DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I wouldn't change a word. Well — maybe a few. Two blocks north of where this marker stands, in the year 1896, two men walked into business together.
One of them was August Weidmann, an immigrant baker who'd come all the way from Wiesbaden, Germany, carrying not much in the way of assets — but what he did carry was an unknown cake recipe, and a quiet obsession with baking a better cake. The other man was W. T.
McElwee, a local cotton buyer with a flair — and the marker spells it out — a flair for the sensational. Now. You put a meticulous baker together with a man whose business instincts had a touch of showmanship to them, and something unusual is bound to happen.
That unknown recipe of Weidmann's? It became the famous original deluxe fruitcake. Today that cake ships to every state in the Union and to foreign countries too, but in the beginning it was just one baker's quiet pride sitting in a pan.
McElwee, being a lover of sports and the theatre, wasn't satisfied running a bakery alone. In 1906 he built a rooming house right up over that bakery and started inviting in his kind of people — visiting baseball players, circus performers, vaudeville troupes. The kind of guests who had friends scattered all over creation.
And those guests, as it happened, started shipping fruitcakes to those far-flung friends. Word travels. Cake travels.
Employees who worked there during this era remembered some names that'd make your jaw drop — Will Rogers passing through, Enrico Caruso, John J. McGraw, Gentleman Jim Corbett. And then there was the day John Ringling himself — the great circus showman — stopped in with many of his famous performers, and they ordered Christmas cakes sent to their many friends in distant lands.
Just like that. An immigrant baker, a cotton man with a theatrical streak, a rooming house above an oven, and one recipe nobody'd heard of. That's the whole recipe, right there.
What the marker says
Opened two blocks north of this site in 1896, by August Weidmann, an immigrant baker from Wiesbaden, Germany, and W. T. McElwee, a local cotton buyer. Combining the talents of a baker whose pride and joy was baking a better cake with the flare of a man whose business ability had a touch of the sensational was a move that resulted in a most unusual and successful business enterprise. One of Weidmann's few assets was an unknown cake recipe. This was to become the famous original "deluxe fruitcake," today shipped to every state in the United States and to many foreign countries. McElwee, a lover of sports and the theatre, built a rooming house over the bakery in 1906, and invited visiting baseball players, circus performers and vaudeville troupes to stay there. Soon guests were having fruitcakes shipped to friends in remote places. Employees at the bakery during this era recall visits from Will Rogers, Enrico Caruso, John J. McGraw, "Gentlemen Jim" Corbett and many other celebrities. They also recall the day the great circus showman, John Ringling, and many of his famous performers stopped in an ordered Christmas cakes sent to their many friends in distant lands.