NEWTON, Mass. -- The Fig Newton -- the demure little fruit treat mothershave packed in their kids' lunchboxes for generations -- celebrates its 100th birthday Tuesday, still one of the nation's most popular cookies.
The Boston suburb of Newton, for which the cookie was named, plans a big birthday party with music by pop singer Juice Newton, proclamations and a 100-inch-long Fig Newton to celebrate.
Even the Big Fig will make an appearance. The costumed human version of the chewy brown fruit, will teach Newton residents the dance he dedicated to the cookie during television commercials of the 1970s.
'We have a good thing and we're going tokeep it going,' Ann Smith, manager of product publicity for Nabisco Biscuit Co., said of the New Jersey firm's successful cookie. 'We wouldn't change a thing.'
And Nabisco hasn't, in 100 years. The Fig Newton remains the same fig jam-filled cookie it was at birth. It is still the third-ranked selling cookie in the country, behind Nabisco's Oreo and Chips Ahoy, Smith said.
The cookie was first baked in 1891 at the former Kennedy Bisquit Works in Cambridgeport, part of what is now Cambridge, Mass. John Henry Mitchell invented a funneling machine for Kennedy that allowed a fig paste to be inserted into a cake-like cookie.
Kennedy plant manager James Hazen had a penchant for naming new cookies after Massachusetts cities and towns. He named the fig creation the Newton, and it was known as thus for 10 years.
Nabisco bought the Kennedy Bisquit Works as one of its founding bakeries in 1898 and later changed the cookie's name to Fig Newton, Smith said.
The Fig Newton has endured the onslaught of chocolate chip, chocolate and cream, and double chocolate cookies. It has probably kept the fig itself from complete neglect.
Long enjoyed by athletes and nutrition advocates, the Fig Newton is faring well during the health conscious 1990s.
'Fig Newtons are a part of Americana,' says Jim Chambers, category business director for Nabisco. 'It is rare for a product to last 100 years, but to remain unchanged and be popular today is a testament to their taste and goodness.'
For Newton Mayor Ted Mann, the cookie adds to the history of his city -- home of the Stanley Steamer, an underground railroad site and one of the top education systems in the nation.
Mann plans to name the Fig Newton as the city's official cookie and the fig tree as Newton's official tree.
'This is a great way to have some fun,' Mann said of the birthday celebration. 'At first, I wouldn't have given a fig about it. But the way the cookie crumbles... Well, Fig Newtons don't really crumble, do they.'
