The Soft-Served History of Carvel Ice Cream 

Let’s appreciate that Athanasios, whose name is Greek for ‘immortal,’ was told he had tuberculosis but didn’t die. Legend.

Growing up in Canada, I never got to taste a Carvel cake, but grew up with the commercials. When they'd come on, all the kids would fall silent and hold our breath for a moment...They were an impossible dream for us Canuck kids. When I moved to Maine in my 20's, I finally got one for my birthday, and I was giddy as a schoolkid. I sent a picture to my brother, back home in Canada, and I swear he didn't speak to me for a good 6 months.

You know what weird history I want? I want a video on the history of this narrator. I love this guy and I want to know more

If you were a kid growing up and did not have Cookie Puss as your B-day cake, your party was immediately lame and no one wanted to come back....we had a Carvel in my hometown right next to a movie theater, it was a sad day when they both closed...thanks Target.

Maybe Tom wasn't wrong about McDonald's. Their ice cream machines are always broken XD

If you’ve never had a Fudgie the Whale cake, you missed out big time! Those things were _awesome!_

It's a family joke every year that we "threaten" my mom with a Fudgie the Whale cake. Also, Patton Oswalt has a great standup set about Tom Carvel

In my 74-year, coast-to-coast and border-to-border quest for the best, Carvel vanilla soft-serve is, hands down, my preferred ice cream as the basis for chocolate ice cream sodas and chocolate malted milks.

My dad worked in the carvel factory up in New York back in the late 60s early 70s. He said old man carvel was meaner than hell. He’d visit the factory and fire people on a dime. Any time he’d see a cake in the grocery store he’d mention how much of an asshole he was.

Yes I grew up seeing the Carvel cakes in the freezer and always begging my mom or grandmother to get me one

Way to make me crave a soft serve ice cream at 8:30 on a Sunday morning lol 😂 🍦

Yeah cause celebrities can’t afford to buy their own ice cream, it would have been so much better to hold a game and have people win the cards.

As someone from Texas, this is the first time that I have ever heard of Carvel Ice Cream

Thank you Mr Carvel.For Making My Childhood Memorable.

My favourite RU-vid narrator

Another awesome Weird History Sunday! It's cool to learn more about Carvel. If you can, I would to see another video about icecream and/or birthday cakes!

On our 1 year wedding anniversary. I actually baked and decorated our cake into the Simpsons version of the whale cake😂. “To a Whale of A Wife”. It was amazing.

Awe.... "Sundae School". How sweet! 👌😉🍨🍦😋😁

I'm fascinated by that final clip of The Parent Trap from "Dinsey" released in 2998! Maybe a lifetime's supply of Carvel ice cream preserved Lindsay Lohan for 900 years?? Just poking fun - I've made many a typo like that myself... I love these videos so much!

My dad hated Tom Carvel’s voice on the commercials. Don’t know why, but it drove him nuts. Also, don’t know if it’s an urban legend or not, but they said if you signed up for the “Carvel birthday club” they would send your information to the Selective Service to make sure you were registered for the draft.

“It’s fudgy the whale oh what a tale” 😂😂😂

Carvel is such a nostalgic hit in the gut 😊😊😊😊😊😊

I never really heard of Carvel until recently. When Joey Diaz brought it up in one of his bits.

There was a DJ on the old WNEW-AM in New York who, whenever a Carvel commercial would play, would say just before "And now, the winner of the Peabody Award for Diction...Tom Carvel!" Cracked my father up every time he heard that. All the same, I do miss Flying Saucers...last time I had one was probably 30 years ago...

I grew up in bucks county Pennsylvania and I have so many good memories of birthdays with fudgie the whale and cookie puss and all of the other fun characters. My wife grew up in Maine and that's where we live now and they didn't have carvela up here. So I have regaled her over the last decade with tales of this place and now I can show her exactly what it's all about. Thank you! Have a great week!

I grew up with Tom Carvel's raspy, recorded-in-a-broom-closet voice. Now, I got WFH's Tom the narrator. Less rasp, more sass. 🤘

The story of Carvel is such a wild ride! TBH, it does seem suspicious that Tom Carvel passed away just one day after he sold the company. I feel like there should have been an investigation right away. That secretary seems super shady. Another restaurant history that is a wild ride is Jack In The Box, from being a spin off of Oscar's Drive In, to the Ralston Purina buyout in 1968, to the obscure animated mascots in the 70s, all the craziness of the 80s era, the 1993 E Coli Outbreak, and the modern ads, Jack In The Box has a long and interesting past.

Anyone here after the boys?

A+ video! Very cool history of Carvel!

I made make my mom get me a Fudgie the Whale cake for my birthday every year when we lived in New Jersey. When I went back to Jersey for my high school reunion (aged 38) I made my parents find a Carvel so I could get Fudgie again. My mom always teased me and said Fudgie is for kids but I just ignored her!

Growing up in Connecticut, Carvel was a childhood staple.

Lived in NJ for many years and absolutely loved Carvel! You really couldn't find better soft serve elsewhere and the Banana Barge was awesome!

Car-vel (ahhhh) Ice Cream.

What a nice walk down memory lane❤

"To a whale of a Wife"

There was a Carvel store in Framingham Ma. Great stuff!

There was one of the little Carvel stands in a parking lot near my grandma’s house in Marine Park (on Nostrand Avenue at the end of Ave P). Now it’s a Yeshiva (I think there may have been condos there first.)

Oh the memories!!! I'm from Virginia and my dad used to take us to get ice cream; sometimes when it was snowing!!! Carvel was the best; they just don't make them like that...Deeeeeeelicious!!!

I have never heard of Carvels before.

I'm from Westchester county New York. Carvel ice cream was always a great treat. They called their banana split the Banana Barge. I never knew any of this history, it was a great treat! 😀 Yo! Where is Cookie Puss at? 🍦

I ate a Carvel's Ice Cream Cake once, it was so delicious! The history of Carvel's is so interesting, yet the chain is sadly overlooked because of bigger competitors. Speaking of which, I can't wait for a Dairy Queen episode, given the interesting history behind the Texas locations, which had their own western-themed mascots: The Fun Bunch, with Funfighter Mcdoom being their villain.

“The Parent Trap” remake was indeed released in the year “2998”. I remember them referencing it as a recent movie in Futurama.

Hmm yummers

The controversies are more creamy than the ice cream that they make

On the Memorial Day weekend of 1934 in Hartsdale, New York, Greek immigrant Tom Carvel sold his partly melted ice cream after his ice cream truck had a flat tire and just like that, his soft serve ice cream business was born.

3:35 Douglas St. Martin (Doug E. Doug) used an extension chord to put his apartment's electricity to his parent's electricity on the tv series Where I Live (1993).

"To A Whale of A Wife" 😆

I remember having Carvel cakes when I was younger because of my maternal grandparents. They’re really good. Though I’ve never had the one shaped like a whale. Maybe Weird History Food should consider doing the history of Tillamook ice cream next.

It wasn’t until about 10 years ago these became available in grocery stores here in GA. They are ok. Very expensive. For the price, I’d rather make a chocolate wafer icebox cake.

Only thing smoother is the right narrator.

Shout out to you for adding a scene from Legion, this is why I am a subscriber, love this channel.

I remember as a kid in the 70's going to Carvel with my dad. We would alternate between Carvel and Dairy Queen. It's funny because I was talking with my friend r about this a few days ago and looked at where the nearest Carvel is. It's over an hour away. At least Dairy Queen is nearby.

I had never heard of Carvel until The Food That Built America. Dairy Queen is the big ice cream chain where I am.

Now all I want is a Carvel football cake. So so good with all those choc crunchy pieces.

Yeah if you can find a McDonald's with a working ice cream machine. 🤔🤣

Homelander 😏😏

Stroh's Ice Cream from Detroit, that came in the aftermath of Prohibition

We dont have Carvel in Texas so I've only heard of them from a old Family Guy joke

I have fond childhood memories of biking with my friend to the local Carvel for ice cream. I loved their ice cream cakes! I wish I had a Carvel nearby today.

I grew up in northern NJ, & there was a Carvel in my town, but also a Friendly’s a few blocks away. I remember my family taking me to Friendly’s more, probably because we could sit down & eat a meal as well as ice cream. I got to have Carvel (usually ice cream cake) every now & then, though, & it was awesome, especially the chocolate “Crunchies” between layers.

Thank you weird history.

How about a video about Friendly’s? Baskin Robbins? I love your videos.

I'm from the west coast and I've seen Carvel ice cream cakes in stores, and got to try them twice. They're so good, and probably my favorite ice cream cake

Two mentions of CT in this one, migrating here and In a cutaway a Hamden CT van

Can't think of Carvel without thinking of Patton Oswalt's bit about Tom Carvel, who "had a voice like Tom Waits gargling hot asphalt".

Every birthday from age 8 till 16 my grandparents would get me a Carvel cake memories

If Carvel's soft serve machines had made it into McDonald's, maybe they'd work more than 40% of the time?

Love carvel ice cream 😊esp the cakes !! Mmm good

Thanks for this! 🍦 #WeirdHistory #IceCream #CarvelIceCream

I remember growing up to Carvel ice cream. How funny. I don’t think they’re around much anymore.

soft serve machines are still pretty expensive

10:54 You mean one double cheeseburger and "Sorry, our ice cream machine is designed to break every 3 seconds and require a Taylor technician, who takes 3-6 weeks to arrive" later.

Our closest Carvels closed years ago, but some grocery stores carry their cakes.

Met sweet cravings of my tooth buds, Thrashed ice cream cake on my face muds!

Love that Patton Oswald got a shoutout

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream.

HECK YEAH!!! FUDGY THE WHALE!!! 🙌🏾

Carvel is so good.

Good narration

I got a Carvel "Hug Me Bear" ice cream cake when I turned 7. Still the yummiest cake I ever had!

If only Carvel had sold his machines to McDonald's, maybe Mickey D's could actually sell ice cream sometimes. Anyone else tired of "our ice cream machine is currently out of service. We are sorry." EVERY time you want a sundae?

I want to try out Cookie Puss.😀👍🍦

There used to be one in Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970’s.

Future video topic suggestion: Friendly's ice cream - specifically their Yule logs/Jubilee logs.

Do Yarnell’s Ice Cream next!

I've never had them before

A brand from another era

good video

The Lohans should design an apology cake for Carvel.

My friends parents owned a carvel when I was 8 or 9. We would ride our bikes there on saturdays and have a milkshakes. So much free ice cream… twas a young boys dream

I was a Little Miss Half Pint for my local area when I was four!

With the ice cream cakes look SO GOOD! It sucks there aren't any in Canada 😞.

I don't think I ever had Carvel Ice Cream before.....

kinda want a cookiepuss now that thing is cute as hell

Being known as Mr Softee would trouble me

One of the few things i miss, from New York.

This would have meant the machines would work carvel is a genius lol

Tom Carvel was known as "One Take Tom" for his commercials. 👍

Carvel is awesome, do a video on TCBY or Mr. Softie please!

LMAO! $20 for, ICE CREAM? Little did she know, it damn near costs that now for less than quart...