In search of Cotton club beverages info on RI bottle

[fishnuts]

My 8 oz. Cotton Club is a Reed Glass marked '45'...Cranston. fyi

 

[splante]

if 45 is the year and I ASSume it is thats the earlies RI cotton club I have heard of thanks for the info

 

[splante]

ORIGINAL: splante

compare cotton club to harmony club label is this a coinsidence???? both roots from cleveland ohio harmony club below.

 

[splante]

and harmony club

 

[JayBeck]

ORIGINAL: splante

ORIGINAL: splante

compare cotton club to harmony club label is this a coincidence???? both roots from cleveland ohio harmony club below.

Is the Harmony Club bottle you posted from Rhode Island? Similar label but it was definately a different company.

As for Cotton Club, surfaceone already provided the info that is available online. It would probably take a lot of searching at the library to find any more information about the company. All I can say for sure that was not mentioned in that article is that although Miller Becker dates back to 1902, the Cotton Club brand came later but dates to at least the 1930s based on the earliest ACL I have from Cleveland. There is also an embossed bottle from Cleveland that may date earlier. I'll try to find those when I get a chance and take a picture.

The thing that stands out the most to me about your bottles is the embossed design on the shoulder. I have never seen any Cleveland Cotton Club bottles with that design embossed. It may be unique to Rhode Island. I don't know how they are connected but there must be some connection unless it was an unauthorized imitator. Your bottles are the first ones I have seen that are from somewhere besides Cleveland.

There is a similar instance of this small scale franchising from the Sunset Bottling Co of Cleveland, Ohio. They bottled brands such as TNT and SOS that can also be found from Hialeah, Florida but I have never seen any bottles from anywhere else. In this instance I think the owners just decided to move to Florida and moved the company there. As for Cotton Club, they were operating in Cleveland until the late 90s so they didn't move the company but it certainly appears to be a franchise. It would be interesting to know how long they were operating there.

 

[celerycola]

There is an embossed Cotton Club on eBay today. It has a shape like the Miller Becker Ace Hy that was sued by Nehi.

 

[splante]

no the harmony club pictured is from ohio, not known to be any harmony clubs from RI, I just thought the 2 labels were pretty much the same ,thinking maybe a name change somewhere along the line.....

 

[hemihampton]

I got it in a old flat top can. No bottle. LEON.

 

[splante]

any pics of the flat top

 

[hemihampton]

Here it is. White can in middle of Pic. Dumped/Dug it in Northern Michigan. LEON.