Mar 10, 2012 By Glenn Tunney 4 min read

Today’s article concludes a four-part series remembering Isaly’s in Brownsville. The series originally appeared in the Herald-Standard in February 2004.

What ever happened to those special ice cream scoops that were used to fashion Isaly’s famous skyscraper ice cream cones? To be honest, I hadn’t wondered about that at all, until I received a phone call from Don Flowers of Chalk Hill. Don called to discuss my recent series of articles about the Brownsville Isaly’s store, which operated from 1949 until the mid-1950s.

“I am a collector of ice cream memorabilia,” Don told me, “and I have several ice cream scoops with the Isaly’s name on the handle.”

“Would those be some of the original scoops that Isaly’s used to make their skyscraper cones?” I asked.

“No, they are not the originals,” Don said. “In 1929, the ‘Rainbow’ scoop, which was patented by a company by that same name, was sold to Isaly’s. That type of scoop was used to make the skyscraper cones. Then in 1935, a company in Ohio manufactured a nearly identical ice cream scoop and placed the Isaly’s name on the handle. The Ohio company avoided charges of patent infringement by calling it a ‘spoon’ instead of a ‘scoop.’ The patent office granted the company a patent on it.

“Scoops with the Isaly’s name on them are scarce. According to Brian Butko’s excellent book, “Klondikes, Chippped Ham, & Skyscraper Cones: The Story of Isaly’s,” when Isaly’s closed in Pittsburgh, the family liquidated its holdings in the company. The Isaly’s board of directors held its final meeting in March 1972, and rumor has it that Henry Isaly ordered all of the Isaly’s scoops gathered up and buried! That increased the value of any used Isaly’s scoops that are still around, and today they are very desirable items for collectors.”

My brother-in-law, Kirby Kiefer of Gettysburg (originally of Scottdale), shared an interesting tidbit with me. Kirby spoke with a retired regional manager for Isaly’s, who shared his insider’s perspective of why that patented scoop was so important to Isaly’s.

“The fellow told me that there was more than marketing behind that special scoop,” Kirby said. “Normal ice cream scoops require that you dig ice cream out of the tub. When you do that, it squeezes some of the air out of the mix, so the customer actually gets more weight of ice cream. Moreover, some of the ice cream is stuffed inside the cone.

“The Isaly’s scoops were different. They kept the air entrapped in the ice cream, and they also put the ice cream outside the cone, rather than partly inside it. The customer appeared to be getting more ice cream, when in fact he was getting more air! In this way, Isaly’s got more servings per tub of ice cream.”

Sam Loy, Jr., whose father operated the Brownsville store, e-mailed to say, “Last night, I was talking about Isaly’s with my wife, and I recalled something I had forgotten about until now – Isaly’s buttermilk! I thought Isaly’s had the world’s best buttermilk. It was so thick you could almost eat it with a fork. You could actually see tiny flecks of butter floating in it. Most folks didn’t like it, but the Loy household always had several quarts of buttermilk in the ‘icebox.'”

I also heard from Dolores Randolph of LaBelle, who called to clarify the identity of the original owners of Circle Sales and Service, the television sales business that replaced Isaly’s in that same building.

“The original operators of Circle Sales and Service were John Gresh and my late brother-in-law, Tony Palombo,” Dolores explained. “Eventually that partnership ended, and Mr. Gresh’s brother became John’s new partner.”

Readers who yearn to have that old-fashioned Isaly’s experience one more time can do so by visiting the excellent Isaly’s exhibit at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.

My books (Volumes One and Two) will continue to be for sale at the Brownsville library and Chamber offices (or directly from me) and a portion of the sales proceeds goes to the library.