Payday (confection)
American candy bar containing peanuts and caramel

Payday, officially styled PAYDAY and previously sometimes PayDay, is a brand of a candy bar first introduced in 1932 by the Hollywood Candy Company. The original Payday candy bar consists of salted peanuts rolled over a nougat-like sweet caramel center. Since 1996, classic Payday candy bars without chocolate have been continually produced by the Hershey Company. In 2020, Hershey's released a "Chocolatey Payday bar" as a permanent part of the Payday product line; it is identical to the regular bar, but covered by a layer of compound chocolate paste, including cocoa and chocolate.
History
Payday was first introduced in 1932 by the Hollywood Candy Company and got its name because it was first produced on payday at the company. Payday was marketed during the Great Depression as a meal replacement because of its dense peanut outer layer. Headed by Frank Martoccio, who had founded the F.A. Martoccio Macaroni Company, Hollywood also produced the Zero bar, originally called the Double Zero when first released in 1920. In 1938, Hollywood moved to Centralia, Illinois. In 1967, the Martoccio family sold Hollywood Brands to Consolidated Foods, which later became Sara Lee. Fire destroyed the Centralia plant in 1980.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Payday (confection)” is american candy bar containing peanuts and caramel. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Payday, confection and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american candy bar containing peanuts and caramel” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7156549. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 1996, 2020 and 1920.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Payday (confection)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Payday (confection) primary sources, Payday (confection) archive and Payday research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Payday (confection)”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Payday (confection)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.