Canada Dry Ginger Ale “Drink Canada Dry” *
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Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 1 FIRST DRAFT Cecil Munsey Date: November 2011 13541 Willow Run Road Words: 8,343 Poway, CA 92064-1733 Rights: First Serial Photos / Illus: 45 Price: Open Periodical; Open PHONE: 858-487-7036 Category: History E-MAIL: [email protected] A Short History of Canada Dry Ginger Ale “Drink Canada Dry” * (Fig. 1a Canada Dry logo – then) (Fig. 1b Canada Dry logo – now) Researched, organized, Illuminated, and presented by Cecil Munsey, PhD Copyright © 2002-2011 Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 2 * “’Drink Canada Dry’ is a slogan, not a command!” runs an old joke, a bit of punning humor that plays on dual interpretations of Canada Dry’s popular old advertising slogan. (We don’t know exactly how old that joke is, but Jack Benny referred to it as a familiar piece of humor during his first professional radio broadcast in 1932, on a program sponsored by the famous ginger ale. (Fig. 1c Current Canada Dry Tonic Water shown under normal & ultraviolet light) (The Beginnings) 1885: J. J. McLaughlin, was an 1885 graduate, with a gold medal, of the University of Toronto College of Pharmacy. He was trained as both a pharmacist and a chemist. Like so many pharmacists of the late 19th and the early 20th century, Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 3 McLaughlin was interested in flavored soda waters. He experimented with various mixtures that were added to his carbonated soda water made from a mixture of baking soda, vinegar and water. John knew how unpalatable this mixture was and set about using his soda water as a mixer with “Real Fruit” juices or flavored extracts. While most of his business was soda water for drug stores, a fair amount was sold for home consumption with the various juices or extracts being added by the customers themselves. Soon McLaughlin was bottling various flavored beverages himself and selling them to his customers in the trade and at home. His early flavors were cream soda, ginger beer, sarsaparilla and lemon sour. McLaughlin’s company also made and imported mineral waters, carbonated beverages, syrups, creams, cordials, extracts, fountain fruits, ice-cream machinery, and soda fountain supplies. 1890: On three consecutive dates in 1890, important events occurred: On September 25th Yosemite National Park was created by an act of the U. S. Congress. On September 26th coinage of 1- and 3-dollar gold pieces and 3-cent nickel pieces was discontinued by an act of the U. S. Congress. And on September 27th John James (“Jack) McLaughlin (1866-1914) – (Fig. 1d) opened J. J. McLaughlin, Manufacturing Chemists, a (Fig. 1d. J. J. small plant in Toronto, Canada. McLaughlin photo) The plant was actually a part of J. J. McLaughlin Pharmacy. He manufactured plain carbonated soda water that he called “Hygeia” distilled water, “Real Fruit” juices, and sold “Sanitary” brand soda fountains to drug stores. The company also made and imported mineral waters, carbonated beverages, syrups, creams, cordials, extracts, fountain fruits, ice-cream machinery, and soda fountain supplies. (J.J. McLaughlin Bottles) He sold his soda water in (soda) siphon bottles like the type that were a staple in the old Three Stooges movies and are quite collectible today. Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 4 1900: By the turn of the century he was also selling his “Hygeia” distilled water in light green Codd marble-stoppered soda bottles (Fig. 2) and in a green eight-ounce blob-tops (Fig. 3) and numerous other bottles that featured an embossed mortar & pestle with “J.J. McLAUGHLIN” and “HYGEIA” waters embossed on them (Figs 4 through Fig. 17). These are truly the first Canada Dry bottles and are not only historic but of great value to historians and collectors. (Fig. 2. J.J. McLaughlin Codd (Fig. 3. J.J. McLaughlin Marble bottle) [green blob-top]) (Marriage) “Jack” McLaughlin married Maud Christie, a red-haired New Yorker who came from a wealthy family and was of such “intimidating hauteur” (disdainful person) she terrified almost everyone who met her. The family never came to like her and thought her a snob. Interestingly enough but not unusual, however, it was Maud’s dowry that helped Jack set up in business. (“Justice triumphs” it is often said; it will be shown in a later section of this article, what return on her money she made.) Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 5 (Fig. 4. J.J. McLaughlin (Fig. 5. J.J. McLaughlin [ceramic “Ginger (Fig. 6. J.J. McLaughlin [stubby yellow-amber blob Shandy” wire bail]) [wire bail]) top]) (Fig. 7. J.J. McLaughlin (Fig. 8. J.J. McLaughlin (Fig. 9. J.J. McLaughlin (Fig. 10. J.J. [crown cap]) [Greenish-blue crown cap]) [qt. crown cap]) McLaughlin [Qt. green crown cap]) Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 6 (Fig. 11. J.J. McLaughlin HYGEIA (Fig. 13. J.J. McLaughlin [Lt (Fig. 12. J.J. McLaughlin [Lt. WATERS [Qt. crown cap]) purple flat-bottom bowling- purple Bowling-pin shaped pin-shaped crown cap]) crown cap]) (Fig. 16. J.J. 17. J.J. (Fig. 14. J.J. (Fig. 15. J.J. McLaughlin McLaughlin [vertical McLaughlin McLaughlin –Ottawa [crown cap]) embossing crown HYGEIA [Qt. crown [crown cap]) cap]) cap]) Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 7 (J.J. McLaughlin & Charles E. Hires) It wasn’t long before he expanded his small business and began to manufacture and sell many pieces of soda fountain equipment under the trade name “Sanitary” soda fountains. And for a time, surprisingly, he was a sales agent of figural soda fountains built by Charles E. Hires, the famous root beer manufacturer of Philadelphia. The Hires soda fountain (Design Patent No. 11,699, dated March 23, 1880) embodied the form of a “rustic house, covered with roots and vines”. Fig. 18 is a soda fountain glass in which Canada Dry Ginger Ale was mixed. The hard to find artifact for the famous beverage is worth the better part of $100 on today’s collector market. (Fig. 18. Canada Dry drinking glass) Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 8 (Market Expansion) McLaughlin wanted to widen the market for his product so he came up with a package so that it could be taken home and enjoyed all over Canada. He experimented and finally came up with the idea of mass bottling. By the turn of the century he had a fairly large flavored soda water manufacturing business. He delivered his product to his customers by buggy and later by wagon. “Ginger,” say the pharmacopoeists, “…is carminative, sternutative, sialagogue, and rubefacient, which means that it makes you belch, sneeze, spit, and turn red–not necessarily at once.” It was ginger that John McLaughlin was fascinated with and that he chose to be the focus of his manufacturing efforts. In 1900 he produced a beverage that was dark in color with a strong ginger flavor and called it “McLaughlin Belfast Style Ginger Ale.” (No artifacts have yet been found for this product.) The beverage was non-alcoholic and made to imitate Cantrell & Cochrane Ginger Ale, (which was first made in 1852) a champagne-like product made in Dublin, Ireland. McLaughlin’s Belfast Ginger Ale was too dark and syrupy for Canadian tastes. Sidebar: [It is interesting to note that imported ginger ale from both Ireland and London was very popular in the early 1900s. Even though there was a duty on imported ginger ale, records reveal that almost 3,600,000 bottles were imported – those bottles that have survived can’t all have been collected. And because of the fact they utilized round– bottom bottles, collectors should keep their eyes open for the silver plated four-pronged holders that were used to keep the bottles upright at garden parties in the days before World War I. They are scarce and sell for around $100.] After taking suggestions for improvement from his wife Maud and his customers, he continued to refine his Belfast-style ginger ale, eventually finding just the right lighter [pale] coloring and carbonation. Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 9 (McLaughlin’s Belfast Style Ginger Ale Renamed) 1904: He re-named his newest product, McLaughlin’s Pale Dry Style Ginger Ale. The renamed ginger ale was sold for less than a year. (No artifacts from this phase of the business are known to exist.) (Another and Final New Name & Slogan) 1905: Jack McLaughlin changed the name for the last time and began to market his pale and dry ginger ale as “Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale” and began using a new slogan suggested by Maud, “The Champagne of Ginger Ales.” Both the latest product and the slogan became McLaughlin trademarks and were (and still are) quite famous and respected in most parts of the world. 1905: A patent was filed for the new (1904) formula and the name “Canada Dry”. 1907: On January 18, 1907, Canadian authorities issued a “Certificate of Registration” for the trademark “Canada Dry” with “J. J. McLaughlin, Ltd.” as the corporate owner. (Canada Dry Shipped to U.S. for First Time) 1907: The business was doing very well in those years just after the turn of the century. So much so, that bottling plants were established in both Toronto (mostly to supply the Robert Simpson Company) and, Edmonton, Alberta (mostly to supply the Famous Hudson’s Bay Company). With the business growing as it was, he decided to import his product to the United States. As early as 1907, Canada Dry was being shipped to U. S. grocery wholesalers in Buffalo, Brooklyn, and Detroit. Munsey –––––––––––––––––––––– Canada Dry –––––––––––––––––––––––– Page 10 (New Bottle Label) 1907: As part of the new image for Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale, McLaughlin created a label in 1907 that included a map of Canada as a background image.