Moon Pie Remains a Tasty, Filling Southern Tradition

The year was 1917, and the manager of a Tennessee bakery was simply trying to move some surplus cookies. But as he trudged across Appalachia, he found little interest in his gingersnaps and animal crackers.

“They wanted something more,” said Sam Campbell IV. “They wanted something big and round and filled up with marshmallow and covered with chocolate. It needed to be as big as the moon.”

So the company slapped some marshmallow creme between a couple of big, soft cookies and dunked the whole thing in chocolate. Next thing they knew, people were wolfing them down with Royal Crown Colas.

Nearly 75 years later, the Moon Pie remains a Southern tradition.

“It really caught on as its own piece of folklore,” said Campbell, president of the Chattanooga Bakery Co. “We’re kind of like mother and prison and the pickup and trains.”

The Moon Pie has inspired songs, eating contests, a book, even a fan club. The popular snack is sold in more than 40 states and in Japan. Celebrities serve Moon Pies at Hollywood parties and sing the cookie’s praises on TV.

Big-time stuff for a treat that made its name as the working man’s lunch because it was tasty, filling and cheap--and not necessarily in that order.

“They’d pick up the biggest drink in the box, RC’s 10-ounce bottle--Coke was 6 ounces for the same nickel. Then they’d go to the snack rack and pick up the biggest cake,” Campbell said.

“They had a choice between Twinkies and whatever else was there. And our product was bigger. It was big. So for a dime they got the biggest things they could find: an RC and a Moon Pie.”

The two are forever linked in Southern lore, but Campbell said it’s never been an exclusive association.

“The remembered drink varies by region. Some people say a Nehi and a Moon Pie. Some people say a Cheerwine and a Moon Pie,” he said. “Or a Yellow Dope, which was like a Mello Yello or Squirt.”

Today’s Moon Pie has changed a bit since its origin, when it was nearly 6 inches wide and came in just one flavor. Now you can get the sandwich cookie with a banana or vanilla coating, sometimes even peanut butter.

And most versions feature three cookies and two layers of marshmallow creme. The second deck was added in the 1960s when the company reduced the snack’s width to 3 3/4 inches so that it would fit in vending machines.

The price varies widely, depending on how the snack is sold. In an airport vending machine, the cost may be 75 cents. In a discount store, it may be three for a dollar. The average, said Campbell, is about 50 cents.

Sam Campbell Jr. bought the bakery in the mid-1930s. His son, Sam Campbell III, took over in 1959--about the time the bakery decided to focus solely on Moon Pies--and remains chairman of the board of the privately owned company.

Sam Campbell IV, who has been president since 1989, declined to disclose sales or volume figures for the company.

On an average day, said Campbell, Chattanooga Bakery’s 100 employees churn out 300,000 Moon Pies. That’s 2 million a week, more than 100 million a year.

Despite competition from similar products, the Moon Pie has retained its identity as something special. Famous Southerners like Burt Reynolds and Dinah Shore remember Moon Pies fondly and publicly. Henry Winkler, TV’s “Fonz,” once ordered cases of Moon Pies so that he could serve them as dessert at a party.