Mental Floss

BUSINESS

Facebook user, Tim Hortons Cafe and Bake Shop

The 50-year-old coffee-and-doughnut chain is now an international business, but it’s still Canadian at heart

gosheshe, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Life Savers—those sweet, unmistakable rolls of hard candies with the hole in the center—have been a quintessential American candy since the early 1900s.

Hulton Archive/Getty Image

When Walt Disney first arrived in California, he had a demo reel, no money, and few prospects.

IStock

You might be less likely to make "embarrassing" purchases when someone dreamy is at the checkout.

Mike Mozart via Flickr // CC BY 2.0

They sell millions and millions of pounds of orange chicken each year.

Wikimedia Commons // Fair Use

What started in a broom closet is now and international chain.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The beloved animation company just celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Chloe Effron

RC Cola innovated faster and better than Coca-Cola or Pepsi Cola, and yet they still got left in the dust.

Ayleen Gaspar via Flickr // CC BY 2.0

The chain is huge in its native Israel, and it has been making strides along the East Coast.

Mike Mozart, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

He was a real chef!

Shalom via Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0

It's the ice cream of the future!

iStock

Interested in learning more about Pennsylvania's second-largest metropolis? Yinz have come to the right place.

Jhong Dizon via Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Some are family names, and some just name themselves.

Mike Mozart via Flickr // CC BY 2.0

'Liquid Gold' is right.

fivedollarones via Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0

There have been seven versions of that little girl with the big umbrella.

Mike Mozart, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

There's no apostrophe.

iStock

We're glad this idea didn't stay in Vegas.

Wikimedia Commons // CC0

This family favorite started life as a rocking icon of the mid-century singles scene.

via @Fazolis on Twitter

Billions of breadsticks served.

Jsmilla via YouTube

For anyone living in the New York metropolitan area throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Crazy Eddie was inescapable.

Ann Baekken via Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Go get some root beer with Rooty the Root Bear.

Tim Holm via Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Love Chicago-style deep-dish pizza? You have Uno’s to thank for it.

Bob B. Brown, Flickr // CC BY-ND 2.0

It started as just a root beer stand.

Mike Mozart, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Mmm, gotta have it.