On May 8th, 1886, the Coca-Cola was first served at Jacobs' Pharmacy at 2 Marietta Street in Atlanta, Georgia.  127 years later I wanted to take a moment to echo the text in the ad, "The party's on - Have a Coke!" Here's to the next 127 years! ^TR

In November 2011, I was invited to attend the opening of an exhibit at the Ghent Design Museum in Belgium.  The Archives had jointly curated the exhibit on 125 Years of Coca-Cola Design with a team from Coca-Cola Belgium.  I wrote a blog about the exhibit, and at the time marveled at the innovative way the Coca-Cola Script had been painted on the wall as a design feature.  If you stood in one location, the script looked normal.  As one walked around the room and perspective changed, the logo lost its form.  I was pleased to learn today that that the team responsible for the display, Ruud Belmann and the design group, Pinkeye, received an award for design details.  You can check out additional photos and the nomination form here.  Congrats Pinkeye! ^TR

Marilyn Pryce Hoytt, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing for this soda fountain story, has Coca-Cola roots that go way back, and all around the world. In our conversation, she shared the following Coca-Cola story with me:

"In the early 1960s, when I first went to Paris as a Merrill Scholar from Spelman College, a Blimpie's Restaurant opened. We Americans flocked there to have a Coke and a rather small hamburger. In the late '60s, at various embassy parties when I lived in Ethiopia, Coke was available. In the 1980s when I became

an instructor of French, I learned that the word "coca" had become a generic term due to the popularity of Coca-Cola. Today, it is rewarding to know that Coca-Cola, and especially my favorite, Coke Zero, is served around the world. When you are abroad and have a Coke, you're back home!

Soda fountains were a part of growing up in and on the campus of Tuskegee Institute . In the 1950s, as teenagers, we frequented Burroughs’ Drugstore (in the Chambliss Building--see photo below), Carter’s Store (on “The Block”) and the newest, most modern soda fountain was Allen’s Store. There we could sip a Coke and have a hot dog just like folks we saw on television.

Members of my family have a long history with soda fountains and Coca-Cola. Pryce’s Pharmacies have been in operation in Lake Charles, Louisiana and Los Angeles, California, since 1908. Although the Los Angeles pharmacies are now closed, one was operated by my grandfather, Dr. George S. Pryce, and the other by his son, Dr. George C. Pryce. My father, Edward L. Pryce, grew up working in the drugstore. At the tender age of 9, he stood on a crate to ring up Coca-Cola at the cash register.

The original pharmacy is still in existence in Lake Charles, and is owned and operated by my cousin, Dr. Frank Y. Pryce."

Please be sure to click over to read the great history of her family’s Pryce’s Pharmacy soda fountains, which opened in 1908 and served Coca-Cola to its customers in Lake Charles, Louisiana and Los Angeles, California.

Sunday is Veterans Day in the United States and I wanted to share two stories, one about Coca-Cola and one about a veteran who is very special to me. Readers of our blog will know how The Coca-Cola Company responded to a request from General Eisenhower to set up bottling plants to provide Coca-Cola to the Allied Troops in North Africa. Our Chairman, Robert Woodruff took that request and then committed that every soldier should be able to get a Coke for a nickel regardless of where they were stationed. The Company went to extraordinary effort to construct 64 bottling plants around the world to keep that pledge. One of the sailors who served during WWII was my father-in-law, Joseph T. Brogan.  Joe Brogan joined the Coast Guard after graduating from Roman Catholic High in Philadelphia in 1942.  As an 18 year old inductee, he was assigned to serve on the USS Charlotte (PF-60.)  Even though the Charlotte was a Naval ship, it was crewed by the Coast Guard. Joe was with the Charlotte as she did her shakedown and inaugural voyage beginning in January of 1943. The Charlotte was stationed in the North Atlantic and did duty as a Patrol Frigate in those frigid waters.  She also did weather station duty gathering meteorological data to track the eastward flowing storms. Last weekend, I took my sons to visit Joe and asked him to share some of the stories on board the ship.  He has a beautiful book that is filled with photographs that he showed the kids. While he was telling his stories, I asked if they had Coca-Cola on board.  “You bet we did,” was the answer.  He even joked that while the ship was stationed in the North Atlantic there was plenty of ice! As a member of what Tom Brokaw called the “Greatest Generation,” Joe served his country for four years on board the Charlotte and formed bonds that have lasted a lifetime.  He has attended several of the crew reunions and still keeps in touch with some of his old friends.  After the war, Joe returned to Philadelphia to resume his interrupted college education at Villanova University where he graduated in 1950.  The Coast Guard motto is Semper Paratus! Always Prepared! And this Veterans Day, I want to thank a veteran who has always been prepared to serve his country and share time with his family. Thanks Joe! ^TR                    

October 24th is World Polio Day, focusing attention on continuing efforts to totally eradicate the disease.  I have two polio stories I wanted to share, one personal and one Coca-Cola. During the summer of 1946, at the tender age of 6, my father contracted polio.  While he never ended up in an iron lung, he was hospitalized and was totally paralyzed for several weeks.  He was amazingly fortunate and the feeling slowly began to return to his limbs.  Over the next six months he had to re-learn how to walk and use his muscles - then he returned to school.  The only long term impact of the illness was that one of his thumbs has a limited range of motion. Nine years after dad contracted polio, Jonas Salk and his team developed the first vaccine, offering a means to eliminate the illness. Coca-Cola and our bottlers in Latin America were very active in efforts to distribute the polio vaccine.  I wanted to focus on one such event in Buenos Aires from 1964.  The Coca-Cola office and our local bottlers were part of a larger group involved in a mass immunization effort.  Due to the perishable nature of the vaccine, over 1 million doses were shipped from Belgium and had to be quickly distributed throughout the province.  The Coca-Cola bottler put his trucking fleet to work to get the vaccines delivered to the various stations and over 16 hours they delivered 1 million doses to 280 stations which were immediately administered. Efforts like this were repeated is several different countries in South America.  Programs like these were part of the reason the disease has been contained as much as it has - and for that we should all be thankful.  I know my dad is.  ^TR  

You might have read that Coca-Cola was first served at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928. Below is a quote from a writeup in The Red Barrel magazine in February, 1929 describing how visitors to the Olympic Games in Amesterdam insteracted with the brand:

Visitors to the 1928 Games found Coca-Cola on sale at all cafes, restaurants, and small shops called “winkles” and at many kiosks outside and around the Olympic Stadium and the Rowing Course. Men wearing Coca-Cola caps and coats sold the bottled drink to the sporting crowds, while soda fountains near the entrances to the Stadium were available to those who preferred Coca-Cola in the glass. Various advertising pieces were on display, including eight Coca-Cola bulletins above each of the eight entrances to the Olympic Stadium. The Coca-Cola bottler at Amsterdam erected Coca-Cola billboards and secured Coca-Cola painted walls along the main canals and streets of the city.

Please see the photo below of one of the Coca-Cola signs above the entrances on the Coca-Cola page timeline on Facebook:  

Our colleagues in Coca-Cola Great Britain unveiled a new Facebook app this week.  The Coca-Cola Olympic Games Newspaper Maker allows newspapers from five decades to be mocked up pitting you against your Facebook friends in a variety of sports.  Coke Archives helped the team with the facts and ads used in the various newspapers.  In the sample paper to the left, I have been bested in my Fencing match by Jo Allen.  Pretty clever app.  ^TR

I was recently researching in our oral history collection and came across an envelope of what looked like magnetic cards.  The envelope the cards were in indicated they were part of an interview with James Farley.  Farley was a luminary with The Coca-Cola Company and was critical to the world wide expansion of our business.  He had been the head of the Democratic National Committee from 1932 to 1940 and was Postmaster General in President F.D. Roosevelt's Cabinet.  He resigned in 1940 and became Chairman of the Coca-Cola Export Corporation which was responsible for the sale of Coca-Cola outside of the US and Canada, a position he held until the early 1970s. I sent photographs of the magnetic cards to Paul Lasewicz, the Archivist for IBM to see if he could help me determine what they were.  Paul sent back a note identifying the cards as part of the IBM Selectric typewriter system from the late 60s or early 70s.  Paul noted "the machine allowed secretaries to type at rough draft speed, then stored the draft in an editable format (the mag card) which allowed them to make any corrections needed before printing the document. You can imagine how this improved efficiency, not just by speeding the typing but by also allowing for soft-copy versions of repetitive documents like form letters. We had a similar product that was based on magnetic tape that was introduced in 1964. Back then it wasn't called word processing - we called it 'power typing'." Unfortunately, they do not have any readers that can process the mag cards, so it is a good thing I also have a printout of the oral history transcript!

I am in Cape Town to interview Albie Louw about his 1959 album with the Coca-Cola advert on the cover. Ironically, this issue of Coca-Cola Overseas with Cape Town on the cover was probably the current issue at the time Albie's "Wonderful One" album was released. The caption on this photo in the magazine read, "A magnificent view of Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town nestled between the heights and harbor entrance." By the way, we did a video interview with Albie's old friend, Jacob Clarence, yesterday. You will never believe how he came across our original blog post when we asked the world if they knew about his friend! Stay tuned!

Live from South Africa: Happy 126th Birthday, Coca-Cola! We had a celebration today in the office here in Parktown, Johannesburg, as we shared the history, stories and heritage of Coca-Cola in South Africa with employees. The session was packed, and we had a lot of fun! To see additional photos, check our Facebook page!