cheese whiz / easy cheese / snack mate

[sigmfsk]

From the transcript of the movie:

> Old man: Did you get me my cheese whiz, Boy?
> [Elwood tosses a can of Cheeze Whiz to the old man.]

Here's a snap from the movie:



Apparently there's a long-running debate on if the can is cheese-whiz, or if cheese-whiz ever came in a can.

I learned from BBC:
> There appears to be a Nabisco logo on the top. According to Wikipedia,
> it was invented by the Nabisco company in 1966 and it was sold under
> the name "Snack Mate". When Nabisco and Kraft merged in 1988, it
> became known as "Easy Cheese".
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/3963-cheez-whiz/page__st__40#entry46021

And found this page
brandedinthe80s.com/before-this-cheese-was-easy-it-was-the-perfect-snack-mate-

with these pics:


So the can in the movie seems indisputably a "Nabisco Snack Mate, Cheddar flavor".



The lid-style is a bit different; I'm guessing that Nabisco changed that styling a bit over the years.


Here's a blurb from Kraft:

> "The product appearing in Blues Brothers is Easy Cheese," says Basil
> Maglaris, Kraft senior manager for corporate affairs. "It was erroneously
> referred to as Cheez Whiz .
>
> "Another theory could be that the elderly man was simply being polite
> and didn't mention the wrong product was given to him . . . You can see
> the Nabisco flag in the upper left-hand corner of the package in the
> movie clip."
>
> Maglaris says Cheez Whiz has never been produced in a spray can. It
> was introduced in the 1950s in a glass jar, making it easy to be heated
> and poured over nachos or veggies, though today many opt for the
> squeezable tube.
weirdnews.about.com/b/2009/02/18/cheez-whiz-never-came-in-a-spray-can.htm

And more from Maglaris:
> Never, ever, in its six-decade history has Cheez Whiz come in a
> spray-on can, says Maglaris, who, upon my request, checked with other
> Kraft food historians and the company archives.
weirdnews.about.com/b/2009/02/20/dan-aykroyd-unravels-a-cheesy-blues-brothers-mystery.htm

So I interpret all of this as Maglaris saying "The product in the movie is Nabisco Snack Mate, which is now sold under the name Kraft Easy-Cheese. Cheese Whiz is also a Kraft product, and in no point in its history did it every come in a spray can".

------------

And from Dan:

For the final word, I took this issue to Dan Aykroyd, hot off an appearance this past week on Saturday Night Live. The Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated star stuck to his guns, and offered this response:

"Cheez Whiz did indeed come in cans," he says. "Although not a spray, the nozzle squirted the contents out in a consistency somewhere between toothpaste and shaving cream." Blues Brothers Dan Aykroyd

He also offered this tidbit: "The gentlemen to whom Elwood tosses the can was legendary makeup man, Lane "Shotgun" Britton, who took care of Sinatra, Bob Hope and many others."

Dan might've gotten this wrong, at least if you believe Kraft. But even if he has, this man has gotten an awful lot right.

weirdnews.about.com/b/2009/02/20/dan-aykroyd-unravels-a-cheesy-blues-brothers-mystery.htm
------------

I think we shouldn't rely too heavily on Dan for specifics on some subjects. I can't see how he'd be correct on Cheese Whiz, and I don't think his statement that Steve Beshekas' model was in the movie is correct
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=rumors&thread=1081&post=2514
and it seems that he likes having fun with statements about an original blumo hanging around:
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=rumors&thread=1086&post=7338