[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> i really think local brands help you identify with who you are.

okay.

so whatever happened to velvet peanut butter.

it was a very prominent brands and i remember being prominently displayed in the grocery stores and at the time most of grocery stores were locally owned.

stores used to carry bill that people are no longer around.

great scott farmer, jack chatham, their world, the national brands, peter pan and skippy, but here in detroit, well, that was our peanut butter.

i don't know that i realized it was a detroit friend.

the time it was just the most popular brands in the grocery store.

but it was smooth.

it was smooth, fresh pair and delicious.

it was smooth.

paul zuckerman was the man behind velvet.

he came to america from turkey as a little boy and wound up right here in detroit.

>> started in nineteen, thirty seven and the way it happened according to pa zuckerman, my father, he was driving a truck when he said he wanted to marry my mother.

her parents didn't think driving a truck us so impressive and he was looking to.

he was always very entrepreneurial.

>> so mister zuckerman and another truck driver went into the peanut butter business.

>> they bought a couple of machines and set up shop in a garage on twelfth street.

my father and harry guys and the two of them alone together did everything.

>> harry gas rent production and paul zuckerman became the salesman.

he would tell me that he'd fill up his car with cases of peanut butter and go out and hit the road.

and his favorite sales pitch was i'm down one last case of peanut butter.

i don't want to go home with a just take the last one.

make my day when world war two started uncle sam press val verde into service to help feed our troops.

>> because the government felt it was such an essential product that could put the stamp of approval on peanut butter.

mother's probably fell out.

if it's if it's good enough for the soldiers and i think it's healthy.

>> the velvets jar came with those fresh, pure and delicious faces inspired by paul zuckerman is little boy norber.

>> it does look like him.

he wasn't a pure but he was cute kid.

adorable kid.

>> you know, there was a time eating peanut butter was actually a chore.

the oil in the ground.

peanuts.

what separated?

and then they had to be mixed again by hand.

and all superman has the solution.

it was called velvet homogenous peanut butter.

>> and he always claimed that they started it.

so i only can believe that.

but, you know, i i wouldn't go.

>> the court on that.

he was so successful, whether he was known everywhere is the peanut butter king and the he was unknown.

when you first met mister peanut butter king, he made sure that you knew that he was the peanut butter.

it came time to finish the conversation.

in nineteen, fifty, the peanut butter king decided to diversify in mind.

the crunchy potato chip company.

>> and soupy sales advertised for them.

he used to call everybody bird bath.

you know, i hear a good bird baths.

and matthew was just wild.

>> by the late nineteen fifties kelvin merged with sunshine biscuit.

joining national brands like hydroxy cookies and high on crack which test kitchen cooks dreamed up dishes with ingredients like gelatin.

>> miracle whip and peanut butter.

but there was a big thing in those days.

jello and america.

we have been in jail and sour cream and joanne would be great.

i i loved that.

that is not so much of a guy dressed up to me.

you can't win them all.

>> the sunshine deal didn't make calls superman a multimillionaire, but he stayed on in charge of development operation.

>> former brand was at its strongest we hand salesman and several cities summit going on.

but basically it was a tree branch.

>> and believably well-known detroit brand.

>> just a few years later, sunshine's enthusiasm for peanut butter apparently dim and paul zuckerman bought his company back four.

well, the knots by then he'd be known as a philanthropist, as well as the peanut butter came.

>> this answer was, well, i guess i'm just a lucky truck driver, just a lucky truck driver.

so people have sometimes what he's make a little bit of fun about it.

>> once again, velvet peanut butter was sold to another national company that well shut it down in the nineteen eighties, things disappear and you don't really notice them for a long time.

and then when you can't find anymore, when you start to wonder, well, now it's back in local supermarkets.

eric bruce in detroit area native is making velvet peanut butter once again.

we went back to of all the recipe from the forties dalvin peanut butter, just like all other brands.

the recipe change throughout the years.

and we went back to an old-fashioned recipe, became a terrific brand.

>> what the real story is that it was also come and go.

he made it what it is.

i guess the proof is it i'm a shelf again.

got fell within a better back on the shelf, which is quite a nice thing.

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