The long awaited Mountain Dew article, or at least the first part of it.

[morbious_fod]

I know I have been cagey when answering questions about the early history of Mountain Dew. This is because I didn't want to give too much away before I wrote my grand opus driven by my own questions about the official story as written by Dick Bridgeforth, legend based on anecdotal evidence, and completely illogical conclusions that just make no business sense. So here it is the first part of my appearent short series of Mountain Dew articles entitled "Mountain Dew: Logic VS Legend Part One" entitled "Who first commercially bottled Mountain Dew?". This edition gets into the Hartman bottle question from warehousing to flavor line theories. Is this article too much influenced by my consumption of Penn & Teller's show BS? Maybe a bit. LOL!

I also posted a short King Cola article that I've been sitting on for a week or so and forgot to post.

http://www.tazewell-orange.com/dewlegndpart1.html

 

[ncbred]

Thanks for your hard work morb. I really enjoy your articles! There is one more town that I know of that bottled King Cola. I recently saw a King Cola bottle from Kinston, NC at an estate auction. It was one I really wanted but by that time they were selling the bottles in lots by the dozens and that group went for way more than I wanted to put in. It looked like the Marion bottle you have pictured.

 

[ncbred]

Here is another from Phoebus, VA.

https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m-24743/mpage-1/key-king%2Ccola/tm.htm#24743

And here is the one from Kinston and another one from Charleston, WV.

https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m-84139/mpage-1/key-king%252Ccola/tm.htm#84139

 

[morbious_fod]

Looks like I'm gonna need a list don't it? LOL! Thanks for the info.

 

[Anthonicia]

Morb, that's an excellent article on Mountain Dew. I really appreciate your inquisitive nature and drive to get answers. You have truly already forgotten everything I have learned about Dew.

I do want to throw in the possibility that the Hartman Brothers ordered the bottles for their own use. It is generally agreed that the lithiated lemon Mtn Dew was first used as a mixer. Maybe they intended more of a grassroots campaign, you know, mix a drink for one of your business associates in High Point, NC. Shoot the shit with Boss Hawg from Hazzard County. Word of mouth to advertise before they released Dew in high numbers?

This is just a suggestion. Barney and Ollie seem to be prankster/joker types. It seems a lil logical to me. IF, and a big IF, they had the money to sit on the product for awhile?

Probably never really know.....

 

[morbious_fod]

With the cost associated with creating an acl, which involves the engineering to create the drawings for a design, the cost of making the screens, the fact that bottles are purchased in grosses which comes out to 100 bottles per gross, then of course the fact that they continue to buy a gross at least once a year, then the cost for a laugh tends to start looking a bit less likely. If they purchased one gross a year the breakdown would be 200 clear bottles 400 green bottles. That's 600 reusable bottles by the end of 1954, if it were ND/NRs then maybe I could believe that they were ordering these for their own use, this may be what was going on from 1948 through 1951. We have no evidence on way or another aside from anecdotal evidence, and their own information given to the government in the registration paperwork. Then again there is still the question of why were they purchasing Mountain Dew bottles in both clear and green in 1951 and 1952. Anything is possible, but the "for their personal use" acls is kinda odd when there were other ways of going about it. Then you also have them spreading the brand around to other bottlers and businessmen who could steal the name for themselves, it's just too risky in my opinion. This is where I would like to have records and letters from and to the company, they would help shed light on this more for us, because the information from the Hartman era is so scant, and based almost entirely on the memory of a handful of older people and or their relatives.

 

[morbious_fod]

Then there was one anecdotal witness the Bridgeforth told me about who was a worker at Hartman Beverage that claimed that they were indeed bottling the brand for sale before Tri-City started bottling the brand in 1954. It's still anecdotal; however, I would believe someone who actually saw it going down the line than, many of the other sources. Yet that is still no proof.

 

[madman]

CANT WAIT TO READ IT! THANKS

 

[Anthonicia]

This might be considered a bit off topic, but I am in need of your brain Morb! Mwuhahaha! Below are pics of the bottom of my Barney and Ally. If you notice the year indicator is 55, but if you look a little closer you can see where there was a 54, and a 53, overscored with the 55 (rightside 5). Why would the Hartman's have their bottles re-stamped every year? Is this even the case?

As for the topic, I got to agree with you about the financial aspects of Dew business sense. Mountain Dew was a bit of a joke on the Hartman's part. I mean the artist even mispelled Ollie's (sic) name as Ally. Or was it Allie? Idk, but it was mispelled either way. You got to agree that they didn't give Dew much of a chance at first, or rather, didn't expect much of it. If you take both sides of the story then somewhere in the middle you have the truth!

 

[Anthonicia]

2.