Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Frank Krake
Joseph Sylvester
Menthol
Wednesday, 13 April 2016 - 16:25
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Black businessman who convinced the Dutch to brush teeth profiled in book

In the 1920's and 30's Joseph "Menthol" Sylvester taught the Netherlands how to brush their teeth while selling Babajaba Menthol Tootpaste at markets all across the Netherlands. Author Frank Krake's book Menthol, which published today, tells the story of one of the first black businessmen in the Netherlands. Sylvester (1890-1955) fled from the First World War and the economic disaster it caused on his home island of Saint Lucia and eventually ended up in Antwerp. He planned to sell first Menthol pastilles, quickly switched to toothpaste imported from the U.S., there, but it never really caught on. But in the Netherlands it was a hit. Dressed as a dandy, Sylvester traveled through towns and villages in the Netherlands, attracting much attention for his Babajaba Menthol Toothpaste, which he marketed as a natural secret. "He took a boy from Utrecht as test subject, sat him down on a chair and started brushing his teeth with a wooden brush", Krake said to RTV Utrecht. "If the boy's mouth began to foam and bleed, he put salt on it and the boy screamed. This is the result if you do not brush your teeth, so buy my toothpaste, Menthol called. To show how strong his own teeth were, he used his mouth to pick up the chair, boy and all, 30 centimeters off the ground. He said: look what beautiful teeth I have. You can have it too." Joseph Sylvester's life story is not only covered in the book, but also in a musical and a reading, according to RTV Oost.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Life sentenced prisoners will get additional year for reintegration
  • GroenLinks members trim list for Senate election after congress
  • Possible passenger ceiling at Schiphol again due to staff shortage, travel agency angry
  • PvdA and GroenLinks in Brabant: only together in provincial government
  • Human trafficking near asylum seekers’ center in Gilze systematically not picked up
  • 20-year-old driver from Utrecht dies in car accident on A6

Top stories

  • Possible passenger ceiling at Schiphol again due to staff shortage, travel agency angry
  • Hoekstra wants to reintroduce conscription
  • EU countries agree on new price cap for Russian oil
  • Hermitage shows Rembrandt and contemporaries from The Leiden Collection
  • Dutch police take down Exclu encrypted chat service with 42 arrests, €4 million seized
  • Signal failure briefly halts train traffic around A'dam; NS warns of significant delays

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content