Coca-Cola DURING THE WAR

This vintage Coca-Cola ad dates from the August 18, 1945 Saturday Evening Post back cover. Of course the war in the Pacific was over on August 15, 1945 with the signing of the Japanese surrender document occurring on September 2, 1945.

Even if I no longer like the product I still appreciate the illustrations in the old advertisements.

Click image to see it larger.

There is a lot of information about Coca-Cola during World War II, not all of it a shining example of a positive war effort. The ads were how the corporation sold its product manipulating the public for a positive corporate image. And indeed, they did do their part for the soldiers:

Coca-Cola was involved in the Second World War.

Robert Woodruff made a point of supporting US troops so metal cans were introduced to meet their needs.

In 1941, when the United States entered the war, Woodruff decided that Coca-Cola's place was near the front line.

He sent an order to:

"See that ever man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca Cola for 5 cents wherever he is and whatever the cost to the company".

In 1939 Coca Cola only had 5 overseas bottling plants. By 1945, they had 64. What made it so popular? Because the water was disgusting. The army kept it clean by adding chlorine-so the water tasted like your local swimming pool, or worse.

On the 29th June 1943 General Dwight D Eisenhower ordered three million bottles of Coca- Cola to be sent to the allies in North Africa.

Plant and machinery for down town bottling plants were also sent so another three million bottles could be sent to the troops every six months.

By the end of the hostilities five billion bottles or cans of Coca-Cola had been drunk.

Coca-Cola had not only lifted the spirits of the US Armed Forces, it had also introduced itself to new markets. When the war ended the bottling plants and a little bit of America stayed too. (SOURCE: Digger History)

So while Coca-Cola was supporting the troops they were also still manufacturing their product, or trying to, in Nazi Germany. Since I'm not finding a definitive brief article I'll just give you links:

Coca-Cola Goes to War

For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It by Mark Pendergrast

Wikipedia

Digger History

And a page with some images of the creator of Coke and the pharmacy where he sold it can be seen on this page.

To see more vintage Coca-Cola ads from World War II click here.

Henry Patrick Raleigh

Again, from the same copy of The Saturday Evening Post (April 13, 1934) I give you two illustrations by Henry Raleigh. I love the line work. You see the structure being built. The quickness of it, the movement. Really nice drawings.

Click on two images below to see them larger.

These drawings were used to illustrate a story by E. Phillips Oppenheim (October 22, 1866-February 3, 1946) called "The Strange Boarders of Palace Crescent." The first few lines:

"The first thing which struck Roger Ferrison as odd about Mrs. Dewar's apparently respectable Palace Crescent boarding house was the elderly manservant's insistence that all the boarders hand up their keys when they retired. Yet at two A.M., after everyone had ostensibly gone to bed, five keys were missing—their owners obviously abroad in the London night."

Oppenheim was an English novelist known for writing thrillers. From Wikipedia:

Much of Oppenheim's work possesses a unique escapist charm, featuring protagonists who delight in Epicurean meals, surroundings of intense luxury, and the relaxed pursuit of criminal practice, on either side of the law.

As to Henry Raleigh. He was born into poverty in 1880 in Portland, Oregon and committed suicide "...jumping from the window of a sleazy hotel in Times Square in 1944." You can read an interesting piece written by Raleigh's granddaughter, Nora Raleigh, by clicking on the link above.

The following is from an old book on my shelf, Advertising in America: The First 200 years, published in 1990 by Abrams.

Raleigh was known as the illustrator of sophisticated, high society fashion–he did all the stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and the like—in the Saturday Evening Post. When he designed ads, he carried with him the patina of Manhattan and Hollywood and gave the product a tacit endorsement. He did Maxwell House ads for nearly forty years always identifiable by his ink-sketch style overlaid with colored washes. (SOURCE: Advertising in America: The First 200 Years, Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple,Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1990)

And the following is from Ask Art.com:

Etcher, illustrator, lithographer, painter. Born in Portland, OR on Sept. 23, 1880. "Harry" Raleigh moved to San Francisco with his family in 1888. After studying at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute during 1896-1901, he took his first job as a sketch artist for the San Francisco Examiner. While there, William Randolph Hearst noticed his talent and encouraged him to move to NYC which he did in 1913. There he continued newspaper work for the World while illustrating for Harper's Bazaar and The Saturday Evening Post. (SOURCE: AskArt.com)

Here are several pieces shown at AskArt.com.

Raleigh also illustrated several posters during World War I.

(SOURCE: University of South Carolina Library)

(SOURCE: Documenting the American South)

(SOURCE: Documenting the American South)

To read a well written piece about Raleigh with examples and a discussion of his work click Illustration Art.

And here is a lithograph done by Raleigh.

Three Figures on a Park Bench --- 1919, Lithograph.

Edition not stated. Signed in the stone, lower right. Inscribed To Chas. Prulets - Henry Raleigh 1933 in pencil. Image size 7 3/4 x 10 inches (197 x 254 mm); sheet size 10 7/16 x 13 5/16 inches (265 x 338 mm). A fine, rich impression, on cream Japan, with full margins (3/4 to 1 1/4 inches). Pale glue stains on the sheet edges recto, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition.

$550. (SOURCE: Keith Sheridan)

Again, if in time I discover more of Raleigh's work in my ephemera I will post it.

"AUNT HATTIE—LIAR"

Today's title is actually the title of a short story from the now infamous, at least around here, Saturday Evening Post magazine, April 14, 1934. The first few lines of the story written by Everett Rhodes Castle :

"It was generally conceded by our family that when Uncle Draper married Aunt Hattie he added no luster to the family name. Not that the family had any illusions about Uncle Draper. He never did an honest day's work in his life. Nor was there any of this you-couldn't-help-but-like-him about Uncle Draper's shiftlessness. He was a drunkard and a bully."

Okay. I'll have to decide if I want to read more.

From what I'm able to find about Mr. Castle he was a writer of short stories (a list can be found here), including one that was turned into a 39 episode tv series in 1953 entitled Colonel Humphrey Flack.

The illustrations shown here were done by George Brehm, with the one to the left and below used to illustrate the Saturday Evening Post story in April 1934.

I've spent some time searching for information about George Brehm, but I'm coming up pretty empty. He was born in 1878 in Anderson, Indiana, and died in 1966 in New York state. The only personal information I've found is:

"Noted illustrator George Brehm lived in Witherbee Court, where he also maintained his studio and from where he could cross the street to pursue his other great passion, golf, at the Pelham Country Club. Brehm's illustrations were featured on the covers of most major publications through the early decades of the 1900's. He also painted portraits of several Manor residents including that of Mrs. James F. Secor which hangs in the Manor Club." (SOURCE: Historic Pelham)

Pelham Manor is located in Weschester County in New York State.

Mr. Brehm also has art in the Brandywine River Museum collection in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

Here is a list of work he did for various magazines. If I ever find other illustrations in any of my old publications I'll post them. Otherwise I've only found a few others online.

Here is one that was from a Saturday Evening Post cover March 19, 1910.

And here's one found at Ask Art. There are a few more at this site unless you belong to the site and then I guess there's about 25.

And one I really like found at icollector.com with the following text:

Description George Brehm (1878-1966) Original Magazine Story Illustration (1934). Cosmopolitan July, 1934, for How Far is it to Hollywood? by Bess Streeter Aldrich. Caption: "The two girls hung on tightly as the bandits' car gathered speed. They heard the men arguing excitedly about the plan to be followed. And then Emma-Jo had an idea!" Charcoal on board (40 x 30), image size approximately 35 x 20.

Well, that's it for today. Have no idea what will strike my fancy next.

GO SUCK ON A SPUD for a really cool time

This image comes from the April 14, 1934 Saturday Evening Post which continues to be a veritable gold mine of kitsch. I could do a years worth of postings just from this issue...but I promise I won't.

Spud cigarettes. Catchy name, no? Who wouldn't want to suck on a Spud? Inhale a Spud? Would the Marlboro men have sucked on Spuds? I don't think so. But apparently some people did.

Click on image to see it larger.

Oh the romance of a Spud on a date. We look at this now and think "How stupid do they think we are?", but give it 50 years and we'll be looking at today's advertising (well, I won't because I'll be long gone) and thinking "How stupid do they think we are?"

Spuds were popular in the 193os and '40s. They no longer exist. What does exist is the idea of menthol in cigarettes. Ever wonder where they came from? Spud. Spud McKenzie. Oh wait, no...that was a dog that sold beer. No, this was Lloyd "Spud" Hughes of Mingo Junction, Ohio. I kid you not.

The first person to take advantage of the properties of menthol and formulate a mentholated cigarette was Lloyd "Spud" Hughes of Mingo Junction, Ohio back in the 1920's. Aa a young man, Hughes was afflicted with asthma and his mother had given him menthol crystals so that he might inhale the vapors. As the story goes, Spud preferred smoking cigarettes, he hid his cigarette supply overnight in a baking powder tin along with the menthol. In the morning he discovered that the cigarettes had taken up the menthol flavor. At first he just smoked the cigarettes himself. Later, he offered them to the railroad and mill workers who frequented his father's restaurant. Finally, Spud filed the patent on the process on July 31, 1924 (patent granted September 25, 1925)and began to contract the maufacturer of Spud mentholated cigarettes through Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company. He set out in his car and canvassed the Ohio Valley region selling them. In 1926, Hughes contacted the Axton Fisher Tobacco Company of Louisville, Kentucky to manufacture more of Spuds. Woodford Axton immediately recognized the potential for this unique cigarette and offered Spud Hughes \\$90,000. The deal was accepted and Mr. Hughes went on a two year spending spree. Axton Fisher hired a New York advertising firm to promote Spud's nationally and sold stock in the company for the first time to finance expansion. These decisions led to the establishment of Spud as the 5th largest selling cigarette in the U.S. by 1932.

In 1944 Philip Morris bought Axton Fisher Tobacco Company and the manufacture of Spud cigarettes fo domestic sales was discontinued in 1963 (Philip Morris Document 2012518595 - March 28, 1963). An article in the Lexington Herald-Leader (February 25, 1999) indicated that Philip Morris began phasing out production at its Louisville plant (the old Axton-Fisher facility) before July, laying off about 1400 union and non-union workers by December 2000. (SOURCE: Good Health)

You can go to the source link above to see a photo of Spud, the cigarette inventor, not Spud McKenzie who shares one similarity...also dead.

UPDATE: Reader CWLSAX has provided the following about Spuds. Thank you!

Spud had great ads in the 30s - not quite the everyman and woman touch but more of a soft sell. Even a little sophisticated. That changed once they started losing smokers to Kool.

About 1957 PM reformulated Spud to a "touch of menthol" filter cig which didn't do well. By '59 they brought out a full-menthol brand, Alpine, and Spud was on the way out.

Spud Hughes, btw, tried marketing another menthol smoke he called Julep after the buyout. It disappeared and so did he - an internal company memo from Lorillard says he was "never heard from again"...

Juleps were still advertised in the WW2 years, made by Penn Tobacco Co., Wilkes-Barre. Spud Hughes died in 1967 in Pennsylvania. So he just may have gone to work for Penn Tobacco at some point.  

_______________________

I just wanted to give an update link to a post I did last year called "When PIGS WERE BRAVE." The post was about some children's greeting cards from the 1950s published by Fravessi Lamont Inc. The grandson of the Lamont part of the company emailed me today with some nice information. Thank you John.

There's a TINY THREAD THAT RUNS THROUGH THE POSTS

Okay, stick with me here because todays post actually relates back to several past posts. 

These illustrations, done by Frederic Mizen, are from the good ol' Saturday Evening Post from 1934 that I've been using for source material the past several days. Right off the bat the first thread to be pulled is the man in the chair who reminds me of the man in the chair in yesterday's Log Cabin Syrup post. 

These illustrations are for a story entitled "These Geniuses!" by A. H. Z. Carr. I haven't read it. It has lines like:

 "How are you, Caldecott?" drawled Lord Anthony.

or

"Anthony, will you do something for me?"

"Rather!"

"Father plans to announce our engagement at dinner."

"Yes. Certainly."

"I want him to wait until later--until midnight."

"But, Marion, my dear; it's not done. Really."

"Isn't it? I'd like it so much better that way, Anthony. Be a pie and arrange it for me."

Click on image to see it larger.

Okay, not my kind of story, but hold on...I still have more threads.

The illustrator, Frederic Mizen, was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in Los Angeles in 1964. The following can be found at robertlivernois.com:

...Frederic Mizen became a noted western genre and landscape painter as well as illustrator, portraitist, and art teacher. From childhood, he had heard stories of the West from his father who was secretary to three generals active on the frontier. In Chicago, he attended the J. Francis Smith Academy of Art, studied there with Walter Ufer, and then enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago. He also studied at the Academy Julian in Paris. At age 20, he began an illustration assignment with Joseph P. Berren Studios for a Sears catalogue and continued commercial art, doing the first billboard ad for Coca Cola as well as numerous magazine covers including "Saturday Evening Post," the "American," and "Collier's." He also was successful financially with his advertising work for automobile manufacturers to promote travel, and created illustrations for Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Packard and others. During the summers, he painted in the West, joining Walter Ufer in Taos, New Mexico, which was becoming an established art colony. After Mizen established his own art school in Chicago, he regularly took students to Taos in the summers. In 1931, on illustration assignment from Coca Cola, he depicted a Coca-Cola drinking group of people in a painting titled "Old Faithful Inn at Old Faithful Geiser" in Yellowstone National Park. In 1936, he founded the Frederic Mizen Academy of Art in Chicago and did Indian studies and Southwest landscapes for the Santa Fe Railroad. He also received numerous portrait commissions. For eight years, 1952 to 1960, he Chaired the Department of Art of Baylor University, and he was a member of the Art Institute of Chicago.

See, more threads. Yellowstone, National Park, and Coca-Cola, and the Santa-Fe Railroad. Okay, I know...pretty thin thread, but hey, it was interesting to me and you can just suffer through it.

To see the Coca-Cola illustration at Old Faithful click on this link to the Gene Autry Museum (which if you're ever in L. A. make a point of seeing this museum if you love the myths and realities of the West.).

And it turns out Mr. Mizen painted the very first Santa for Coca-Cola:

My wife's uncle, Fred Mizen, was said to have had some involvement in creating the Coke Santa. Do you have any info regarding his contributions to the Coke artwork?

Posted by: boho | July 22, 2008 at 10:41 AM

boho - Frederic Mizen did create an image of Santa for Coca-Cola in 1930. That image showed a department store Santa taking a break from his duties (drinking a Coke, of course). The next year, we introduced the Coca-Cola Santa by Haddon Sundblom. The Santa by Mizen is different from the Santa by Sundblom because Sundblom captured the man who is Santa -- making Santa human. The artwork by Mizen showed a man dressed as Santa (the department store Santa). I also thought you might be interested that Mizen created other artwork for Coca-Cola, including the image used on our first billboard in 1925. Thanks -- Phil

Posted by: Phil Mooney | July 22, 2008 at 01:51 PM

To see a few other paintings by Mizen click here and here. And for one more thread...a print of a Navajo woman that was owned by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and used for advertising purposes click here. Hmmmmm...could a thread to Fred Harvey be here? I  don't know.

I'll admit my thread is stretched to the breaking point, but it's always fun to see where a piece of ephemera may lead.

Pick me up and LETS GRAB ONE AT THE HOSPITAL

Feelin' tired, feelin' low?

Feelin' blue, feelin' slow?

Drink two Coca-Colas and call Dr. John S. Pemberton in the morning.

What? You say Dr. Pemberton is not listed in your physician's group? Who cares. He's as close as the nearest drug store, right next to the chips and dips aisle.

Does anyone remember taking coke syrup for a boo-hoo belly when they were a kid? Dreadful tasting stuff. My mother used to say absurdly, "It's just like Coca-Cola." Uh, no mom...it's not. But my family doctor did prescribe it. Over the counter bottle of brown stuff to sooth the wretching flu stomach. I guess it worked. I'm still here.

This ad is from the back cover of the April 14, 1934 Saturday Evening Post. It's tattered. Notice the tattering? I love it. All along the bottom it appears to mirror the ice cubes or perhaps an old tattered piece of lace. The black mold stain in the upper right corner? Not going there. Black mold. A friend's house is suddenly besieged by it. Long story. Nightmare. State Farm...of limited help. Perhaps soaking the house in coke syrup would help. I doubt it or State Farm might have mentioned it instead of trying to run as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Perhaps it's because though she lives in a state she doesn't live on a farm. Ahh...the fine print.. Gets ya every single time. Anyway...

Click on image to see mold larger.

Dr. John S. Pemberton is the inventor of Coca-Cola, originally called Pemberton's French Wine Coca and was pretty darn popular in Atlanta back in the 1880s. Dr. Pemberton himself was no fly-by-night tonic salesman.

"He studied medicine and pharmacy at the Reform Medical College of Georgia in Macon, and in 1850, at the age of nineteen, he was licensed to practice on Thomsonian or botanic principles (such practitioners relied heavily on herbal remedies and on purifying the body of toxins, and they were viewed with suspicion by the general public). He practiced medicine and surgery first in Rome and its environs and then in Columbus, where in 1855 he established a wholesale-retail drug business specializing in materia medica (substances used in the composition of medical remedies) . Some time before the Civil War (1861-65), he acquired a graduate degree in pharmacy, but the exact date and place are unknown." (SOURCE: Georgia Encyclopedia )

Pemberton's French Wine Coca was, according to Pemberton:

...composed of an extract from the leaf of Peruvian Coca, the purest wine, and the Kola nut. It is the most excellent of all tonics, assisting digestion, imparting energy to the organs of respiration, and strengthening the muscular and nervous systems." He explained that South American Indians considered the coca plant a sacred herb and praised its beneficial effects on the mind and body. With the aid of the coca plant, the Indians had performed "astonishing" feats, he said, "without fatigue." Pemberton then admitted that his coca and kola beverage was based on Vin Mariani, a French formula perfected by Mariani and Company of Paris, which since 1863 had been the world's only standard preparation of erythroxylon coca. (SOURCE:Georgia Encyclopedia )

In 1886 Atlanta introduced prohibition which forbid the sale of wine thus taking some of the ummmm...spirit out of Dr. Pemberton. Not to worry. He reformulated, dropped the word "wine" from the title, substituted sugar for the wine, and voila...Coca-Cola was born and the rest is history. Coca-Cola was once a product developed by a pharmacist, "served in leading hospitals" and is now simply another reason Americans look like inflated floatation devices. I'm just sayin'.

I'd sure like to find one of those old wooden boxes the fella is carrying. Lot's of little pukas to fill with what-nots. And I sure have a lot of what-nots around here and most of my pukas are full.

To read a bit more about Dr. Pemberton go to Television Advertising.

And no, there's no logic as to why I've posted so many Coke ads the past two months. They're just sort of there, staring back at me. Think I'm kidding? I've got an old National Geographic with a Navy Wave holding a glass of Coke smiling up at me right now from the floor. She's freakin' me out.