Amsterdam Olympics Began 82 Years Ago Today

On this day in 1928, the Amsterdam Olympics started beginning The Coca-Cola Company's 82 year involvement with the Games.  We have blogged before about our efforts at those games to provide Coca-Cola to spectators and athletes at kiosk near the venues. 

But you may not know that Johnny Weismuller, who appeared on the 1934 tray to the left, won two gold medals for swimming at the Amsterdam games.  During his Olympic career, Weismuller won a total of five gold and one bronze medals.  Weismuller was actually the second person in his family to model for Coca-Cola, his wife, Lupe Velez appeared in advertising beginning in 1932.

 

Coca-Cola Collectors Club Meeting Highlights

Last week we attended the Coca-Cola Collectors Club Annual Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This meeting, held each summer is a great chance to see old friends and meet new Coca-Cola collectors.  The highlights of the convention are the silent auction, seminars, swap meet and the live auction.  The Club received great media coverage during the convention.  Watch this video from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Make sure to attend the Convention which will be in Atlanta next year.  If you want more information or want to join the Club, check our their website.  http://www.cocacolaclub.org/

I have attached some photos of items that were sold during the live auction.  The telephone with pad sold for $ 1,100, the match pull reached a high bid of $ 1,500 but did not meet the 2,000 reserve, the bottle topper was $ 550, the Kay Display life preserver sold for $ 375 because the condition was not great and the tire piece sold for $ 1,250.

IGA And Coca-Cola

I had a great time making a presentation to IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance) on the Coca-Cola Conversations blog.  Founded in 1926, IGA has a rich heritage and our brands have been linked througout the years.  During the course of our conversation today, they shared several interesting photographs of stores with great Coca-Cola signage.  The photo to the right has a great 1941 tin sign that would is valued between $ 600 and $ 800 today depending on the condition.  I always love to see how our marketing material was used in the stores and can not wait to explore the IGA photo collection.

Winner Of The Coca-Cola 600 Vending Machine

I posted a blog a few weeks ago about the vending machine the winner of the Coca-Cola 600 would win.  I just received a photograph from victory lane after the race showing Kurt Busch with the trophy and the vending machine.  I wonder which he was happier to receive? 

Thanks to Kurt Busch and his team for letting us use the photograph.

Mark of the Potter

Ted Ryan, who is one of our staff members in the Archives Department, was traveling in North Georgia this weekend and discovered a great pottery studio with a Coca-Cola presence.  A vintage Coca-Cola cooler was on the front porch of the Mark of the Potter on Ga. Highway 197 in Clarkesville, Georgia near Lake Burton. 

Despite a touch of rust on the outside, the cooler was still working and was filled with ice cold Coca-Cola.  The cold Coke, beautiful pottery and standing beside the tree lined Soque River feeding the trout made this the perfect stopping place.  They even had a few commemorative Coca-Cola bottles on the shelf.  If you are ever in the area, stop at the Mark of the Potter for a Coke and some great pottery.

 

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.

Star Wars Coca-Cola Collectible Glasses

"May the force be with you."

Today is Star Wars day on my calendar.  In a play on words from the famous phrase in the movie, May 4th becomes "May the fourth" be with you!  In honor of this auspicious event, I wanted to highlight the original four Coca-Cola Star Wars glasses that were so popular when they were introduced in 1978.

The glasses were used as a cooperative promotion with Coca-Cola and Burger King.  The glasses were given away with the purchase of a drink, one glass per week over a period of four weeks.  The glasses featured artwork on one side and then a description of the characters on the opposite side.  Burger King and Coca-Cola logos were also on the glasses.  It is interesting to note that the description on the glass with Han Solo and Chewbacca features the Wookie more prominently than the swashbuckling hero.

 

As collectibles are concerned, you will not be able to put you kid through college selling the set of four glasses, but they are still a great item that brings back memories of the movies.

A Touch Of Mexico At The World Of Coke

We received quite a bit of feedback on our post the week about the commemorative bottles being produced in Mexico so I decided so share some of the Mexican items on display for our Friday Spotlight on the World of Coca-Cola.

Each of the galleries in the Milestones of Refreshment exhibit represent a significant innovation or event in our history.  Milestone Eight represents the growth of our international business since our first bottling efforts in Cuba, Panama and Canada in 1906.  We tried to offer examples from as many countries as we could, but given the strong heritage of Coca-Cola in Mexico, it should not be surprising that there are quite a few items from that country in the case.

I have included photographs of some of my favorites.  The most valuable is likely the 1928 calendar which is worth between $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 depending on condition.  One of the more unusual it the napkin dispenser, which as you can see from the photograph, has been touched up a bit.  I also love the color and vibrant message of the two trays, they are so different from what was produced in the US.  The slogan on the round one - "Chispa de la Vida" was an important one in Mexico and loosely translates to "the spark of life."

Commemorative Mexican Contour Bottles

I recently received some news (but no bottles yet!) about a new series of commemorative bottles that are being released in Mexico this year.

The purpose of the bottles is to honor Mexico’s Independence Bicentenary and the 100 years of the Mexican Revolution.  The program is a shared initiative by Coca-Cola México and Coca-Cola FEMSA and involves the development of a collection of 32 original designs that will identify Coca-Cola’s iconic “Contour” bottle in Mexico for the 2010 historical celebrations.
 

The Coca-Cola commemorative bottles special edition will be available from January to September, incorporating between 2 to 5 designs each month, including a special design for each state within the Mexican Republic.

Bottles representing eight states have been released: Sonora, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Tlaxcala, Tamaulipas, Nayarit and Veracruz.  I have created a photograph album on our Coca-Cola Archives facebook page where you can see these and the other bottles as they are released.

The two photos are the bottles due to be released in April; Colima and Quintana Roo.

1974 Coca-Cola Trays of the 20's Promotion

I wrote yesterday about the Springtime in Atlanta Collectors event, and I'm following up today with a post about a collectible that some of you may have in your collections. In 1974, we ran a "Recapture the 20's" promotion which offered a series of reproductions of historic 1920s serving trays, including serving trays made in 1922, 1923 and 1925. The reproduction trays were available by mail for one dollar with proof-of-purchase or alternatively, in special in-store deals. This promotion was actually the second reproduction tray promotion after the "Good Ole Trays" promotion of 1973 in which one and a half million trays were redeemed. This promotional video from our collection gives a brief overview of the in-store portion of the program, which was billed as "One of the biggest promotions ever for Coca-Cola". This series of trays featured models commonly referred to as "Autumn Girl", "Flapper Girl" and "Girl At Party", and the reproductions have copy stamped on the edges of the tray identifying them as reproductions. Do any of you collectors remember when these came out?