The 1970s candy years were a decade of teeth-shattering ambition. Long before the era of artisanal gummies and air-puffed snacks, there was the Now & Later. It was a beloved candy that required a commitment, an undertaking from your molars to endure a brick-hard square until, eventually, it yielded.
But even the candy aisle needs a bit of stardust.
Buried deep within the Ferrara Corporate Archive, a place that must smell like a mix of sugar and childhood memories, is the evidence of a strange but cool collision. The Phoenix Candy Company, the original Brooklyn-born muscle behind the chew, decided that their local hero needed a cosmic upgrade. They tapped Flash Gordon.
The 1974 Flash Gordon T-Shirt: A Prize Worth the Cavities
In a move that feels like a precursor to modern drop culture, the company launched a limited-time blitz. This was before digital codes or QR hacks; it was the era of the mail-away.
The deal was easy enough for children to remember: eat enough candy to risk a dental emergency, collect the proof, and send away for the Now & Later t-shirt. To a kid in 1974, that shirt was a badge of honor. "The limited time offer included Now & Later candy, Flash Gordon prizes and an opportunity to send in for a Now & Later t-shirt," the Now & Later archives confirm.
The '70s Flash Gordon/Now & Later collab. (Photo: Ferrara Corporate Archive)Ferrara Corporate Archive
Imagine the scene at a Brooklyn stoop: a pack of kids, jaws locked in a battle with a grape-flavored square, waiting for the mailman to deliver a piece of the planet Mongo. It was a time when Flash Gordon prizes were the ultimate currency of the playground.
The Phoenix Candy Company wasn't trying to be subtle. They were a scrappy outfit that understood a truth of the seventies: everything was better with a space hero. "The Phoenix Candy Company (Now & Later’s original parent company) partnered with comic strip characters in the 1970s like Flash Gordon to promote its candies, including Now & Later," a spokesperson said in a statement. Flash Gordon, with his blonde tuft of hair and intergalactic swagger, was the perfect mascot for a candy that refused to be eaten quickly. You didn’t just eat a Now & Later; you survived it.
Finding Rare 1970s Now & Later Memorabilia in the Ferrara Archive
What remains of this partnership are the memories. The grain of the vintage photos in the Ferrara archive tells a story of a specific American moment, when Brooklyn manufacturing and sci-fi fantasy shook hands.
Those t-shirts are off the shelves now. They are likely sitting in the back of a cedar chest in a Queens basement or being worn by an original owner’s grandchild who has no idea they're wearing a piece of confectionery history. But the memory of that sugar-induced high persists.
Looking back at the Flash Gordon era of Now & Laters reminds us of a time when flavor was earned, and the best things in life required a three-week wait for the post office to deliver your prize. It was a sweet, slightly dangerous time to be a kid with a nickel in your pocket and a hero in the stars.
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