Origin of “I Scream, You Scream” and the First Eskimo Pie

If you grew up in the 70s, 80s, or earlier, you know the chant: “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” You may have shouted it while waiting for the Good Humor truck, but the expression actually started as a commercial slogan.

That famous phrase was created to sell a product you likely still know today: the Eskimo Pie. However, before it became a household name, it was known as the I-Scream Bar.

The Invention that Saved the Cocoa Market

Why the I-Scream Bar Changed Everything

Before Christian Nelson’s invention, ice cream was a “sit-down” dessert or a made-to-order cone. The I-Scream Bar was the first to offer a convenient, pre-packaged, and mass-produced experience.

• The Packaging: Unlike the ice cream cone (which had no wrapper), these bars could be stored in drug store coolers and sold like candy.
• Mass Production: Because the vanilla core was encased in a stable chocolate coating, it could be manufactured in bulk long before the “Drumstick” or other factory-made treats existed.
• The Imitators: Its success was so immediate that it spawned dozens of competitors—including the famous Good Humor man, who eventually added the iconic stick.

The Nelson-Mustard Cream Company

Christian Kent Nelson was a Danish immigrant and a schoolteacher in Onawa, Iowa, where he taught math, Latin, and psychology. After school, he ran a local shop with a partner named Mustard. While the Nelson-Mustard Cream Company was primarily a candy store, a single interaction in 1919 changed everything.

The Famous “Nickel Dilemma”

A young boy walked into the shop and couldn’t decide between a chocolate bar and an ice cream sandwich. When Nelson asked why he didn’t buy both, the boy famously replied: “Sure I know—I want ’em both, but I only got a nickel.”

This sparked Nelson’s two-year quest to “marry” the two treats:

• The Technical Hurdle: Getting melted chocolate to stick to a frozen core was thought to be impossible.
• The Secret Ingredient: A chocolate salesman told Nelson that cocoa butter helped chocolate adhere to cold surfaces.
• The Perfect Temperature: Nelson found success by heating the chocolate to 80–90°F and freezing the bars instantly after dipping.
• The Original Name: He first marketed the treat at local picnics as the “Temptation I-Scream Bar.”

And here is where things get murky. It is widely accepted that Nelson then came up with the catchy advertising slogan “I-scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.” Sometimes, this slogan is also given as “I-scream, you scream, we all scream for the I-scream bar.” Not as catchy, but possible. Since Nelson feared that if the tune failed to stick, his I-scream bar would fail to stick, he decided to rename his bar the Eskimo Pie, or so it is claimed.

The “I Scream, You Scream” Song

From Jazz to the Silver Screen

This song eventually became a Dixieland Jazz standard, favored by legendary groups like the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans. Its reach extended all the way to Hollywood in 1973, when Woody Allen featured it in his futuristic comedy Sleeper.

Allen actually performed the clarinet himself for the soundtrack alongside the New Orleans Funeral and Ragtime Orchestra. Interestingly, because Allen didn’t hire a traditional composer for the film, many modern filmographies incorrectly credit him with writing the song, even though it had been a jazz staple for nearly 50 years.

The Patent: A “Frozen Dainty”

In January 1922, Nelson was granted U.S. Patent 1,404,539. In the filing, he didn’t call it an ice cream bar; he described it as a “frozen dainty” with an “encasement therefore with facilities for ready handling.”

As far as the slogan or the song, it is difficult to say whether Nelson was original in coming up with it, or whether he used the name because such a chant or song was already popular. I would assume the latter, as this would lend credence to the idea that Nelson doubted the staying power of the name I-scream bar, since songs come and go.

While in Omaha, Nebraska, consulting a patent lawyer, Nelson met Russel Stove of the still-operating Russel Stover Candies. At that time, Stover was the superintendent of a local ice cream plant. They both recognized the mutual benefit of a partnership and signed a contract at their first meeting. Another story claims that Nelson had been turned down by an ice cream maker in Onawa and so went to Omaha specifically to find a new backer. 

Although above I mentioned that the claim that Nelson renamed the I-scream bar to Eskimo Pie, it is also said that it was Russell Stover who thought the treat needed a better name, and surveyed dinner guests to get ideas for new choices. The word Eskimo came up, and Stover decided it was the best choice, and then combined it with pie since that was a familiar dessert term. Of course, other versions of this story exist as well. In one, both men decide to come up with a new name and happen upon the word Eskimo, whereupon Chris Nelson blurted out Eskimo Pie!

Eskimo Pies Sell Like Hotcakes

After test marketing the product to rave reviews, Stover and Nelson went to Chicago and licensed ice cream makers to produce Eskimo Pies. The growth was unlike anything the food industry had seen:

• Rapid Expansion: Within a single year, Nelson issued 1,500 licenses; after four years, that number climbed to 2,700.
• Massive Volume: In the first two years alone, an estimated one billion pies were sold.
• Economic Impact: The demand was so high that it is credited with single-handedly rescuing the global cocoa market from a post-war depression. Ecuador, Switzerland, and Holland all saw significant economic boosts and sent Nelson letters of thanks.

The Logistics of a Legend

Nelson didn’t just change what people ate; he changed how it was distributed. By utilizing dry ice, he revolutionized the supply chain, allowing a frozen product to reach drugstores, hotels, and grocery stores that previously couldn’t stock ice cream.

However, this overnight success brought a “tip of the iceberg” problem: a flood of imitators. While Nelson pioneered the handheld treat, he soon found himself spending more time defending his patent than making ice cream.

This is not to mention having to deal with a bunch of overpaid salesmen. Things got so frustrating that Stove decided to pull out and sell his share of the business to Nelson. Stover then moved to Denver and opened the Russel Stove Candy Store.

The Birth of the Eskimo Pie Corporation

Frustrated by patent battles and “overpaid salesmen,” Russell Stover sold his share of the business to Nelson. Stover headed to Denver to start his own legendary candy empire, leaving Nelson to find new backing.

Nelson eventually partnered with R.S. Reynolds, Sr. of the United States Foil Company (later Reynolds Metals). It was a natural fit: Reynolds was already making a fortune selling the tin-foil wrappers for the pies. By the end of 1923, Eskimo Pie became a subsidiary of the Reynolds empire.

The 1929 Patent Disaster

The corporate backing gave Nelson the muscle to sue the imitators that had been appearing in droves, but it backfired in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court made two devastating rulings:

• The Patent was Invalid: The judge argued Nelson hadn’t invented anything new, but had simply “changed the shape” of chocolate-dipped ice cream. In other words, the court said that Nelson’s Eskimo Pie was unoriginal.
• The “Pie” Trademark was Cancelled: Nelson had tried to trademark the word “pie” for all frozen treats; the court threw this out as well.

A Legacy Beyond the Patent

Despite losing his legal monopoly, Nelson’s brand was too well-entrenched to fail. While competitors like Alaska Bar and Frost Bite rushed into the market, the Eskimo Pie remained the gold standard.

Nelson eventually rejoined the company as an executive, staying until 1961. He continued to innovate throughout his career, creating:

• The Eskimo Machine: A high-speed extruder for mass production.
• The Eskimo Pie Jug: A portable dry-ice cooler that allowed vendors to sell pies anywhere—from ballparks to beaches.

The Myth of Unoriginality

Was it true that Nelson had been unoriginal? Well, it is true that people had dipped ice cream into chocolate before. But it is not true that this was something that people had regular access to, or even something that most consumers had ever heard of.

Defining a New Category

If chocolate-covered ice cream was so “unoriginal,” then the Eskimo Pie could not have taken the nation by storm, as it well did. Sure, the name and its advertising had a lot to do with it, as well as the business acumen and distribution that went into it.

But the advertising was not so very aggressive, and the product sold because it was something completely new, a convenient handheld ice cream treat with a memorable name that could be sold in all sorts of places, including drugstores, hotels, and grocery stores. It is quite clear that the products that came after the Eskimo Pie were imitating IT, and not simply happening upon the idea of marketing an already common treat.

The Battle for the Handheld Treat

The Eskimo Pie was already a huge and national success when competing manufacturers began marketing such chocolate-covered bars as Alaska Bar, Frost Bite, Polar Bar, Sundae-ette, Choco-Pie, etc. Whether Nelson deserved his patent or not, he deserved his credit. According to a 1921 volume of The Soda Fountain, Russel Stover had brought suit against the Sundae-Ette company for patent infringement, although that particular product had sugar wafers coated with chocolate, and the wafers were placed on the bar, with the chocolate side in contact with the ice cream. Presumably, other such litigation was made, to the tune of thousands of dollars in expenses. It was the Reynolds suit that eventually resulted in the patent being thrown out. However, most publications of the time hold the Eskimo Pie as an original invention.

Christian Nelson’s Final Act

As for Nelson, he had retired after selling to Reynolds, collected royalties, and became a licensee. But after a few years, he itched to get back to work (he was only in his thirties), and rejoined the company where he stayed until he retired in 1961. He continued to innovate, inventing an excruder he called the Eskimo Machine and the Eskimo Pie Jug, which was a portable insulated cooler that could be filled with dry ice to allow Eskimo Pies to be sold pretty much anywhere. He also continued to create new products and stayed on for years as an executive, retiring as vice-president and director of research. Although he didn’t have his patent anymore, he still had the Eskimo Pie trademark, and the brand was very well established and entrenched, allowing it to maintain its market share. During World War II, many Eskimo Pies were supplied to United States troops. Nelson died in 1992 at the age of 99.

The Eskimo Pie Corporation was made independent of Reynolds in 1992 and was sold to CoolBrands International in the same year Nelson died. In 2007, CoolBrands sold the Eskimo Pie Corporation to Nestlé’s Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream for $19 million.

The Modern Rebrand: From Eskimo Pie to Edy’s Pie

The brand saw several corporate shifts in its later years. In 2007, the Eskimo Pie Corporation was sold to Nestlé’s Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream for $19 million. However, the most significant change in the product’s century-long history occurred in 2020.

Following a wave of cultural reflection across the food industry, Dreyer’s announced it would retire the “Eskimo” name and marketing imagery, acknowledging it as derogatory. By early 2021, the product was officially rebranded as Edy’s Pie, named after one of the company’s founders, Joseph Edy.

While the name on the wrapper has changed, the core of Christian Nelson’s 1921 invention remains the same: a simple, portable “frozen dainty” that managed to “scream” its way into the permanent fabric of American culture.

Nanook of the North: The Accidental Salesman?

It is a common historical theory that the 1922 documentary Nanook of the North inspired the name “Eskimo Pie.” While the film was a massive success, the timeline tells a different story.

The Timeline Dispute:

• The Name: Christian Nelson and Russell Stover had already trademarked and established the “Eskimo Pie” name by late 1921.
• The Movie: Nanook of the North didn’t premiere until June 1922.
• The Verdict: The movie didn’t create the name, but its popularity certainly acted as a massive, accidental advertisement for the ice cream bar.

A Pre-Existing Fascination

Long before Nanook hit the silver screen, the American public was already fascinated by the North. As a Dane, Christian Nelson would have been well-acquainted with Inuit culture, but the rest of America had been introduced to it through massive public spectacles.

For instance, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago featured a “living exhibit” of 59 Inuit people. This was followed by an even larger “Eskimo Village” at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, which saw nearly 20 million visitors. By the time Nelson’s “frozen dainty” hit the market, the imagery of the “chilly North” was already a deeply embedded cultural shorthand for “cold and refreshing.”

It may be no coincidence that Robert Flaherty’s very successful and famous documentary Nanook of the North came out in 1922. The movie grossed $251,000 worldwide, which was a huge run in those days.

Nanook was an Inuk hunter whose life was (supposedly) depicted in the movie. Not educational or even factual, but instead mostly staged, the documentary probably should not be used as a reference on the Inuit, but it certainly could be seen as a commercial for Eskimo Pies!

According to Judy Jones and William Wilson in An Incomplete Education, the movie opened in New York in the middle of one of the hottest Junes on records: “Within a matter of months, Eskimo pies were being sold on both sides of the Atlantic, and words like “igloo,” “kayak,” and “anorak,” formerly known only to anthropologists, were popping up in grade-school civics tests and sporting-goods store windows. Too bad Nanook couldn’t have basked in his new fame: He died of starvation, out there on the ice, shortly after the film was released.” Watch Nanook of the North in full.

Is it possible that Russel Stover, Christian Nelson, or both had seen the movie when they came up with the name Eskimo Pie? This has been asserted by some. Some even say that Stover’s wife probably saw the movie and suggested the name. However, the name Eskimo Pie was already well established in national markets by June 1922, the year the movie came out. It is probable that the name had been agreed upon by the end of 1921. The movie could not have influenced the name of the product itself, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt sales.

The assumption is that nobody had ever heard of Eskimos before the movie came out. We’d do well to remember, though, that Nelson was a Dane, and the Danish are well-familiar with the word Eskimo, and with the native tribes of the North. It is also likely that many Americans were already familiar with the word Eskimos before Nanook of the North was released.

As early as 1893, there was an “Eskimo exhibit” at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which featured 59 actual Inuits and 35 of their dogs. For fifty cents, the public could enter the exposition, and for an additional quarter, they could walk by the “fur clad Eskimos” posing by their papier-mache igloos.

In 1904, the St. Louis Exposition featured an “Eskimo Village” with 9 Inuit families, 26 dogs, and a bear. Around 200,000 people attended on opening day, and in the seven months it was open, nearly 20 million people visited. There was also an “Eskimo village” featured in the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, one of the most popular attractions. Film footage had been shot earlier as well, such as by Thomas Edison (he shot a lot of film with the newfangled camera) and the Carnegie Museum Expedition in Alaska shot 10,000 feet of Inuit film between 1909 and 1911, which was released as a film series entitled “Tip Top of the World.”  It is not a stretch at all, therefore, to imagine that the name Eskimo could have been chosen for a frozen ice cream treat before the 1922 release of Nanook!

Whatever the origin of the name Eskimos, it is incorrectly applied to any native-Alaskan people. Nanook’s people referred to themselves as the Innu, meaning the people.

Further Reading from CulinaryLore

If you enjoyed the story of the I-Scream Bar, you might find these other culinary “firsts” and myths equally fascinating:

• Does Ice Cream Really Contain Seaweed? – We’ve looked at the legal definition of ice cream; now look at the ingredients. Is that “smooth” texture coming from the ocean?
• Slurpee vs. ICEE: The Frozen Myth – Christian Nelson used dry ice to revolutionize frozen distribution. See how another frozen treat became a cultural icon (and whether there’s actually a difference between the two biggest brands).
• What Was the First Brand of Frozen Pizza? – The Eskimo Pie was the first mass-produced frozen treat. Discover which brand did the same for the frozen pizza aisle.
• Chun King Chow Mein: The Most “American” Chinese Food – Like the Eskimo Pie, Chun King was a masterclass in mid-century branding and frozen food logistics.