The Ridiculous History of the "Ice Cream Sundae"

Summary

The Ridiculous History of the "Ice Cream Sundae"

Podcast: Ridiculous History (iHeartPodcasts)
Hosts: Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown
Episode Date: November 6, 2025

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Overview

This playful and spirited episode explores the origins and curious history of the American ice cream sundae—a classic dessert shrouded in claims, counterclaims, religious controversy, and spelling mysteries. Ben and Noel, with characteristic wit, examine rival origin stories from New York and Wisconsin, dig into the etymology of “sundae,” and reflect on the dessert’s evolution from soda fountain novelty to cultural staple.

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Key Discussion Points & Historical Insights

1. Setting the Stage: The Ubiquity of Ice Cream

• Ice Cream as a Year-Round Treat: Ben shares a story about seeing lines at Vienna ice cream shops in cold weather, underlining the dessert’s universal appeal [00:44].
• Joke about “Iced Creams” & Egg Creams: Fun banter about creamy treats that don’t always contain their named ingredients [02:09].

2. Defining the Sundae

• What Actually Is a Sundae? Ben and Noel point out that while “ice cream with syrup and toppings” isn’t unique, the story is in the treat’s branding—why is it specifically called a “sundae” (and why is it spelled that way)? [07:21–07:41]

3. Origin Story #1: Ithaca, New York

• Source: Corey Ryan Earle, writing for the Cornellians [06:03]
• Narrative:
  • On April 3, 1892, Chester Platt (Platt & Colt’s Drugstore owner) prepares a special vanilla ice cream with cherry syrup and a candied cherry for Reverend John Scott, after church [08:50].
  • The dish is christened the “Cherry Sunday” in honor of both the cherry topping and the day it was invented [09:49].
  • Local Cornell students help spread its popularity, ordering “the treat with cherry on top” and keeping demand alive [11:27].
  • Platt & Colt begin advertising the “Cherry Sundae” (then spelled S-U-N-D-A-Y) in local papers [12:28].
• Quote:
  • “The reply was a cherry sundae in honor of its creation day.” – Ben [10:15]
  • “It’s a bit of a cross of the sacred and the profane, you might argue... ice cream is sort of an indulgence, right?” – Noel [10:30]

4. Origin Story #2: Two Rivers, Wisconsin

• Source: Dean Robbins, Wisconsin Life [18:23]
• Narrative:
  • In 1881 (11 years before the Ithaca story!), George Hallower asks Edward Berner, a soda fountain proprietor, to top ice cream with chocolate sauce, traditionally used only for sodas [19:37].
  • Berner agrees, but only serves it on Sundays due to scarcity and perhaps religious sensibilities [20:18].
  • A persistent ten-year-old persuades Berner to serve the treat on other days, leading to expanded availability and flavors [21:08].
  • Local legend and a historical marker stake Two Rivers’ claim as “sundae” birthplace.
• Quotes:
  • “Capitalism loves manufactured scarcity, right?” – Ben [20:18]
  • “She says, well, you know, Mr. B, why don’t we just pretend it is Sunday?” – Ben [21:16]

5. Rival Claims, Documentation, and Drama

• Newspaper Evidence: First documented use of “sundae” (in dessert context) appears in the Ithaca Daily Journal on April 5, 1892, just after the purported invention [22:50].
• Trademark Efforts: Chester Platt’s attempt to trademark “sundae” bolsters Ithaca’s claim, with documentation held in Cornell University’s archives [23:08].
• Municipal Showdown:
  • Ithaca’s mayor throws “serious shade” at Two Rivers for lacking documentation.
  • Two Rivers responds with a town resolution demanding that Ithaca “cease and desist with its sundae slanders” [24:29].
• Third-Party Adjudication: Neither city has an airtight case; other possible sundae birthplaces (Evanston, IL; New Orleans, LA) muddy the waters [25:00].
• Quote:
  • “There’s a real beef going on, real trouble, right here in Two River City.” – Noel [24:17]

6. The Spelling Mystery: Why S-U-N-D-A-E?

• The Evanston, Illinois Theory:
  • Evanston’s religious blue laws prohibited the sale of ice cream sodas on Sundays (to deter crowds skipping church) [27:16].
  • Soda fountains adapted by serving ice cream with syrup, minus the soda water, and called it a “sundae soda” to skirt the law [33:12].
  • To further placate religious authorities, shopkeepers shifted the spelling from S-U-N-D-A-Y (the Lord’s day) to S-U-N-D-A-E [35:53].
• Quote:
  • “They needed a workaround, didn’t they, Ben?” – Noel [28:29]
  • “They started calling it not an ice cream soda, but a sundae soda.” – Ben [34:23]
• Spelling in Print: By 1902, national publications like the Spatula (a pharmacist’s trade rag) use the S-U-N-D-A-E variant [37:34].
• Quote:
  • “So they changed it... so they did not have the Lord's Day D-A-Y associated with this confection.” – Ben [35:53]

7. Banana Splits & Evolution of the Sundae

• Banana Split Origins:
  • Attributed to David Strickler, a 23-year-old soda jerk in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, who in 1904 sliced a banana and topped it with three ice cream scoops, syrups, nuts, and a cherry [39:40].
  • Banana split is portrayed as a “sundae with banana”—not all sundaes are banana splits, but all splits are sundaes [38:59].
• Exotic/Elevated Sundaes:
  • Discussion shifts to the world’s most expensive ice cream (Byakuya from Japan, $6,696/4.4oz) covered in gold leaf, white truffles, Parmigiano Reggiano, and sake lees [42:10].
  • Hosts agree the extravagant price is not justified, quoting reviews as “it was fine” [42:39].
• Adventurous Flavors:
  • Hosts share experiences with unconventional ice cream flavors—blue cheese, bagel, mac & cheese, and spiced “spice cream” [44:04–44:54].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Questioning Naming and Tradition:
  • “The idea of calling it a Sunday is I think what’s at question, what’s at the heart of this investigation.” — Noel [07:21]
• On Capitalism and Scarcity:
  • “Capitalism loves manufactured scarcity, right?” — Ben [20:18]
• On Spelling Change and Religion:
  • “They went with another name change to avoid offending the church so that they did not have the Lord's Day D-A-Y associated with this confection. So they changed it to be spelled S-U-N-D-A-E. That's the theory, at least, right?” — Ben [35:53]
• On Documentation:
  • “We have the historical documents to prove it and they don’t.” — Quoting Ithaca’s mayor, via Ben [24:17]
• On Intrigue and Debate:
  • “There's a real beef going on, real trouble, right here in Two River City. The city passed a resolution demanding that Ithaca cease and desist with its sundae slanders.” — Noel [24:17]
• Humorous Aside:
  • “How much could a banana cost, Michael?” — Ben, referencing Arrested Development [41:53]
• On Unusual Ice Cream Flavors:
  • “I’ve had blue cheese ice cream I didn’t hate. I’ve had everything bagel ice cream. I wasn’t mad at it.” — Ben [44:04]
  • “Don’t yuck someone’s yum.” — Noel [45:17]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ice Cream’s Universal Appeal: 00:44
• First Use & Branding of “Sundae”: 07:21–07:41
• Ithaca, NY Origin Story: 08:50–12:53
• Wisconsin’s Claim: 18:23–21:48
• City Rivalry & Evidence: 22:50–25:00
• Spelling & Blue Laws: 27:16–37:34
• Banana Split & Sundae Variations: 38:20–41:53
• World’s Most Expensive Ice Cream: 42:10–43:40
• Adventurous Ice Cream Flavors: 44:04–44:54
• Sign-off and Weird Flavors Discussion: 45:00–45:20

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Final Takeaways

• No Clear Origin: The sundae’s true birthplace remains disputed between several American towns, with documentary evidence favoring Ithaca, NY, but legendary status claimed by Two Rivers, WI, and others.
• Cultural and Religious Influence: Changing laws and religious attitudes in places like Evanston, IL contributed to both the sundae’s form (removing soda) and its distinctive spelling (S-U-N-D-A-E).
• Dessert as Innovation: The sundae showcases classic American patterns—creative workaround, rival towns staking claims, playful adaptation, and, ultimately, the thrill of dessert innovation.

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For Further Engagement

• Listeners are encouraged to share their own “odd” ice cream favorites on the Ridiculous Historians Facebook group [45:00+].
• As the hosts say: “Don’t yuck someone’s yum!” [45:17] and “Live and let live.” [45:19]

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Episode Credits:

• Research by Max “the Madman” Williams
• Sources: Corey Ryan Earle (Cornellians), Dean Robbins (Wisconsin Life), Jeff Wells (Mental Floss)

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For more podcast recaps and absurd stories from history, subscribe to Ridiculous History.

Transcript

[A]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you as always, so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer, Max the Madman Williams.

[B]

That was me screaming for ice cream. Yeah, I love ice cream. It's delicious.

[A]

And that's Mr. Noel Brown. None other than. And you're Ben Bollen, and I am Ben Bolen. And today, in typical ridiculous history fashion, given that it is a colder time of the year in our fair metropolis of Atlanta, we decided to do an episode about about a specific version of ice cream. And I can't remember if I told you, Noel and Max, but when circumstances found me in Vienna, as the weather was turning several years ago, it was quite cold and surprise, surprise, people were still lining up for ice cream. Austrians love ice cream. In all versions.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I don't blame them. It's a delightful confection and I don't find it to be necessarily seasonal. If you're in indoors and you have climate control, what's stopping you from eating ice cream?

[A]

Right. And you have to have some kind of climate control to make ice cream in the first place.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. We should do an episode on the history of ice.

[A]

And one of my favorite phrases you ever used that still occurs to me sometimes is once. Oh, a few years ago we were making some videos for stuff they don't want you to know, and you described part of the good life as iced creams.

[B]

Oh, yes, of course. I love iced creams.

[A]

Yes, I like that. I like that.

[B]

So like egg creams, which contains neither egg nor cream.

[A]

Yeah, depending on the formula. Right. We don't have to relitigate that one, but we do have something to bring to you today, fellow ridiculous historians. It's something that caught the eye of our research associate super producer Max Williams. For this episode, the concept of the ice cream sundae con spelled here in the US not like the day of the week, but S U n D A E S.

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[B]

One of those things you see and you're like, I don't know, maybe it's given you pause where you're like what is this? Is this an invented word? And I realized in reading this brief, Max, that I'd never really questioned it. I don't believe. But then the moment that I started looking into your research I was like, of course that's weird. Why in the hell is it spelled that way? And of course it has something to do with religion, right?

[A]

Yes, as we'll see. So let's begin with an excellent article investigation by Corey Ryan Earl, writing for the Cornellians. Cornellians, yeah. From Cornell, a semi famous university in Ithaca, New York. Right.

[B]

Shout out to my buddy James, the Cornell alum, one of them Ivy Leagues, if I'm not mistaken.

[A]

It is true. That is true, Noel. And congrats, James. Those schools, your parents would be proud. So our buddy Corey says the ice cream sundae is an American staple. This simple and customizable treat, simply put, scoops of ice cream with some sort of sauce and toppings gained popularity in the early 20th century. Now, if you go to Corey's research, you'll see that there's a strong argument the ice cream sundae originated in Ithaca, New York. However, as we will learn with so many inventions, that may not be entirely the case. Spoiler. Wisconsin is going to enter the chat a little bit later. Maybe we get to. What about this, Noel? Maybe we get to the origin story that Corey Earle gives us.

[B]

For sure. Can we also just get it out of the way right up front? Ice cream with sauce and toppings. Not the most unique take. It probably was done by a couple of folks, you know, for the quote unquote, first time. The idea of calling it a Sunday is I think what's at question was at the heart of this investigation.

[A]

So, yeah, it's almost more branding.

[B]

100%. Yep. And then why the hell is it spelled that way? Well, we're gonna get to it. So Platt and Colts Drugstore was a soda fountain shop operating in downtown Ithaca on 216 E. State St. One day, according to lore, the proprietors Sunday, April, that's right, 1992. Chester Platt, the proprietor of said drugstore soda fountain, stopped by the shop after church on Sunday where he attended at Ithaca's First Unitarian Church.

[A]

I love Unitarian, which is interesting for the time. Universal Unitarianism could be its own episode.

[B]

Very progressive. I grew up hanging with some Unitarians and they would always host like metal shows and they're like a fellowship hall, which I thought was pretty cool. So we would play shows at the Unitarian Church there in Augusta. So, yeah, the First Unitarian Church. He actually came with a guest to his shop, the Reverend John Scott. And Platt asked his soda fountain worker, one DeForest Christiance.

[A]

I love the name.

[B]

It's a fabulous name to prepare two dishes of vanilla ice cream.

[A]

Now let's set the stage here, folks. We are again on Sunday, mid afternoon, April 3, 1892. We're at Platt and Colts drugstore. And the guy who is bringing his guest, a man of local renown, the Reverend. The guy, the proprietor, Chester, is trying to flex a little bit. So we say he's probably saying to the Reverend John Scott, you know, get whatever you want, Reverend, don't order the lobster, because we probably don't have it. But you know, if you want to throw something on this vanilla ice cream, be my guest. And so accounts difference again, per Corey Earle, as to which man chose the specific toppings for this vanilla ice cream. Ultimately, they ended up with ice cream that was not just vanilla, but it had cherry syrup and a candied cherry atop the scoop.

[B]

No, it would have been the kind of cherry syrup they would have used in the soda fountain, probably. So this was not like we did not yet have bespoke ice cream toppings. Yeah, they had to kind of use what was available. Hence the lore of it all. One man asked the other, which one asked, who is still a history mystery, what the new concoction might be called. The reply was a cherry sundae in honor of its creation day.

[A]

Get it? Cause it's Sunday, we put cherries on it. You know what I mean? We're doing our thing. And we're also a bit Unitarian and unorthodox because we're putting soda syrup on our ice creams.

[B]

It's a bit of a cross of the sacred and the profane, you might argue. You know, I mean, ice cream is sort of an indulgence. Right. Bit of a naughty treat.

[A]

I like the papal reference. Also, we have to admit that, we have to admit that American nomenclature has had a weird headwind with the phrase vanilla, because now vanilla is meant to describe something very beige and unremarkable, but civilizations absolutely rose and fell based on vanilla as a spice. So it's weird, for sure.

[B]

And you know, it does make me think too, this idea of christening a dairy based, you know, treat after the Lord's day is pretty progressive considering that, you know, in the past the Catholic Church might have, you know, forced you to put a buck in that butter box in order to consume a tasty dairy treat. Right?

[A]

Yeah. And you can hear various games of telephone regarding the Sunday origin story. And some of these pieces of anecdote or apocrypha will suggest that students at Cornell helped popularize this idea. They also wanted their vanilla with a little bit of cherry. The concept being, or the argument being that they witnessed the debut of this secret off menu item. And they kept coming back to Pratt and Colts and ordering the new treat just the same way the reverend did. And then they would go on vacation on the constitutionals and they would come back to the town after graduation and they would say, oh, we want that platinum culture off menu, special item. Not just vanilla creams for us, but please with some cherry sauce and a cherry atop.

[B]

Pretty please with a cherry on top?

[A]

Yes, pretty please with a cherry on top. I like the etymology there, Noel. We also see that Platt and Colt leaned into this. Over the next several weeks they would run advertisements in the local paper, the Daily sun, advertising what they called the cherry sundae spelled at this point S U N D A Y.

[B]

Well, I mean, soda fountain history has a lot in common with diner history and the idea of like daily specials and stuff like that, you know, so this sort of falls into that in an interesting way. We're going to get to more of how that's the case in a little bit. But we've got another potential version of the story in the form of Wisconsin who has now entered the chat.

[A]

Absolutely not. This is the origin story. This is our shortest episode ever. Thank you for tuning in and sorry about the ads.

[B]

That's kind of fun. Let's talk about Wisconsin.

[A]

Record scratch.

[B]

They're so nice.

[A]

Wisconsin people.

[B]

Oh God, they're so nice. And they, you know, are a bit more dairy centric over there in Wisconsin.

[A]

They're a little dairy.

[B]

Got some bonafides, I don't know.

[A]

So record scratch. Wisconsin has entered the chat.

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[A]

Let's go to Dean Robbins, writing for Wisconsin Life. He says, and I'm not going to do the Voice. I like driving across Wisconsin to see legendary historical sites. I planned whole trips around the Eclair baseball field where Hank Aaron got his start, and the Janesville house where Abraham Lincoln spent the night, which is a story for another day. But every once in a while, says Dean, I stumble across a bit of Wisconsin history I knew nothing about that happened on a recent drive through the northeast part of the state. When I pulled into Two Rivers in Central Park, I noticed an official Wisconsin historical barker claiming it as the birthplace of the ice cream sundae spelled S U N D A E, which is oddly a bit Korean. Anyway.

[B]

Wait a minute. Now they can't. They don't just pass out historical markers, willy nilly.

[A]

Right? So the guy continues. Dean continues, coincidentally, my favorite dessert. Could such a major phenomenon have originated in this small town? Let's learn more about the marker.

[B]

On the marker, it claims that a local man by the name of George.

[A]

Hallower Too many vowels. Very similar story.

[B]

Walked into a soda fountain 15th street there in Eau Claire in 1881. This is 11 years. However, prior to the previous origin story. He asked the proprietor of this soda fountain, one Edward Berner, to top a dish of ice cream off with some chocolate sauce, a substance that had previously been only used for ice cream sodas, which is, of course a thing scoop of ice cream like a, like a root beer float. Also, chocolate sauce would have been used in those egg creams we were talking about a minute ago. This new concoct says the marker caught on and Berner began to sell them for a nickel. But only on Sundays.

[A]

Only on Sundays. And as we have proven in previous episodes of this and many other shows, capitalism loves manufactured scarcity, right? Right. However, however, out of all the people who might have walked in on a Saturday or a Tuesday and unsuccessfully attempted to order this nickel chocolate sauced iced cream, there was a 10 year old girl who must have had a lot of charm about her. She said she wants her dish of ice cream with that stuff on the top on a different day of the week. Now, our buddy, our momentary protagonist, the proprietor, Edward Berner, he says, absolutely not until this girl, who again, is just rolling nat 20s on diplomacy.

[B]

Yeah, a regular Shirley Temple.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just so she says, well, you know, Mr. B, why don't we just pretend it is Sunday?

[B]

Wouldn't that be nice?

[A]

He's not. He's not a monster. He's not gonna be rude to a child. So he says, okay, very well, because you are so charming and so surely templish, we'll give it to you. That opens the floodgates. Other kids hear about it.

[B]

They called them all scamps, patted him on the head, you know.

[A]

Yeah, you little Rumpel mints. And so the shopkeeper, I'm okay with it.

[B]

That's an aperitif. I'm not mistaken.

[A]

I can't remember. I just think it's a fun word.

[B]

It's a really fun word.

[A]

So this spreads like any other popular treat or toy amid the children, amid the juvenile populace. And the shopkeeper, if he says yes to one kid, he's gotta say yes to the other ones. So they start offering the dish every day and they start offering it in more flavors. Again, this is pretty apocryphal, but now we've got Wisconsin versus New York for the origin of the Sunday. Now our next question is which of these stories is true? So if we go back to Corey Earle, we'll see that he looks into this origin or provenance of the chocolate sundae or the Sunday is a concept. Right? For his case in Ithaca, it's the Cherry Sunday. And he says, look, if you check out the publications of the time, then you will see the first use of the word Sunday referring to this dessert does show up in the Ithaca Daily journal on Tuesday, April 5, 1892, just two days after local lore says this confection was created.

[B]

Right? And then we have another notice published in the Daily sun the next day. Cherry sundae, a delicious, dainty ice cream novelty just out yesterday at Platt and Colt's Fountain and nowhere else. Earl goes on. Platt and Colt's claim is bolstered by its attempts to trademark the term Sunday, as evidenced by a letter dated March 23, 1894, in Chester Platt's collected papers that are held in archive at the university library's rare and manuscript collections. So as far as the Wisconsin claim goes, Robbins, the historical nemesis of Earl. Now I'm sure they're cool. Goes on. The most aggressive challenger is Ithaca, referring to the Wisconsin claim. New York, which points to a 19th century newspaper article, or ad rather, for a locally served Sunday, as referred to above in a New York Times article on the dispute. Ithaca's mayor threw some serious shade at Two Rivers, saying, we have the historical documents to prove it and they don't. Two Rivers wouldn't take this sitting or lying down. And they passed a resolution. There's a real beef going on, real trouble, right here in Two River City. The city passed a resolution demanding that Ithaca cease and desist with its Sunday slanders. It said, man, this is getting heated.

[A]

I do want to point out that Chester Platt, you did something awesome. I have always speculated over whether my collected works will end up in a university library's rare manuscript collection. It's pretty tight. I wouldn't want to get that far.

[B]

It's the dream.

[A]

Yeah, it's a dream for sure. Let us not forget that. Noel, you did a pretty solid reference to trouble right here in River City. Phenomenal musical number. If we're trying to figure out whether these folks in Ithaca and Two Rivers are actually beefed up, we have to get an outside opinion. So if you go to trade groups like US Food, you'll see articles. Here's the best one. You'll see articles like A Brief History of the Ice Cream Sundae. S U N D A E who? Look, they delve into it it as an objective third party. They cannot figure out the provenance and they make the whole thing even more of a sloppy bowl of ice cream. Because they point out that there are not just these two, but several other cities who claim to have invented the ice cream sundae, including New Orleans and Evanston, Illinois. So now we have to maybe loop Illinois and Louisiana in this conversation. Look, we already have a ton of. We already have a ton of episodes that hinge on New York, Illinois and Louisiana because we clearly listened to those first two Sufjan Stevens albums and decided that we were going to make an episode for every state. And yes, this counts as our Wisconsin episode. We're in on a technicality.

[B]

Heck yeah. Love a technicality. So what's the deal? Which story is true? As often is the case in these types of history mysteries not entirely clear even to this day.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And with that, the mystery remains. Unsolved, the riddle remains. Ridiculous riddle IOUs. I'm going to keep it. And Max, thank you for the drum riff on that one. One of the big questions we had, hopefully the same question you had, fellow ridiculous historians, one that we posed at the beginning of this episode. Why is it now spelled Sunday S U n D A E and not sun day S U n D A Y. What happened?

[B]

Yeah, it's like we teased at the top. The idea is that in Evanston, Illinois, which was often referred to as Heavenston, Illinois because it was known for being a bit Bible thumpy, they passed a city ordinance banning the sale of ice cream sodas on Sunday. We've talked about these blue laws often. Some have been in effect still to this day, in fact, in South Carolina, across the bridge from my hometown, I distinctly remember when I was a student in college needing to repair something or needing like a shower curtain or some kind of household item and being denied purchasing them at the local hardware store. And that was the first time I was kind of made aware of what blue laws were. But they are these puritanical sort of prohibitions of certain items that are not considered to be necessities or even could be considered more like indulgences. Alcohol sale on Sundays would certainly be considered one of these blue laws. And I'm sure there are still places in the country that do that. And there are of course dry counties as well. But yeah, they needed a workaround, didn't they, Ben?

[A]

Yeah, they did.

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[A]

Blue laws are a very strange phenomenon not unique to the United States. So Heavenston or Evanston is getting a little bit persnickety about their fundamentalist approach to recreation and to what they see as vice. So thanks again to Jeff Wells writing for Mental Floss, which is where we're pulling this from. The Methodist Church which runs the town of Evanston, doesn't like that there are a lot of crowds going to local soda fountains, perhaps in place of going to church. So the soda fountains and drugstores came up with this workaround and they started calling it not an ice cream soda, but a sundae soda. There's a former newspaper editor named Richard Lloyd Jones who grew up in Evanston at the time, and he said, look, here's what they did. They served ice cream with the syrup of your choice, the stuff that would ordinarily go in your favorite soda without the soda. So it was technically not an ice cream soda. It was just the ice cream and the syrup.

[B]

They were upset about the soda, not the ice cream.

[A]

The specific ingredients were the problem, so they removed one of the ingredients, which means they technically complied with the law.

[B]

I guess I just. It's funny that there's this whole hullabaloo around ice cream sodas versus just sodas or just ice cream. It's like the combination of them makes it, like, more decadent. There's too decadent for Sunday.

[A]

And this is. This is something that reminds me of again, that excellent song, you Got Trouble, originally written by Robert Preston, where he talks about, you know, the. The first thing a kid is going to do is start wearing knickerbockers. You'll hear him say, so's your man trouble sleeping in the cork grip. Never mind the Dan lines getting pulled.

[B]

Oh, man with a capital T that rhymes with P. That stands for pool.

[A]

Yeah, with a capital B and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool. And your youth will be frittering away. So it's a great song. And please do check out Seth McFarland's cover of it. I don't know if anybody's seen it, but the man has perfect pitch. He's a phenomenal musician.

[B]

He's a great singer and a great voice artist. His comedy I Can Take a Leap. Also, the new it series on HBO makes great use of this exact sequence from the Music man as a motif in the first episode.

[A]

Yeah. The name of that show is welcome to Derry. We're big fans of it. If you're checking out HBO or Max already, do check out the Chair Company, which we are absolutely gaga for. Anyway, so because of this loophole, the Sunday Soda succeeded where other approaches in Evanston failed. They went with another name change to avoid offending the church so that they did not have the Lord's Day D A Y associated with this confection. So they changed it to be spelled S U, N D A, E. That's the theory, at least, right?

[B]

Yeah. No, but it makes sense, though. I mean, whether that's the case or not, the wanting to keep that branding and keep that, you know, everyone knows what this thing is now, but also not run afoul of any, you know, religious organizations. I could see it, but can you. Are there any other clever ways you could. You could reappropriate Sunday other than ae?

[A]

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you could. You could call it S U, N. That's true. You could call it, you know, you could just elongate the vowels, leave out the A.

[B]

Call it a Sundee.

[A]

Yeah, you could do that. Or S U, N, D, E, E. So there's a murky bit of historical mystery here, but we do know, again, leaning on the research of Corey Earle, that in a 1902 article in a magazine called the Spatula, which was sort of a trade rag for pharmacists.

[B]

Yeah, I don't understand what does spatula have to do with pharmacists, But I guess it's awesome that it exists. I'm gl.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Spatulas were much more important in pharmacology at the time. They described the growing popularity of the Sunday spelled S U n D A, E. So that proves that this spelling had become popularized, normalized, and accepted by the end of the. By the turn of the 20th century. Wisconsin's idea of Wisconsin's defense of the spelling change and the provenance is tough because most of them have been drinking too much to give us a straight answer.

[B]

Too Much milk.

[A]

Sure. And we'll go with that. With that. We have a bunch of other stuff that we wanted to get to, but we're just going to mention two for time. You can't talk about the original OG sundae without talking about the infamous banana sports.

[B]

Well, that's the thing, man. It starts to really occur to me that this idea of a sundae is such a catch all because, like, I think all banana splits are sundaes, but not all sundaes are banana splits. It's one of those kind of like Venn diagram things, because it is literally just an ice cream sundae add banana.

[A]

Right? Yeah. And you could even argue that an ice cream sundae is kind of a tactic or approach more so than a list of discrete ingredients.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Because it can be anything. I mean, that's why it's so. That's why it seem to be such parallel thinking. And the use of sundae is really the only mystery here because ice cream on its own is great, but who wasn't going to decide to, you know, drizzle some stuff on top of it?

[A]

You got other stuff that you can add in.

[B]

You had olive oil on ice cream.

[A]

I have.

[B]

It's good.

[A]

Yeah, it's good.

[B]

Nice grassy olive oil.

[A]

Yeah. And I like that you point out grassy because not all olive oil is created equally.

[B]

And you got that out with a plum, my friend.

[A]

Thank you, sir. So the history of the banana split according to the Great American Banana Split Celebration, which is a real thing. Yeah. It starts when a kid who's like 23 years old named Dave Strickler is working in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and he starts combining different stuff with ice cream.

[B]

Real mad scientist there.

[A]

Yeah, very much so. And he. He ends up splitting a banana in half lengthwise. He adds vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Or we know he adds three scoops. We don't know what they were originally. And then he puts syrup, nuts, whipped cream and a little cherry on it and people love it.

[B]

Remember that terrifying HR Puff and stuff esque television show, the Banana Splits? I do. Horrifying, horrifying stuff.

[A]

I rewatched it.

[B]

Yeah, they look like the Rock Afire Explosion Band from Chuck E. Cheese came to life and started a psychedelic band. Oh, God. I mean, honestly, I just read this and I'm like, dude, this guy just sounds like he's like super high. Like he just comes in. He's like, totally, man.

[D]

Just.

[B]

What do you got? Yeah, throw it in there.

[A]

Also, at this point in time, he. Without getting into the weeds of chronology, our Buddy Dave does not have a cell phone, so he's not on social media. He's sitting around, and if it's a slow day, he's got to find something to fill his time. And that happened to be mad science experiments with confections.

[B]

That's why the 60s are fine. That's why period films are so important and fun. Like the new it thing takes place in the 60s where kids had to go outside and play and make stuff and trying funny ingredients on their ice cream.

[A]

Drink from a hose.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Yeah. Mom says I can't come back in the afternoon because the milkman's coming over, and then the post office worker, and then I still have to be home before dark.

[B]

Is there some hanky panky going on between mom and the milkman?

[A]

Who are we to pank the hank? We can say, however, one thing that's always on our mind with this kind of stuff is the most outrage, the most ostentatious, the most opulent version of an iced cream.

[B]

How much could a banana cost, Michael?

[A]

Right, exactly. So per the Guinness Book of World Records, as we found out, this is something we'll end on the world. World's most expensive ice cream ever comes from Japan from a company called Salato.

[B]

Yeah, I saw a video of somebody eating one of these, and they were like, it was fine, you know, like, because the sticker shock of something like this, there's no way it can live up to the hype. There's just no possible way. And a big part of this cost is that, of course, it's like, covered in gold leaf and has, like, you know, finest Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses and some sort of. Sort of byproduct of sake that's like. Do you know about this, Ben? Sake lees? Is it like the whey that comes from the cheese, like the curd?

[A]

Yeah. That's a good comparison. Yeah. Their claim to fame, this Japanese company, is an ice cream called Byakua. B Y A K U Y A. They source white truffles from Alba, Italy. Like you had, like you said, Parmigiano, Reggiano. The sake lees. I love that comparison you're making to curds and whey. They're. They're the leftover stuff. There's a ton of gold leaf. Folks, if you want a scoop of this ice cream, you are paying US$6,696 for 4.4 ounces. I'm going to pass.

[B]

Yeah. It's a hard pass for me. But if you do want to check it out and see somebody react to it. You can go to. It looks like insider food. No, here we go. Are there's even a better one. Buzzfeed video did it. This is the one where they're kind of like it's meh. On tasty as well as on insider food. Is the world's most expensive ice cream worth its price tag?

[A]

Yeah. And the answer is going to be probably not just to be. Just to be honest. Also, ice cream is a flavor medium, which means you can put all sorts of flavors upon that frozen dairy confection. I've had blue cheese ice cream I didn't hate. I've had everything. Bagel ice cream. I wasn't mad at it.

[B]

So that somewhat appeals to me. That somewhat appeals to me.

[A]

I wasn't mad at it, but it felt like the scoop took a while. There are all sorts of flavors.

[B]

I'll tell you what I like. I like cereal milk ice cream. There's momofuku. Had like a little soft, servy place. I don't know if they do it anymore. It was called Momofuku Milk Bar, but not to be confused with Milk Bar, the other cookie confectionery place. But they had cereal milk ice cream, which I think they made by like soaking like fruity pebbles in milk and then using that milk to make the ice cream. But one that I really dug that was a little odd seeming was creamed corn. Very tasty.

[A]

I wasn't opposed. I was also surprised by Mac and cheese ice cream. Pickle ice cream was interesting. But I'm also quite compelled by the future of spiced ice cream.

[B]

Spice cream.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. And with that, that we can't wait to.

[B]

Spice must flow.

[A]

Yes, the spice must flow. We can't wait to hear from you folks. Hop on over to our Facebook page. Ridiculous historians. Give us some of your favorite weird ice cream flavors. Who are we to judge? One person's weird is another person's Thursday.

[B]

Don't yuck someone's yum.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You know, live and let live.

[A]

Yeah. As long as you're not hurting somebody else. Right. So big thanks to Our super producer, Mr. Max Williams, as well as our research associate for today's episode. And big thanks to Alex Williams, who composed this slap and bop, I had some breaking news. Noel. Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quizzter, invited us to go see a play.

[B]

I don't. I did not receive this invite.

[A]

Okay, I'll forward the email. He's not performing in it, so. So we're going to give you a.

[B]

If you have to forward it. I don't think I was invited.

[A]

Right. Just putting that out there.

[B]

Just putting that out there.

[A]

So we'll say. We'll say this. You get a pass this time in the credits. Quizter, we're not going to dump on.

[B]

I also thought you were going to say has died.

[A]

And just throw that in.

[B]

You said it. Little known fact, Jonathan Strickland, the quizter, has died and then he lives. He lives. He lives on.

[A]

I would just be like, okay, and who else? Noel, who else?

[B]

He's Uncle Killable, frankly.

[A]

Yeah. No, he rises faster and stronger.

[B]

You can't kill an idea. You can't kill a concept of pure evil.

[A]

Can't stop the signal. Also, big thanks to Dr. Rachel Big Spinach Lance and AJ Bahamas Jacobs. Who else? Who else?

[B]

Oh, yeah, AJ, BJ. That's what we call him. Who else? Gosh, Chris Fraciotis and Eve Jeffco's here in spirit. I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring to thank Max again for this awesome research doc. And thanks to you, Ben. This has really been a fun conversation.

[A]

And thanks to you, Corey, Ryan, Earl, thanks to you, Dean Robbins, and thanks to all the board soda jerks of yesteryear.

[B]

We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

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