The jelly beans legacy

NEW YORK – Among the plethora of Ronald Reagan statuettes, books, movies and speeches on sale on Monday perhaps, perhaps none conveys his outlook more than blue jelly beans.

The 40th US president, who died on Saturday, is the sole reason why Jelly Belly Candy Company of Fairfield, California, makes its blueberry variety. Reagan convinced the company to produce the flavour so he and his staff could distribute a red, white and blue mix of the jelly beans for his presidential inauguration in 1981.Reagan was a long-time patron of Jelly Belly and bought their sweets back when he was governor of California.The company has a Reagan portrait made from 14 000 jelly beans in its visitor’s centre.Jelly Belly spokeswoman Tomi Holt said it was too early to tell if people were buying Jelly Belly blues to pay homage to Reagan.Other Reagan-related products were splashed throughout the Internet by Monday morning.Online auctioneer eBay Inc.offered a US$11 Reagan bobble-head, an autographed photo for US$535 and a Royal Doulton Reagan mug for US$700.Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc set up a front-page Reagan section for its Web site.Online retailer Amazon.com Inc saw a surge in sales of books about the so-called ‘Gipper’.Tom Faggione, an embroiderer for Port Jervis, New York-based Militarygifts.com said he received a flood of orders on Monday morning for USS Ronald Reagan hats and t-shirts.”When I heard that Reagan had died, I knew right away we’d see more people wanting those hats and shirts,” Faggione said.- Nampa-ReutersReagan convinced the company to produce the flavour so he and his staff could distribute a red, white and blue mix of the jelly beans for his presidential inauguration in 1981.Reagan was a long-time patron of Jelly Belly and bought their sweets back when he was governor of California.The company has a Reagan portrait made from 14 000 jelly beans in its visitor’s centre.Jelly Belly spokeswoman Tomi Holt said it was too early to tell if people were buying Jelly Belly blues to pay homage to Reagan.Other Reagan-related products were splashed throughout the Internet by Monday morning.Online auctioneer eBay Inc.offered a US$11 Reagan bobble-head, an autographed photo for US$535 and a Royal Doulton Reagan mug for US$700.Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc set up a front-page Reagan section for its Web site.Online retailer Amazon.com Inc saw a surge in sales of books about the so-called ‘Gipper’.Tom Faggione, an embroiderer for Port Jervis, New York-based Militarygifts.com said he received a flood of orders on Monday morning for USS Ronald Reagan hats and t-shirts.”When I heard that Reagan had died, I knew right away we’d see more people wanting those hats and shirts,” Faggione said.- Nampa-Reuters