Mar 3, 2027: Ghost Signs & Bubble Gum: The O-Pee-Chee Story

Speaker: Dr. Mike Dove, Director of Public History, Western University
Date/Time: March 3, 2027 at 6:00 p.m.
Location: Glencoe Library

Ghost signs — hand-painted wall advertisements from the Victorian era through the postwar period — still linger on buildings across the country, quiet windows into local and national history.

Glencoe has its own: a faded O-Pee-Chee gum advertisement, tied to the London-based confectionery company that became a household name in candy and, later, a giant of the Canadian trading card industry.

Founded in London, Ontario, O-Pee-Chee grew from a small gum and candy maker into one of the country’s best-known confectionery brands, eventually earning fame as the Canadian distributor of hockey and baseball cards. Its story is one of local industry shaping national culture — and the fading wall signs it left behind are some of the last physical traces of that legacy.

Dr. Dove will bring this history to life, drawing on his research and his forthcoming documentary, Packaging Fun: London’s O-Pee-Chee Company. He’ll speak to the significance of Glencoe’s own O-Pee-Chee ghost sign — confirmed by Dr. Dove himself as authentic O-Pee-Chee signage, and, by his estimation, among the largest of only a handful still surviving in Canada, making the case for its preservation as a rare and important piece of regional heritage.

About the speaker: Professor Mike Dove is the Director of Public History at Western University. He holds a PhD in Canadian business history from Western and a Certificate in Documentary Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy. His current project is a documentary on the history of London’s own O-Pee-Chee company.

Contact: mdove2@uwo.ca
Learn more: https://history.uwo.ca/people/faculty/michael-dove.html