Mars, Incorporated

Franklin Clarence Mars , sometimes known as Frank C. Mars, was an American business magnate who founded the food company Mars, Incorporated, which makes mostly chocolate candy. Mars and his son Forrest Edward Mars developed M&M's. He was born in 1883 in Hancock, Minnesota. Frank Mars learned... how to hand dip chocolate candy as a child from his mother Alva, who hoped to entertain him as he had a mild case of polio. He began to sell Molasses chips at age 19. Mars and Ethel G. Kissack , a schoolteacher, were married in 1902. Their son, Forrest Mars, Sr. was born in 1904 in Wadena, Minnesota. Later divorced from his first wife, Mars and Ethel Veronica Healy were married in 1910. That year he began to sell candy wholesale in Tacoma, Washington. In 1920, they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Mars founded Mar-O-Bar Co. and began to manufacture chocolate candy bars. The company later incorporated as Mars, Incorporated. In 1923 he introduced his son Forrest's idea, the Milky Way, which became the best-selling candy bar Mars moved to Chicago in 1929 and settled in River Forest, Illinois.
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John Mars is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and percussionist. Mars began his musical training at Sykes Music in Brantford, Ontario where he studied... the drums with Carl Lemke. In the late 1960s he played the drums in the band John Mars and the Martians with bassist Kevin Cosman and guitarist Stan Baka. The group disbanded after Baka was killed by a drunk driver. Mard then moved to Toronto where he met pianist Stuart Broomer and saxophonist Bill Smith. The three men formed the successful jazz trio "Broomer, Mars & Smith" which actively performed throughout the 1970s. In 1980 Smith left to pursue other projects and the duo "Stuart Broomer & John Mars" was formed. The duo performed up through 1986 and notably released the 1983 album, Annihilated Surprise, on Ugly Dog Records. While performing in the jazz duo with Broomer, Mars performed con-currently in the rock band Brian's Children which he established with guitarist /songwriter Dave Templeton and drummer Teddy Fury in 1979. For this group, Martin served as lead singer and the main songwriter. The group released one single Cut Her Hair b/w Oh Yeah which was produced by Daniel Lanois.
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