Bob Wooten: Mystery of Twinkie to be solved?

I wonder how many teenagers can imagine life without Apple Inc., a company that has helped shape their world with its electronic wonders.

Or could they fathom life without Coca-Cola, Burger King, Nike, Aeropostale or Wal-Mart?

As unlikely as it may seem that such iconic brands will ever disappear, anything is possible if the Twinkie is in trouble.

Hostess Brands, maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and other snack foods, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month. Chapter 11 will keep the creditors at bay while Hostess tries to regroup and come up with a strategy for the future.

That doesn't necessarily mean the Twinkie, with it's spongy exterior and mystery-cream filling, is doomed, but it does not augur well. In its filing, Hostess blames its financial woes in part on consumers developing healthier eating habits. It also cites tough competition from other companies in the junk food business.

For those of a certain age, of course, the Twinkie is as American as apple pie (although you won't find anything inside an apple pie that resembles the bright, white, otherworldly interior of a Twinkie). Moms across the nation kept packages of Twinkies on the shelf to offer as after-school snacks, largely because kids loved them and there are no known cases of them going stale.

Unfortunately, Hostess isn't the only famous brand going broke right now. Eastman Kodak Co., which has been around for 132 years and brought modern photography to countless American households, filed its Chapter 11 paperwork on Thursday.

Seeing Kodak struggling for survival saddens the heart. As a child, the first camera I remember seeing in our house was a Brownie, a box-shaped point-and-shoot made by Kodak. It was clumsy to use and the pictures weren't great, but the Brownie could still capture a family memory.

Then one Christmas morning, I found that Santa had left Kodak's next generation under our tree -- the Instamatic. Everything about the Instamatic was an improvement, from how the camera fit in your hand to the easy flash and film loading technology. That Instamatic helped fill up a lot of photo albums.

Ironically, Kodak had the key to photography's future in its back shop and didn't use it. The company pioneered digital photography but placed its bets on the film technology that was raking in all the money. The Rochester, N.Y., firm failed to hear Fujifilm's footsteps coming up from behind, and it didn't understand that Canon, Sony and other companies were plowing ahead with digital technology that eventually would strangle the market for film cameras.

No doubt someone mourned the closure of the last buggy whip factory, too, but that's how business works.

If Hostess and Kodak don't survive, at least they will join a proud line of famous brands that remain a part of Americana even though their products have vanished from the shelves.

Unfortunately, though, we may never find out exactly what was in that Twinkie filling.

• Bob Wooten is the managing editor of the Daily. Contact him at 800-296-5137 or at bwooten@nvdaily.com.