Hires To You headerThe Illustrated History of Hires Root Beer

1972 

IT HAPPENED IN…1972

Inflation subsided as unemployment decreased and economic growth improved.

Screening of passengers and their luggage became mandatory on all U.S. airline flights.

Congress passed the Equal Rights (27th) Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex.  By year end 22 of the required 38 states had ratified it.

Hurricane Agnes hit the East Coast killing 127 and causing $1 billion in property damage.

Police charged five men with burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C. 

Arab terrorists killed two Israeli coaches and nine Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.  Frank Shorter of the U.S. won the men’s Olympic marathon. 

President Nixon was reelected in the largest Republican landslide in history.

Life magazine suspended operations at year end after 36 years of weekly publication.

The Environmental Protection Agency ordered a near-total ban on DDT.

Major league baseball players struck for the first time in history, returning only after team owners agreed to increase players’ pensions.

Network television premieres included “Sanford & Son,” “Maude,” “The Waltons,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” and “M*A*S*H.” 

Compact discs were introduced.

A McDonald’s restaurant operator in Santa Barbara, California created the Egg McMuffin.

Federal Express introduced the world’s first overnight delivery service.

Nike, Inc. was founded in Portland, Oregon.

Atari introduced “Pong,” the first commercially successful video game.

The state of Oregon passed the first U.S. beverage container deposit law.

2,729 U.S. soft drink bottling plants were in operation.

Once again a copywriter claimed “People first fell in love with Hires in 1870, the year Hires invented root beer.”  Note addition of the words “DRAFT style” above the Hires logo on the illustrated bottle and can.  A small portion of the bottom of the illustrated page was trimmed away.

(Figure 1972-01, The American Soft Drink Journal, January, 1972)

This heavy, flint glass mug has a white applied color label. 

(Figure 1972-01.5, ACL mug, 5.0" tall)

The face of this plastic-faced, electric wall clock has been illuminated internally by incandescent light bulbs.

(Figure 1972-02, electric wall clock)

(Figure 1972-02.5, full 32 ounce bottle with paper labels)

(Figure 1972-02.5, crown cap on full 32 ounce bottle with paper labels)

(Figure 1972-03, 28 ounce, one way bottle paper label)

Here's an example of the 28 ounce one way bottle (no deposit-no return) paper label affixed to an amber, glass bottle manufactured by the Glenshaw Glass Company of Glenshaw, Pennsylvania in 1972.  The closure is an aluminum, threaded cap.

(Figure 1972-03.2, 28 ounce, amber. one way bottle)

(Figure 1972-03.5, cloth uniform patch, 3.75" x 3.0")

(Figure 1972-04, decal)

(Figure 1972-04.5, cloth patch, 5.75" x 6.0")

(Figure 1972-05, quarter page magazine advertisement)

Although this looks like a celluloid pinback button, it is actually a blank button with an attached "DRAFT style Hires ROOT BEER" decal.

(Figure 1972-05.5, pinback button, 3.0" diameter)

(Figure 1972-06, battery-operated, can-shaped, transistor radio, 5.0” x 2.5”)

Paper body and neck labels were updated with the "DRAFT style" logo picturing a foaming mug, as illustrated on this full quart. 

(Figure 1972-06.5, full 32 ounce bottle)

Time has taken its toll on the paper label affixed to this one gallon, amber glass bottle of "DRAFT STYLE Hires ROOT BEER FOUNTAIN SYRUP."  The base of the bottle bears a 1972 date code.

(Figure 1972-06.8, one gallon Fountain Syrup bottle)

This “Junior Bottlers” kit was distributed by Midwestern Winemakers Inc. in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  Billed as a “DO-IT-YOURSELF NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE KIT,” the assembled contents included a 3 ounce bottle of Hires Root Beer Extract, plastic bottle caps,  extracts for making wild cherry, sarsaparilla, and ginger beer beverages, and printed instructions.  The pictured kit retailed for $5.99 at J. C. Penney Company stores. 

(Figure 1972-07, “Junior Bottlers’ kit, carton closed)

(Figure 1972-07, “Junior Bottlers’ kit, carton open)

A. W. P. Cases in Newport, Arkansas manufactured this wooden case for the Variety Club Beverage Company in Toledo, Ohio in 1972 (note the "72" date stamp on the inside panel).  Given the weight of the four six-packs of Hires bottles the case held, tin bands were nailed to the corners for added strength.  For an unknown reason the designer had the side panels marked with the word Hires including a slanted "i" even though the parent company ceased using the slanted i” in 1931. 

(Figure 1972-08, wooden case, 18.0" x 11.75" x 5.625")

A red on yellow color scheme was used for this very similar wooden case manufactured for Squirt Vernors Inc. in Buffalo, New York.  The opposite side panel advertizes Squirt.

(Figure 1972-08.5, wooden case)

(Figure 1972-09, magazine advertisement, 8.0" x 11.0")