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Clarence Crane

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (November 28, 1872-April 12, 1942)
    Resided near Cleveland, Ohio
    Owned Crane's Chocolate Company
    Owned Crane's Canary Cottage (a restaurant)
    Invented Life Savers candy (1912)
    Father of poet Hart Crane

Why he might be annoying:

    He enjoyed the chocolate he purchased in British Columbia and tried to franchise it back home in Cleveland. When the manufacturer refused to let him franchise the chocolate, he had it analyzed, reproduced and began selling it as Queen Victoria Chocolate.
    The hole in Life Savers is officially patented as 'nothing enclosed in a circle.'
    He sold Life Savers in a cardboard tube, which caused the candy to go stale rapidly.
    Edward Noble approached him with an advertising scheme that would yield them both a fortune.
    Instead, he offered all rights and the formula for Life Savers to Edward Noble for $2,900. Although that was a lot of money in 1913, it was no where near the multi-million dollar business it grew into.
    His wife, Grace, was a Christian Scientist who was suicidal. He divorced her (1917).
    Grace suggested their only child, Harold use her maiden name Hart as his first name.
    Hart despised him, calling him an inpatient ogre, but was always willing to take his money.
    To mend ways with his son, he purchased a restaurant and offered him a job, Hart refused it.
    The Life Savers wrapper featured a sailor throwing a life preserver to a girl. A legend rose that he named the candy in memory of his daughter who drowned. This was untrue, because he did not even have a daughter.
    Hart was openly gay (and a famous poet) and had a penchant for seamen.
    Hart committed suicide by drowning, a year after Clarence's death (April 27, 1932).
    Ironically, the Titanic sank the same year Life Savers was introduced (1912). Hart jumped off the liner Orizaba to his death in the Caribbean; 2 decades and 2 weeks after the Titanic sank (April 27, 1932).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He sold chocolates but realized they had little shelf life in the summer, so he sought a non meltable candy.
    Eventually he decided to invent a round mint candy, known as Crane's Peppermint Life Savers (1912).
    He hired a pharmacist to press the peppermint into a flat circular shape and extract a hole in the center. The candy gave the appearance of a life saver, and thus was named.
    He marketed Life Savers as a breath mint.

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 19 Votes: 5.26% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 7 Votes: 85.71% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 14 Votes: 35.71% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 19 Votes: 47.37% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 39 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 27 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 31 Votes: 51.61% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 56 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 91 Votes: 60.44% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 166 Votes: 44.58% Annoying
    In 2004, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying