And Finally. This Blog Is Now Up To Date!

The goal of this blog has been to tell a little of the history of bubblegum, bubbles, The BOMB Squad and it's Heroes, The BUBBLEGUM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, and all the other things we've done. To get you up to speed, and to get your interested in our fabulous sport of bubble blowing. I think the blog is pretty up to date now.

If you would like to discuss the past of bubblegum, feel free to go back to some of the earlier posts and comment on them. That would be great. Anything good you can add would be a great addition to the history of bubblegum.

The posts going forward now I think will pretty much be about the future of bubblegum that we wish to create, as it unfolds, although there may still be, here and there, some musings about bubblegum's past.

So we hope you will continue with us on this journey and get involved where you can.
We really hope you will create your own bubblegum legend, experience the glory, and contribute to the great product's future story.

Thanks for reading so far, and now, on to the future!

Bobby "BOOM BOOM" Bickerson
Commissioner
The BUBBLEGUM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Where YOU can experience sports greatest thrill. Raising your finger to the sky and proclaiming "I'm #1!"

Bubblegum Heaven and Google- WHERE ARE WE???

As time passed, frustration began to mount regarding the inability of Bubblegum Heaven to make it into the search engines, Google being the main one.

While we could be found on Google, the key here was to be found under the best keyword search possible. Sure, we could be found easily under searches of "Bubblegum Heaven" and "Bubblegum World Championship" and "Chewsy Suzy" but that doesn't count because people who would find those would pretty much have to be looking for them specifically.

What we needed was to be able to be found by the most casual searcher possible, and to us that meant one who would go to Google and type in the word "bubblegum." We thought it was vital to be there when that person was presented a list of bubblegum items.

Well, it turns out that bubblegum, being the world's greatest food, is such a popular and incredible product that it's name has been co-opted for a number of totally unrelated cultural phenomena, and which eat up all kinds of space on Google when you make this search. You have "Bubblegum Music." "Bubblegum Pop Music." "Bubblegum Culture." "Bubblegum Crisis." "Bubblegum Anime." You have a quote from a movie that appears all over the place "I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum,and I'm all out of bubblegum!" You have bubblegum songs. Bubblegum dance. Bubblegum Club. Bubblegum Society. Bubblegum Books. Bubblegum Sequencer. And that's all just within the first three pages of the search.

At the time you do a search for "bubblegum" on Google, you come up with 4,240,000 results. Of these, 786 are shown. Nowhere do you see a site Bubblegum Heaven site. This is distressing for far more reason than just the fact we are not listed. Here's why.

The fact is, if bubblegum had never existed, then all the things that come up under a search for "bubblegum" would not be there. They would have, at best, been named something else, and at worst, they never would have been created at all.

Taking it a step farther, if it hadn't been for bubblegum bubbles, bubblegum would never had existed. If Walter Deimer had never foreseen that having gum you could blow bubbles with would be a big deal, then bubblegum simply never would have existed.

And everything having to do with bubblegum would be, at best, called something else.

The word "bubblegum" itself might never even had existed.

And it's all because of the ability to blow bubbles with gum.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Regardless of what anyone may try to have you believe, bubblegum bubbles are simply the most important thing there is about bubblegum. If you couldn't blow bubbles with bubblegum it would simply be "gum" and the product wouldn't even exist, the word probably wouldn't even exist, and anything that uses the name "bubblegum" would be named something else, if it even existed at all.

What I think should distress everyone who looks to Google for good information about whatever subject they are looking for is this. BUBBLEGUM HEAVEN, bubblegum's greatest website, which is dedicated to the most important thing about bubblegum, is nowhere to be found on this search. And if that can happen on a search for bubblegum, it can happen on any search for any topic. In other words, YOU can go looking for whatever subject you are looking for and not find the most important, most extreme information on the subject that exists. If it can happen with bubblegum, it can happen with YOU.

It's incredible to see what they do have there regarding bubblegum bubbles when you do this search. Among all these websites (and there aren't many) there is one that stands out far and away the best. It stomps all over anything else having to do with the subject. It grinds them up and spits them out into practically sheer nothingness.

Which is exactly what Bubblegum Heaven does to that website. But waaay worse.

Let's examine them.

Go HERE and take a look at the website I'm talking about. Now, as of the day this was written, this site is the #10 ranked page on Google under the search for bubblegum. But note what you see when you go there.

Many times you will see the notation "Last updated 7/5/98 by bigbubbles@geocities.com." Fabulous! By it's own admission the site hasn't been updated in over 10 years! And the email address given is a dead email address, so you can't even contact them to find out anything else.

A little more examination shows a number of dead links, and other links which go to things that have apparently changed since the site was created. Then you have a number of links that go to pages under construction.

Bubblegum pictures? There is a link that goes to a page called "unsorted pictures." This link goes to a page that is "under construction." As if no pictures there weren't already more than enough, the "unsorted pictures" link also has a seperate "page 2" link that is also "under construction!"

What about pictures of really big bubbles? There is a promising link titled "Susan Montgomery Williams," which leads to another under construction link.

This description is not meant as a total bash though. The site does have some good pictures of celebrities blowing bubbles and an excellent section of movies that had scenes of people blowing bubbles.

It also, as mentioned earlier, stands far and away better then anything else that comes up in this search of bubblegum. Here's a couple examples. Just go to #12 on the list. This is a page apparently about bubblegum's greatest history making bubblegum. What do you see? A big white page with thirty words on it, that are, for the most part, links which go right back to the page you are on. And not one of those words are "bubble," "gum," or "bubblegum." Another feature of this page is a search box that if you type the word "bubblegum" into it it takes right back to the page you are on.

Or for another "amusing" comparison, take a look at page #108. Click the page and what do you get? A big white page with nothing on it but the words "An error has occurred." I would say an error has definitely occurred. This site is included and Bubblegum Heaven isn't. This is a page that would utterly throw me into convulsions if not for the one saving grace of having the URL "www.bubblegum.org."

Now compare what you've just seen to Bubblegum Heaven. Did you see websites that were about bubbles? Big bubbles? The greatest bubble blowers ever? The greatest contest ever? An interest in, or an opportunity to learn about, bubblegum's past, present or future? A chance for the viewer to create their own bubblegum legend or experience their own bubblegum glory?

Actually, if you could take all the content from all the sites you could find on this search for bubblegum (at the time this was written) and put it all into one website, that website would be like a tiny speck compared to the immenseness of Bubblegum Heaven.

So I end this blog by saying if you can do anything to assist Bubblegum Heaven to get onto this search, you would be doing a very big favor to everyone who loves to blow big bubbles, and the same to Google. If you care about doing a service for your visitors, just compare our website and consider listing it on this search, and make it relevant.

Any less would not be, well, doing a service to your visitors.

Chewsy Suzy, The Greatest, Dies

Nothing ever goes totally smoothly, and the BOMB Squad is no exception.

On Oct. 1, 2008, the bubblegum world was stunned when the great Susan Montgomery Williams died from a brain anuerism.

After a then 29 year reign as the Guinness World Record Holder for blowing the largest bubble, Chewsy Suzy was on the verge of one of her greatest bubblegum accomplishments. Having wanted to be able to provide the bubblegum world with a way to experience some of the glory she had accomplished, she had co-created The BOMB Squad and The BUBBLEGUM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, and now, as the time had just about come to name the first BWC world champion, the bubblegum world had just experienced one of it's greatest tragedies.

This could have been a catastrophic loss for the bubblegum world, one which may have prevented The BOMB Squad and BWC from ever happening, fortunately we were far enough along in the process that we were able to keep it going.

While the loss of this greatest of all bubble blowers has been deeply troubling and has made continuing extremely difficult, her success, talent, know-how, can-do and stick-to-it attitude and her extreme winning personality are inspirations we can all learn from, and can drive us to answer the call of the dreams we dare to dream.

As she told Johnny Carson on his show "I was born to chew bubblegum. My name even has gum in it. Susan Mont"GUM"ery Williams" lived her life dedicated to the cause, and it ended at one of bubblegum's greatest moments, a moment she had played a huge role in creating. And no one had ever been anywhere near as successful at it before.

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again. If everyone who had ever lived could chose to have as much success in their field of endeavor as Suzy had achieved in bubble blowing I'm positive there are extremely few who would turn down the offer.

And that's a really big thing to say.

Rest in peace, Chewsy Suzy. You're simply the greatest!

Bubblegum's 10 Biggest Bubbles EVER!

Not only has the BWC had two fabulous competitions already, it has earned the distinction of having bubblegum's 10 biggest bubbles ever blown in a contest in it.

After a review of the results of some of bubblegum's biggest contests ever, and interviews of the BOMB Squad Heroes, we have come to the conclusion that the top ten bubbles ever blown in The BUBBLEGUM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP are the biggest bubbles ever to be blown in non-Guinness World Record contests. Should evidence of bigger bubbles blown in other contests surface, we plan to act accordingly. But until then, it appears
to us that the top ten are the biggest of all time.

As we said before, The BUBBLEGUM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP is the greatest bubble blowing contest ever, and the fact that the ten biggest bubbles ever blown have been blown in it backs it up

And to make it all the better, now that the top ten of all time has been established, we expect that over time the top 10 will only get bigger and more numerous. It's all about the big bubble and we expect those bubbles to be getting bigger and bigger all the time!

The BOMB Squad Goes To Work

The BOMB Squad had come together and went to work to start creating the future of bubblegum.

To all of us, the whole thing centered around GUMpetition. Since the beginning of bubblegum time the big question was, who could blow the biggest bubble. That's what got bubblegum where it was. That's what got the BOMB Squad Heroes where they were. And for bubblegum blowers worldwide to have a chance to experience some of the great stuff the Heroes had experienced, that was where it would have to come from.

GUMpetition. It made America great. It made Bubblegum great. It made the Heroes great. And most importantly, it can make YOU great!

It was at this time that Hero Earl "The GUM BUBBLE COACH" Hartwell pointed out an article he found on the internet that amazed us. It was about what bubblegum needed to bring it back to it's former glory, and it featured some apparently very big marketing people.

What amazed us is that it almost looked like it could have been written by us. They pretty much recommended exactly what we had been talking about for a long time. Emphasizing the BIG bubble! Emphasizing competition. Another point made was that bubblegum seemed to be a victim in the trend towards people going towards less sugary foods. That's exactly what we are talking about. Sugar and taste have nothing to do with a bubble gum's bubble blowing ability, and yet, sadly, that's what just about always seems to be emphasized.

And here's an interesting comment by Thryth Jarvis, a marketing director and former senior brand manager on Nestle's Kit Kat:

"...bubblegum sales are just one tenth of that of bubble gum...Strange, really, when surely bubble gum is a superior product...but bubblegum has the added benefit that you can, if desired, blow bubbles. So why don't people chose it?"

He goes on to say:
"...no one has been reminding us how great it is. People have forgotten the fun, the challenge, and the playful competition that blowing bubbles can bring."

In other words, you emphasize the wrong things and the product falls all apart. Whoa, who ever would have thought?!?

(Pounding my clenched fist into my open palm, I, Bobby "BOOM BOOM" Bickerson Commissioner, issue an edict):

BUBBLEGUM SIMPLY MUST BE BROUGHT BACK TO IT'S FORMER GLORY! WE MUST REMEMBER, EMPHASIZE, AND REMIND PEOPLE THAT IT CAN DO THE ONE THING NO OTHER GUM, CANDY OR FOOD CAN DO. BLOW BIG BUBBLES!

And so the BOMB Squad, the four greatest bubblegum bubble blowers ever, creators of much of the history of bubblegum, along with myself, set out to create the future of the storied and once glorious but now beleagored product.

The BOMB Squad Coins A New Term

BOMBlastic!

The BOMB Squad is the greatest ever! It's the BOMB! It's fantastic! It's all of that and more!

Mix it all together and what do you have? When it's just all too over the top overwhelming to even consider?

It's just plain BOMBlastic!

The New Plan Starts Picking Up Steam

Word began getting out about what we were up to. We knew we were on our way at our first major milestone, when in a press release on Sept. 20, 2007 we welcomed aboard Joyce Samuels, the Guinness World Record Holder for blowing the largest bubblegum bubble from the nose.

Samuels, known in the business as "The Gum Blowin' Granny," was not only one of bubblegum's greatest pioneers but she was totally in a category all by herself. She not only held the "over the top" unusual Guinness Record of largest bubblegum bubble blown from the nose, she created the entire category by originally setting the record then breaking it later.

Suzy and Joyce had met previously, at the shooting of MTV's show Call To Greatness which was held at the shrine to bubblegum, Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo California. This meeting marked the beginning of a relationship that would have dire implications on the future of bubblegum. In effect, it would go a long ways in creating that future.

This now put our plan in the untouchable category of having two Guinness World Record Holders on the team working on the same goal.

Shortly thereafter, it was announced that I would become spokesman of the group. Then it started getting interesting.

It Takes More Than Just Being The Greatest Bubble Blower

As we set out to create the future, it soon became apparent that being the greatest was fabulous, but it just wasn't enough to get it done. It seemed that bubblegum companies, for whatever reason, lost interest in their biggest secret weapon. The BIG bubble.

It seems like a great plan. Big bubblegum company gets greatest bubblegum blower to endorse their gum, and sales blow through the roof. You'd think. But no company was interested so another approach was called for.

We knew 2 things. We had to bring something great, super fun, to the people who chew bubblegum and the funnest thing Suzy had ever experienced in bubblegum was the thrill of competition. It certainly wasn't the thrill of telling how good a bubblegum tastes. As great as this woman was, I'm sorry but she never won a Guinness World record for chewing the best tasting bubblegum.

So it started becoming obvious what needed to be done. This whole thing would have to be bigger than Suzy. It would need a lot of voices yelling at bubblegum manufacturers that BIG bubbles are the main thing. It would need the people who remembered the golden days of bubblegum to come back and demand their return. It would need to give people a chance to experience experience some of the bubblegum fame and glory that Suzy had experienced.

It would need a grass roots effort to demand the return of the BIG bubble. And this blog invites EVERYONE to jump on the band wagon as it plunges headlong into the making of bubblegum history!

Suzy And Bobby Make Their Move On The Bubblegum World!

It had just gotten too darn depressing.

To see bubblegum be what it it was, and then what it became.

Bubblegum bubble blowing had seemingly been on a downswing for a long time. It picked up at the beginning of the new milleneum with a big contest put on by a major bubblegum company. That lasted for a few years and then it was over. It was picked up with another company with a contest for another year which, to those who blew big bubbles, was unexciting to say the least.

At least that was the extent big bubblegum companies seemed to take the idea of big bubbles.

It seemed the whole bubblegum blowing world cried out for someone to pick up the now forgotten ball and run with it for a big TD. Well, who could ever do that better than the world's greatest bubble blower?

It was at that point that Chewsy Suzy and I got together to do something about this bleak scene.
Suzy had broken her first Guinness World Record in 1979 and in the last many years of her now 29 year reign had developed the motto "29 years and still looking for som GUMpetition!" It was a motto that had to be upgraded every year, as the sheer weight of her greatness had put her so far ahead of the millions of other competitors that had ever thought of challenging her. She became the greatest. She obviously knew how to get it done.

So we embarked on our journey. After a number of long discussions it all came down to this.

Bubblegum was made to blow big bubbles. And whenever bubble blowers get together, it always comes down to who can blow the biggest bubble. From the first contest ever held at Walter Diemer's house, all the way down to two guys rumbling in the parking lot, and then all the way back up to the biggest, grandest bubble blowing contest of them all (which is NOW AVAILABLE), it all came down to competition. "GUMpetition," a word Suzy invented long ago. For sure, everybody looked up to her for what she had done, and everyone wanted to do what she did. Break that record. Break HER record.

If the glory days of bubblegum were ever to be restored, competition was the only way. If there was ever one thing she learned from her trips to different parts of the world, it was that people wanted to experience some (if not all) of the fame and glory that Susan Montgomery Williams achieved. People wanted to know what it felt like to stand out from all the rest. To be a winner. To be the best at something. And to get get the perks that come with it.

THAT's what makes sports great, and that's what makes bubblegum great. If anyone besides Walter Diemer knew that, it would be Chewsy Suzy.

So we set out on our road to create bubblegum's future. To create a way for bubble blowers the world over to experience the sweet taste of bubblegum success that Suzy experienced all those years. To give them a piece of the action.

And, of course, to emphasize that BIG bubble.

Bubblegum's Success and the BIG Bubble

According to what has been written, one of history's greatest ironies was the invention of bubblegum.

In August (early August, as one account says) 1928 a 24 year old accountant named Walter Diemer invented bubblegum. Yes you read that right. An ACCOUNTANT invented BUBBLEGUM. Someone from one of the world's most boring professions invented one of the world's all time funnest products? Whoa! That does not compute!

But the thing is, it did compute. And, because of it his company laughed all the way to the bank.

They had searched for this formula for a long time. From what's written it appears that they had this idea that if they could only find a recipe for making a gum that bubbles could be blown with and it was something they could sell that they could be immensely successful with it, and that's exactly what happened. Bubblegum was invented and now there's no looking back. Today, 80- years later, it's probably an over one billion dollar industry.

The way Diemer marketed bubblegum was to teach his salesmen how to blow bubbles so they could show off to their customers the amazing and unique thing their product could do. And then he would invite kids over to his house to have bubble blowing contests.

The proof was in the pudding, or in this case, Diemer's sales technique. Bubblegum became one of the world's best loved products, and all because the man knew exactly what to do with it.

Show the world what great BIG bubbles could be blown with it!

Introducing myself.

Hello!

My name is Bobby "Boom Boom" Bickerson and I'm here to tell you all about the world of bubblegum bubble blowing, the biggest bubbles ever blown!

My bubblegum background began with my association with Susan Montgomery Williams, the Guinness World Record Holder for blowing the largest bubble. It was built around an aggravation and revulsion we both had about what the bubblegum industry had become.

Williams, who's nickname is "Chewsy Suzy," had been blowing bubbles since she was a little girl back in the early 70's and her rise to fame as bubblegum's greatest bubble blower ever is well documented. To her the meaning of bubblegum was exactly what she did. Blow BIG bubbles. Which if you look at stories of the beginning of the product you will find that's what it was all about. It's the reason the product was invented, and that's exactly how it was marketed.
The big bubble is responsible for the success of bubblegum.

Unfortunately over time that began to change. Bubblegum began to focus on things which had nothing to do with blowing big bubbles. Companies began to seemingly become obsessed with taste. With bubblegum that was less sticky. And with bubblegum that could do other things. The effect of all that was to de-emphasize what the product was made for, to blow big bubbles. The only food we know of with a characteristic that could turn it into a measurable sport.

In my association with Chewsy Suzy we began to focus on one goal. To create the future of bubblegum. Not in the image many manufacturers seem to be taking the product, but rather in the image the product's creator envisioned for it. The image that has earned the product the love of both young and young at heart worldwide. The image that has turned the product into both cultural icon and great American success story. The image that has turned bubblegum into the world's greatest food.

The Big Bubble.

I'm here to fill you in on the past and present of bubblegum. And, hopefully, that future we hope to create.

So welcome aboard. It just might be some kind of ride!