Cards and Candy
The book The Card by OKeefe and Thompson ( which is mainly about the background of the PSA 8 Wagner cards)has some historical narrative about hobby in general and the use of cards to promote tobacco and confectionary products.
I mentioned in another thread that post war,Topps never had a monopoly or exclusive contracts with players to sell their baseball cards. To avoid anti trust issues their contracts only specified that they had the exclusive right to market the players' likeness with gum/candy/confections. Otherswere free to market cards by themselves or with cookies ( Fleer 63) or marbles (Leaf 61), but Topps at the time seems to have established "the market" as cards and gum.
I agree with Volod that when buying packs as a kid in the late 50s I did not care much about the gum, except for that wonderful and exotic smell when you opened the packs
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