Loading ...Pathbreakers of Arab America—Ernest Hamwi
“I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream”
By: John Mason / Arab America Contributing Writer
This is the sixty-seventh of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, arts, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our sixty-seventh pathbreaker is Ernest Hamwi, a Syrian-born Arab-American businessman and entrepreneur. Born on November 18, 1883, in Damascus, Syria, some consider him the creator of the ice cream cone, which he purportedly conceived of while working as a concessionaire at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Much more information is available on the ice cream cone than on Ernest himself. Nevertheless, this is his brief but eventful story.
Syrian American, Ernest Hamwi, played a key role in the history of one of America’s favorite sports – licking an ice cream cone
While Wikipedia’s series on Arab Americans provides no direct information on Ernest Hamwi, it has voluminous coverage of the ice cream cone. And within that story, there is a small corner of the cone’s invention, to which Hamwi reportedly contributed. The general storyline of the invention occurred during the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Supposedly, after an ice cream vendor ran out of paper cups, a Syrian concessionaire, Hamwi offered a solution by curling a waffle cookie into a receptacle for the ice cream. Hamwi was one of the many vendors at the fair, selling a traditional Middle Eastern wafer called “zalabia.” These wafer-like pastries were crisp, sweet, and rolled into a cone shape, making them an ideal complement to other treats.
One version of the story, paraphrased from Wikipedia, follows. The ice cream cone began to gain popularity in 1904 when a serendipitous event at the St. Louis World’s Fair led to a widespread love for the ice cream cone. As the story goes, Albert Aboussie, a Lebanese ice cream concessionaire, was working at a booth next to Ernest Hamwi, a waffle concessionaire. During the fair, Aboussie ran out of paper cups for his ice cream. Hamwi noticed the shortage next door, and while his waffles were still warm, he rolled them into cones and filled them with ice cream. The fairgoers loved it, and the ice cream cone quickly became a favorite among fair and street vendors.
Another, perhaps somewhat more mythical version of the ice cream cone’s arrival on the American scene is provided in a New York Times story, titled ‘Who Made That Ice-Cream Cone?’ The Times describes, “In the early 20th century, eating was still a formal affair, involving napkins, tables and rules of etiquette. Ice cream was served as a delicate sliver on a plate, then savored with a teaspoon. All that changed at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis…People who gaped with wonder at the abundance at the fair may well have longed for a way to sample it immediately. According to eyewitness accounts, Ernest Hamwi, a Syrian concessions vendor, invented a way to make that possible: he curled a waffle cookie and transformed it into a receptacle for ice cream. This freed tourists to climb miniature Tyrolean Alps or witness the creation of the earth while slurping ice cream. No plates. No spoons. It was a revelation.”
The Times questions its own story, in fact, by wondering in print about some seven legends of the invention of the cone at the 1904 fair. Besides the Hamwi version, there’s one Turkish entrepreneur who also claimed credit for the idea. “So did two brothers from Ohio. An Italian immigrant who tried paper cones but was frustrated with the litter switched to a cookie cup.” This short history makes it impossible to pinpoint who scooped the first cone because “the idea spread from one booth to the next….but as far as Americans are concerned, it originated at the World’s Fair.”
Just to add a little more history to the conundrum of where the cone comes from, there is evidence that cones in the form of wafers rolled and baked hard, date back to Ancient Rome and Greece. Whether they were used for ice cream or other desserts is not clear. Some historians point to France in the early 19th century as the birthplace of the ice cream cone: an 1807 illustration of a Parisian girl enjoying a treat may depict an ice cream cone, and edible cones were mentioned in French cooking books as early as 1825. So, depending on where you’re from and what history you prefer for the cone’s invention or evolution, there are many ways to make up the story.
Ernest Hamwi is not the only Arab American involved in the invention and evolution of the ice cream cone. Albert George was a Lebanese American immigrant who started the George & Thomas Cone Company in 1918. “What began as a family business with a mission to bring small moments of joy to families around the country grew into a worldwide ice cream cone manufacturer and distributor.” George & Thomas Cone Company later became Joy Cone Co. and is now the largest ice cream cone company in the world.
Following his role as a concessionaire in cone making at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Ernest became superintendent of the Cornucopia Waffle Company in 1906 and in 1910 founded the Missouri Cone Company. He established the Western Cone Company in 1940. His stepson Arthur C. McGuffin became President of the Missouri Cone Company. While Hamwi does not officially hold the patent for the ice cream cone, in 1943, shortly before he died, he received the patent for a new kind of ice cream cup. He died at his home at 4026 North Twentieth Street, St. Louis, Missouri, and was interred at Valhalla Cemetery.
For our purpose, we prefer the Lebanese Syrian version of the story. It is ironic that at that propitious moment at the 1904 World’s Fair, a Lebanese American and a Syrian American would be near each other at their respective concessions. The Lebanese American would run out of cups for the sale of his ice cream and the Syrian American making his waffles, figured he could make a deal with his neighbor. Thus, he twisted his waffle into the shape of a cone, and, abracadabra, it became a vessel for the highly sought-after ice cream. Lebanese and Syrians have been making deals like this for centuries.
That deal represented the best of the entrepreneurial spirit of Arab Americans. Ice cream has never tasted as good since that deal took place.
Sources:
–“Ice Cream History,” Wikipedia, 2024
–“Who Made That Ice-Cream Cone?,” New York Times, 5/31/2013
–“The History of the Ice Cream Cone,” Joy Cone Co.
–“Ernest Hamwi,” Arab American Times, St. Louis Post Dispatch 4/28/1943
John Mason, Ph.D., focuses on Arab culture, society, and history and is the author of LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, New Academia Publishing, 2017. He has taught at the University of Libya, Benghazi, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and the American University in Cairo; John served with the United Nations in Tripoli, Libya, and consulted extensively on socioeconomic and political development for USAID and the World Bank in 65 countries.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.
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