David Bates on Tropicana

DAVID BATES AND RUTH BATES ON TROPICANA AND ANTHONY ROSSI By DAVID BATES AND RUTH BATES With discussion of Tropicana Collectibles

Manatee County Historical Society Luncheon Meeting at “Renaissance on 9th” Street Bradenton, Florida April 20, 2011

DAVID: I had a friend who worked for Tropicana at Industrial Glass and he showed me bottles that they had prepared, but you have not seen them, because they were not production items. And there is one that is hidden. None of you have seen it and I will reveal it at the proper moment. Mother, are you ready?

RUTH: [Tests David’s portable microphone] Is it on?

DAVID: It is on! Give us the title.

RUTH: “Anthony Rossi and Tropicana: a bottle collector’s view”. In 1900, Anthony T. Rossi was born to Adolfo and Sara Rossi.

DAVID: O.K., Here’s how you figure the Talamo, because the “T” stands for Talamo. Anyway, Anthony Rossi was born in Messina, Italy, which is on Sicily. When I spent two years in Italy, I had a chance to take a trip down to Sicily, which we called “Si-chee-lia”. I left from Naples, which we called “Nap-o-lee”. Every time we hit a point where I have nothing to share, which would be of Italy or of the time, I’ll show you one of the collectibles and point out a few things about it. But we’ll go through his life, which I found interesting. In a couple of cases, let me guess, I may be a year or two off but I’m real close. He was born in 1900 and he had a rather large family. His father, Adolfo, was a hospital administrator in Messina, so they lived on the hospital grounds.

[David walks over to his display table and picks up a square, clear-glass quart-sized bottle with red painted markings] Here’s one of the old bottles, I even have the correct lid. It says “Tropicana Orange Juice”. This is the way the early ones looked. This is not early early. If it were earlier it would have a border around it. Unfortunately, this is painted on, not baked well. So it [the paint] comes off rather easily. So I’m afraid to get my hands around it. But there is Tropic-Ana.

There is an interesting story about how he supposedly came up with the name. Somebody said that it was tropical and that his first wife was Ana. No, but I did discover that his grandmother was Ana. I think that’s the story. We’ll try later. RUTH: In 1908, there was an earthquake in Messina.

DAVID: Very devastating. I was just thinking about that earthquake in Japan [February 2011] It was very early in the morning. The family went rushing out. The buildings were not hurt – no, sorry – the buildings were not earthquake-proof like many of them are today, made of steel girders. These were made of stone and mortar. Or wood. They were very lucky because as the house crumbled around them, they sort of got stuck in an archway. They sort of stopped there while everything crumbled around them. That saved them. They lost a brother. He was not living there at the house. He was living with an uncle and was killed. They spent two years in Syracuse – not Syracuse, New York, where I once lived, but Syracuse, [Sicily] Italy – while they did some clean up in Messina, then they came back. We’ll get to that in a minute.

[David picks up a plastic-looking orange with a straw stuck in it from his display table] Thinking of earthquakes, this would be great communication, right. Any guesses what this is?

[Voices from audience] Radio!

DAVID: I can’t believe that you all guessed! Yes, this is a radio. Does anybody know the year for this?

[Voice from audience, teasing] You’re a lot older than all of us. [Laughter]

DAVID: I’m only 60-and-a-half.

[Voice from audience] It’s from ’61.

DAVID: Is that about right?

RUTH: In 1913, his mother Sara died.

DAVID: This was a great blow to the whole family. They were very close. If you have ever seen Italian families in action. I can still see this one evening, I was with a family, and the lady hugged, after cuffing her child about three times in that ten minute period.

2 3 I was thinking there’s a tremendous amount of “Tough Love” in Italian families. So the loss of mother Sara – and, again, as we go through the years and we give a year, that’s about his age. He was born in 1900. So in 1915, he is fifteen years old.

I understand that he was not a great student. He loved to play truant. MY father was a principal, so I was a good boy! But he wasn’t. At fifteen he loses his mother, very devastating.

All right! I have a number of train cars. There were several ways of shipping and this is just one of them. This is not the first one. In fact, it was probably the last of three major ones. I probably shouldn’t have started with this car, but anyway – I have three different cars here and I can probably still remember seeing a Tropicana train, mostly orange cars, going across the Manatee River on one of the bridges and I thought: “This is a beautiful sight!”.

These are pieces, but I have a fairly complete HO – that mean’s Half-O-gauge model railroad set of Tropicana. One of these days I’ll get it on a track and run it around.

[Voice from Audience:] Is it a white train?

David: No, I think it’s orange.

[Voice:] Those are Beatrice cars. The white cars were Rossi’s.

David: Beatrice Foods. The orange cars were interesting. Sort of like a black car holds heat, the darker orange color held heat. Interesting! Thank you! Next?

RUTH: Also, in 1915, his uncle Constantino was always telling him about the wonderful things in the United States.

David: His father’s brother, his uncle Constantino, was a businessman in New York. He suffered a stroke and so he came home. New York State, I was born in Buffalo, the snow capital, does not have the most sunshine. So he was told, go back to Italy, recuperate with friends, family, sunshine. He did that and spent a lot of time in the Rossi household. So he’s regaling Tony, he called him “nino”, little boy, with all these wonderful stories. “You make 15-cents a day? Over in the States you make a dollar a day!” Like, WOW, You’re Rich! So it’s planted in his mind and he wants to go to the United States.

He becomes a gardener, sort of an aggressive young business man. So he could learn if it was practical. Next? Oops, I forgot to show you something! Here’s a Hot Wheels, talking about transportation. [David holds up a packaged Hot Wheels toy truck, green cab and white tank with Tropicana markings.]

4 This is really the way they began, although this shows a tanker and I think, at least now but in this time too, everything was either boxed or canned. They were not in a tanker, but I’m not sure. They did start with trucking and the train, I think, was the third choice.

Because of his New York background, a lot of it went to New York and the Northeast.

Ruth: In 1917, World War I started. So Anthony had to go into the Army service and he was in it for three years. All this time he was thinking about the United States.

David: Well, actually Momma, this didn’t start in 1917, it started in 1914. But in 1917 he did join. The war was 1914-1918. In 1917 he had to have his parents sign because he wasn’t eighteen years old. In 1917 he would have been seventeen years old. So he didn’t fight, he did service sort of work and he did see a lot of Italy.

Let’s see, we’re talking transportation here. Oh, I don’t have a ship here. Basically, it started out truck, and then it went to ship. I got to see the ship down here at Memorial Pier. Did anybody ever see the ship? It ran out of Port Canaveral on the East Coast and it got here one time and it took up a lot of space. It was pretty big. He bought it from some other company and it had steel containers to put the juice in, in big vats. It was not packaged until it got to New York at his New York connection. O.K., next?

Ruth: It was 1921 when he was able to sail to the States. Landed in New York City.

David: I understood he heard talk about Queens, the borough in New York. But he had family here; we’ve talked about his uncle Constantino. He came over, he got a place to stay and he got a job in a machine shop.

5 Now do you want to guess how many jobs he had while he was there? I was amazed. It wasn’t a lot-lot-lot, but it was quite a few. 1) Machine Shop 2) Taxi owner-driver 3) Chauffer – I’ve forgotten the name of the rich, eccentric millionaire he drove to the office, and because he had time 4) he got involved with a grocery store, set up a grocery store. It was called Aurora Farms, I believe 5) sold that and opened up a restaurant – That’s Five! And then he sold the restaurant and since the grocery store went out, he bought it back. This covers the 1920s and 1930s.

[President Jeannie Akers, from the head table:] That grocery store he owned in New York, it was the forerunner of our Farmer’s Market. He had bought the produce in big lots and he just showed it.

David: He seemed to have been, while he wasn’t necessarily a good student, he was a hard worker and sort of like Henry Ford in that he wanted “the best quality at the best price”. He tended to be successful everywhere.

We have to talk about failure. It didn’t happen around here but he did fail in one enterprise. [David hold up a glass with a cone shaped bottom] Does this look funny? [Laughter from Audience] What happened? It’s a bottle! What somebody did with glass cutters was cut off the top and put the top as the pedestal.

Ruth: In the meantime, he met a young lady by the name of Florence Stark and in 1937 he married her.

David: Again, this is 1937; he’s in his late 30s. He’s got 37, 38, 39 – that’s about right. And what happened was this Florence Stark was a secretary who lived upstairs over the

6 Aurora Farms market. He did delivery work and had a delivery boy, but the delivery boy was out sick and he had to do delivery, so he went upstairs to deliver, several times, and he got to know Florence fairly well and eventually they got married. Again, he’s in New York from 1921 to about 1938. So it’s practically a two decade period. He’s done all these jobs, he’s learning how to be a businessman, he’s a hard worker, he’s aggressive, he has good ideas. Again, “quality and price”.

Since we’re talking about transportation -- [David holds up a toy car, 1930’s styling, painted white with green fenders and the Tropicana logo. Laughter from Audience.] Anybody know what this is? This is simply a bank. [The toy car is hollow with a slot in the top for coins] I think these are put out by Earle, which, if you are a collector of banks you know them. This says “Tropicana” and is in the old style. I thought it was cute. I picked it up at the Red Barn Flea Market.

[Voice from Audience: inaudible] .was it just made up . . .

David: No, in most cases you have to have a contract. I cannot use “Tropicana” other than sharing what already exists. I cannot just start marketing. I can make anything that has “Tropicana” on it for my own use but if I go to sell, I have to have a contract.

So I have a feeling that Earle, the bank people, went ahead and got a contract with Tropicana and made them up and sold them. Then they would get a royalty. I’m guessing, I’m not absolutely sure. I’ve got another one here that’s not a bank and I’ll show you in a few minutes.

7 Ruth: Rossi always wanted to know more. We put down 1938, we’re not sure, but he started going to the library and reading and studying.

David: He went to the library. He sold, for the second time, sold the grocery store. He told his wife he was tired of New York winters. He was an Italian boy from Sicily and the weather is something like here in Florida. He said he was going to move to Florida. He said: “Florence, lets move to Florida.” What he wanted to do was to study up, sell out and go to Florida. What he wants to do is to do farming, so he goes down to the library to study farming.

Now keep in mind that he is a Catholic, but he does not do that much with his religion. So he goes into the library to get books on agriculture. There’s a book there that says The Life of Christ. Not really interested, doesn’t do much, but he starts going and reading day after day. He doesn’t have a job, he’s sold out, so he’s got the cash to sit on for a little bit. He’s reading about the life of Christ, a little bit day after day. He becomes, everyone calls it that, a “Born Again Christian”. He finally got around to reading some agriculture. They left within the year, probably 1939 and went to Cape Charles, Virginia. They spent a year in Virginia farming vegetables.

[David holds up a plastic baggy] What do you suppose this is?

[Voice from Audience:] Flashlight?

David: Flashlight keychain. Right. It is a cute little collectible.

Ruth: In 1941 he went to Florida and bought a tomato farm.

David: Yes, in 1941 he bought 50 acres to plant tomatoes and started a tomato farm. We always thought Rossi came here in 1947 – 1949. He came here in 1941!

You want to take a wild guess at where he bought 50 acres and started a tomato farm? It was not in Bradenton.

[Voices from Audience:] In Palmetto? Ruskin? Arcadia?

David: No. Now, this may sound like a fish-y tale, but it was nearby.

[Voice from Audience – inaudible]

David: No, not Sarasota. A fish-y tale!

[Many voices from Audience:] Cortez!

David: Cortez, Florida! When he came to Florida in 1941, he bought 50 acres in Cortez. So here we though 1947-49, Tropicana starts so he must have blown in from somewhere. But no, he came here in 1941. It went quite well, he made his $5,000 that he projected.

8 And – O.K., I’m getting ahead of the story! [Laughter from Audience as David goes to the goodie table to get another item for “show-and-tell”]

O.K., now here is a glass and I guess it fooled me. I saw this glass and I thought it must be a – what?

[Voice from Audience:] Tervis Tumbler.

David: Tervis Tumbler, of course. But it doesn’t have the embroidered patch. So it is probably not a real Tervis Tumbler. You know Tervis Tumbler is locally made. Where is it made.

[Voices from Audience:] Venice! Osprey!

David: Venice-Osprey, yes.

[Voice from Audience (Jan Green?):] I have one like that.

David: What do you suppose this one is?

[Voice from Audience:] Seagrams!

David: Yeah, they were Beatrice, then Seagrams, now they are Pepsi.

Ruth: In 1942, he had a cafeteria, The Floridian Cafeteria, in Bradenton.

[Voices from Audience:] I didn’t know that!

David: Talk about busy. This orange juice guy had a cafeteria in Bradenton! So he’s walking along in downtown Bradenton, he’s got this vegetable farm out in Cortez, when a friend of his says: “The Floridian Cafeteria is for sale.” He had the background, remember that he ran a restaurant in New York, and it was for sale, so he bought it from Mr. Burgess who had a restaurant in New York and he wanted to go back. It was on 12th Street and 6th Avenue.

[Voice from Audience:] On top of the Dixie Grande Hotel.

David: Oh, I remember the Dixie Grande. So he got into the restaurant business. He called his brother who was a chef in Chicago and they did quite well. You know that cafeteria that was on Manatee Avenue – Morrison’s – well, they’d have people lined up around the block trying to get in there. Well, that’s what it was like. He had this cafeteria in Bradenton. The Floridian Cafeteria in downtown Bradenton in 1942, before the War is out. They’d have people coming up from Sarasota. Again, he was bouncing between farming and marketing.

9 I love colorful shirt logos. This is kind of a cool one. Every time I go to a yard sale or the flea market, somebody has a go-with or a shirt or something. I had one that I looked at and said: “What is this doing in the Tropicana Collection? There’s no Tropicana on it!” But yes, there is. It’s hiding. Now look at this. [David holds up a blue polo shirt.] On the pocket? No. I’m cheating. [He unfolds the edge of the sleeve.]

[Voices from Audience:] It’s on the sleeve!

David: Talk about a big splash! Well, it isn’t! It says: “Tropicana PSM Success”. Well, you know, like FP&L, every time they have a big campaign and it is successful, they give you a little trophy, or a shirt, or something. I love this stuff!

Ruth: In 1944, he opened a restaurant in Miami.

David: He decided that he was going to have a chain, like “Chili’s” or “Arby’s”. So he finds out [inaudible] , he’s been here a couple of years doing tomato farming, then the restaurant business, and now it like “I’m gonna spread my wings.” He goes down to Miami and he fails. He almost went absolutely broke. A fellow from Lowe’s Theater came by and said: “Why don’t we try so-and-so”. And he said: “I’m thinking about it”. The phone rang and the realtor said: “This gentleman, Mr. Walters, wants to buy The Terrace Restaurant.” That was the name of the restaurant down in Miami. He’s losing $1,000 a day. He’s got to sell or he’s going to go belly-up. So he decided to sell. He went over and he made a deal with Mr. Walters. Now you’ve never heard of Mr. Walters? But you know his daughter!

[Voice from Audience:] Barbara Walters!

10 So anyway, he sold out in Miami and – Let’s see what happens next! [David walks over and puts on a white baseball-type cap with orange Tropicana insignia.]

Ruth: He decided to sell some fruit boxes, you know, like at Christmastime, people want to send a box of fruit up to some of their family that’s in the North. That was 1945.

David: Again, they shipped to the New York market. Right there in Miami, he’s still in Miami. He’s got connections there in Bradenton. But he’s there in Miami and he’s sending fruit gift boxes to New York State. It did very, very well. But again, he’s trying to improve the price, which means he’s got to lower his costs, and give good service. And he shipped good fruit. It cost wholesale about $1.50 per box. He said, Mr. Tony said, “If I were in Bradenton I would have better access to the groves. I could get them at a cheaper price. So he had his in-laws, his brother- and sister-in-law, the Browns, in charge in Miami while he came up to the Bradenton area and found a warehouse in Palmetto. He was able to drop the wholesale price from $1.50 down to 50-cents. So it proved, he got these fruit-gift-boxes basically selling out of Miami. [David, still in the white hat, does a New Yawk accent.] “Youse got deese tourists commin’ down ta My-yammi and de’er pickin up deese gift bawskits and de’er bought . . .” [Much laughter from Audience]. I never could do a New Yawk accent! I hardly ever lived there.

He found two problems with the gift boxes that bothered him. He was a farm boy, remember, from Italy. He had a garden over there on the hospital grounds. He said: “It bothers me that blemished fruit” – we are not talking about spoiled fruit, were talking about bruised fruit or a little scar on it from the branch, beautiful fruit otherwise – “can’t be put into gift baskets. You know what I could do with these? I know, after two decades up there in New York State, people at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, they are paying people to sit there and cut the grapefruit open, cut the orange open, cut the sections apart. I can do it cheaper here.” People said: “It will spoil if you try to ship that fresh fruit to New York.” He said: “ We’ve got to work on the refrigeration problem.” And he did and it works. So out of Palmetto he established something. I think I’m ahead of myself.

[David brings back a green plastic cup partially seen on page 3, above] Look! This one says Green Bridge Festival, Palmetto, Florida. It’s a fishing tournament.

Ruth: In 1947, Fruit Industries of Palmetto was born.

David: O.K., Fruit Industries is where they are starting to go beyond just shipping the fruit baskets. It’s gift baskets up to New York and New England and they are now sectioning the fruit. They are now doing very, very well. The people at the Waldorf from the earlier part of the story and at other hotels and restaurants could save money and have their good, fresh citrus product. And so Fruit Industries was born.

Now, tell me how exciting a name is Fruit Industries? [Laughter from Audience] It’s not very passionate! It is – serviceable.

So [He holds up the orange juice carton]

11 Ruth: In 1949,”Tropicana” was born.

David: The story which I get that makes the most sense, now he did have a grandmother Ana, and his second wife was Sana. But I think the idea was that he was traveling down toward Miami periodically to check on things down there. Supposedly, south of Sarasota, he’s thinking “I need a better name than Fruit Industries., Incorporated.” He passes a motel sign, a motor court it says in the book, and it says: “Tropicana Motel.” He said: “I like it.” This is more or less tropical fruit and his grandmother was named Ana, so that’s how he got the name Tropicana. It’s supposed to be from 1949.

[David reads from orange juice carton.] Tropicana. 100% pure orange juice from concentrate.

12 Ruth: 1n 1951, his wife Florence died.

David: His beloved Florence, who had been his sidekick through thick and thin, did pass away. He was single for about ten years. He made a vow. Remember that he was a Born- Again Christian for much of his later life. He made a vow that he would not marry just any Jill or Jenny or Josephine. He would marry a Missionary.

[David holds up a toy train car in its original box.] All right, here is one of these orange cars that we were talking about that I saw going over the Manatee River.

13 To me, they are very pretty, but I understand the practicality that makes it a little more difficult to chill the juice. It was probably not the best bet.

Ruth: In 1954, Industrial Glass was born.

David: It was the only glass plant of any size or significance in this area. They had some in Tampa. I remember looking out my dorm window at the University of South Florida and seeing Thatcher Glass. It was one of those things; I’d get tired of looking at it. But here in Bradenton, much of this glass, not every single bottle, but most of them were made at Industrial Glass.

Let me ask you a quiz question. I was a teacher for 30 years. Is that a coincidence? [David holds up a glass bottle with squared sides and rounded corners. It tapers at the top. See page 12, above.] How do I know that it was probably made at Industrial Glass? [Voice from Audience: inaudible]

David: It’s got an eyeball on the bottom?

[Voice from Audience:] No, it’s got an “I”, the letter “I”.

David: O.K. And I just picked up one that has no letter “I” on it! [Laughter from Audience] I cheat! It’s got the “I” on the side. Now I’m not sure if it was made at Industrial Glass. And this one is fancier. I have seen beautiful “I.G.C.”, which is what you get if you combine “Industrial Glass Company”. And here the capital letter “I” is put into a sort of monogram. This says: “February 1964 to February 2003. 39 Years of Excellence.” We think that around 2003 – 2004 the plant went out of business. Close enough. This may have been the Sayonara. It says Tropicana and it shows the glass plant. It says “I.G.” and “S.G.C.” The “S.G.C.” would be what?

[Voices from Audience:] Seagrams.

14 Ruth: 1980 saw the founding of Missionary Village.

David: This Born-Again Christian is saying: “Lord, what do you want me to do with my resources, other than live comfortably? How to provide the people of this World?” Because he felt since they sell in many countries this wonderful orange juice product; or the lemonade, or pineapple juice. Remember his pledge that he was going to marry a missionary? He came up with this idea and established something like 230 units for retired missionaries. They had to be something like 15 years in the field. They would have a great place to come and hang out with new or old friends. I guess the rents are fairly reasonable. Has anybody here ever been out to Missionary Village? This was a Rossi / Tropicana project.

Speaking of lemonade [David holds up a green soft-drink style can] I collect aluminum cans along with bottles and go-withs. Here is Tropicana Pink Lemonade. Now, where was supposedly the first pink grapefruit?

[Voices from Audience: partially inaudible] Atwood Grove, near Ellenton. Reasoners, at Oneco. Thompson Grove in Oneco.

President Jeanne Akers: We have a sign out there, an historical marker for the pink grapefruit. [Partially inaudible]

David: These changes that occur by nature are called what? Sports. Mutations. I found out about this in 1957. Supposedly there was quite a pink grapefruit industry out in Texas. The folks came to Reasoner’s nursery, whether they were first found there or not, where they supposedly talked to the Reasoner’s people who said: “We have these pink

15 grapefruit in this area that nobody else really has. You can really do something special with that.”

[Voice from audience:] The local people wanted nothing to do with pink grapefruit. They were strange. [Next part inaudible]

David: Beautiful! Did you all catch that? A freeze hit Texas and the growers there needed to replenish their groves. They came to Florida to get fresh stock. The Pinks were strange and the local folks weren’t interested. I’ll tell you about strange, while I was in Italy with the military, they had an orange that looked normal on the outside . . . . What are they called?

[Voices from Audience:] Blood oranges!

David: Right. When I first looked at them I thought somebody had taken a syringe and stuck red dye in the middle of this orange. It was another sport.

[Voices from Audience:] They grow them in California. [Next partly inaudible – Going back to the part about Missionary Village – One thing he made sure of was that they all had warm, hot running water because, poor things, they didn’t get that as missionaries -- one meal a day – dining room – I don’t believe they pay rent]

David: So the reasonable rent is no rent.

Ruth: Well, let me see, the next entry here is: “In 2003, Industrial Glass closes.”

David: Yeah, that’s about right. O.K., let’s see if there is anything here – yes?

Libby Warner: David, you didn’t say anything about Tropic-Ana. She was on every box car.

David: Oh! I’m sorry! [He comes back from the goodie table with stuffed Tropic-Ana doll. See page 12 for head and hat, page 13 for skirt and legs.] My sweetie! [Laughter from Audience] I understand that back in the 1960s you could get a coupon that you could send to Tropi-cana to get a Tropic-Ana doll. It would cost you the coupon and 50- cents, or something like that. This one was one of my yard sale acquisitions. And yes, if you look on these [railroad car toys] and she was on a lot of the bottles too. {See page 3]

[David returns Tropic-Anna to the goodie table and picks up a clear glass bottle, round with a tapered top.] Here’s one with hardly anything on it except Tropic-Ana. I heard, too, that there was a local artist that did this. [Voice from Audience: Bill Beckley’s sister, but I don’t know her name.] David: And this bottle has an “I” on the bottom. So this was made by Industrial Glass.

[Voice from audience:] Did you know they made bottles for Bacardi rum? There was a problem with their supply so they had to contract for more. They made bottle for Bacardi.

16 [David holds up a green glass bottle. See page 7] Yes, this is one of those. It has the bat on it. That was the symbol for Bacardi. This says “Bacardi” and “1983”. Does anybody know when Rossi sold out? First it was Beatrice, then Seagrams.

[Voice from Audience: inaudible ]. . . it was a couple of years before he started Missionary Village.

David: So it was 1978 – 1980.

Joanna Williams: No, it was before that, say 1977. My brother went to work for him in 1976.

David: O.K., so it was 1949, which was the actual Tropicana name, the conversion from the processed fruit over to the juice. to 1976. That was the second problem. The first problem was the gift boxes with the nice fruit that was fresh, and then they went to sectioning. Then you’ve got these little small oranges that don’t look good in a gift box. Those are the ones you want to juice. And of course, after all these jobs and after all these entrepreneurial efforts and he ended up with the juice.

O.K., your brother, he’s got a card. Most of you didn’t see this, I’m sure, but this was his card that I think is really cool. It has Japanese on the back and it says: “Tropicana. Marquis Johnson, Tropicana Products, Director of Applied Development.” What did your brother do?

Joanna Williams: He was in research. He was Vice-President for Research. That Twister was one of his jobs.

David: Oh, yes. I didn’t show a Twister, did I? Here’s the Twister.

17 But none of these have “I”s on the bottom. I don’t know that these were made in Industrial Glass. So these bottles may be after 1983. What was the deal on Japan?

Joanna Williams: They didn’t just go to Japan. They went other places. But they went to Japan to get Tropicana juice into Japan. They had to run test panels because the Japanese have such a different taste palate from the American people, they didn’t like Tropicana juice.

David: Was it too sweet or too tart?

Joanna Williams: I can’t remember. But they couldn’t convince the people that were going to run the plant that they HAD to keep the lines, where the juice ran, clean. They had to be sterilized; they had to be cleaned pretty often. The Japanese just couldn’t understand: “Why do we have to keep washing them?” They were getting very frustrated so David [last name inaudible] said: “Take me to a brewery!” So they took him to the Kara (?) Brewery and they talked to the brewer, and the brewer said: “Absolutely! We have to keep our lines clean! Or it ruins our beer. You have to keep it clean for bottling!”

David: Very Good. All right, one last item because we’re running out of time. This never hit production. I think it is one of the coolest bottles that Industrial Glass ever made. Yes, there’s an “I” on the bottom. The story I got from my inside source was: “The engineers weren’t good enough to get the measurements right so we had to scrap the project.” And I’m thinking: “Balony! Salami!”

This is a cartoon character that is owned by Jim Davis. Therefore, you have to have a contract. Apparently they had a trial run so they could show him what it would look like. This is, if you’ve never heard of it you know about it now. It’s called “The Garfield Bottle.” If you just had a cool front, who cares about the back? But the back is cool too! Are you ready?

We were just discussing this last night at the bottle club. I said: Maybe 3 to 5 thousand, ------but I don’t know. But on the front of this 64 ounce juice bottle is [David holds up the clear-glass bottle to the audience.] GARFIELD! Can you see Garfield? This never went out on the store shelves. It never got filled with orange juice. We get big eyes and big teeth.

Now, what do you suppose the back side is? His rump and his tail? No, there are three little vignettes showing – clever idea – showing 1) Garfield trying to wake up 2) Getting a little orange juice and 3) being full of orange juice! [David points to the bottom picture on the back of the bottle.] Here’s Garfield asleep. This is one third full. This is two thirds full. Here’s his eyes wide open. Love those vignettes on the back. Can you see them?

18 The back and front of THE GARFIELD BOTTLE

19 Was this a waste? You can see, even if 7-gazillion of them got trashed, you can believe a lot of folks around the country would say: “That’s worth saving and putting on our knick- knack shelf.” Then when I look at the back and see those three little vignettes, they are all of Garfield, sort of, kind of, and Wide awake.

O.K. Is there anything you want to ask? I probably won’t know the answers. Jeanne?

President Jeanne Akers: You have one that has Tropic-Ana’s picture on it.

David: Yes, I think I showed it earlier. [He picks up a clear-glass bottle.] This used to be my favorite. Oh, look, this is cool! This never hit major production either, because in- house you do all sorts of little things, whether it’s jokes, cards, that never really see the light of day. That never go beyond, but some always get out. This is a fox, so you see a fox on the front of it. It says: “The snook are biting. Boy, I like this shift. I’m heading for the Green Bridge. Like an old sunset song, I’ve got Georgia on my mind.” [Laughter from Audience. David holds the bottle over his head.] Oh, ooohhh! This says “Industrial Glass!” They got a bit carried away.

Anyway, the Rossi bottle. This is the Rossi bottle. It says: “A.T. Rossi, President and Founder. 10th Anniversary, 1964 -1974.” That’s why we’re pretty sure that the glass plant opened in 1964. We know Tropicana was around in 1949. So if this was 1964, it’s got to be something different, the Glass Plant. This is nice; it’s got a picture of Mr. Rossi. [Voice from Audience: I’ve got one.]

David: How many people have Garfield bottles?

[Voice from Audience:] Where do you find them?

David: Yard sales, flea markets.

[Voice from Audience:] I knew I should get up on Saturdays! [Laughter from Audience.]

[Voice from Audience:] Did he ever marry his missionary?

David: Oh, I’m sorry. 1957, no, I think it was either in 1955 or in 1959; he married Sana Barlow Morris, I think it was. She was a Missionary. He married in London. She is the lady that wrote this book [the biography of Anthony T. Rossi]. This is where I got the bulk of my information. They weren’t real diligent about years so I have to do a little bit of guessing, but I’m close. Here you get a feeling that he didn’t just fall out of the sky. He was a hardworking kid who [David switches to his New York accent] “kaym to Noo Yawk and found out wat it took to be really successful. Anudder guy komin’ down to Bwadenton, Florida, and Cortez, Florida. And weally doin’ it up right!” [Laughter from Audience.]

[Voice from Audience – inaudible] David: Well, you remember his Uncle Constantino said: “You make 50-cents a day here. Over there you make a dollar a day.” Well, he

20 didn’t say it then, but today he would have said: “Is this Disneyland or is this for real?” He said: “Is it like Italy?” “No, better than Italy.”

[Voice from Audience:] In 1951, it was still called Bradenton.

David: Oh, I’m sure there was a transition period. In 1924, Bradentown dropped the “w” but in 1929-1930, people are still talking about “Bradentown”.

Libby Warner asks about the fruit. David: O.K. they brought in fruit from Mexico and they brought in the fruit fly. [To Libby Warner] I remember seeing that MCHS interview that you were involved with.

President Jeanne Akers: Mr. Gardener talked to the Society sometime back and he told us about his experience coming here as an engineer for Rossi, and it had to do with production. I can’t remember it. They lost a roof on one of the buildings over there and Mr. Rossi had cleaned it all out and put in clean soil and was raising fig trees and tomatoes.

David: It was a new plant and they had a party in there and the morning before – you know how you put hot tar on a roof? I’m guessing that somehow it hadn’t cooled properly and it got bent. They had taken a big part of the roof off.

Well, I think it is so cool that we had this glass plant. Oh, the latest from the Bradenton Herald from a month or two ago is: “Research has shown that shoppers are tired of trying to guess what their juice looks like. I guess if it’s light yellow it is not nearly as delicious as dark golden yellow. They like to see it through the glass. They can’t see it through the plastic. They do a lot of their own shipping and packaging materials right here at the Tropicana site. They are not going to bring back the glass plant, but they are planning on building something like a $400-million dollar plastics plant to make their own plastic bottles.

So, I’ve got plastic, I’ve got tin, I’ve got glass. Anybody ever been to Tropicana field? [David holds up a white-plastic cup with purple insignia. See page 6 for similar item.] Yeah, they paid a fee to advertise but Tropicana Field is seen all over the country. This cup is from back in the days of the “Devil Rays” [later simply called the Tampa Bay Rays]. Which is really the name of a fish.

I think I’ve covered most everything.

[Voice from Audience:] But what about the cooler?

David: Oh. I love that. My mom got that as a door prize one time. I don’t have one! So I said: “Mother, in the next 10 or 15 years, when you pass on, I want to be first in line to inherit this cooler.”