Hires To You headerThe Illustrated History of Hires Root Beer

1920 

IT HAPPENED IN…1920

The Census recorded a population of 105,710,620.  Farm residents were less than 30%.  U.S. life expectancy increased to 54 years.  U.S. illiteracy decreased to a new low of 6% of the population.

Prohibition began January 17, 1920.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women the right to vote.

Warren G. Harding was elected in the first presidential election in which women voted.     

Babe Ruth signed with the New York Yankees for $125,000 and bonuses.

Newly introduced products and inventions included traffic lights, hair dryers, Band-Aids, Trojan brand condoms, Baby Ruth chocolate candy bars, and Good Humor ice cream bars.

C. L. Grigg organized the Howdy Company and introduced Howdy Orange.

According to Organization in the Soft Drink Industry – A History of the American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages:

By 1920 the soft drink bottling operation was largely automatic.  Hand washing of bottles was nonexistent and contrary to law.  Carbon dioxide generators had disappeared from virtually all plants; the gas was purchased ready for use.  Some foot-power fillers and crowners were still in use, but they were fast being made uneconomical by the larger and faster automatic machines which every bottler was anxious to own.  Great strides had been made in the development of automatic labeling machines, of water filtering devices, and of syrup mixing vessels and apparatus.  The crown cap was standard; bottles were all machine made and better.  And entrance of the motor truck into the industry’s transportation function made the horse-drawn soda water wagon a rare sight…

The twentieth century consumer’s attention to brands had developed a consciousness in the industry of the vital necessity of advertising, and more advertising.  The increasing importance of brand and product identity was sufficient reason to cause the use of bottles which could be selected by their appearance alone.  The well-known Coca-Cola bottle was one of the first of these…(and) the advantages of planned merchandising methods in the sale of a uniform product by plants in noncompeting sales areas were causing a trend toward the franchise method of control and distribution.

The illustration for this magazine advertisement was drawn and signed by David Robinson.  Note mention of Hires’ “tremendously increased cost of ingredients.” 

(Figure 1920-01, Popular Mechanics)

(Figure 1920-02, tin tacker, 9.75” x 27.75”)

(Figure 1920-03, cardboard hanger)

(Figure 1920-04, stationery letterhead)

(Figure 1920-05; cardboard hanger, courtesy of the Wong collection)

This aqua, machine-made, 7 ounce, crown top bottle is embossed “Hires TRADE MARK REGISTERED” around the shoulders, and “STANDARD BOTTLING WORKS WILLIAMSPORT, PA. on the front.  A Hires paper label and crown cap were added during the bottling process in order to provide the details necessary to fully comply with Pure Food and Drugs Act labeling requirements. 

(Figure 1920-06, ABM crown top, 8.25” tall)

(Figure 1920-07, gold medals paper label for 12 ounce bottles, 3.75” x 2.75”)

(Figure 1920-08, gold medals paper label for 6.5 ounce bottles, 3.75” x 2.75”)

This clear, machine-made, 7 ounce, crown top bottle is embossed with gold medals around the shoulders, and Hires REGISTERED on the front near the base.  The paper label used by the Rosebud Bottling Company in Forsyth, Montana was pre-printed “NET CONTENTS 7 FLUID OUNCES.”  Similar labels were pre-printed “NET CONTENTS 6 OZ. OR OVER.”    

(Figure 1920-09, clear ABM crown top bottle, 7.5” tall)

This aqua, machine-made, 7 ounce, crown top bottle is embossed Hires TRADE MARK REGISTERED around the shoulders.  The gold medals paper label originally printed for the Georgetown Bottling Works in Seattle, Washington, was overprinted and subsequently used by a Hires bottler in Yuma, Arizona. 

(Figure 1920-10, aqua ABM crown top bottle, 8.0” tall)

(Figure 1920-10.5, The Detroit News, June 27, 1920)

Expanded licensing of bottlers allowed Hires to promote the widespread availability of Hires in bottles for home consumption.  This full-color advertisement ran in Blue Book, a highly popular and inexpensive fiction magazine in the 1920s.  Black-and-white versions of this advertisement were placed in The American Magazine in July, 1920, and The Literary Digest August 14, 1920.   

(Figure 1920-11, Blue Book, June 1920)

A black-and-white version of this advertisement ran in the June 26, 1920 issue of The Literary Digest.

(Figure 1920-12, Life, July 1, 1920)

This advertisement is another in the similarly-themed series that ran in Life magazine.

 (Figure 1920-13, Life)

The Charles E. Hires Company recapitalized in the State of Delaware July 31, 1920.

(Figure 1920-14, Hires stock certificate for less than 100 shares)

(Figure 1920-15, Hires stock certificate for 100 shares or more)

William B. Keller, National Bottlers’ Gazette editor, included these very pointed comments about the war tax on containers in the September 1920 issue:

ONE OF THE NUISANCES – in fact the BIGGEST nuisance – that the trade has ever had to deal and grapple with in recent years, is the one that has to do with the payment of the 10 percent war tax on containers.  It is bad enough, indeed, that the trade has to pay a 10 percent tax on the sales price of its beverages; but that is in common for everybody, for we all have to pay taxes.  The war TAX on CONTAINERS, however, is quite another matter.  It involves a principle that is UNFAIR in every sense of the word.

In the first place one is presumed to pay taxes on his profits; but no bottler derives any profit from the sale of his bottles and boxes.

In the second place the bottler who accepts or exacts a deposit on his bottles and boxes merely holds that money in trust for its repayment to his customer when the bottles and boxes are returned.  The idea of paying a 10 percent tax on such trust funds is obnoxious to the extreme. 

In the third place, then, the bottler who LOANS his bottles and boxes to his customers – taking his chances of getting them back, a very un-businesslike proceeding – has a decided advantage over his fellow competitor.

Hires advertisements often encouraged readers to write directly to the company if their storekeeper didn’t carry Hires products.  Those who wrote the company received a sturdy cardboard tube mailer containing a full, three ounce bottle of Hires Extract like this one sent to C. B. Ruble in Frederick, Maryland.  1920 marked Hires’ earliest use of the 206 S. 24th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania mailing address. 

(Figure 1920-17, cardboard mailing tube and three ounce Hires Extract bottle)

Hires’ milk shake and malt mixers were made of cast iron, with white porcelain covering the 10” diameter base.  A stainless steel mixing cup made the unit 13.0” high.  Both sides of the base are embossed “Hires THE FLAVOR FOR MILK DRINKS.”  Desired drink contents were placed in the cup and mixed by manually rotating the handle.  These mixers were manufactured by The Wilton Manufacturing Company in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania.    

 

(Figure 1920-18, milk shake and malt mixer)

(Figure 1920-18, milk shake and malt mixer bottom)

This mixer was also produced with a base simply embossed “Hires” like this example:

(Figure 1920-19, milk shake and malt mixer base)

Charles E. Hires Company sales for 1920 were listed as 471,136,171 glasses.