Hires To You headerThe Illustrated History of Hires Root Beer

1959 

IT HAPPENED IN…1959

Alaska was admitted as the 49th state, and Hawaii joined the union as the 50th state.

The United Steelworkers of America initiated a 116 day nationwide walkout, the longest labor strike in U.S. history.

Little Rock, Arkansas high schools opened with two formerly all-white schools integrated.

Congress authorized the distribution of surplus food to impoverished Americans via a food stamp program.

Vice-President Richard Nixon visited the USSR in July, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visited the U.S. in September.

NASA selected the first U.S. astronauts, deemed the “Mercury Seven."

Oklahoma prohibition was repealed, leaving Mississippi as the only dry state.

Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba.

The first commercial jet airline service opened between New York and Miami, Florida.

Ford Motor Company ceased production of the Edsel.

Rock and roll singers Buddy Holly, J. P. “Big Bopper” Richardson, and Richie Valens died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa on February 3rd, “the day the music died.”

Network television premieres included “Rawhide,” “Bonanza,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Bozo the Clown,” and “The Untouchables.”

Newly introduced products included pantyhose and Barbie dolls.

4,518 U.S. soft drink bottling plants were in operation.  Per capita consumption was 192 bottles. 

The enormous increase in the total number of U.S. bottling plants in operation during the late 1940s and early 1950s was fueled by an influx of World War II veterans opening new plants.  Stiff competition within the soft drink industry took a heavy toll between 1949 and 1954 and over 1,000 bottling plants ceased operations.  Even so, total industry production continued to climb throughout the 1950s as per capita annual consumption of soft drinks increased significantly.

The company-owned bottling and syrup plant in Denver, Colorado was closed in January, 1959.

(Figure 1959-01, The American Soft Drink Journal 1959 Blue Book Edition)

This "Sturdy Bilt" wooden shell manufactured by the Southern Wooden Box Company in Jonesboro, Arkansas in April, 1959 held 24 12-ounce bottles of Hires Root Beer.  It measures 18.0" long, 12.0" wide, and 4.0" high.   

(Figure 1959-01.5, wooden shell, side)

(Figure 1959-01.5, wooden shell, end)

(Figure 1959-01.5, wooden shell, top)

(Figure 1959-01.5, wooden shell, bottom)

The Press Sign Company in St. Louis, Missouri manufactured the next five signs:

(Figure 1959-02, embossed tin sign, 32.0" x 11.0")

(Figure 1959-02.3, embossed tin sign, 52.0" x 17.0")

(Figure 1959-02.5, tin display rack topper, 9.0" x 16.0")

(Figure 1959-02.8, tin sign, 6.0" x 14.0")

(Figure 1959-03, tin sign, 27.0” x 10.0”)

Hires' Chicago bottling plant used these special crown caps marked "C.R.C. P-59" in support of Passover, the week of April 23-29, 1959.  C.R.C. stands for the Chicago Rabbinical Council, according to Wikipedia "the largest regional Orthodox rabbinical organization in America, located in Chicago, Illinois...a not-for-profit offering a wide variety of Jewish services, including kosher product supervision and kosher certification."     

(Figure 1959-03.5, Passover crown cap, courtesy of Seth Miller)

Crown Cork and Seal Company attached samples of proposed crown caps to customer approval cards and mailed them to bottlers seeking their approval and/or suggested changes to the cap's design and coloring.  Age and humidity have taken a toll on this card sent to the Hires Bottling Company of Long Island, Inc. in Westbury, New York.  The tin crown cap sample was affixed to the card by four small tabs (now rusty) that are visible in the photo of the reverse side.  The remainder of the card provided additional space for documenting printing instructions.

(Figure 1959-03.8, crown cap customer approval card, courtesy of Seth Miller)

1959 brought release of the record album Hires Presents RCA Victor’s Sound Spectaculars for ’59.  The artists included the Ames Brothers, Dinah Shore, Harry Belafonte, Shorty Rogers, Abbe Lane, Chip Fisher, Gisele MacKenzie, the Coldstream Guards, et al. 

(Figure 1959-04, RCA Victor album, front)

(Figure 1959-04, RCA Victor album, back)

Although the word Hires was moved into a trapezoid when "cool new stripes" were introduced in 1957, the embossed date code on the base of this unusual 8 ounce ACL indicates the bottle was manufactured in 1959.  Labeling on the back references "Oldtime Flavor," a slogan used in 1953 and 1955.   

(Figure 1959-04.5, Drink Hires ACL, 8 ounce, front and back)

This trade magazine advertisement placed by the Ladish Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin depicts Hires' utilization of Tri-Clover centrifugal pumps and touts Hires' “enviable reputation for constantly high product purity and high standards of processing efficiency.”

 (Figure 1959-05, The American Soft Drink Journal, November 5, 1959)

The company-owned bottling and syrup plant in Birmingham, Alabama was closed in December, 1959.