shadeone
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An ACL bottle with a look that I really like frequently shows up at shows and antique stores around here and I decided to look up it's history. To my disappointment, there is barely any information about it out there.
According to the few references I could find, "Rummy" grapefruit drink / soda was originally a mixer for alcoholic drinks but became a national carbonated beverage in 1948. It was produced by the Wonder-Orange Company, 223 West Erie St., Chicago.
The various small histories around the internet all say 1948 as a creation date, but I was able to find some ads from late 1947, including this one that appears to be from an industry bottler magazine stating "Rummy Goes National!"
These two 1947 ads are from California, where Wonder-Orange appears to have opened a new location:
These two ads are from 1948 and list the original Wonder-Orange company in Chicago:
I have found a paper label looks to be from the days when Rummy was just a mixer, and it lists "American Soda Water Co." in Milwaukee on it.
The label corresponds to this die cut cardboard sign:
So what is the relation between the American Soda Water Co and Wonder-Orange?
Currently the soda still exists and is bottled by Excel Bottling in Breese, IL:
http://excelbottling.com/soda/rummy/
However, their page states "What started as our sour mix, has now become Rummy." and a page about Excel Bottling that was last update in 2015 here: http://glassbottlesoda.org/bottlers/excel.shtml , only lists "sour mix" as a flavor and not "Rummy". So the likelihood of this just being a generic sour mix where someone bought the rights to the defunct name (like Orca-Beverage constantly does) are high.
I was just wondering if anyone has any more information about the creation of this product or any of its history and transformations...
I will list all the bottle variations I have found in a post to follow this one.
According to the few references I could find, "Rummy" grapefruit drink / soda was originally a mixer for alcoholic drinks but became a national carbonated beverage in 1948. It was produced by the Wonder-Orange Company, 223 West Erie St., Chicago.
The various small histories around the internet all say 1948 as a creation date, but I was able to find some ads from late 1947, including this one that appears to be from an industry bottler magazine stating "Rummy Goes National!"
These two 1947 ads are from California, where Wonder-Orange appears to have opened a new location:
These two ads are from 1948 and list the original Wonder-Orange company in Chicago:
I have found a paper label looks to be from the days when Rummy was just a mixer, and it lists "American Soda Water Co." in Milwaukee on it.
The label corresponds to this die cut cardboard sign:
So what is the relation between the American Soda Water Co and Wonder-Orange?
Currently the soda still exists and is bottled by Excel Bottling in Breese, IL:
http://excelbottling.com/soda/rummy/
However, their page states "What started as our sour mix, has now become Rummy." and a page about Excel Bottling that was last update in 2015 here: http://glassbottlesoda.org/bottlers/excel.shtml , only lists "sour mix" as a flavor and not "Rummy". So the likelihood of this just being a generic sour mix where someone bought the rights to the defunct name (like Orca-Beverage constantly does) are high.
I was just wondering if anyone has any more information about the creation of this product or any of its history and transformations...
I will list all the bottle variations I have found in a post to follow this one.