Fullerton’s Hawaiian Punch

At a memorial service for our beloved Aunt Gladys, I learned that both she and one of Tom’s cousins worked for a short time at the Hawaiian Punch plant in Fullerton many years ago.  Tom had mentioned a while back that he thought the recipe for Hawaiian Punch had originated in a garage in Fullerton.

According to my research, A.W. Leo, Tom Yeats, and Ralph Harrison did come up with the recipe in a Fullerton garage, one that had been converted into a citrus storage unit back in 1934.  Their intent was not to create a drink, but a tropical ice cream topping.  Their employer, the Pacific Citrus Products Company, was already selling ice cream toppings to restaurants and ice cream manufacturers.  The three employees just wanted to create another topping flavor.

The main ingredients of the first Hawaiian Punch recipe were guava, orange, papaya, passion fruit, and pineapple, all shipped from Hawaii.  The original recipe contained 10% juice while today the drink contains 2% to 3% juice with high-fructose corn syrup as one of the key ingredients.

The red syrup was first packed by a canner in La Habra, which was a few miles away from Fullerton.  While most of it was created for ice cream topping, some of the syrup was sent home with the canner’s employees.  They soon realized that it made a pretty tasty drink when diluted with water.  Word got back to the Fullerton office about diluting the syrup.  Marketing soon took a different direction.

Ownership changes in the company and product line occurred fairly rapidly through the years.  Leo’s Hawaiian Punch was trademarked in 1938, but didn’t turn $1 million in sales until 1950.  By that time, the name of the product had transitioned from Leo’s Hawaiian Punch to simply Hawaiian Punch.

Another memorable event occurred in 1950.  The converted garage on Amerige Avenue burned down.  The Los Angeles Times reported back then that the water from the fire hoses mixed with the syrup, creating its own version of Hawaiian Punch.  The liquid ran ankle-deep in the gutter and caused a very large mess.  After that, the company moved into a new building of brick and steel and then moved one more time in Fullerton before closing.

Along the way, advertising became important to Hawaiian Punch’s success.  In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a short commercial on TV with animated cartoon characters.  Punchy would ask his friend Oaf, “Hey!  How about a Hawaiian Punch?”  Oaf would reply, “Sure,” after which Punchy would punch Oaf in the face.  Punchy would close with “Wasn’t that a refreshing commercial?”  Later in the 1980s, Donny and Marie Osmond had several singing commercials to promote Hawaiian Punch.

Those commercials must have helped.  Under the current auspices of Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., there are now fourteen flavors of Hawaiian Punch. The product ranks at #32 in popularity among a hundred beverages on a recent survey.  (Hi-C, its competitor, is listed at #35).

Hawaiian Punch has certainly passed the test of time through innovative thinking, perseverance, and resilience.  “A happy accident” has become a household name.