Cold Storage Trailer

Cold Storage: The Life and Death of Tom Carvel

If you were going to write a screenplay about an American Dream turned American Tragedy, it would be the story of Tom Carvel. Legend has it that on a hot Memorial Day in 1934, his ice cream truck got a flat tire and his profits began to melt. But the locals of Yonkers, NY saved his career by eating up the residuals. Carvel had his eureka moment: Start a business selling soft-serve ice cream. Whether this tale was true or not, Carvel was right — his Mom-and-Pop ice cream shoppe evolved into an empire that spread from Bensonhurst to Tokyo.

While he went that extra mile for those he cared about, Carvel's inability to cede control to his franchisees not only ruined other Moms and Pops who’d invested their life savings into the Carvel name, but multiple lawsuits hurt his bottom line as well. And Carvel’s iron-fisted business also stood in sharp contrast to his ambiguous and poorly-planned will, which managed to set his widow, family, and business associates at loggerheads in a legal maelstrom that continues to this day. Hardly the Carvel way—but perhaps that was his intention all along.

In “Cold Storage” we investigate the shockingly tumultuous life of an ice cream man, unfurling his story over multiple episodes until the bittersweet end.

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