I remember years ago discussion about a connection between Earle's black teeth and the "gum back in style" quote from the Dwarf in the Lodge. I believe the gum in question was Black Jack gum which was invented in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Does anyone else here remember this?

Leland's most favorite, Blackjack Gum allegedly used to be made with real black licorice that turned the chewer's teeth black, or the gum was black and you cover your teeth with it (to appear as if they were missing/knocked out.) I can't confirm or deny the factuality of this, but I know my mom used to chew it so I could ask her.  

Here's the Wikipedia entry, maybe the links say something:

Black Jack (gum)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black Jack is an aniseed flavored chew made by Cadbury Adams.

In 1869, exiled former Mexican president and general, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (infamous for his victory over the Alamo defenders) was living in New Jersey. He brought a ton of Mexican chicle with him, in hopes of selling it to raise funds to help him return to power in his own country.

He persuaded Thomas Adams of Staten Island, New York to buy it. Adams, a photographer and inventor, intended to vulcanize the chicle for use as a rubber substitute. However, his efforts at vulcanization failed. Adams had noticed that Santa Anna liked to chew the chicle (the Mayans chewed chicle).

Disappointed with the rubber experiments, Adams boiled a small batch of chicle in his kitchen to create a chewing gum. He gave some to a local store to see if people would buy it. They did and he began production.

In 1871, Adams received a patent on a gum-making machine and began mass producing chicle-based gum. His first product ("Snapping and Stretching") was pure chicle with no flavoring, but sold well enough to encourage Adams in his plans.

He began to experiment with flavorings, beginning with sarsaparilla. In 1884, he began adding licorice flavoring and called his invention Adams' Black Jack, the first flavored gum in America. At this time, chewing gum changed shape from lump or chunks, to sticks. It was also the first gum to be offered in sticks as we know it today.

Black Jack Gum was sold well into the 1970s, when production ceased due to slow sales. Adams became part of the American Chicle Company which was purchased by the Warner-Lambert Company in 1962, which became part of Pfizer in 2000. In 2002 Adams was purchased by the Cadbury Company.

Cadbury Adams also makes other nostalgic brands of chewing gum - Beeman's, Chiclets, Clove, Sour Apple and Sour Cherry.

[edit] References

Press Release - 12/17/02 - Cadbury to Acquire Adams from Pfizer

Pfizer Acquires Warner-Lambert

[edit] External links

• Black Jack Chewing Gum History
• A short history of Black Jack gum

Category: Gum

B.J. is still made & does NOT turn teeth any color that any other gum wouldn't. I brought plenty of it to last year's fest & only a few folks bought any. So much for "back in style"...

B.J. is still made & does NOT turn teeth any color that any other gum wouldn't. I brought plenty of it to last year's fest & only a few folks bought any. So much for "back in style"...

But it used to turn people's teeth black back in the early 1900s. Ingredients change over the years. It was made with licorice and enough licorice will turn your teeth black.

I think Windom had just been to Glastonberry Grove and had been drinking the "oil". Never do we see him chewing gum. In that scene his face is also white, just like the substance around the pool of oil.

I think Windom had just been to Glastonberry Grove and had been drinking the "oil". Never do we see him chewing gum. In that scene his face is also white, just the the substance around the pool of oil.

Yes I agree that Windom drank some oil but that doesn't mean there isn't a connection between the gum and the oil. Maybe Leland (Bob) chews the gum to "remind" himself of the oil.

So, Black Jack gum is actually mentioned in the series as the gum Leland chews?

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but I've never heard that licorice by itself has any blackness or staining properties on it's own, and I've studied a bit about herbal remedies and such.

 Here's a good article: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/licorice-000262.htm

Of course, that gum may have had a black coloring of some kind.

Okay fellas. I come from the land of black liqurice and there´s no way it turns your teeth black...

Maybe windom flew off to denmark, stuffed his face with it, flew back on the fastest plane EVA, and as his mouth was still full he looked a leo and went "eeeeeeewwww"....

Sorry, Im tired

I eat lots of liquorice, it doesn't turn my teeth black.  I used to eat a lot of Black Jack penny chews as a child; they were supposed to taste of liquorice, but I have to say I think it was all the additives/preservatives/crap they were full of that resulted in my mouth and teeth turning black. 

My theory by A. Elk, brackets, Miss, brackets. This theory goes as follows and begins now. All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and it belongs to me, and I own it, and what it is, too.

Ange's Odyssey

It wasn't just the black teeth, but his face had gone all grey like an old school zombie. What up with that?

drinking oil?

This is what happens when people try to rationalize things too much, I think. :)

drinking oil?

This is what happens when people try to rationalize things too much, I think. :)

It wasn't just the black teeth, but his face had gone all grey like an old school zombie. What up with that?

I think it is connected to Leland and Laura looking like that in FWWM. Laura when she talked about BOB to Harold, and Leland when he entered the Black Lodge. I believe it means Windom had either been to the Black Lodge or was very close to reaching it.

--
Vesa 'wtw' Ahola  [email protected]
"There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them."
- Werner Karl Heisenberg 

In the previous episode we see Bob emerging from the Lodge. So it's possible that Bob had entered Windom and his strange appearance was a sign of that.

drinking oil?

This is what happens when people try to rationalize things too much, I think. :)

Well then, how about just swishing it like mouthwash?

drinking oil?

This is what happens when people try to rationalize things too much, I think. :)

its also possible that windoms child hood dream was to be a circus clown but he could never get the makeup right.  anything is possible if we dont see it.  ive always thought it was just a cool effect to show windoms inner evil.  and im always right. haha, no no, i joke.  its just that ive thought so hard about all the other weird things in the show i took the easy way out on that one.

I always associate "that gum you like" with Clark's Teaberry gum.  It was everywhere when I was young, but now I haven't seen it in years.  It didn't change the color of your teeth though.

black teeth? Maybe from snacking on some of the local mushrooms?

I always took it as just another weird non sequitur, like the numb, shaking hands.  Maybe there was some explanation of it that got edited out, or maybe there was never supposed to be any rational explanation.  Part of what makes Twin Peaks interesting and even "believable" in a certain strange way is that it doesn't explain everything away.  Like life, you don't always know why things happen.

The scenes of Laura and Leland possessed by Bob are fantastic. Laura's character is based around the concept of a person who's 'radiant' on the outside and 'dying' on the inside according to David Lynch and these scenes are the only time the dichotomy is physically manifested. The teeth seem to indicate there's something wrong inside the body - that it's literally corrupted. I find the scene of Leland entering the lodge moving because it juxtaposes Bob's evil (or hunger) with Leland's pain.

BTW, in the brief glimpses we get of Laura and Leland with "possesed faces" their teeth aren't blackened, their redened and their faces are bluish. It's the lips that are black.

I always associate "that gum you like" with Clark's Teaberry gum.  It was everywhere when I was young, but now I haven't seen it in years.  It didn't change the color of your teeth though.

BTW, in the brief glimpses we get of Laura and Leland with "possesed faces" their teeth aren't blackened, their redened and their faces are bluish. It's the lips that are black.

True. It could be that they made Windom look like that to make him look tainted with evil, and when making FWWM Lynch wanted to work on the look and thus it is slightly different. I still think they're connected.

--
Vesa 'wtw' Ahola  [email protected]
"It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better...  while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more."
- Woody Allen