men decided they would rather concentrate on their Burbank icecream-manufacturing business than on parlors, so they sold their stores to the managers. "Without realizing it, we were in the franchising business before it was popular," Mr. Robbins told the New York Times in 1976.
With an advertising agency's help, they standardized the brand and settled on the trademarked 31 rotating-flavors policy. (In reality, it was 34 flavors, with the addition of the vanillachocolate-strawberry standbys.) Customers could sample as many as they liked off the company's trademark pink spoons. A clown-like pink and brown polka-dot design scheme was standard across the chain. By 1960, there were 400 Baskin-Robbins ice-cream parlors, most of them in Western states.
While Mr. Baskin concentrated on sales, Mr. Robbins saw to real-estate, marketing and new flavors. He used his family to test flavors, sometimes hitching names to current events. Baseball Nut welcomed the Dodgers to Los Angeles. Beatie Nut welcomed the Fab Four. Valley Forge Fudge marked the nation's Bicentennial. The company resisted the urge to create ImPeachment during the Watergate hearings.
With the successes came the occasional flops, among them Grape Britain, Ketchup, Tomato Sherbet and Lox 'n' Bagels.
In 1967, the partners sold out to United Fruit Co. Mr. Baskin died of a heart attack later the same year. Mr. Robbins stayed on for another decade as chairman.
After retirement, Mr. Robbins spent his final decades sailing his boat, dubbed The 32nd Flavor, and playing golf at Rancho Mirage, Calif. He occasionally acted as an international ambassador for Baskin-Robbins. The company, now a unit of closely held Dunkin' Brands Inc., has 5,800 stores in 34 countries.1t boasts a library of more than 1,000 flavors, although more-recent names are less gimmicky than in Mr. Robbins's day.
Politically conservative and with a strong belief in hard work, Mr. Robbins liked to play, as well. His Encino home famously included a cone-shaped pool that airline pilots were fond of pointing out to passengers headed to Los Angeles.
"If I had a larger Property, I'd have had a double-scoop pool," Mr. Robbins told United Press International in 1972.
His daughter, Marsha Veit, says he continued to eat several scoops daily.
By: Stephen Miller
Wall Street Journal; May 10-11, 2008
