The Covert-O-Matic-a Revolutionary Vending Machine

In the early 1960s, the Coca-Cola Company was changing the way it went to market. For the first time, Coca-Cola was not the only brand that was available to bottlers. Fanta had made its appearance soon to be followed by Sprite and Tab. Additionally, new king-sized bottles were in distribution along with steel cans.

Vending machines had been designed to dispense the standard 6.5 oz contour bottle for years, but all of these new packaging and product changes demanded a change. In 1960, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation introduced the Convert-O-Matic, a vending machine that could handle multiple products and packages.The machine could handle 6.5, 8, 10 and 12 oz bottles and could also be adapted to handle cans. It also had the capability to price products at either 10 or 15 cents.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a collector who had one of the most unusual machines in this line. This version only vended steel cans and had a built-in can opener where the bottle opener would normally reside. That is definitely a rare machine for anyone to have in their collection. Check out these photos.

       

Boys And Girls Club of America

I am a little late blogging about this, but I still wanted to share an opportunity for everyone to get a sneak peak at one of the ads from this weekends big game and to support the Boys and Girls Club of America.

As you can tell from this 1948 photograph showing a delivery truck with a message for the Boy's Club, The Coca-Cola Company has a long heritage of supporting the Boys and Girls Club of America.  Many of our Chairman from Woodruff on down have served on the Board of BGCA culminating in Roberto Goizueta announcing a 10 year $ 60 million dollar commitment.

This year, if you give a gift of a virtual Coca-Cola on Facebook, the Company will donate a dollar to the Club and you will be give a 20 second sneak peak of one of the new ads. 

Spotlight on The World of Coca-Cola - Mean Joe Greene Jersey Poster

 30 years ago during the big game, the all-time fan favorite Mean Joe Greene commercial aired while his team went on to take the victory. Last year, we did a two part (Part 1, Part 2) interview with him about the making of the commercial and he told us that the boy who starred in the commercial with him, Tommy Okun, got the actual jersey used during the filming. Did you know that you too also could have had a Mean Joe jersey? This poster, which is in the World of Coca-Cola's sports and entertainment Milestones Gallery, was part of the Joe Greene "Wear my number and name" promotion. For only $7.99 with the purchase of Coke, thousands of fans also wore #75. You can also see the famous Mean Joe Greene "Early Showers" commercial in the Advertising Theater.

One other tidbit that amazed me was when Joe told me that he was the second choice for the ad and that Roger Staubach was the first choice.  As much as I liked Roger, I do not think the ad would have had the same power and impression as it did with Joe.

Collector Focus - Krystal Gaubert

Last week I posted a story about James Love and his Coca-Cola Collection, I have also received a Twitter post from Krystal Gaubert with some photographs and a link to a newspaper article on her collection that I wanted to share with you.

Krystal sent me the some information on her collection.

I have been collecting since I was 7. One piece at a time, till it has now grown into something beyond my control! I have a few favorites! Its impossible to choose just one. A few favs: a Coca-Cola neon sign I received as a Christmas gift, a couple cans from various countries with all the text in a different language, a Coca-Cola hoodie, an old Coca-Cola pocket book with its original paper and lead pencil, and some old Coca-Cola blotters!

I have included some of the photos Krystal sent, including one with the Coca-Cola script tattooed on her arm.  Now that is dedication.  If anyone is participating in the sharez contest on mybrands.com, vote for Krystal as the Coke rep.

 

Saving Your Treasures - How to preserve a poster

Over the next few months, we'll be presenting a series on the blog that will teach you how to preserve your historic photos, documents and items in your own archives collection, using as examples items from our Coca-Cola Archives. This first example - fitting for of Black History month - features a poster from an early series of ads in the 1950s featuring African Americans. A colleague of mine brought this poster to me that hung in her grandmother's store in Alabama years ago. There was a lot of wear and tear on the 50 year-old poster, so I asked preservationist Bob Inge of Inge Preservations to see what he could do to restore the piece. While we will have some do-it-yourself tips in future posts, this is certainly a "don't try this at home" restoration project. Bob shared some details of the treatment process he used in restoring this poster with us, and this is the story of that process:

BEFORE

1. Cleaned it with a Magic Rub 1954 eraser and then with a damp cotton ball to remove surface grime from the front.
2. Immersed the whole piece is cold water to float off the surface print to separate it from its acidic backing. This is done because the paper the print is on is often of better quality than the backing boards and can last much longer if the rotten board is replaced. (On this piece, the print did not float off because it was put on with a non reversible adhesive so I had to slowly and carefully pull off the board layers a bit at a time while it was under water. This took all day!)
3. I let it dry thoroughly, then I light bleached the whole print for two hours on the front and 4 hours on the back and then let it dry again.
4. Spot bleached the stained areas and then rinsed it.
5. While wet I lined it with Japanese tissue using wheat starch paste that I prepared myself by cooking it.
6. Let dry thoroughly.
7. Humidified the print by sandwiching it between teflon sheets and placing it on top of a wet blotter and put a piece of glass on top to let it flatten out, and placed it under a lot of weight.
8. I attached the lined print to a new archival board and trimmed the edges of the board to the print edges.
9. My wife, Linda, inpainted the damaged areas that had pigment loss with reversible acrylics. 

AFTER

This finished piece should last a very long time as long as it is stored well now that it is off its rotten backing and the water staining has been reduced. I sometimes wonder if these treated pieces will be the only examples left after 100 years. These posters were originally mounted onto very poor quality board that through acid degradation will eventually destroy the surface print. I have heard some people say that keeping the piece all original keeps it's value, but if the original boards are destroying the artwork chemically, structurally, and visually then what is the point of paying big dollars for something that is almost dead or dying quickly? I write this thinking that this issue will probably come up on a blog at some point and is worth a good discussion. 

- Bob Inge, Preservationist

Utilizing professional preservationist is of the ways we save our Coca-Cola history, and one route you can take as well for the most fragile of your items. As Bob also noted, a piece like this should not be displayed where it is exposed to direct sunlight or florescent light.

Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell

Today, February 3rd, is Norman Rockwell's birthday.  I posted a few weeks ago about the new painting by Rockwell that we had acquired, but I wanted to take the occasion of his birthday to spread the word that we are still looking for three of his paintings used for Coca-Cola ads in the 1920s and 1930s.  We periodically spread the word about the missing artwork, so let us know if you have ever seen any of these three, and Happy Birthday Norman!

 
   

Spotlight on The World of Coca-Cola - 1953 Football Play Refreshed Poster

As we come to the end of the football playoffs and we prepare to enter Black History month, this poster in the World of Coca-Cola is relevant for both. You'll find this 1953 poster in the loft area at the New World of Coke, which is decked out with Coke memorabilia from over a century. It features Pro Football Hall of Famers Marion Motley, Bill Willis and Emlen Tunnell, and Leonard Ford. If you get close enough to read the fine print, you'll see that Motley is called a "Powerful Fullback", Willis a "Panther-Like Guard", Tunnell a "Spectacular Safety Man" and Ford a "Giant Wingman." Motley and Willis were also the first to break pro football's color barrier.

Collector Focus - James Love

We recently received photographs and a letter from a young collector that I wanted to share with you.  James Love is only 17 years old, but he has already amassed a wonderful collection.  I reached out to James with some questions and here are his answers.

What was your first item and how did you begin collecting?

As a young child, I sort of grew up with Coke.  My aunt worked for The Coca-Cola Company and sent me a stuffed polar bear when I was about 5.  In 2000, when I was 8, we took a trip to Atlanta to visit my aunt, and she took us The World of Coke Museum. I saw an old 1950’s vending machine, and there were people around the machine putting quarters in it and a glass bottle would come out.  I was completely drawn toward this machine because I had never seen a glass bottle before and I thought it was very unique.  I drank one of the glass bottles, loved the taste, and saved the bottle as a memory.  Later that night my family went to a grocery store and I saw a six-pack of glass bottles.  I had to have it. I bought it drank them all and saved them.  Well we got back home and I put these bottles on a shelf in my room as a memory.  Then I remembered that stuffed polar bear that I was given to me; took it out of the toy chest and put it on display as well. 

What are your favorite items in your collection?

I think the most important ones would have to be the stuffed polar bear and those glass bottles that started it all. I don’t think that I would have a collection if it were not fore these items.  Next, I think back to the summer of 2008 when I returned to Atlanta. My aunt set up a meeting for me with a vice president, Mary Riddle, who is also from Danville.  I showed her pictures of my collection and she loved them.  A couple weeks later she came by my house and gave me an Olympic pin and coin set.  This was very special to me because it is very rare and it was given to me by someone of The Coca-Cola Company.  Another item or set of items that is very important to me is my National Geographic magazines. I have about 150 National Geographics. Every one has a Coca-Cola add on them.  The reason they are special is the dates of the magazines.  The National Geographics dates range from 1937 to 1964.

How do you get the items for your collection?

My collection has grown tremendously since that first bottle.  However, I have purchased maybe 10 percent of my collection.  90 percent has been given to me as gifts.  For 10 years I have received Coca-Cola memorabilia for both Christmas’s and birthdays.  Many kids want toys and electronics but I wanted Coca-Cola.  Many of my friends say I am addicted to Coca-Cola, but I always tell them, “ It’s not an addiction, it’s dedication.”

 

Coca-Cola Conversations 2nd Birthday and Coke By The Numbers

The monitors in the loft portion of the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta display a feature we call "Coke by the Numbers," which have a dizzying array of numerical facts about our Company.  For example, did you know that in the first year of operation, we only averaged sales of nine drinks per day?

We were recently discussing some of the numbers associated with our blog and other social media outlets and we were amazed at the outreach.  Part of this was spurred on by the fact that this blog just celebrated its second birthday on Saturday, January, 23rd.  In those two years, we have written over 450 posts and fielded over 3,700 comments.  While we are still not able to answer questions about the value of individual collectibles, we have created a section of the blog which gives you broad guidelines on values.

In addition to the blog, we have started our own YouTube Channel where we have posted 45 videos which have been viewed nearly 500,000 times.  We are really excited about the addition of videos to the YouTube Channel and embedding them on the blog and are proud of some of the content like the Cooking with Coke series featuring James Beard nominated Chef Linton Hopkins and the oral history interview with Mean Joe Greene.

We have also launched a facebook page where you can join the more that 600 fans of the Coke Archives and you can also follow us now on Twitter where we are approaching 500 followers.  While you will generally see all of our blog post on these two sites, we try to offer some different or expanded stories and photos via facebook and Twitter.

Thanks to everyone who has read and commented on the site these last two years and I hope that we will continue to provide a blog that entertains and educates.

Friday Spotlight on the World of Coca-Cola - 1930s American Flyer Kite

One of my favorite items on display at the World of Coca-Cola is one of the more unusual and fragile artifacts.  The "logo" portion of the Milestones of Refreshment Gallery features a number of items which have the standard spencerian Coca-Cola logo.  I have blogged about several of the other items in this case including the airline cooler and the sandwich press so you know we have fun stuff in this case.

The image to the left is a 1930s American Flyer kite.  Because paper disintegrates over time and kite are rather fragile and prone to end up in trees, this is a pretty rare  item.  The one on display was acquired by the Archives in the mid 1990s and we had it restored.  The most recent price guide list the estimated value of a kite in good condition between $ 250 and $ 350 dollars.