The Chocolate Town: How Milton Hershey Built a Town and Gave It Away

Before he was thirty, Milton Hershey had failed twice as a candy maker. Then he built a chocolate factory among the dairy farms of Pennsylvania, a whole town around it, and quietly gave nearly everything he owned to a school for orphan boys. Along the way: a check for a stateroom on the Titanic, a town that nearly got called "Hersheykoko", and a chocolate bar the Army wanted to taste "just a little better than a boiled potato". Tonight, the true story of Hershey, told slowly. Settle in. Chapters 0:00 A check for the Titanic 1:45 Welcome to Porchlight Brands 2:24 Chapter One: A Boy from Derry 5:58 Chapter Two: Sweet Failures 10:47 Chapter Three: Caramels and the Chicago Fair 15:44 Chapter Four: The Town That Smells of Chocolate 21:27 Chapter Five: Kitty and the Boys 26:22 Chapter Six: The Hard Years 34:20 Chapter Seven: What He Left Behind 39:27 Epilogue: one more time, slowly About Porchlight Brands Stories of American brands, told slowly. Calm, fact-checked history for your evening. A new story every week. Sources Hershey Community Archives; Milton Hershey School; The Hershey Story museum; Hershey's Chocolate World; The New York Times, November 9, 1923; American Heritage, June 1973; Library of Congress; U.S. National Archives; British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry, 1912. Images, film and narration Archival photographs, prints and films are in the public domain: Library of Congress (including the Carol M. Highsmith Archive), U.S. National Archives, NASA, the FDR Library, Prelinger Archives, Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons. The full list of sources is in the pinned comment. Illustrations are AI-generated in our house style: they are reconstructions, not historical photographs, and they do not depict real people. Narration uses an AI voice. Maps: Natural Earth (public domain). Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): "Immersed"; "Windswept"; "Promises to Keep"; "Clear Air"; "Evening"; "On the Passing of Time"; "Pepper's Theme"; "Gymnopedie No. 1"; "Reawakening"; "Morning"; "Fresh Air"; "Simple Duet"; "Touching Moments Two - Higher"; "Heart of Nowhere"; "Rumination"; "Midnight Tale"; "Crossing the Divide"; "Pride"; "Decline"; "The Parting"; "With Regards"; "Eternal Hope"; "Porch Swing Days - slower". This is an independent documentary. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Hershey Company, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, or Milton Hershey School. Historical packaging is shown for documentary purposes; all trademarks belong to their owners. #MiltonHershey #History #BedtimeStory