1274 Canada Dry

Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 1

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]

A Short History

of

Canada Dry Ginger Ale

“Drink Canada Dry” *

Researched, organized, Illuminated, and presented

by

Cecil Munsey, PhD Copyright © 2002-2011

(Fig. 1a Canada Dry logo – then)

(Fig. 1b Canada Dry logo – now)


* “’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,


McLaughlin was interested in flavored soda waters. He experimented with various

mixtures that were added to his carbonated soda water made from a mixture of baking

soda, vinegar and water. John knew how unpalatable this mixture was and set about

using his soda water as a mixer with “Real Fruit” juices or flavored extracts.

While most of his business was soda water for drug stores, a fair amount was sold

for home consumption with the various juices or extracts being added by the customers

themselves. Soon McLaughlin was bottling various flavored beverages himself and

selling them to his customers in the trade and at home. His early flavors were cream

soda, ginger beer, sarsaparilla and lemon sour. McLaughlin’s company also made

and imported mineral waters, carbonated beverages, syrups, creams, cordials, extracts,

fountain fruits, ice-cream machinery, and soda fountain supplies.

1890: On three consecutive dates in 1890, important

events occurred: On September 25th Yosemite National Park was

created by an act of the U. S. Congress. On September 26th

coinage of 1- and 3-dollar gold pieces and 3-cent nickel pieces

was discontinued by an act of the U. S. Congress. And on

September 27th John James (“Jack) McLaughlin (1866-1914) –

(Fig. 1d) opened J. J. McLaughlin, Manufacturing Chemists, a

small plant in Toronto, Canada.

The plant was actually a part of J. J. McLaughlin

Pharmacy. He manufactured plain carbonated soda water that he called “Hygeia”

distilled water, “Real Fruit” juices, and sold “Sanitary” brand soda fountains to drug

stores. The company also made and imported mineral waters, carbonated beverages,

syrups, creams, cordials, extracts, fountain fruits, ice-cream machinery, and soda fountain

supplies.

(J.J. McLaughlin Bottles)

He sold his soda water in (soda) siphon bottles like the type that were a staple in

the old Three Stooges movies and are quite collectible today.

(Fig. 1d. J. J.

McLaughlin photo)


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.)

(Fig. 2. J.J. McLaughlin Codd

Marble bottle)

(Fig. 3. J.J. McLaughlin

[green blob-top])



[stubby yellow-amber blob top])

(Fig. 5. J.J. McLaughlin [ceramic “Ginger

Shandy” wire bail])


[wire bail])


[crown cap])


[Greenish-blue crown cap])


[qt. crown cap])

(Fig. 10. J.J.

McLaughlin [Qt. green crown cap])


(Fig. 11. J.J. McLaughlin HYGEIA

WATERS [Qt. crown cap])

(Fig. 13. J.J. McLaughlin [Lt purple flat-bottom bowling-

pin-shaped crown cap])

(Fig. 12. J.J. McLaughlin [Lt. purple Bowling-pin shaped

crown cap])

(Fig. 14. J.J.

McLaughlin –Ottawa [crown cap])


[crown cap])

(Fig. 16. J.J.

McLaughlin [vertical embossing crown

cap])

17. J.J.

McLaughlin HYGEIA [Qt. crown

cap])


(J.J. McLaughlin & Charles E. Hires)

It wasn’t long before he expanded his small business and began to manufacture

and sell many pieces of soda fountain equipment under the trade name “Sanitary” soda

fountains. And for a time, surprisingly, he was a sales agent of figural soda fountains

built by Charles E. Hires, the famous root beer manufacturer of Philadelphia. The Hires

soda fountain (Design Patent No. 11,699, dated March 23, 1880) embodied the form of a

“rustic house, covered with roots and vines”.

Fig. 18 is a soda fountain glass in which Canada Dry Ginger Ale was mixed. The

hard to find artifact for the famous beverage is worth the better part of $100 on today’s

collector market.

(Fig. 18. Canada Dry drinking glass)


(Market Expansion)

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

[pale] coloring and carbonation.


(McLaughlin’s Belfast Style Ginger Ale Renamed)

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.


(New Bottle Label)

1907: As part of the new image for Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale, McLaughlin

created a label in 1907 that included a map of Canada as a background image. To

complete the scene, he added a beaver, Canada’s national emblem (Fig. 19 prototype; and

Fig. 20 actual label). But he only got to use his new label for a short time. (Bottles and

other relics of that period are rare and are eagerly sought by collectors.)

Since the Canadian Pacific Railway was already using a beaver as part of its

trademark, Mr. McLaughlin had to modify his label by eliminating the national symbol.

The beaver-less label was the one used with slight modification for 41 years (Fig. 21).

(Fig. 21. Canada Dry 1938 label)

(Fig. 19. Prototype of new

Canada Dry label)

(Fig. 20. Original Canada Dry label)


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.


(Brothers Become Executors)

Jack’s two younger brothers, Robert Samuel (“Colonel Sam”) – (Fig. 22) and George M. McLaughlin, as

executors (along with Jack’s widow, Maud) took over the

company and guided its growth until it could be profitably

sold. George took care of much of the day-to-day

management while Sam provided guidance. Maud was

excluded for the most part, thus became dependent on her

unsympathetic in-laws.

(Wife Inherited Nothing)

When brother Robert McLaughlin died he left his estate to his two daughters and

to his sons George and Sam. Jack’s two youngest children each received $5,000 from

their grandfather’s estate; Jack’s widow, Maud, and her oldest son, Donald, got nothing.

Had Maud and the children been able to hang on to a minority interest in Canada Dry, or

even their 25,000 shares, J. J. McLaughlin’s descendants would today be among the

wealthiest people in North America.

J. J.’s brother Sam McLaughlin, interestingly enough, was one of Canada’s most

dynamic tycoons, who liked to live with the “best of them” (Fig. 23). “Parkwood,” his

mansion in Oshawa, was in its day the most expensive home ever built in Canada

(Fig. 24). Sam founded the McLaughlin Carriage [& Automobile] Company in 1907

(Fig. 25). He was the car company’s President until it was sold in 1918 to General

Motors Corporation (GMC). Both he and brother George stayed on and went to work for

GMC of Canada. Sam later became President of GMC and in 1945, Chairman of the

Board. He passed away on January 3, 1971 at the age of 100 (Fig. 26).

(Fig. 22. R. S.

McLaughlin [1871-1972])


(Origin of the name “Canada Dry”)

The “Canada” part of the product name is easy to trace: As already discussed,

the company was started by a Canadian pharmacist who opened a small carbonated water

plant 1890 in Toronto. The “dry” part of the name is easier to understand when one

considers that the word “dry” has several different meanings other than “not wet,”

particularly as related to drinks. “Dry” can mean “not sweet” (as in dry wine), and it can

also mean, ”made with only a small portion of a particular ingredient” (as in “dry

martini” made with only a minimal amount of vermouth). In the early 20th century, most

ginger ales were much more dark, syrupy, and sweet than the product we’re used to

(Fig. 23. Sam McLaughlin's favorite Canada Dry advertising belt buckle)

(Fig. 24. Sam McLaughlin's Parkwood estate)

(Fig. 25. McLaughlin Carriage Co. adv. Card)

(Fig. 26. Robert S. McLaughlin

on 100th birthday)


today. After much experimentation, McLaughlin created a new, dry (i.e., less sweet) and

light soda he dubbed Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale…

…or as Canada Dry was establishing itself as a national brand in the U.S. market

in the early 1920s, the “dry” portion took on another (unintended) meaning when the

United States enacted national Prohibition and officially became a “dry country” (i.e.,

banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors). With alcohol from established

breweries no longer available through the legitimate market, many people turned to

rougher, home-brewed booze, and Canada Dry products proved to be the perfect mixers

to help disguise the raw taste of hooch (inferior or illicitly made or obtained).

(Canada Dry gets its Crown)

1918: Canada Dry earned the adulation of

royalty in 1918 when it was accepted by appointment

to the “Royal Household of the governor-general of

Canada.” Since 1867, the appointee to that office had

been designated by the King or Queen (of England) on

the advice of the Prime Minister for a period of usually

five years. The governor-general was both the

representative of the sovereign and an agent of the

British Government. The governor-general at the time

Canada Dry was honored, and the man responsible for

the honor, was Sir Victor Christian William

Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire (Fig. 27). The

London born duke was sworn in on November 11, 1916 in Halifax. He served until

August 10, 1921. As a result of the governor-general’s appointment of Canada Dry as

the drink of royalty, the trademark was later emblazoned with a golden crown which was

displayed on the “necktie” of bottles of the company’s products.

Canada Dry was sold in pint- or quart-sized green bottles [Figs. 2 through 17]; it

was legal and portable, and its simple, hygienic packaging capitalized on the public’s fear

of contaminated water. Soda pop could be purchased at the grocery store, and it could be

(Fig. 27. Duke of

Devonshire)


drunk at home, at a sporting event or it could be packed with a picnic. The bottles were

returnable: each one was embossed with McLaughlin’s name and some early ones bore

the stern reminder: “This bottle is my property. Anyone using, destroying or retaining

it will be prosecuted.”

(Canada Dry Comes to United States)

1922: Canada Dry Company set up a U. S. subsidiary as Canada Dry Ginger Ale,

Inc., early in 1922 and opened a manufacturing operation in New York. The new plant

was on 38th Street, on the western waterfront, in Manhattan with “a little two-room office

on Madison Avenue.” The plant was capable of turning out twenty-five thousand bottles

of ginger ale a day, but demand soon exceeded capacity, and by 1923 the family was

faced with a difficult decision: should they expand their American business or sell out?

With control divided among the various members of the McLaughlin family, it

was difficult to build up the necessary reserves to provide for such a major expansion.

The two McLaughlin brothers would have had no trouble borrowing the necessary

capital. They were acting, however, as trustees – the company really belonged to Jack’s

widow, Maud. It was her sole source of income, and any risk would jeopardize her and

her children’s future. Her oldest son, Donald, then in his twenties, was the intended heir,

but Donald seemed more interested in boats and girls than in running a multinational

corporation. Donald’s free and easy ways irritated his uncles.

Contrary to a number of accounts of Canada Dry in New York, the new

subsidiary there did not thrive because of its owners lacked the capital to expand.

According to one writer of the time, “…the offshoot did not prosper; the sap did not rise

in its balance sheet. The American subsidiary was, in short, a source of worry to the

Brothers McLauglin. They gave a friend in New York instructions that he should

diagnose the offshoot’s illness and tell them whether the disease was incurable, for they

were determined to kill or to cure.”

The friend that brothers George and Sam sent, turned out later to be P. D. Saylor,

one of the two people who bought the ailing New York branch of Canada Dry and the

whole company. On December 27, 1923, the entire Canada Dry Company was sold to


two Americans, Parry Dorland Saylor, an Ontario-born Canadian who was vice president

of the Dunlop Tire & Rubber Company and James M. Mathes, a vice president and

partner in the huge N. W. Ayer & Sons, Inc. Advertising Agency. The price was one

million American dollars. J. J. McLaughlin’s wastrel son Donald, as his last duty for

his late father’s company, delivered to Saylor and Mathes in New York his father’s secret

recipe for Canada Dry then went nightclubbing. That was the end of Canada Dry as a

Canadian beverage and company.

The new American company was incorporated in the state of Virginia. The

American subsidiary, appropriately called Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc., received its

corporate charter in 1923. Saylor became President, remaining in that position until

succeeded by Roy Worshan Moore in 1935 (see later discussion). Since the United

States had just increased import tariffs on ginger ale by 50 percent, Saylor and Mathes

had made a frugal move. Saylor pinned the million-dollar cancelled check as a trophy on

his office wall. He and Mathes had snapped up one of the biggest bargains in the history

of American industry – by 1930 Canada Dry would be worth $30 million.

In three years, Mathes and Saylor made Canada Dry Ginger Ale the largest selling

ginger ale in the world. One of the innovations the two men introduced was doing away

with the practice of having returnable bottles (a great nuisance, they felt, in a product for

sale nationally). That move assured bottle collectors of today would have plenty of

bottles to look for, but since those early bottles were paper labeled, there has not been a

great deal of interest. As the hobby of collecting bottles grows, paper-labeled bottles of

all kinds increase in interest and value. Another innovation was that the first year in the

New York area they spent $70,000 to promote Canada Dry Ginger Ale. The money was

spent not on quarter-page but on full-page spreads capitalizing on previous ads describing

Canada Dry as a favorite in the nightclubs of New York – a good mixer with illegal gin

and other alcohol. The aim of the modest campaign was to show the public a pop bottle

wearing a shining topper on its head.

By 1923, the country’s drinking habits, so violently disturbed by Prohibition,

were beginning to settle down again, “…with cheap gin at full tide.” The gin-drinking

evening was claiming a more and more important place in American entertainment,

whether in the suburban home, the college dormitory room, or the urban nightclub. For


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.


Another reason for ginger ale’s popularity was the Saylor-Mathes merchandising

strategy. In a relatively short period of time, they were spending up to $2,000,000 a year

in advertising that made a virtue of Canada Dry’s nightclub affiliations. The advertising

kept people conscious of its foreign origin long after it had ceased to be imported. They

sold only through jobbers; they gave no quantity discounts. By 1931, Canada Dry had

achieved annual sales of over $13,000,000 compared to their already mentioned

achievement in 1925 of $1,240,000.

(Canada Dry becomes American)

1923: “Down From Canada Came

Tales Of A Wonderful Beverage” was the

title used on the Canada Dry advertisement

that has gone down in the annals of

advertising as one of the most effective in

advertising history (Figure 28). George

Cecil, of N. W. Ayer & Son, was the man

who wrote the first Canada Dry

advertisement ever to appeal to the people of

the United States. Within two days he had

designed a winning series of similar ads. The

result story behind this campaign is just as

inspiring as the copy. The morning after the

first advertisement appeared (April 28,

1923), three New York jobbers telephoned

orders totaling 500 cases. In thirty days the

plant was working overtime. In ninety days, it was 300 percent oversold. During almost

all of 1923 orders were five to ten times the capacity of the New York plant. As already

mentioned, a new plant was built at Hudson, New York. At the time the plans were

drawn, it was thought that this plant would be large enough for all future needs. But it

(Fig. 28. "Down From Canada…" ad)


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

acquired for relatively small amounts of money.

(Fig. 29. Canada Dry bottle-

shaped opener)

(Fig. 30. Canada Dry – coin opener)

(Fig. 31. Canada Dry opener [green])


(Fig. 32. Canada Dry opener-stopper)

(“Carvinal Glass” Bottles)

1930-32 & 1934-35: “Carnival Glass” bottles?”

In 1930 and 1932, Owens-Illinois Glass Company at the

Fairmont, West Virginia plant made a stipple-flint bottle

for a Canada Dry orange drink. An iridescent gold spray

was applied to the bottle and then it was put through an

annealing (drying) process to bind the color to the glass

(Fig. 33). The bottle had a fancy label and the neck was

wrapped in gold foil (Fig. 34). The bottle was too costly

to make and the product did not sell well. In 1934 and

1935 a similar bottle of Sapphire blue spray was produced

on a test basis for Canada Dry Club Soda. This bottle was

too costly and was never pursued beyond the sample

stages. (Although people refer to these bottles as

“Carnival” glass, they are not.) The orange bottles are

embossed “Canada Dry” on the base and are fairly easy

for collectors today to find and they sell where old bottles are sold, for $15 to $25. The

same orange bottle with full labels is very hard to find and sells for $50 to $75 on today’s

market. The blue bottles are rare and no known sale of one has ever been recorded.

(Fig. 33. "Carnival"

glass bottle – no label)


(Fig. 34. Canada Dry "Carnival Glass" w-label)

(Repeal of National Prohibition)

1933: The repeal of the national Prohibition

Amendment in 1933 brought up for reconsideration the N.

W. Ayer & Son’s policy on not handling liquor advertising.

One of their most important clients was Canada Dry Ginger

Ale, Inc. which had decided to sell alcoholic beverages as

soon as repeal became effective. In July, 1933, the Ayer

management decided to continue its established policy and

gave notice of its decision to terminate its advertising

contract with Canada Dry.

Ginger ale, once 100 per cent of Canada Dry’s gross

sales, by the early 1930s was 65 per cent of its soft-drink

sales; and the remaining portion of sales was sparkling

water (17 per cent), Lemon-lime rickey (4 per cent), and a

(Fig. 35. Canada Dry's

Gin Bottle)


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


localities. They did not, however, merge Canada Dry operations with Seely and

Chelmsford at the time. Canada Dry felt relieved of the responsibility of bringing out a

quart bottle for their product. So, the “Champagne of Ginger Ales” continued to be

shipped in pints all over the country from either the Hudson or Chicago plant. By noting

those previous facts collectors of bottles will have another dating tool.

(Canada Dry franchises local bottlers)

Late 1920s: The annually mounting sales did not, even by 1928, lay bare the

latent absurdity of paying a $350,000 freight bill on a product consisting mostly of

water and glass. But by 1938 both Canada Dry and Clicquot Club announced plans

for franchising of bottlers for the bottling of and distribution of their products locally.

From then on, the bottled soft drink industry became practically 100% local, limited only

by the extent of trucking operations from the bottling plants.

Canada Dry introduced its sparkling water in 1932, in quart bottles. It sold well

enough for Mr. Saylor to announce in 1935 that it was, “rapidly making up for any

possible decline in the consumption of ginger ale which began to be felt in a slight

degree after repeal.”

In 1933 James Mathes, who had been a part owner of Canada Dry since 1922,

resigned his vice presidency with the N. W. Ayer & Son advertising agency. The reason

was that the agency did not believe in promoting strong drink which Canada Dry was just

then bringing into the business (see previous discussion). After his resignation he formed

his own agency, J. M. Mathes, Inc. and took the Canada Dry account with him.

During Prohibition, Canada Dry had never known for certain what percentage of

its product was mixed by the public with gin and other of the stronger stuff. The surveys

during prohibition showed at least half and possibly three-quarters was the correct

percentage. In 1937, on the basis of house-to-house surveys, neither Mr. Moore nor Mr.

Mathes believed it was more than 25 percent. Because ginger ale was no longer used

primarily as a mixer for bathtub gin, by the late 1930s, it became almost a barroom

curiosity. That was true for both Canada Dry and its major competitor Clicquot Club.

Sparkling water became the main barroom product of the company and doubled in sales


from $1,000,000 in 1936 to $2,000,000 in 1937. Lemon-lime rickey, which was

designed to mix with gin accounted for another $250,000 during the same period.

In 1928, Canada Dry hired, Dr. John Uri Lloyd, an eminent pharmaceutist, to look

into ginger. It took him years but in 1936 he finally developed a new and subtle way to

extract the root’s essences which gave Canada Dry a bit of an edge in the shrinking

ginger ale market. Dr. Lloyd with John L. Murphy, head of production, worked together

and developed a “pinpoint carbonation” method that kept the bubbles alive for a longer

time after the bottle was opened.

The six-ounce split, formerly native to bars, became the bottle sold to sellers of

soda pop. Canada Dry sold the splits for three and a half cents, to retail at a nickel.

These bottles were popular in the nickel vending machines that were just coming on line

in the late 1930s. During the same years, Canada Dry began emphasizing the sale of

ginger-ale syrup to drugstores where it was mixed by a “soda jerker” for a nickel, just

like Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola were.

(Applied Color Label [ACL])

1934: The specialty bottle and paper label era ended rather abruptly with the

coming of the fired-on, vitreous color decoration of glass bottles, which started

commercially in 1934. The ACL (Applied Color Label) bottles with variable and

permanent surface decoration performed substantially the same functions as container

design and paper labels. Canada Dry, like one of its major competitors, Clicquot Club,

began to use ACL bottle identification in 1940. Earlier Canada Dry bottles, as already

indicated, were paper labeled and are, perhaps, the hardest to find with full labels – 1937

bottling line (Fig. 36).


(Fig. 36. Canada Dry bottling plant in 1937)

From the 1940-1980s collectors discovered 87

different ACL (“painted label”) bottles (Fig. 37 & 38).

These collectibles show up at bottle shows and sales,

antiques shops and especially on Internet auction sites and

are sold at reasonable prices – $5 to $10.

Canada Dry first experimented with tin cans to

contain its products in 1951. The first of their products to

come in a can was Spur Cola and the can was a 12-ounce

cone top. Obviously successful, the experiment was

continued and in 1952 with eight additional products

including the company’s famous ginger ale: Black Cherry

(Fig. 39), Spur Cola, Ginger Ale (Fig. 40), Grape, Hi-Spot Lemon, Orange, and Root Beer (Fig. 41). [Clean

mostly-rust-free examples of those first (cone top) cans sell

for around $100 today on the collectors’ market.]

(Fig.37. Canada Dry

Spur ACL bottle)


[In 1953, after just two years with cone-top cans, Canada Dry switched to flat-top

cans. They were the first to use the flat-top tin can in the soft drink industry.]

(Fig. 38. Canada Dry Ad for

Spur Cola ACL 1944)

(Fig. 39. Canada Dry Black Cherry

Cone-top can)

(Fig. 40. Canada Dry Ginger

Ale Cone-top can)

(Fig. 41. Canada Dry Root

Beer Cone-top can)


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,

Diet Tonic, Ginger Ale, Diet Ginger Ale, Cranberry Ginger Ale, Club Soda, Collins

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


got in touch with his friend Jack Kirkpatrick, who was with the Laurens Glass Works in

Laurens, South Carolina,

It was Laurens Glass Works that manufactured the now very famous LBJ

ACL bottle, the obverse of which is shown as Fig. 42. W. D. Matthews had them

shipped from Laurens to his bottling plant in San Antonio and they were filled with

Canada Dry Club Soda which the bottle-markings explain is “Scientifically treated

carbonated water, sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate and other mineral salts.” The 7-

ounce clear glass bottle is the only known soda bottle to have an official state seal

imprinted on it. The seal of the Vice-President of the United States was done in red,

white and blue with gold, making the bottle the only known four-color ACL soda bottle.

An ACL blue band on the neck of the bottle reads, “Bottled for the Honorable Lyndon B.

Johnson.” The reverse of the bottle (Fig. 43) carries the standard information found on a

Canada Dry Club Soda bottle of 1963.

(Fig. 42. (obverse) LBJ ACL

soda bottle)

(Fig. 43. (reverse) LBJ

ACL soda bottle)


According to a recent exhibit at the South Carolina State Museum, “…the

Laurens Glass Works (1910-1996) made 2,400 special Canada Dry bottles bearing the

vice-presidential seal. Lyndon Johnson planned to serve them at a reception honoring

John F. Kennedy during his visit to Texas on November 22, 1963. The reception, of

course, never occurred.” The special bottles were stocked on LBJ’s ranch for planned

regular use at all functions during the last years of Johnson’s vice presidency. Of course

the vice presidency didn’t last but the bottle were retained at the ranch and used until they

were emptied and “discarded.” Besides the ranch dump, some were saved and made it to

the collector marketplace. The price for these important bottles on the collector market is

somewhere between $250 and $400.

The story of the famous ACL bottle produced to honor LBJ the Vice President of

the United States and thank him for giving the keynote address at the National Bottlers

Convention in Dallas ends on an ironic note. LBJ never did deliver the address to the

convention because on the same day he was to deliver the speech, President, John F.

Kennedy was assassinated and LBJ was sworn in as the 36th President of the United

States.

The LBJ Applied Color Label (ACL) bottle has become the most famous and

most valuable of all of what has casually been called by collectors as “painted label”

bottles.

The only other commemorative bottle issued by Canada Dry was made in 1981.

The paper-labeled bottle was made in honor of the wedding of “His Royal Highness, the

Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer.” This 200ml bottle with a complete label sells

currently on the collector market for $35 to $50.

Another fact collectors of Canada Dry memorabilia will find worth noting is that

Canada Dry was the first major soft drink company to introduce sugar-free drinks. The

year was 1964.


(Multiple New Owners)

By the 1980s, the company had been passed along to numerous owners. First to

the Del Monte Corporation, then to RJR Nabisco, then to the Dr Pepper Company, on to

Norton-Simon Inc., and then to Cadbury-Schweppes (for $230 million).

(Today)

Today, Canada Dry products are sold in 90 countries and on six continents

(Fig. 44). One of the current advertisements for Canada Dry (Fig. 45) features a can of

the famous beverage with a winter scene of Lake Louise in Canada in the background –

conclude this reading by feasting your eyes on this beautiful frozen body of water.

# # # # #

44. Canada Dry bottles today

(Fig. 45. A can of Canada Dry with Lake

Louise in background)


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:


Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1970. •Munsey, Cecil. The Illustrated Guide to the COLLECTIBLES OF COCA-COLA. New

York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1972. •Riley, John J. American Soft Drink Industry. Washington, DC: American Bottlers of

Carbonated Beverages, 1958. •Riley, John J. Organization of the Soft Drink Industry. Washington, DC: American

Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages, 1946. •Robertson, Heather. Driving Force: The Mclaughlin Family and the Age of the Car.

Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Steward, 1996. •Tchudi, Stephen N. Soda Poppery - the History of soft Drinks in America. New York:

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1986. •Watkins, Julian Lewis. The 100 Greatest Advertisements. New York: Dover

Publications, 1959. •Witzel, Michael Karl & Witzel, Gyvel. Soda Pop! From Miracle Medicine to Pop

Culture. Stillwater, MN: Town Square Books – Voyageur Press, Inc., 1998.

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)


# # # # #

BONUS RESEARCH

“Dictionary of Canadian Biography’

by

M. Patricia Bishop

McLAUGHLIN, JOHN JAMES pharmacist and manufacturer; b. 2 March 1865

near Enniskillen, Durham County, Upper Canada, son of Robert McLaughlin* and Mary

Smith; m. 23 Oct. 1890 Maude Christie in New York City, and they had a daughter and

three sons, one of whom died in infancy; d. 28 Jan. 1914 in Toronto.

A grandson of immigrants from the north of Ireland, J. J. McLaughlin attended public

school in Enniskillen. After his father had moved his carriage-building business to

Oshawa, Jack, as he was known, completed his studies at the high school there. He hoped

to be a doctor, but decided on a career in pharmacy; he was apprenticed in Oshawa and in

1885 he graduated from the Ontario College of Pharmacy in Toronto. He moved to

Brooklyn (New York City), where he took a postgraduate course in pharmacy, worked as

a dispenser, and then managed one of Brooklyn’s largest pharmacies. It was there that he

conceived of starting in the soda-water and mineral-water business.

Arising out of a centuries-old belief in the salubrity of natural mineral waters, an

industry had developed in Europe and the United States by the late 1880s for the

manufacture and distribution of bottled carbonated beverages. With the addition of

flavoured syrups and ingredients such as ginger extract, they were consumed more and

more for pleasure, often at drugstores. McLaughlin had arrived in Brooklyn at exactly the

right time to combine his background in pharmacy with his entrepreneurial skills.


Returning to Toronto in 1890 after a study tour of European producers, McLaughlin

set himself the goal of developing a pale, dry ginger ale, ostensibly as a non-alcoholic

rival for champagne but more likely in the hope of surpassing the popular ginger ales

then on the market. In a shop near City Hall he began producing mineral water and soda

water, and he distributed them in siphon-bottles, which he is credited with introducing to

consumers in Toronto. Despite competition – there were about 12 producers in the city in

1891 – the business grew enough to warrant a move to larger premises, at Queen and

Victoria streets. McLaughlin’s advertisements were often quite outspoken: “Don’t suicide

by drinking” city water, one warned. Still styling himself a “manufacturing chemist,”

McLaughlin expanded his line to include Hygeia Sparkling Waters, sarsaparilla, lemon

sour, cream soda, ginger beer, cola, fruit syrups, crushed fruits, and other supplies. In

1893 success necessitated another move, to Sherbourne Street. Maude McLaughlin was

an invaluable help in the development of the business; she often offered suggestions as to

how recipes might be improved and was to provide the slogan for the brand of ginger ale

that McLaughlin would make famous.

To facilitate expansion, McLaughlin opened shops to manufacture the metal, wooden,

and marble equipment needed to carbonate, blend, and serve soft drinks in drugstores,

restaurants, and department stores and to make other soda parlour essentials such as ice-

cream. These products became the core of his business. Italian marble was imported for

counter tops. Among the most prestigious clients were the Hudson’s Bay Company in

Edmonton, the Robert Simpson Company in Toronto, and the Orpheum Store in

Montreal.

Soon after the turn of the century, the sweet, dark gold, Belfast-style ginger ale

bottled and sold by McLaughlin, and patterned after a ginger ale long popular in Ireland

and Canada, was changed to a less sugared substance of lighter colour. To market it, the

slogan that would become known the world over, “The Champagne of Ginger Ales,” and

a label that featured a map of Canada and a beaver were devised. On 25 Oct. 1905

J. J. McLaughlin Limited was incorporated; the following month an application was filed

for the trademark, Canada Dry Pale Dry Gingerale. By 1906 the drink had been launched.

Rapid growth followed, and branch plants were opened in Winnipeg and Edmonton. So

successful was Canada Dry, the trade name for which was officially registered on


18 Jan. 1907, that several substantial offers were made to McLaughlin’s company to sell

the formula and to establish a factory in the United States, but all offers were rejected.

Only in 1922 would McLaughlin’s brothers, George William and Robert Samuel*, back

the establishment of a plant in New York City under the name of Canada Dry Gingerale

Incorporated.

Since the 1890s McLaughlin had suffered from ill health, although, according to the

Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, he “all the time kept in touch with his business.” He

died of a heart attack in 1914 at his home at 81 Glen Road and was buried in St James’

Cemetery. Described by the Toronto Daily Star as “one of Toronto’s shrewdest

businessmen,” McLaughlin, less widely publicized than his car-making brothers, died as

he had lived, with quiet dignity. A reserved and scholarly man who spent much of his

leisure reading and golfing, he took a special interest in civic affairs, attended Rosedale

Presbyterian Church, and privately performed many philanthropic acts. At the same time,

he displayed the ingenuity and entrepreneurial vision needed to pioneer an important

industry in Canada.

http://www.biographi.ca/Vol_XIV_B_Eng.htm


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

Cecil Munsey, PhD

13541 Willow Run Road Poway, CA 92064-1733

Phone: 858-487-7036

Email: [email protected]

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.]

# # # # #

Documents

1274 Canada Dry