ATTENTION! FORUM MEMBER squirtbob ~ EARLY SQUIRT BOTTLING NEWSPAPER ADS

[squirtbob]

This post shows the back of the earliest bottle. It corresponds to the black script bottle on the left side of the first picture and was also found on the earliest 1939 red script bottle. No evidence of contents are shown anywhere on the bottle or the cap, which was likely blue. Notice that it's "different" which is in line with it being a new drink. Also it mentions how it can be used as "a drink a mixer". That market concept became prominent in late 1939 and into 1940.

 

[squirtbob]

This post shows the changes made to the front and back of the bottles when the script was changed to ALL CAPS. The adversting on the back during this period (1948-57) changed three times but each included Lil Squirt Boy. The twisty bottle was begun in 1958.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Bob

Great pics. Thanks for sharing them.

If the first 1938 Squirt bottle had a paper label, it's probably going to be a tough one to find. In connection with this, I am trying to determine ...

1. Exactly where in Wisconsin Herb Bishop's cheese distribution operation was located?

2. If the Manitowoc and Menasha bottlers were the first to bottle Squirt, why were those
locations selected over other bottlers?

3. Is there a connection between Manitowoc, Menasha, and Herb Bishop?

Reminder: The June 16, 1938 Manitowoc Herald-Times advertisement was cheese related.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. Bob Do you have or ever seen any Squirt bottles from either Manitowoc or Menasha?

 

[squirtbob]

Bob, These are the ones I have from Wisconsin and bottle date.Milwaukee 1944, Racine, 1945, Wausau 1946, Madison 1946, Eau Claire 1947, and Hurley 1951. I've never seen one from Manitowoc or Menasha. By the way I have about 30 states plus Mexico and Canada. If anyone is interested in trading/selling send me a note.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Regarding my attempt to track down Herb Bishop's cheese distribution location and a possible connection to Manitowoc and Menasha, Wisconsin, I had to go back to the original thread and retrieve this link to a newspaper article where it states ...

"The Milwaukee cheese business had palled for young Herbert S. Business ..."

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QwUtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LtQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6641,1809528&dq=squirt+company+1938&hl=en

Even though this places Bishop in the Milwaukee area during the early days of Squirt, I have yet to find just how widespread his cheese operation was and whether it included the entire state or just the Milwaukee area.

The attached Wisconsin map is dated 1938 and shows the proximity of the three towns in question, which I underlined accordingly ...

Menasha = Red
Manitowoc = Green
Milwaukee = Yellow

Manitowoc is about 100 miles north of Milwaukee.
Menasha is about 50 miles west of Manitowoc.

But I still don't know why Manitowoc and Menasha were chosen as locations for two of the first bottlers of Squirt. At this juncture I can only speculate the reasons and hope to find something more specific with future searches.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

This is the only picture of Herb Bishop I have been able to find or am aware of. Unfortunately, it is not very clear and my attempts to lighten and enhance it failed. From ... Estherville Daily News ~ Estherville, Iowa ~ November 19, 1962

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. I'm still not sure if Bishop's middle initial is B or S - I have seen it both ways throughout my searches.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

I'm doing some research on the Twin City Bottling Company in Menasha, which I posted the ad for earlier, and I just wanted to establish the following for a future reference ...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neenah,_Wisconsin

"Neenah is sometimes referred to as a twin city of the City of Menasha, "

~ * ~

Initially I thought Appleton was Menasha's twin city because that's where the newspaper ad came from.

( More about this later )

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

I haven't connected all of the dots/dates on this yet, but it's starting to look as if ... Twin City Beverages / Twin City Bottling ... in Menasha, Wisconsin stopped bottling Squirt somewhere along the line. I have come across several ads like the one below and all of them lead me to believe that Squirt was not a part of their product line in later years. It's hard to imagine if Squirt was being bottled by them at the time that it would not be included in this ad from ... The Post-Crescent ~ Appleton, Wisconsin ~ March 8, 1960 ( Which suggest that a Squirt bottle from Menasha might be even rarer than I first thought )