Canadacan
Well-Known Member
These are the only two I have from Mason's. I love the orange with the instructional top on how to open it.
There are about 10 known cans, 3 generations, a diet ginger ale...one of them is a 12oz first generation marked root beer on the lid. The earliest ad is from 1958 in the Grandview Exponent, MB ...other ads I have see are from Richmond Hill ON for IGA in 1961 in 10oz cans, Eatons in Brandon MB for 1960 in 10oz cans, and Shop-Easy Victoria BC 1960 in 10oz cans.
So it was pretty well distributed but not really that big out west as the market was monopolized by Shasta, White Rock and Cragmont for starters.
My orange can is marked Mason's Beverages limited, Toronto, and the Cola is marked Sole Distributor Harold T. Griffin Limited, Toronto.
Ok here's a real cool ad from the Winnipeg Free Press-Jun-29-1960.... as I noted above some of the other brands that had just started to claim their stake, well this ad that features the second gen can shows Mason's was working hard too. They were a serious threat to Shasta Beverages out of Vancouver which pretty much had the canning market tied down in Western Canada and as Mason's was now canning in 10oz cans it was real competitive and by 1963 forced Shasta to abandon 12oz cans in favor of 10oz...and in September of 1963 Shasta acquired the contract to can for Coca-Cola and they requested 10oz cans, so that pretty much signaled the end of the 12oz in Canada until the early 1980's. ©-I.Lang 2021
So going back to the first gen cans here is a look at one from D. Tanners guide.
And the discovery of this ad from Saint Johns Daily News-September,10-1955 was a nice surprise as it puts Mason's in Canada a bit earlier that the 1958 date I had from the Grandview Exponent.
There are about 10 known cans, 3 generations, a diet ginger ale...one of them is a 12oz first generation marked root beer on the lid. The earliest ad is from 1958 in the Grandview Exponent, MB ...other ads I have see are from Richmond Hill ON for IGA in 1961 in 10oz cans, Eatons in Brandon MB for 1960 in 10oz cans, and Shop-Easy Victoria BC 1960 in 10oz cans.
So it was pretty well distributed but not really that big out west as the market was monopolized by Shasta, White Rock and Cragmont for starters.
My orange can is marked Mason's Beverages limited, Toronto, and the Cola is marked Sole Distributor Harold T. Griffin Limited, Toronto.
Ok here's a real cool ad from the Winnipeg Free Press-Jun-29-1960.... as I noted above some of the other brands that had just started to claim their stake, well this ad that features the second gen can shows Mason's was working hard too. They were a serious threat to Shasta Beverages out of Vancouver which pretty much had the canning market tied down in Western Canada and as Mason's was now canning in 10oz cans it was real competitive and by 1963 forced Shasta to abandon 12oz cans in favor of 10oz...and in September of 1963 Shasta acquired the contract to can for Coca-Cola and they requested 10oz cans, so that pretty much signaled the end of the 12oz in Canada until the early 1980's. ©-I.Lang 2021
So going back to the first gen cans here is a look at one from D. Tanners guide.
And the discovery of this ad from Saint Johns Daily News-September,10-1955 was a nice surprise as it puts Mason's in Canada a bit earlier that the 1958 date I had from the Grandview Exponent.
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