This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
FIRST DRAFT Cecil Munsey Date: November 2011 13541 Willow Run Road Words: 8,343 Poway, CA 92064-1733 Rights: First Serial Photos / Illus: 45 Price: Open Periodical; Open PHONE: 858-487-7036 Category: History E-MAIL: [email protected]
* “’Drink Canada Dry’ is a slogan, not a command!” runs an old joke, a bit of punning humor that plays on dual interpretations of Canada Dry’s popular old advertising slogan. (We don’t know exactly how old that joke is, but Jack Benny referred to it as a familiar piece of humor during his first professional radio broadcast in 1932, on a program sponsored by the famous ginger ale.
(Fig. 1c Current Canada Dry Tonic Water shown under normal & ultraviolet light)
(The Beginnings)
1885: J. J. McLaughlin, was an 1885 graduate, with a gold medal, of the
University of Toronto College of Pharmacy. He was trained as both a pharmacist and a
chemist. Like so many pharmacists of the late 19th and the early 20th century,
1900: By the turn of the century he was also selling his “Hygeia” distilled water
in light green Codd marble-stoppered soda bottles (Fig. 2) and in a green eight-ounce
blob-tops (Fig. 3) and numerous other bottles that featured an embossed mortar & pestle
with “J.J. McLAUGHLIN” and “HYGEIA” waters embossed on them (Figs 4 through Fig. 17). These are truly the first Canada Dry bottles and are not only historic but of
great value to historians and collectors.
(Marriage)
“Jack” McLaughlin married Maud Christie, a red-haired New Yorker who came
from a wealthy family and was of such “intimidating hauteur” (disdainful person) she
terrified almost everyone who met her. The family never came to like her and thought
her a snob. Interestingly enough but not unusual, however, it was Maud’s dowry that
helped Jack set up in business. (“Justice triumphs” it is often said; it will be shown in a
later section of this article, what return on her money she made.)
McLaughlin wanted to widen the market for his product so he came up with a
package so that it could be taken home and enjoyed all over Canada. He experimented
and finally came up with the idea of mass bottling.
By the turn of the century he had a fairly large flavored soda water manufacturing
business. He delivered his product to his customers by buggy and later by wagon.
“Ginger,” say the pharmacopoeists, “…is carminative, sternutative, sialagogue,
and rubefacient, which means that it makes you belch, sneeze, spit, and turn red–not
necessarily at once.” It was ginger that John McLaughlin was fascinated with and that
he chose to be the focus of his manufacturing efforts. In 1900 he produced a beverage
that was dark in color with a strong ginger flavor and called it “McLaughlin Belfast
Style Ginger Ale.” (No artifacts have yet been found for this product.) The beverage
was non-alcoholic and made to imitate Cantrell & Cochrane Ginger Ale, (which was
first made in 1852) a champagne-like product made in Dublin, Ireland. McLaughlin’s
Belfast Ginger Ale was too dark and syrupy for Canadian tastes.
Sidebar: [It is interesting to note that imported ginger ale from both Ireland and London was very popular in the early 1900s. Even though there was a duty on imported ginger ale, records reveal that almost 3,600,000 bottles were imported – those bottles that have survived can’t all have been collected. And because of the fact they utilized round–bottom bottles, collectors should keep their eyes open for the silver plated four-pronged holders that were used to keep the bottles upright at garden parties in the days before World War I. They are scarce and sell for around $100.]
After taking suggestions for improvement from his wife Maud and his customers,
he continued to refine his Belfast-style ginger ale, eventually finding just the right lighter
1904: He re-named his newest product, McLaughlin’s Pale Dry Style Ginger Ale. The renamed ginger ale was sold for less than a year. (No artifacts from this phase
of the business are known to exist.)
(Another and Final New Name & Slogan)
1905: Jack McLaughlin changed the name for the last time and began to market
his pale and dry ginger ale as “Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale” and began using a new
slogan suggested by Maud, “The Champagne of Ginger Ales.” Both the latest product
and the slogan became McLaughlin trademarks and were (and still are) quite famous and
respected in most parts of the world.
1905: A patent was filed for the new (1904) formula and the name “Canada
Dry”.
1907: On January 18, 1907, Canadian authorities issued a “Certificate of
Registration” for the trademark “Canada Dry” with “J. J. McLaughlin, Ltd.” as the
corporate owner.
(Canada Dry Shipped to U.S. for First Time)
1907: The business was doing very well in those years just after the turn of the
century. So much so, that bottling plants were established in both Toronto (mostly to
supply the Robert Simpson Company) and, Edmonton, Alberta (mostly to supply the
Famous Hudson’s Bay Company). With the business growing as it was, he decided to
import his product to the United States. As early as 1907, Canada Dry was being shipped
to U. S. grocery wholesalers in Buffalo, Brooklyn, and Detroit.
Another change in the label/logo took place in 1948 long after Canada Dry had
become an American owned company and an American produced product. The new
label featured the now very familiar shield and crown. Still another slight change in the
label and logo was made in 1958. Raymond Loewy Design Associates of New York
designed the new trademark.
Sidebar: [Loewy (1893-1986) was one of he best known industrial designers of the 20th century. Bottle collectors will appreciate the work he did for The Coca-Cola Company. In 1955 he redesigned the original contour bottle, eliminating Coca-Cola embossing and adding vivid white Coke and Coca-Cola lettering. He also designed and introduced the first king-size or slenderized bottles, that is, 10, 12, 16 and 26 oz. the same year. He also designed the first Coke steel can with a diamond design in 1960.] (Collectors of Canada Dry memorabilia can date their finds easily by noting the
trademark displayed; it is one of their best tools.)
“The Champagne of Ginger Ales” gave a high-class image to a workingman’s
drink, and champagne was a popular tonic for invalids, teetotaler or not. Jack himself
drank champagne and he also put whisky in his eggnog. Coca-Cola no longer contained
cocaine – the drug was banned in 1903 – and while caffeine was an effective substitute,
whisky had a bigger kick. It wasn’t long before Canadians discovered that an ounce or
two of rye in a glass of Canada Dry was a miraculous cure for everything that ailed them
and “…who could tell the rye from the Dry?”
(Founder’s Death)
1914: It is sad that Jack McLaughlin didn’t live long enough to see the great
success and acceptance of his products. He passed away, on January 28, 1914, at the age
of 48. He was once a tubercular patient at a sanatorium in Gravenhurst, Canada so the
assumption is that his death was caused by tuberculous. Toward the end he was too ill to
walk, and during his last visits to his factory he was pushed in a wheelchair.
the first time, this particular type of entertainment included women in large numbers. In
other words, dry ginger ale had a gaping market, and a market considerably larger than it
could have had a decade earlier. Thus the champagne type of bottling (green glass, gold-
foil collar, etc.), which had languished on previous introductions to American, hit exactly
the right note in 1923. It had ‘class’ and cheap gin needed ‘class’ badly.
Profits for Canada Dry in 1923 were $98,000 and for 1925 they were $1,240,000,
enough to pay for the one million dollar 1923 purchase price. They built a new plant in
Hudson, New York but it proved inadequate. So they built two additional plants – one in
Chicago and one in Los Angeles. Like other soda pop manufacturers, who had not
franchised their product(s), Canada Dry’s beverages were shipped by rail in freight cars
painted with the product name and logo.
Why would ginger ale in general, and Canada Dry in particular, be such a high-
demand product in the 1920s? The following quote easily provides an answer to that
question:
“’A bottle of Canada Dry’ was the first thing every traveler said to the bellhop as he reached in his grip for the hooch [bootlegged whiskey] and called up his friends. You paid a dollar for it at Texas Guinan’s and twenty cents at the drugstore, the latter price being perhaps the more outrageous since other soft drinks regularly sold for ten cents. But people did not pay a premium for it just because there was money to burn. The “Champagne of Ginger Ales” was indeed different. Other ginger ales in the early twenties were not dry but sweet or “Golden” like Clicquot Club, and a lot of them contained a generous amount of red pepper, which is cheaper than the Jamaica ginger on which conscientious Canadians had based their formula.”
(18th Amendment to the Constitution – Prohibition)
1920: At midnight, January 16, 1920, the United States went dry. Breweries,
distilleries, and saloons were forced to close their doors. The Volstead Act was the law
passed in 1919 to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment. Rep. Andrew Volstead of
Minnesota sponsored the law. It became void after the repeal of the amendment in 1933.
A true and amazing story is that Prohibition Officers were so impressed by
Canada Dry Ginger Ale’s sudden popularity that they analyzed it for alcoholic content.
was necessary to order still other plants, for orders booked during the first month of 1924
were twice those received during all of 1923.
In 1924 Canada Dry began to advertise all year round, something of an innovation
in the beverage business in those days. (Back at the turn of the century almost all soft
drink bottling plants closed in the winter.)
Sidebar: [In 1925 there was almost a merger of Canada Dry and Coca-Cola, with Coca-Cola cast in what now seems the fantastic role of mergee. The attempt failed. So did a projected merger with White Rock in 1930.] Canada Dry advertising collectible relics are not large in variety but of all of the
firms that produced items to promote their products, “The Champagne of Ginger Ale”
has, perhaps, the most bottle openers (Figs. 29–32). In addition, collectors can find quite
a variety of periodical advertisements, cardboard cut-outs, and the like that can be
line of orange, cream, and grape soda, sarsaparilla, root beer, and other products. Soft-
drink sales were not more than $6,000,000 of Canada Dry’s $11,000,000 income. The
remaining 14 per cent was beer and hard liquor. The company became the American
distributor for Johnnie Walker Scotch, Cinzano Vermouth, Sandeman wines, a gin (Fig. 35) called “Canada Dry’s” that Fleischmann manufactured for national Distillers,
and a rye (Old Log Cabin) and a bourbon (Cedar Brook) from Penn-Maryland
Corporation. The liquor, especially Johnnie Walker Scotch, considerably helped Canada
Dry to continue its policy of paying annual dividends.
Later in the 1930s, Tonic Water, Club Soda (sparkling water with the new name),
Collins Mix and fountain syrup were introduced under the Canada Dry name.
In April of 1935, when Parry D. Saylor became ill, James. M. Mathes and others
on the Board of Directors of Canada Dry Inc. invited Roy Worsham Moore, Sr. to
become president of Canada Dry. Moore was a lawyer-engineer from Macon, Georgia.
He had come north to work for the Guaranty Trust Company two weeks before the stock-
market crash of 1929. He worked in the trust department of Guaranty for five years
before taking over the presidency of Canada Dry. (R. W. Moore, Sr. served as President
of Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc. from 1935 to 1957, becoming Chairman of the Board in
1957; R. W. Moore, Jr., his son, was made president.)
Sidebar: [An interesting sidelight to the soft-drink business in general in 1935. Besides the large national manufacturers of soda pop like Canada Dry, there were some 7,500 little neighborhood bottling plants producing the 800,000,000 six-ounce bottles a year. That was a bottle every three days for every American. Those were the days when a new brand of soda pop had a five-year life span. Those facts of the 1930s certainly mean that collectors of soda pop bottles have their work cut out for them.]
Back in 1925 The Hoffman brothers began undercutting Canada Dry Ginger Ale
with low prices, a big quart bottle, and direct delivery to customers. In order to compete
without putting Canada Dry in quart bottles, Saylor and Mathes bought out G. B. Seely’s
Sons of New York and Chelmsford Ginger Ale, Inc. of New England, both makers of a
complete line of pop and both doing a low-price direct-delivery business in their
Sidebar: “During 1954 about 18 million cases of canned soft drinks were used in the soft drink industry. This suffered some decline and leveled off at 15 million during 1957, with production limited to approximately forty brands from widely scattered canning plants.” By the early 1960s Canada Dry featured 22 different products including, Tonic,
Mix, Tahitian Treat, Country Time, Sparkling Water-Seltzer, Lemon Lime
Sparkling Water-Seltzer, Raspberry Sparkling Water-Seltzer, Mandarin Orange Sparkling Water, Bitter Lemon, and Ginger Ale. Up to that time, Canada Dry had
primarily used 10 and 12 ounce bottles for its products, but began to feature 7-ounce,
pints, quarts, and king-size returnables and non-returnables, again, by the early 1960s.
By 1961, Canada Dry had 103 bottling plants in 51 foreign countries. And in that
same year, it began using the aluminum can. Unlike its bold use of cone–top cans in
1951-52, Canada Dry was one of the last large beverage companies to put its products in
aluminum cans.
(LBJ Vice Presidential ACL Bottle)
1963: In November 1960, Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), of Johnson City,
Texas, was elected Vice-President of the United States.
Some time in the summer of 1963 a meeting was held at the St. Anthony Hotel in
San Antonio. LBJ and his assistant, Cliff Carter, were there. Mr. Carter was the former
owner of the 7-Up Bottling Company of Bryan, Texas. Among other things discussed at
this meeting was Vice President Johnson’s upcoming visit as keynote speaker at the
Bottlers National Convention in Dallas later in the year. During the cocktail hour,W. D.
Matthews, who was the owner of the Canada Dry Bottling Company of San Antonio,
discussed with his old friend Cliff Carter the idea of a personalized Vice Presidential
bottle as a gift to the Vice President for the speech he had agreed to give at that year’s
national bottlers’ convention. Mr. Carter ran the idea by LBJ who liked and approved it.
After a design of the proposed bottle was completed and approved by LBJ, Mr. Matthews
Historical Chronology 1885 J. J. McLaughlin, graduated University of Tronto College of Pharmacy 1890 J. J. McLaughlin, Manufacturing Chemists began trade 1900 McLaughlin Belfast Style Ginger Ale 1904 McLaughlin’s Pale Dry Style Ginger Ale 1905 Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale 1905 J. J. McLaughlin Ltd. was incorporated – October 25th 1906 “The Champagne of Ginger Ales” slogan was invented 1907 Canadian Certificate of Registration for trademark “Canada Dry” – January 18th 1907 Canada Dry first shipped to the United States 1907 Label with map of Canada and a beaver 1908 Label with map of Canada without a beaver 1914 J. J. McLaughlin died (age 48) of tuberculosis 1914 Sam and George (brothers) and Maud (widow) took over Canada Dry 1918 Governor General of Canada designated Canada Dry the drink of royalty 1922 U. S. subsidiary “Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc.” established 1923 Famous adv. – “Down From Canada Came Tales Of A Wonderful Drink” 1924 Canada Dry began year around advertising 1930 & 1932 Owens-Illinois Glass Co. at Fairmont, West Virginia made stipple-flint
(“Carnival Glass”) bottle for Canada Dry Orange 1934 & 1935 Owens-Illinois Glass Co. at Fairmont, West Virginia made stipple-flint
(Sapphire Blue”) bottle for Canada Dry Club Soda 1935 Roy W. Moore became president of Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc. 1940 First use of ACL labeling by Canada Dry 1951 First use of cone-top tin cans 1953 First use of flat-top tin cans 1948 Label with shield and crown 1958 Modified label with shield and crown 1963 Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), Vice President ACL commemorative bottle 1964 Canada Dry introduced sugar-free drinks 1980 Canada Dry purchased by Cadbury-Schweppes
Selected Bibliography Books: •Capitman, Barbara Baer. American Trademark Designs. New York: Dover Publications, 1976. •Hower, Ralph M. The History of an Advertising Agency – N. W. Ayer & Son at Work
(1869-1939). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1939. •Irving, S. & Kull, Nell M. An Encyclopedia of American History. New York: Eagle
Books,1965. •Munsey, Cecil. The Illustrated Guide to COLLECTING BOTTLES. New York:
Pamphlets: •“From Jamaica to the Tables of the World.” Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Incorporated,
Charles Francis Press, New York, 1928. •”Beverage Bottles of Lauarens Glass Works, 1910-1996” by Dr. Fritz Hamer. South Carolina
State Museum exhibit April 6, 2002 through January 12, 2003.
Periodicals: •Chamberlain, John – Editor. “Canada Dry.” Fortune Magazine, Vol XV, No. 6, June
1937. •Grobins, Andy. “Canada Dry Ginger Ale was work of one man with a dream.” Soda
Pop Dreams, Vol.3, No. 3, Summer 2000. •Herberto, Victoria. “LBJ’s ‘Glass Cadillac.’” Gulf Coast Bottle & Jar Club Newsletter (Alicia
Booth, Editor), August 1993. •Luce, Henry R. – Editor. “Up From Pop,” Fortune Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 2, August
1931. •Matthews, Blair. “The Regal Flavour of Canada Dry.” Soda Pop Dreams, Vol 2, No. 4, Fall 1999. •Munsey, Cecil. “Canada Dry Club Soda, Bottles for the Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President of the United States. Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, October, 2007. •Noe, Max L. “Notes on the Canada Dry Club Soda specially bottled for Vice President
Johnson.” Painted Soda Bottle Collectors’ Assn., Soda Net, September 1993. •Sweeney, Rick. “Lyndon Baines Johnson.” Painted Soda Bottle Collectors’ Assn., Soda
Net, July 1993. Internet: http://alamo.nmsu.edu/~lockhart/EPSodas/Chapter10/10f/chap10f.htm http://www.CecilMunsey.com (article #1273)
FAIR USE NOTICE Fair use notice: Some material in this article was originally published by the sources above and is copyrighted. It is offered here as an educational tool to increase further understanding and discussion of bottle collecting and related history. It is believed that this constitutes “fair use” of the copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this material for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use,” you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s). Website notice:
WEBSITE CONTACT INFORMATION
http://www.CecilMunsey.com
More than 1,000 free-to-copy well-researched articles and other materials of interest to bottle collectors and historians
INTERNET AFFINITY Affinity notice: The author of the material featured on (http://www.CecilMunsey.com) uses and contributes to the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. which is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia Commons (http://www.wikipedia.org), fourth most visited website in the world. It also operates Wikimedia Commons a multimedia repository that hosts over 4,500,000 multimedia files.]