Oldest ACL Royal Crown Cola Bottle?

[SODAPOPBOB]

dbv1919

Thanks for sharing your superb collection of RC bottles!

Based on everything I've read about Royal Crown Cola ...

1. It was first introduced and test marketed in 1934
2. But not available to the general public until 1935
3. The limited 1934 and 1935 bottles had paper labels
4. The first acl/painted label bottle was introduced in 1936

I did a fairly extensive search and could not find a single picture of a 1934 or 1935 bottle. The earliest picture I could find was of a 1936 bottle which had a paper label. Starting in 1937, pictures of acl bottles are relatively abundant.

As you already know, your 1936 Royal Crown Cola acl bottle is indeed a rare bird. There doesn't appear to have been a 1935 acl.

The attachments are as follows ...

1. Newspaper Ad ~ The Evening Sun ~ Hanover, Pennsylvania ~ October 8, 1936

This is the earliest advertisement I could find that included an image of a bottle which, in this case, has a paper label. Notice the neck label is placed "on top" of the neck debossment, which strikes me as odd.

2. Your 1936 acl for comparison

3. Newspaper Ad ~ Harrisburg Telegraph ~ Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ~ June 9, 1937

The acls are easily distinguishable from the paper label bottles because the acls have the boxed in frame around the main label. Heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey is prominently mentioned in many of the 1937 ads.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

I'm not certain about the date of this item but suspect it is from 1937 ...

 

[M.C.Glass]

When I inquired about this paper label RC to the guy who had posted it years earlier, he told me that it was a 1933...[attachment=RC paper label 1933.jpg]

 

[dbv1919]

Thanks for the info SODAPOPBOB very interesting.

 

[bottlingco]

I have an aqua one with the embossed full pyramid on the shoulder. 1937. The full pyramid is harder to find than the embossed trapezoid version. ~bottlingco

 

[sunrunner]

I have one with camals and pyamids on it.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

The only reference I can find to indicate Royal Crown Cola was bottled in 1933 is from the Gono.com link at the bottom of the list. I have my doubts about it's accuracy (could be a typo) because all of the other references point to 1934. But setting the date aside for the moment, I'm digging a little deeper into this and trying to find information about "Grubb Bottling" in Dothan, Alabama who apparently was either the first or one of the first bottlers of Royal Crown Cola. Although I have not found any confirmed connections yet between Grubb Bottling and Royal Crown Cola in 1933 or 1934, I do know the bottler existed and will continue my search for more information.



http://www.rccola.net/rccolastory/rccolastory2.htm

"A Nehi bottler named Grubb from Dothan, Alabama was one of the first to bottle the new Royal Crown Cola. He made a special trip to Columbus to tell Mott "You've got something here!" Other test bottlers agreed, and so did consumers, who paid the new cola the supreme compliment of abbreviating its name from Royal Crown to "RC," a designation that continues today."




http://www.rccolainternational.com/about_royal_crown_history.aspx

http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/EPChap10a.pdf

http://www.angelfire.com/tn/traderz/chero.html

1933 ???

http://www.gono.com/museum2003/museum%20collect%20info/cherocola.htm


1. The Dothan Eagle ~ Dothan, Alabama ~ December 24, 1932

2. The Dothan Eagle ~ Dothan, Alabama ~ June 23, 1934

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

More "Grubb" and other Royal Crown Cola details ... http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/hatcher13430gph.txt

 

[lblackvelvet]

Hello, So does anyone know why some of the bottles are clear and some are aqua ? And are one or the other more rare ? Thanks, Kevin....

 

[judu]

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