Howard Deering Johnson

In the 1950s and 1960s, Howard Johnson’s rose to become the first and largest American restaurant chain in the industry. The company’s familiar orange roofs and white steeples covered much of the U.S. highway system. Colloquially known as "HoJos," it was also a leader in the development of roadside lodging. 

Howard Johnson (1897-1972) began his restaurant venture in 1925 in a single location in Quincy, Massachusetts. Seeking better financial opportunities, he bought a combination drug store, newsstand, and soda fountain. Soon noticing the popularity and profitability of ice cream, he developed his own formula with nearly twice the butterfat content of other ice creams, with a creamier consistency, not like hard, hand-dipped ice creams at the time. Needless to say, folks lined up to buy his ice cream. "HoJos" were eventually known its twenty-eight flavors.

The rise of highway travel also elicited the rise of crudely-made billboards. Howard Johnson elected an upscale approach to make his buildings stand out with memorable signage. On top of a historic New England-style white building was a bright orange roof that was visible in the daytime and floodlit at night. He topped it off with a steeple reminiscent of a New England church or city hall, a weathervane, and added the “Simple Simon and the Pieman” neon sign. Later modernizations dropped the nursery rhyme characters. The beautiful Howard Johnson's at left was located in Queens, New York City, in 1940.

By the 1950s, the company expanded operations by opening hotels, then known as Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges, which were often located next to HoJo restaurants. Johnson also owned and operated “company stores,” using franchising only when money was tight. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it had become the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. with over one thousand owned and franchised Howard Johnson’s restaurants.

Lacking the vision of the previous business CEO, handing over a business to a second generation can spell doom for a company. Under the leadership of the son, Howard B. Johnson, his father's legacy of first-class dining and lodging fell to the wayside. Howard Johnson's no longer stood alone in the restaurant and lodging universe. By 1980, the once-great company was in dire straits through mismanagement and cost-cutting from a guy who wanted no further future ties to the business. For a $360 million profit, H.B. sold the company to Britain’s Imperial Group. Their six-year ownership saw further decline, which became an embarrassment to the industry. All hotels and company trademarks, including those of the former restaurant chain, have been owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts since 2006 as Howard Johnson by Wyndham. In the following fifteen years, the Howard Johnson name dramatically diminished.

Multi-faceted Remington Rand

Remington Rand, Inc. originated from E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, New York, which began manufacturing sewing machines in 1873 and later acquired the rights to produce typewriters from inventor Christopher Latham Sholes in 1876. The Remington No. 1 was the first typewriter to use the QWERTY keyboard layout. The company exhibited its typewriters at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and expanded globally during the 1880s. The company was formed in 1927 through the merger of the Remington Typewriter Company and the Rand Kardex Bureau, Inc. A division of Remington Rand also made electric razors beginning in 1937.

Remington Rand merged with Sperry Corporation in 1955 to become Sperry Rand. It manufactured the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers, the first commercial computer system, initially for the U.S. Census Bureau. Along this same timeline, they manufactured modular office furniture under the name Remington Rand Modular Furniture. The Sperry Corporation sold the division in 1979 to Victor Kiam, who became the company spokesman. His line, "I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company," became a memorable advertising slogan of the early 1980s. Sperry later merged with Burroughs Corporation in 1986 to become Unisys. Remington Products was sold to the battery manufacturer Rayovac in 2003 (now part of Spectrum Brands). 

Acme Blog Post

A major factor in the widespread use of the "Acme" name was the rise of alphabetized phone directories, particularly the Yellow Pages, in the 1920s. In the same era, Acme was also used in films starting in the silent era. Companies sought to appear at the top of listings to increase visibility, and names starting with "A" were guaranteed to be near the beginning of the alphabetical order. and implied being the best. This led to a surge in real-world businesses adopting the name, including Acme Boots, Acme Brick, Acme Markets, and Acme Quality Paints, below.

Warner Bros.' The Looney Tunes writers, particularly Chuck Jones, adopted "Acme Corporation" as a fictional conglomerate that supplied Wile E. Coyote with an endless array of products, from anvils to rockets. The name's irony was central to the humor: despite implying "the best" or "the peak," the products were consistently flawed and failed catastrophically, often with hilarious results. The name became synonymous with a faceless, omnipresent company that sells everything, fictionally. The actual production of Acme anvils was carried out by the Columbus Forge & Iron Co. in Columbus, Ohio. They were also available through the Sears-Roebuck catalog in the early twentieth century.

Acme Quality Paints was founded in 1884 in Detroit as Acme White Lead and Color Works, later becoming known as Acme Quality Paints. The company was a significant producer of durable, affordable paints for homes, barns, and industrial buildings, particularly prominent in the Midwest and southern United States. By the 1920s, the company had expanded considerably, operating a large plant with over 700 employees. During this year, Sherwin-Williams purchased the Acme Quality Paint Company.

Kem-Tone, the first emulsion-based, fast-drying paint for the do-it-yourself market, was introduced in 1941 and met with remarkable success. The prefix “Kem” indicated that the paints were “chemically involved materials,” and Kem preceded other paint product names. Kem-Tone helped deal with the raw material shortage that the nation faced after the war. The company's influence extended to automotive finishes, with advertisements promoting "Acme Quality Motor Car Finish" as a solution for dull-looking cars. Acme Quality Paints brand now centers on the automotive and industrial industries.

Note: The widespread use of the Acme name for products and companies stems from its historical significance and linguistic appeal. The word "acme" originates from Greek, meaning "peak," "zenith," or "prime," signifying the highest point or best example of something. In spite of the legend, ACME is not an acronym for "American Companies Make Everything" or "American Company that Manufactures Everything."

Relief Since 1903

Absorbine Jr. has been used for over 120 years to provide relief from aches, pains, arthritis, sore muscles, and athlete’s foot. 

The brand was developed in 1903 by Wilbur Fenelon Young, inspired by the success of his original horse liniment, Absorbine Veterinary Liniment. He and his wife, Mary Ida, had created it in 1892 to treat horses' muscle pain and stiffness. The product gained popularity among farmers who began using it on themselves for aches and pains. The Youngs' son, Junior, played a role in the development of the human version, leading to the product being named, hence, Absorbine Jr.

The product was marketed as an external analgesic and antiseptic, and its use expanded to treat conditions like "athlete’s foot," a term credited to the W.F. Young, Inc. company in the 1940s. After divesting its human healthcare division in 2013, DSE Healthcare absorbed the Absorbine Jr. brand. With the transition, W.F. Young, Inc. focused on producing Absorbine for equine use and expanded into pet care in 2015. The company continues to be owned and managed by the fourth and fifth generations of the Young family.

Casting Needs and Leeds

Peter Leeds (1917-1996) was a jack-of-all-trades American actor who had the distinction of appearing more than 8,000 times on television and heard on over 3,000 radio shows. The actor was a "household face" to the parents and their Baby Boomers during the 1950s and 1960s. In spite of his leading man looks, his work was mostly uncredited, filling needed roles in films of the 1940s and being the straight man for many well-known television comedians for three decades. The 6'1" Leeds was also a dramatic actor and Broadway performer who stayed active into the 1980s. 

On my other site, Forgotten Cinema, I select mostly unknown or obscure movies, highlighting commendable or poor production values, the actors' performances, the dialogue, and the music score, usually with humor. Leeds appeared in seven films (below) that I have reviewed, yet his brief appearances elicited little, if any mention, because his role was not significant to the overall story. The exceptions might be 99 River Street or High School Bigshot. As always, Leeds had a genuine style that brought realism to his roles, despite being included in some inferior films. 

1949    D.O.A.     Leo, a bartender

1950    Dial 1119     Martin, a policeman
1953    99 River Street     Nat Finley
1954    The Atomic Kid      Agent Bill
1956    Behind The High Wall     Detective
1957    Bombers B-52     TV quiz show director
1959    High School Big Shot     Carter, a teacher

The Mysterious V-7

Vitalis Hair Tonic's history dates to the mid-1920s when it was introduced by Lewis Brothers, Inc., originally based in New York City. The product was trademarked as "Elbee Vitalis" in 1924, with ELBEE being a phonetic spelling of the founders' initials, L.B. Though initially marketed as a scalp treatment to stop dandruff, by the 1930s, the focus shifted toward styling, and it became a staple in men's grooming routines. Vitalis remained particularly popular in the 1940s to 1950s, aligning with the neat hairstyles of numerous Hollywood leading men.

Bristol-Myers acquired the product from Lewis Brothers, Inc. in 1931, and began extensive national advertising campaigns, including the famous "60-second workout" slogan, which emphasized its use for a healthy scalp and well-groomed hair. The product was further refined with the incorporation of a new greaseless grooming discovery called V-7, which was later identified as trimetazidine, a sedative, years before it was used to treat angina and, more recently, as a performance-enhancing drug. Vitalis's primary active ingredient was alcohol (not for performance), which provided the drying and styling properties. The mysterious V-7 was eventually removed, and the new Vitalis became merely scented water that did not offer any hold.

Despite more rumors of its demise, Vitalis Hair Tonic remains available for purchase through major retailers and online platforms.

Air Show Thrill Seeker

In late 1926, Lloyd Stearman, Fred Hoyt, and George Lyle chartered Stearman Aircraft, Inc., with fabrication in Venice, California, with final assembly and test flights taking place at Clover Field, modern-day Santa Monica Airport. Established in 1927, Stearman Aircraft Corporation had a vital role in the fields of military and general aviation. Wichita, Kansas, was a hub for aircraft manufacturing of the era, and Stearman moved his company there by the late 1930s, now the site of Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. Stearman operated as a Boeing division until September 1941, when it was redesignated the Wichita Division, Boeing Aircraft Company.

Arguably, the most famous Stearman was the Model 75 (Navy PT-17), introduced in the early 1930s. More than 10,600 were built. The biplane became the primary trainer for both the United States Army Air Corps and the United States Navy through the 1940s. In the immediate postwar years, they became trusted crop dusters, the ubiquitous aerobatic performer, and the ride for wing walkers at air shows. Many by this time had installed a larger Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior engine and a constant-speed propeller to increase the maximum takeoff weight and climb performance. Many Stearmans are still active today on the air show circuit.

Will the Real Person Please Stand Up

For those housewives listening to Betty Crocker on the radio since the late 1920s, it must have been quite a shock after World War II to learn Betty had no address nor baked anything. The fictional character was created by the Washburn-Crosby Company, later General Mills, in 1921 to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. The name Betty was selected because it was deemed an all-American name. It was, however, paired with the last name of William Crocker, a Washburn-Crosby director. The portrait of Betty Crocker was first commissioned in 1936. It has been updated numerous times to reflect the changes in fashion and hairstyles (1955 at left). The equally famous red spoon logo was introduced in 1954. The fictitious Betty Crocker has endured to this day.

Before Duncan Hines cake mix hit grocery stores, there was a traveling salesman, author, and amateur restaurant critic who recorded details about restaurant food as well as the cleanliness of those establishments. His notes became a trustworthy guide in a 1938 self-published book, Adventures in Good Eating by Mr. Duncan Hines (1880-1959). For travelers in America during this era, most restaurants were not only few and far between, but also local. An agreement with a 1940s businessman, Roy H. Park, led to the formation of Hines-Park Foods in 1949, which licensed Hines’ name to various food products. Their first was "Duncan Hines Ice Cream." In time, Procter & Gamble sold Duncan Hines to Aurora Foods, followed by a merger with Pinnacle Foods Corporation in 2004, and the eventual acquisition by Conagra Brands. By the way, Mr. Hines did not cook or bake, either.

Mr. Varitably Clean

Mr. Clean is a brand name and mascot owned by Procter & Gamble since 1958, after purchasing the formula from Linwood Burton. The original all-purpose cleaner was formulated by Burton, a marine ship cleaning businessman in the United States. He named it “Mr. Clean” based on a bald United States Navy sailor. Though to many, he seemed just as much a genie with his earring, folded arms, and tendency to appear magically at the appropriate time. Mr. Clean made his television commercial debut that same year. He was initially portrayed in live-action versions by B-movie and television character actor, House Peters Jr. Within six months of its debut, it was one of the best-selling cleansers on the market.

The Mr. Clean mascot was conceived in 1957 by Harry Barnhart and Ernie Allen, employees of Chicago's Tatham-Laird & Kudner advertising agency's art department. Mr. Clean's theme song, or jingle, has been around since the product's introduction and is the longest-running advertising jingle in television history. It was written by Thomas Scott Cadden, a pioneering television commercial producer, director, writer, and songwriter from the 1950s to the 1970s. 

Note: Most people assumed Mr. Clean ever needed a first name. In 1963, a Procter & Gamble marketing ploy promoted a “Give Mr. Clean a Name” contest with the odd name of "Veritably" as the winning name. I was a short-term gimmick, I suspect, as the "Mr. Varitably Clean" name is apparently no longer used. Or was it "Veritably Mr. Clean"? Getting rid of that first name is another good use for its Magic Eraser pads.

Putting You in Your Rightful Place

The Hertz Corporation is the world's largest car rental company, handling more than 30 million rentals worldwide with approximately 6,500 locations in more than 140 countries and a fleet of 550,000 vehicles, including 300,000 vehicles in the United States alone. 

In 1918, Walter Jacobs, the twenty-two-year-old pioneer of auto renting, began his Ford rental business with only twelve Model-Ts in Chicago. He sold the company to John D. Hertz in 1923 but remained a prominent figure in the company until his retirement more than fifty years later. In 1925, Hertz pioneered a coast-to-coast car rental network. Together, Jacobs and Hertz swiftly turned the small company into a well-known brand, Hertz Car Rental. By 1932, Chicago's Midway Hertz became the first car rental company to open an airport rental service at Chicago Midway Airport. Hertz was generating annual revenues of about $1 million. General Motors would later buy out Hertz's Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company, renaming the car rental portion of the business the Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System.

Hertz's iconic advertising slogan through the Sixties was developed by the Norman, Craig & Kummel agency in 1959. The television ads were famous for their gravity-defying visuals of a driver being placed magically in the driver's seat (always a convertible) from mid-air. The added jingle, "Let Hertz put you in the driver’s seat," was sung by the expansive vocal range of the a cappella quartet, The Hi-Lo's. It ranks among the "Top 100 Advertising Campaigns of the Century" by Advertising Age magazine. It would appear, however, that Avis Rent-a-Car beat Hertz to the concept by about a year, judging by this just-released 1958 Ford pictured at left. Avis was the first to establish an airport-centric idea for vehicle rentals.

Note: Through its subsidiary Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation, the company also rents construction and industrial equipment to contractors and industrial and government markets. Hertz's Claim Management Corporation subsidiary is a leading third-party administrator, while Hertz Technologies, Inc., provides telecommunications services to corporations. Hertz Local Edition specializes in providing vehicles to the insurance community and auto dealers.

The Electric Hand Torch

In the 1890s, Eveready Battery Company, Inc. was marketing what was called an electric hand torch, known today as the flashlight in most countries. By 1913, the company was acquired by the National Carbon Company, Inc., a unit of Union Carbide & Carbon Corporation, later known as Union Carbide. Sales of its Eveready Layerbilt batteries grew rapidly in the 1920s because of the new craze for the radio, which was battery-operated at the time. The company sponsored The Eveready Hour program.

Perhaps the most important battery-powered invention was the portable transistor radio, which was being sold around the world. The long-lasting alkaline battery was invented in 1957. In 1959, Union Carbide formed a Consumer Products Division in order to capitalize on the trend toward portable radios and other battery-operated gadgets. Fast forward to 1986, as Union Carbide was forced to sell its productive battery unit and restructure in an effort to quell a hostile takeover. Ralston Purina Company was the buyer. Eveready began selling its first lithium AA battery in 1992. 

Eveready established an advertising campaign in 1988 with a series of fake advertisements that would be interrupted by a drum-banging pink bunny in flip-flops. The ads went head-to-head with their rival, Duracell, which had its own bunnies. Eveready's commercials appeared to be real ads for a product, then suddenly the rabbit burst onto the screen, with the slogan “Still going...” Despite the popular Energizer Bunny mascot, the humorous ads did little to increase sales.

Purina spun off Eveready in 2000, renaming the business unit Energizer Holdings, Inc. It is one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of dry cell batteries and flashlights. Its stiffest competition continues to be Duracell. 

Shampoo Tube

If you are of a certain age, Prell Shampoo was a common product in your home. Attractively priced, it was an iconic, clear green concentrate in a unique, unbreakable soft plastic tube. It has not disappeared from shelves since 1947. It continues to be a viable choice for both women and men.

Prell shampoo was founded by Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1955, Prell was initially marketed toward women "who want their hair to have that radiantly alive look." But men discovered it as well, who seem to be attracted to its nostalgic fragrance. Concentrated Prell Radiant Shampoo dates back to around 1957 and was designed by Donald Deskey, a renowned figure in modern industrial design. Prell became one of the top-selling shampoos by 1977.

Throughout Prell's long history, it has been loved for its rich lather and clean scent. It is the oldest consistently made American shampoo brand. Prell, with its distinctive green color, became widely recognized due to its unique advertising campaigns and appearances in popular culture. 

Procter & Gamble sold the brand to Prestige Brands International in November 1999. Prestige then sold Prell to Ultimark Products in October 2009. In 2016, Scott's Liquid Gold-Inc. acquired Prell. In turn, Prell Products Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, acquired Prell from Scott's Liquid Gold in 2022. Despite the advertising glut of more expensive shampoos with ingredients that are difficult to spell, Prell remains a popular product for many.

Bazooka Joe

Bazooka is an American brand of bubble gum that was introduced in 1947. It is a product of Bazooka Candy Brands (BCB), which was a division of The Topps Co. until the latter’s acquisition by Fanatics, Inc. in 2022. By 2023, Apax Partners acquired BCB and its product portfolio.

Back in 1953, the individually wrapped pieces of Bazooka bubble gum featured a comic strip inside and the character, Bazooka Joe. The kid's black eyepatch gave him a singular appearance. Joe is joined in his various misadventures by a motley crew of six characters. The comics generally consisted of child-friendly jokes, as well as small advertisements for overly eccentric merchandise one could obtain in exchange for comics and a few cents or dollars. Over the decades, Bazooka Joe's illustration style and mode of dress changed to keep up with the times. 

The Bazooka gum was most likely named after the rocket-propelled weapon of the same name developed by the U.S. Army during World War II, which was named after an earlier musical instrument used by radio comedian Bob Burns. He is credited with inventing the crude metal instrument in the 1910s and popularizing it in the 1930s. The instrument had a low-register PVC pipe sound that felt right at home with Spike Jone's City Slickers band.

Slide Soap

Lava is a heavy-duty hand cleaner in soap bar developed in 1893 by the William Waltke Company of St. Louis, Missouri. Procter & Gamble acquired the Lava and Oxydol brands in 1927. In 1995, P&G sold the Lava brand to the Block Drug Company, a pharmaceutical company based in Jersey City, New Jersey, that specialized in dental care products. Its two most popular products included Polident denture cleanser and Poli-Grip denture adhesive. By 1999, the WD-40 Company bought the Lava brand from Block Drug.

Unlike typical soap bars, Lava contained ground pumice, which gave the soap its name. The soap and pumice combination is intended to scour tar, engine grease, paint, dirt, grime, filth, and similar substances from the skin. The original beige-colored Lava bar soap, without moisturizers, is no longer manufactured.

Note: The word lava comes from Italian and is likely derived from the Latin word labes, which typically refers to a disaster, downfall, landslip, or slide.

Acting for Beans

Below are four Hollywood personalities (and one dummy) who served as spokespersons for four popular coffee brands from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Virginia Christine

San Francisco's Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills was the original name behind Folgers of 1850. Employed as a teenager, James A. Folger eventually became a full partner in the company by 1865. By 1972, Folger bought out the partners and renamed the company, J.A. Folger & Co. Skipping ahead about a century, supporting actress Virginia Christine played "Mrs. Olson," a Swedish neighbor who recommended a cup of Folgers coffee as a break from the character's hectic day in television commercials. Beginning in 1965, she played the character for twenty-one years. In 1971, Christine's hometown of Stanton, Iowa, honored her by transforming the city water tower to resemble a giant Swedish-style coffee pot.

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy

Chase & Sanborn Coffee was created by the coffee roasting and tea and coffee importing company of the same name in 1864 in Boston, Massachusetts. Named for Caleb Chase (1831-1908) and James Sanborn (1835-1903). They were the first to sell ground coffee in sealed cans. When Standard Brands was formed in 1929, it acquired Chase & Sanborn until 1981 when the company merged into Nabisco. Nabisco sold Chase & Sanborn to Colombian, Alberto Duque in 1982. The Chase & Sanborn Hour/Program was a radio variety show that featured ventriloquist pioneer Edgar Bergen and sidekick Charlie McCarthy. Though their contract was not renewed after a decade on the program, their radio career continued until 1956 before breaking into television.

Margaret Hamilton
Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Cheek, Maxwell House Coffee was named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, its first major customer. The blended coffee was so well-received, it became the hotel's house brew. In 1915, Cheek and Partner began advertising with the now-famous "Good to the last drop" slogan. Along this timeline, Maxwell House introduced its iconic coffee cans to seal in freshness. A 1970s campaign for Maxwell House featured actress Margaret Hamilton, famous for her role in the original, The Wizard of Oz. She played Cora, the general store owner who proudly announced that Maxwell House was the only brand she sold. 

John Zaremba
Hills Bros. has its origins with the two sons of a Maine shipbuilder, Austin Hills and Reuben Hills, aka R.J. Hills. In 1898, Edward Norton, of New York, used his United States patent on a vacuum process for canning foods, which was subsequently applied to coffee. By 1900, Hills Brothers of San Francisco were the first to pack roast coffee in vacuum-sealed cans. Late in his career, character actor John Zaremba was the primary spokesperson for Hills Bros. in the 1970s and 1980s. His character was a fictional, senior globe-hoping coffee bean buyer, hardly recognizable to those who knew him from the 1950s. But the voice was unmistakable. Zaremba was a busy actor, noted for science fiction films, but television made up the bulk of his career with numerous supporting roles. He may be best remembered as a doctor in the 1960s series, Ben Casey, and for thirty episodes as a scientist on Time Tunnel. 

The Hoover Do Over

The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border splitting Nevada and Arizona. From 1931 to 1936, over four million cubic yards of concrete and eighty-eight million pounds of plated steel were used. And with the removal of rock from the canyon walls, boring four diversion tunnels, and the sacrifice of more than 100 lives, the dam quickly became a symbol of the American "can-do" spirit. For millions of people in the 1930s, Hoover Dam, and on a lesser scale, the Empire State Building, came to symbolize what American workers could do even in the depths of the Great Depression. 

When President Herbert Hoover lost the White House in 1932 to President Roosevelt, his new Interior Secretary, Harold Ickes, snubbed the Hoover name from the day of the dam’s dedication. “This great engineering achievement should not carry the name of any living man but, on the contrary, should be baptized with a designation as bold and characteristic and imagination-stirring as the dam itself.” His political bias blotted out the fact that Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Calvin Coolidge already had dam sites attached to their names. 

As a former mining engineer, Hoover took an active part in settling the engineering problems and the location of the dam in Black Canyon. When he left office, construction finished more than a year ahead of schedule. The Hoover name was vindicated when House Resolution 140 was introduced and passed by the 80th Congress in 1947. President Harry S. Truman signed the resolution and restored the name Hoover Dam to the structure. To clarify, the names "Boulder Canyon Dam" and "Boulder Dam" were simply references to nearby Boulder City, Nevada, and not official. Almost a million people still come to visit the huge dam every year.

Note: The illustration above highlights the intake towers before Lake Mead was filled to its normal operating level.

RKO Blood on Fort Apache

The films below were released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1948, and they are two famous Western films with different premises. Though both deal with a clash of personalities, one is a traditional Western, while the other is a shadowy, moody, noir Western.

Fort Apache
Released March 27, 1948, Fort Apache is an American Western saga, the first of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy." It was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950), all starring John Wayne. The film was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of Native Americans.

Wayne's substantial co-star is Henry Fonda, supported by a talented cast including Shirley Temple, Pedro Armendariz, and John Agar. Cinematography is by Archie Stout. Fonda plays an arrogant and abrasive Lieutenant Colonel in command of Fort Apache, much to Wayne's disappointment, who had expected to receive that commission.

Blood On The Moon
Released November 9, 1948, Blood on the Moon is considered one of the best noir Westerns, in contrast to the sunlit saga of Fort Apache. It is a moody, "psychological" film starring Robert Mitchum, a role that neither Wayne nor Fonda could pull off. There is little of the Western formula approach to this story. The supporting cast includes Robert Preston, Walter Brennan, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The film is directed by another legend in cinema, Robert Wise. The outstanding cinematography is by Nicholas Musuraca. 

Of note is an extended fight between Mitchum and Preston without any stuntmen. Then again, it took three days to shoot. Wise wanted realism, where the winner is also badly beaten and exhausted, instead of a cliched brawl where the hero comes out clean and unscathed. Mitchum's acting was lauded at the time, whereas both Wayne and Fonda somewhat cancelled each other out of any accolades.

Note: From a budget of approximately $2.1 million, Fort Apache had a box office total of $3 million. Blood On The Moon made a decent profit out of a $1.5 million budget with a $2.4 million box office take.

The Chocolatier of 1900

The history of the chocolate bar, similar to what we know today, dates back to the 19th century. But solid chocolate was probably consumed in pre-Columbian America. In 1847, however, Joseph Fry created the first proper mass-produced chocolate bar by mixing cocoa powder, sugar, and cocoa to form a paste that could be pressed into a mold. This moved it from a beverage to a solid, edible treat.

In 1875, milk chocolate came onto the scene. It was developed by a Swiss confectioner, Daniel Peter, with the help of his neighbor, Henri Nestlé, who specialized in dehydrated milk products. This development significantly improved the taste and palatability of chocolate, leading to its widespread popularity.

1984 marked a significant milestone in the chocolate industry, thanks to Milton Hershey (in all his chocolatey goodness, above). The Hershey Company introduced its first candy bar in 1900, the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar. This transformed chocolate from a luxury item into an affordable and "block by block" accessible treat.

Other notable early chocolate bars include the Lindt Chocolate Bar, 1879, and the Baby Ruth candy bar, developed by Otto Schnering in 1920, which became the most popular candy bar in America by 1925. The evolution of chocolate bars continued with the inclusion of various ingredients such as nuts, caramel, and nougat, leading to the creation of candy bars like the Goo Goo Cluster, invented in 1912.

Television Suits You

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Botany 500 name for the wardrobe ending credits of many television programs was as common as Gunsmoke. The brand's association with television personalities helped it become a household name. Throughout the 1970s, Botany 500 provided menswear for many game show hosts and countless television stars. That list can be found online. Botany 500 often paid for the clothes of television celebrities and did not always provide the clothes themselves. They were sometimes custom-made by other tailors.

Botany 500 was a brand name owned by the Botany 500 Group of New York. Beginning in 1889, their men's suits and sport coats were manufactured in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by H. Daroff and Sons, who were contracted with Botany Mills of Passaic, New Jersey, to produce products and later bought the firm outright. Given the exaggerated proportions of the 1949 illustrated man above, one could assume he was once the center of an NBA team. His forty-inch inseam would not be a challenge for Daroff.

Daroff and Sons and the Botany group went bankrupt in the summer of 1973. An attempt was made to turn the company over to another company, still operating profitably. Because of resistance by the company's employees, they backed out of the deal. By the winter of 1973, Cohen and Sons bought the Botany 500 name and assets for $4 million. They planned to keep the labels, marketing, sales, and distribution of Botany as a separate Botany 500 line produced in Philadelphia.
The Botany 500 name lives on as a licensed property of several foreign clothing manufacturers, ending the exclusivity of Botany 500's glory days. In 2021, the Botany 500 name resurfaced as a brand name sold by the mail-order company Haband. 

Columbus Sales for Indiana

For many consumers, before winter hits, Arvin heater-fan combos are a sought-after item on shelves. But few know that Arvin built so much more than heaters before becoming a major supplier to the automotive industry. Their incredible diversity produced the automatic coffee percolator, AM/FM portable radios, outdoor barbecue grills, room humidifiers, component stereo systems, catalytic converters, heat exchangers for fireplaces, and televisions, to name a few.

Bartholomew County, Indiana, native Q.G. Noblitt and his friend Frank Sparks co-founded the Indianapolis Air Pump Co. in 1919, which would become Arvin Industries in 1950. The company sold air pumps to repair flat tires. In 1927, the company changed its name to Noblitt-Sparks and would move its corporate headquarters to Columbus four years later. 1919 was also the same year that Clessie Cummins launched the Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, which would later play a significant role in Arvin's revival.

Arvin Industries assumed a global role, becoming a Fortune 500 company. It was named the "Hoosier Company of the Year" in 1978. However, Arvin’s ties to the community would start to unravel by 2000 when they merged with Troy, Michigan-based Meritor Automotive Inc., creating the eleventh largest supplier of automotive systems and parts in the world. But Arvin lost its focus within the merger. The company sold the former Arvin headquarters, the Q.G. Noblitt building, to Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. in 2006. In 2011, ArvinMeritor changed its name to simply Meritor Inc., eliminating the last remnant of the former Columbus-based automotive supplier. Cummins Inc. acquired Meritor Inc. in 2022, reviving Arvin Industries, which was once a household name in southern Indiana.

Note: Arvin Industries, Inc. began produced its own television sets. An example is the 1950 Arvin model 2216CCM TV with built-in phonograph player, above.

Dial Me Two Copies

American Photocopy Equipment Co. (APECO) has a diverse history spanning various industries. Apeco was incorporated in 1954 after acquiring the name and assets of a limited partnership that had existed since 1939. The company's sales grew quickly in 1952 after adapting the transfer-diffusion process of producing photocopies. Apeco introduced an improved model of its wet photocopying process in 1953, which was similar to the Polaroid Land Camera and became immediately successful. 

Apeco's glory days began to fade when Xerox Corporation revolutionized the photocopy industry with its dry-process, plain-paper 914 model in 1959. Eventually, everyone was making a "Xerox" and not an "Apeco" copy. Though Apeco introduced its own dry-process machine, it faced technical problems. Apeco was infamously known for its Dial-A-Copy and Dial-A-Matic models in the 1960s. It featured a small "telephone-style" rotary dial for selecting the number of copies. This feature provided frustration as some users found it unreliable with frequent malfunctions. Apeco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1976, phasing out its photocopier production. The company emerged from bankruptcy four years later but liquidated its photocopy sales and distribution activities in 1983.