I finally found the missing Mountain Dew bottle.

[morbious_fod]

In the story of Mountain Dew there is a no show bottle that we know went into production, but no intact versions have so far surfaced. The problem is that they were paper label bottles which were early versions of the ND/NR bottles. Apparently Tri-City Beverage was one of the early subscribers to the ND/NR scene, and in 1955 were known to be bottling Mountain Dew in an 8 3/4" bottle with By Charlie, Jim, and Bill under the brand name, and had a modified version of the same label, names and all for their 28oz (in reality the bottle is embossed 1 pint 12oz on the bottom) throwaway bottle. I have been looking for this bottle intact or at least the bottle itself sans label, knowing that they had to be out there somewhere, but until yesterday I was having no luck finding one.

The date on the bottle is 1955, it was made by Owens Illinois in their Huntington, WV plant just like all the other O-I bottles that Tri-City ordered, and it looks exactly like the bottle pictured in known 1955 pictures showing the bottles as part of the local hunting show that was promoting the brand.

 

[morbious_fod]

And here is the close up of the bottle from Dick Bridgeforth's book. Unfortunately it is a scan of a scan, and the wording around the shoulder is hard to see, but you can see where it is located. Now I'm not saying this bottle held Mountain Dew, because the one pictured doesn't have a shoulder label; however, I do know that the Gordon's line used paper labels as well and no examples of them have been found intact either, they may have had shoulder labels. Why is this important? The only remants of a label that was left was on the shoulder, and it was only the very ends of the label, but I say that this appears to be the type of bottle that Tri-City was bottling Mountain Dew in around 1955. Now if I could only find one with a label.

 

[morbious_fod]

A better comparison.

 

[madman]

HEY MORB IVE FOUND TONS OF THEM HERE IN KNOXVILLE DIDNT NO........................

 

[acls]

Good info Morb. I had never seen a pic of that paper label dew before. Very cool.

 

[Anthonicia]

U know morb I have wondered the same thing when I have come across similar bottles. I am very glad at least someone has the same obsessions as I do. At least I know I will have company in the nuthouse muttering "paper label dew, no!, I swear there is one! U gotta believe the Bridforth photo! Bigfoot! Barbara Streisand!

That's cool u came across one. It looks really similar to me. I found on similar to that here in nc believe it or not. I always thought it was a Squirt or something. The ndnr embossing is bigger on the one I found though. Weird it has a paper neck label, but everything is weird in dew lore right?

Congrats on finding one!

 

[Wangan]

Boy that looks like one I have.I`ll dig around and look to make sure.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Morb ~

I think you know by now that I am trying my best to understand all of the various aspects to the history of Mountain Dew. I first took an interest in collecting soda bottles back in 1976 when I was 24 years old. But at the time (and for the next 15 years) I was only interested in collecting Coca Cola bottles and go-with's. Which I kick myself about now because I know I passed up a lot of rare items. Including truck-loads of now rare Mountain Dew bottles and collectibles.

You also know that I am often confused and sometimes wrong regarding my understanding of the multiple aspects of Mountain Dew. So please bare this in mind regarding the following observation and question.

Observation:
The photo below is from my 2001 Mountain Dew Book by Bruce Zafft and Tim Tromp. Notice the bottle is from Tr-City Beverages - Dated 1955 - and the label says ..."by Charlie-Jim and Bill" Which is the same thing it says on the bottle in your black and white scan.

Question:
Does this mean there were two different bottles produced by Tri-City Beverages in 1955? One with a paper label and one with an applied color label? (I suppose I could answer my own question by saying "Obviously there were two different bottles." But I am trying not to jump to conclusions until I know all of the actual facts).

Thanks a million for time and interest ... and especially for you recent Mountain Dew article that I found to be one of the best ever written.

SPBOB

 

[morbious_fod]

Pictures don't lie Soda. The bottles in the carton are the one you posted. The article that this photo comes from also states that the brand is being bottled in an 8 3/4 oz and 28oz throwaway. The reason the label looks weird in the picture is that there was a large flash glare on the label in the original photo and Bridgeforth filled it in using the sign on the wall.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Morb ~

Thanks. I understand it now. I couldn't see enough of the six-pack bottles to tell if they were the same or not. Since posting my last reply I discovered the paper label bottle was super early for a throw-away. I didn't realize they started that early. So, thanks to you again, I have learned a lot today. []

Soda