Enduring Popularity
Italo Marchiony (1868-1954)
Hoboken

I talo Marchiony arrived in Hoboken from Italy in 1895 and sold ice cream and lemon ice from a pushcart on New York's Wall Street. He used liquor glasses to serve his confections to stockbrokers and Wall Street runners. But the glasses proved and encumbrance - many broke or were taken and had to be washed after each serving. Marchiony devised a better way to serve ice cream - an edible cup known today as the ice cream cone. Marchiony baked waffles and while still warm, folded them into the shape of a cup. The customers relished the cups which proved convenient, sanitary and tasty. The waffle cup made Marchiony the most popular vendor on Wall Street and soon afterward, he had a chain of 45 carts operated by men he hired. Ice cream in a cup became known as a "toot," which many have been derived from the Italian word "tutti" or "all," as customers were urged to "Eat it all," ice cream and waffle cup. Unfortunately, or unfortunately for Marchiony, the hand-made cups couldn't keep up with the demand. Marchiony needed a device for mass production. So he had adapted the design of the waffle iron to accept batter and bake it in the shape of the waffle cups. At first, it was difficult to make the fragile cups out of the mold without breaking them. He solved the problem by dividing the bottom half of the mold, to separate it from the baked cups. Instead of one mold for each cup, he arranged two rows of five in each mold to produce 10 cups at a time. Marchiony applied for a patent in 1902 and it was awarded in 1903, U.S. Patent No. 746,971. In 1904, Marchiony took his confection to the Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis. While there, he ran out of his patented cups and asked a waffle maker in the next booth to roll the waffles in to the shape of a cone. Because of the success at the Exposition, the idea of an edible ice cream container spread throughout the country. Marchiony's company thrived at 219 Grand Street in Hoboken, turning out ice cream cones and wafers until his plant was destroyed by fire in 1934. He retired from his business in 1938 and died in 1954 at the age of 86.