75 Years Ago Today...The California Pacific International Exposition

On this date in 1935, the America's Exposition opened in San Diego and Coca-Cola was there.  This photo shows "The Pause That Refreshes" kiosk where visitors to the Exposition could purchase a Coke. Besides this kiosk, dispensing stands were available throughout the Exposition grounds. 

There were many ways to spend your day at the Exposition - with multiple attractions available.  One of the most risque was the Zoro Gardens where visitors could pay to view the activities of "nudist" performers.   

The Exposition ran from May 29th until November 11th and over 5 million visitors made the trip to San Diego.  In the April issue of the Coca-Cola Bottler publication, it was estimated that the food and lodging for one person in the San Diego area would amount to $2.00 per day exclusive of incidentals, such as, candy, cigarettes, and refreshments. 

Vintage Vendor To The Victor!

 
Our group always has interesting assignments pop up. We were recently asked to help our Coca-Cola North America Sports group source a vintage vending machine to be given to the winner of the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte this Memorial Day Weekend.  Working with Terry Kimble of Remember When Collectibles, we were able to buy a 1958 Vendo 44 machine and have it delivered to Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Yesterday, during a press conference at Victory Row, driver Denny Hamlin was posed with the machine he is hoping to win this weekend.  Denny is a member of The Coca-Cola Racing Family, so I will be pulling for him or one of our other drivers to take it home.

Memorial Day and Coca-Cola

Since Memorial Day weekend is upon us, I wanted to highlight a photo in the World Of Coca-Cola World War II exhibit.  When WWII started, Robert Woodruff stated that American GI's should be able to purchase a bottle of Coke for 5 cents regardless of where they were stationed. Soon after plant operations were developed so that Coke could be shipped to foreign countries.  In this photo, a soldier is unloading crates of Coke at the supply depot in Italy during the War.  Soldiers were also issued ration cards to keep track of the number of Coke's they received each week.

So, this Memorial Day weekend, enjoy a Coke and the official beginning of summer.

    

Happy Birthday to Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange, the noted American photographer, was born on this day in 1895.  She is best known for her photos taken as part of the Farm Security Administration and later the Office of War Information documenting the impact of the Great Depression and later World War Two.  Numerous noted photographers participated in the project including Waker Evans, and Marion Post Wolcott.  The FSA/OWI collection at the Library of Congress features over 170,000 negatives and 100,000 prints.  The images are both moving and informative - capturing daily life in America.The Library of Congress recently launched a page on the Flickr photo sharing site focusing on the collection.  If you enjoy photography, visit the Flickr collection to see their new photo each day.

There are many Coca-Cola related signs and posters in this collection and the photo above, taken by Lange's contemporary, Walker Evans titled "General Store Moundville, Alabama has a wonderful 1936 Coca-Cola poster firmly tacked to the wall.  That poster would be worth several thousand dollars now... assuming the condition was good enough.

Coca-Cola Glazed Chicken Wings

I just ran across this great cooking site that is featuring a Coca-Cola recipe developed by Virginia Willis who did one of the cooking demonstrations at the World of Coca-Cola last year.  The wings in this recipe look great and the site is loaded with information.

If you have not looked in a while, check our our newly organized Food and Drink section of the blog to see the latest videos and recipes we have posted.

Steamy Kitchen - Coca-Cola Glazed Baked Wings

1st Standard Paper Cup

In May of 1941, the Advertising Department of The Coca-Cola Company sent a memo to all bottlers of Coca-Cola.  The text of the memo read:

"Ice cold Coca-Cola tastes best when drunk directly from the chilled bottle.  However, in some communities local laws prohibit the sale, at public gatherings, of beverages in bottles.  This naturally, led to the paper cup into which the drink was poured before serving the customer.  In order to standardize on one design and to make it available at a satisfactory price, the arrangement outlined in the letter of the Lily-Tulip Cup Corporation has been worked out."

That letter had a list price of $ 3.88 per one thousand cups and the first standardized Coca-Cola paper cup went into the marketplace.

An Old Friend In A Photograph - Franklin M. Garrett

I was going through some old photos in the Collection today when I stumbled across an old friend.  We often used images of our products in market as part of our training courses for our service force.  In the photograph to the left, Franklin Garrett had to serve as a stand-in model for a service station photo shoot. 

People in Atlanta will remember the Franklin Garret served as the City's Official Historian for a number of years and was long associated with the Atlanta History Center.

However, many readers do not know that Franklin was employed by The Coca-Cola Company in 1940 as Asst. Head of the Advertising Department and eventually rose to the position of Director of Information before he took early retirement in 1974 to assume the role of President of the Atlanta History Center.  While Garrett possessed a Law Degree, history was his passion and he even noted on an internal Company memo that his function was "compiling and making Company history available for use."

Anyone who has researched at the Atlanta History Center will recognize Franklin's distinctive handwriting on this document on the "Origin and Progress of Coca-Cola in Bottles."  I also value his meticulous  research and his ability to tell a great story in an interesting fashion. 

I wonder how he was pressed into service as a model for this photo from 1941?

LeBron James and NASCAR Hood

In celebration of NASCAR Day 2010, I've decided to featurea NASCAR hood that is on display at the World of Coca-Cola in the Sports and Entertainment Gallery.  While it might seem unusual to pair basketball and car racing, LeBron James was featured on a NASCAR hood as a sponsor of Powerade in 2005.  NASCAR Day is the third Friday in May and falls on May 21st this year. This day highlights charitable organizations that benefit children and adults alike.

When we were installing this hood in the display case, it was initially too wide to fit in the case. As a last resort, our exhibit designers decided to bend the hood as much as possible until it narrowly squeezed in.

May Flower Arranging with Coke

On this day in 1932, Coke launched the "When You Entertain" campaign with Ida Bailey Allen, who could be described as the Martha Stewart of her time. Now that we're in the month of May and we are beginning to see the flowers of spring come to life, I want to highlight another extension of our home entertaining advertising that debuted in 1940. That marked the launch of the booklet entitled Flower Arranging - A Fascinating Hobby, written by Laura Lee Burroughs. The booklet was a Coca-Cola promotional item so popular that over one million copies were distributed within the first year of availability. I thought you might enjoy getting a glimpse of this series and this time period, so I am including some pages from the booklet and audio link to the accompanying oral presentation which we have in our record collection. 

For those of you who are too young to remember audio presentations like this, here are the instructions:

1. Right Click on 'Listen to the Flower Arranging Audio Clip' below and Open in New Window.
2. Once the audio starts, click the 'Download the Flower Arranging Pages' link below.
3. Each time you hear the 'beep', go to the next page to turn along with the audio program. Enjoy!

Listen to Flower Arranging Audio Clip (Right Click and Open in New Window)

Download Flower Arranging Pages

Jack Lupton

We just received word that Jack Lupton, the third generation of one of our pioneer bottling families has passed away.  The Lupton family has been involved with bottling Coca-Cola almost from the beginning.  While the story of Asa Candler selling the rights to Joseph Whitehead and Benjamin Thomas has been told on the blog, John T. Lupton provided the capital investing in their fledgling bottling enterprise by 1900 purchased half of Whitehead's share.

The Lupton family remained in the bottling business with John's son, Cartter Lupton expanding the business and his grandson Jack Lupton growing the company to be one of the largest bottling companies in the country.  JTL Bottling was sold to The Coca-Cola Company in 1986 and was integrated with other bottlers to form Coca-Cola Enterprises.

The Lupton family have always given back to their community and Chattanooga, Tennessee has always benefited from their generosity.  Jack Lupton will be missed.