Cleer-O Unflavored Gelatine

This colorful box of gelatin was produced by Handy Wacks, a family-run business whose primary product was a dispenser of pre-cut wax paper, designed to hang conveniently inside a cabinet door. Founded in 1929 by Daniel W. Atkinson and inherited by his daughter Lou in 1934 upon his passing, Handy Wacks Corporation has been primarily run by women for much of its history. Indeed, a 1942 newspaper article remarked that 10 out of its 11 employees were women. footnote Today, Handy Wacks serves the commercial food service industry and is led by Marcia Fairchild, Mr. Atkinson's great-granddaughter.

Cleer-O was presumably a brief but timely experiment in product expansion, as uses for gelatin had multiplied in WWII-era America. Resourceful housewives used gelatin to extend their household butter rations; notice Cleer-O's yellow “butter stretcher” recipe insert. 

Separately, a bogus 1939 study from the Long Island College of Medicine found that gelatin helped to increase muscular endurance in men (women were found to be unaffected)—though by the 1940s gelatin manufacturers were promoting their products as an energy booster for all genders, as demonstrated by the “Cleer-O For Energy” recipe on the side of the box.