Willy Wonka Willy Wonka Willy Wonka is a fictional character who appears in Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and its sequel "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator". In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka has hidden five Golden Tickets inside chocolate bars, with the finders being rewarded with a tour of his factory and a promise of a lifetimes supply of chocolate, throughout the tour four of the children, with Charlie Bucket being left as the winner. At this point Wonka reveals that the real prize is the factory, as Wonka needs someone to take over the
The Willy Wonka Candy Company film version in exchange for the candy bar tie-in. Quaker, who had previous experience in the film industry, bought the rights to the book and financed the picture for the purpose of promoting their new "Wonka Bar". The name of Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" however was renamed to "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" for promotion purposes. The new brand was produced by Chicago-based company Breaker Confections (a subsidiary of Quaker Oats), which in 1975 was acquired by Sunmark Corporation of Saint Louis, Missouri. The original Wonka Bars never saw store shelves due to factory production problems prior