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.

 

Coke and Jazz

Did you know that Louis Armstrong performed at a Coke-sponsored concert in 1944? You can actually see the program script from that event at The World of Coca-Cola. I'm a huge music fan, and I've been working on a small Coke and music exhibit which reminded me of all the jazz greats that were featured in Coke programs over the years such as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Artie Shaw. We often joke that Ted and I fight over the Coke and music projects, and I was happy to be involved in this latest one. Check out this 1953 Coke ad featuring xylophone player Lionel Hampton. This is valued around $500 dollars.

Blog Poll: Netherlands vs Spain World Cup Final

We are down to the final two teams who will play this weekend in the FIFA World Cup Final in South Africa: The Netherlands and Spain. I thought it'd be interesting to do an unscientific poll of Coca-Cola Conversations readers to see who we collectively thought the winner would be. Although I'm not going public with my prediction, I will offer up a few links that represent soccer and Coke from each country. This 1962 Dutch print ad from The Netherlands translates to "When You Pause...Coca-Cola Refreshes You Best!".  This 1954 calendar page from Spain translates to "Tastes Good Ice Cold." Let us know below who you think will celebrate with the FIFA trophy this weekend:

Cool off with a Coke - 1957 TV Commercial

The "dog days" of summer seem to be have arrived, albeit a little early.  You can ask our friends who live on the East Coast of the United States. Temperatures in that region have been hitting record highs, including a record high of 103 degrees in New York City. For those of you who need a cool, refreshing idea for a way to cool down, take a look at this 1957 commercial from our Archives.

 

Take Your Dog To Work Day!

June 25th is "Take Your Dog to Work Day" so I thought I would share one of my favorite dog images we used in our advertising.  While we do not know for certain because the artwork does not have a signature, this 1950 painting is attributed to Haddon Sundblom.

Boy Scouts of America

While the Boy Scouts of America were founded in 1910 and are celebrating a century of "Being Prepared" this year, they were not officially incorporated until President Woodrow Wilson signed their incorporation papers on this date in 1916. 

The Coca-Cola Company and the Boy Scouts have been partners for decades and we have quite a bit of Scout material in our Archives including artwork, Jamboree material and numerous ads from Boys Life magazine.  Many of our local bottlers were also partners for their local Boy Scout Troops.  We recently acquired several calendars featuring Boy Scout artwork by artist Norman Rockwell which advertised for bottlers across the country.  The image to the right is from the 1946 calendar produced for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Enid, Oklahoma.  If you look closely, one can note the first Scout Law printed at the bottom of the page.  Each month had additional Scouting information printed.  A calendar like this in good condition with all the pages are generally worth $ 400 to $ 500.

We have too many images to post to the blog, so I have created a facebook photo album with more photos of the Scout calendars. 

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.

 

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

1936 China Paper Poster at the World of Coke

You have probably heard that the Expo 2010 in Shanghai is opening tomorrow. In honor of the opening, I'd like to spotlight an interesting China related poster on display at the World of Coke. This 1936 poster features a fashionable woman holding a glass of Coke, right under a Chinese Coca-Cola logo. The interesting thing about this piece is that while it clearly appears to be a piece of foreign advertising, it was actually produced for use in American Chinatowns. For this reason, it is often referred to in collectors' circles as "Chinatown." This can be found in the Milestones of Refreshment case in the section highlighting fashion.

 

Filming In The Archives Again

Our marketing team is filming some segments in the Archives today.  It is fun to watch, but the countless takes can make it a bit slow.  I can't wait to see the finished films.