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.