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.

Foiled Again

The emergence of tin as a viable metal dates back to about 3500 B.C. with the discovery of bronze, an alloy of tin and copper. Skipping ahead about a “bazillion” years, pure tin became more widespread, leading to the eventual invention of tin foil. Hammering tin into thin sheets started in the late 18th century. By the mid-19th century, tin foil was commercially produced and used as a wrapping material. One major concern for foods wrapped in tin foil was the 'tin taste" that was sometimes present. The early uses of tin foil were not limited to food preservation. Due to its reflective properties, it was also utilized in various scientific experiments and early photography.

A shift from tin to aluminum started due to aluminum's non-corrosive properties, lower cost, and better performance. The breakthrough moment was in 1910 when the first aluminium foil rolling plant, Dr. Lauber, Neher & Cie, was opened in Emmishofen, Switzerland. In 1911, Bern-based Tobler began wrapping its chocolate bars in aluminium foil, including the unique triangular chocolate bar, Toblerone. The first use of foil in the United States was in 1913 for wrapping Life Savers, candy bars, and gum.

Reynolds Metals Company—acquired by Alcoa in 2000—has a long history in the aluminum industry, dating back to Richard S. Reynolds, who founded the U.S. Foil Company in 1919 in Louisville, Kentucky. Initially, the company produced tin foil for cigarette packaging, but it switched to aluminum foil in the 1920s when the price of aluminum dropped. In 1926, Reynolds began using aluminum foil as a packaging material for the first time. The company expanded into various aluminum products, including aluminum siding, which it pioneered in 1945.

Note: Aluminum Foil is shiny on one side when two sheets of aluminum foil are passed through the rollers during the final rolling process. The side in contact with the highly polished steel rollers results in a shiny surface, while the other side produces a matte finish. Despite the "old wives tales," it makes no difference whether you wrap or cover food while baking with the shiny side up. Today, approximately three-quarters of aluminum foil is used for packaging of foods, cosmetics, and chemical products, and the remaining quarter is used for industrial applications such as thermal insulation and electrical cables.

The above advertisement is from the early 1950s

A Barber Pole At Home

In 1919 Indianapolis, MIT Professor Frank Shields set out to create a less irritating shave. The result was the invention of Barbasol, a shaving cream that was ready to apply, no working into a lather needed. It became a very popular shaving cream after its introduction. Barbasol was first manufactured under the Napco Corporation name, a company Frank Shields started before inventing Barbasol. After the shaving cream sales increased, they outgrew Napco, and The Barbasol Company was created in 1920.

Some provocative advertisements and noted celebrities endorsed Barbasol during the 1920s and 1930s. For the 1938 Indianapolis 500, Barbasol sponsored a car painted to look like a tube of shaving cream. It completed only 166 laps, but the Barbasol car finished tenth the following year. By the mid-1950s, design engineer Robert P. Kaplan of Rochester, NY, invented and patented the first aerosol shaving cream can, and the Barbasol Company changed the formula from a thick cream in a tube to a soft, fluffy foam. The longevity of the barberpole-designed aerosol cans continues to be an unmistakable icon for razor shaving.

Pfizer bought The Barbasol Company in 1962. They developed a wide variety of Barbasol products and options to complement the original formula. Interestingly, the original cream in the tube was still manufactured until 2019. The "Barbasol 1919" Classic Shaving Cream was for the brand's 100th anniversary. Barbasol has been owned by Perio, Inc. of Dublin, Ohio since 2001.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in a 1930 Barbasol advertisement.

Parallels

Depending on the angle or lighting, Virginia Gilmore (1919-1986), above left, and Jane Greer (1924-2001) possessed similar facial appearance. Yet both actresses are better known by only one of their films, Western Pacific and Out Of The Past, respectively. What separates them is their lifespan, perhaps accounting for Greer being the more famous.

Broadcast Pioneers: The NBC Three

Edwin Newman (1919-2010) was an American newscaster, journalist, and author, known for a 23-year career in television news with NBC beginning in 1961. Newman specialized in reporting breaking news, reporting for Republican and Democratic conventions, and as a moderator for Presidential debates. He was also known for his dry wit on and off camera.

Sander Vanocur (1928-2019) was an American television journalist who focused on U.S. national electoral politics, primarily for NBC News and ABC News. He served as White House correspondent and national political correspondent for NBC News in the 1960s and early 1970s. After his service in the United States Army, he began his journalism career as a reporter on the London staff of The Manchester Guardian and also did general reporting for The New York Times.

Garrick Utley (1939-2014) was an American television journalist and reporter, joined NBC News in 1963 as a researcher in Europe for The Huntley-Brinkley Report as a Foreign and Principal correspondent. His reporting on the Vietnam War has the distinction of being the first full-time television correspondent to cover the war on-site. The versatile Utley was also an anchor, frequently substituting for NBC's John Chancellor. 

From left to right above, Edwin Newman, Sander Vanocur, and Garrick Utley

Television Transition

The new television medium offered a career shift for some movie character actors. Many were kept busy, becoming a household face if not a name.

Lawrence Dobkin (1919-2002) 

An American television director, character actor and screenwriter, Dobkin's career spanned seven decades on radio, film and television. He could be heard regularly on radio's Gunsmoke (1952–1961), Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (1956–1960), and the anthology series Lux Radio Theater. On television, he was the voice before the closing credits of each episode of the ABC television network series, Naked City (1958–1963), "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." Among his many uncredited film roles in some significant films during the early Fifties, his voice was used to narrate the classic western Broken Arrow (1950) and as an actor in notable films such as Never Fear (1949), Sweet Smell of Success (1957 above) and North by Northwest (1959). He worked alongside many superstars in Hollywood.

Toupee or not Toupee

In addition to his eighty-three television director credits from the late Fifties through the Eighties, he appeared in countless—sometimes thankless—series as a doctor, villain, western gunslinger, clerk, judge, doctor or any number of professional or everyday employees. Though a familiar face to most small screen viewers, he was more likely known as “that bald guy” when not wearing a toupee. Among his most famous supporting roles were Wanted: Dead or Alive, Gunsmoke, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Rifleman, Have Gun – Will Travel, and The Untouchables. Though his appearances were less frequent, he popped up in the Seventies for The Streets of San Francisco, The Waltons, and The F.B.I. to name a few. Dobkin created the title character for the 1974 film and the 1977–1978 NBC series, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. Television continued to depend on him up until the turn of the Century.

Audio Celebrity

 

Mostly heard and not seen, if you owned a television set by the late Fifties, Jack Haskell (1919-1998) was a familiar voice as an announcer for numerous broadcasts. In those early days, when he was not pitching a product or introducing a guest, Haskell would grace the radio airwaves as a singer. While in college, Haskell sang on the Chicago radio stations WBBM, and WGN, and was showcased on the Dial Dave Garroway show at WMAQ. After college, he sang with Les Brown and his orchestra. Haskell moved from Chicago to New York City for his television transition on NBC's Today, again with Garroway. Among other shows, he was an announcer on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Garry Moore Show, Garroway at Large, The Dave Garroway Show, The Jack Paar Show, Stop the Music, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Haskell was also active in summer stock theatre. Among his album recordings was “Jack swings for Jack" a popular solo project for the Strand label. 

Museum Quality

 

On this day in 1919, The Hotel Pennsylvania opened its 2,200 guest rooms across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden in New York City. Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad and operated by Ellsworth Statler, it was the largest hotel in the world for nearly a decade. William Symmes Richardson, of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, had also designed the original Pennsylvania Station. The lower Indiana limestone facade of the hotel was intentionally designed to closely mirror the architecture of the station.

In recent years the hotel deteriorated significantly. The cost of maintenance and lack of demand outweighed demolition, which was underway by 2021. Many historic elements of the hotel, including the large brass mailboxes throughout the lobby level, some guest room doors, and the original 22-foot-tall fountain in the former Cafe Rouge, will be salvaged and repurposed for a future museum.

The Actress Who Adopted Superman

 

Phyllis Thaxter (1919-2012) got a strong leading role opposite Van Johnson  for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," then the lead character with a dual personality in "Bewitched" followed by a support role in the western, "Blood on The Moon." There were many other notable films for her in the Forties and early Fifties, but the new medium of television provided a new system to portray a variety of characters.

Though never achieving superstar status, the talented stage actress moved to television during its infancy and Thaxter was in high demand, initially in popular anthology series of the day in the likes of, The Ford Television Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, or Kraft Theatre and more. She appeared in six episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," two of which tapped into her dual personality talents again. The versatile actress appeared on many popular series in the Sixties and Seventies. Westerns were a staple for her but it was in dramatic roles where she is probably best remembered. Her last role, in 1992, was on, "Murder She Wrote."

Except for 1964's, "The World of Henry Orient," her movie projects took a long hiatus after television intervened until she was cast opposite Glenn Ford as Jonathan and Martha Kent in the blockbuster film "Superman." I can imagine teens in the audience wondering "Where'd they find her?" This might have solved their dilemma: the film was produced by her daughter's then-husband Ilya Salkind, son of Alexander Salkind. 

The Typical Time to Drink Coffee

 

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (known in the twentieth century simply as A&P) created the Eight O'Clock Breakfast Coffee brand in 1859. Originally established as Gilman & Company, they began selling bags of whole-bean coffee on their own. But their coffee was not given a true official name until 1919. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States and, until 1965, the largest US retailer of any kind. The Walmart of their day with popular low prices. Their survey reported that the majority of those typically drank coffee at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A&P then took out the word "Breakfast" from the name, rebranding its signature coffee as simply Eight O'Clock Coffee. It became the most popular brand of coffee in the United States by 1930. A&P began closing their original, narrow, inner-city stores in the 1950s, and started opening modern supermarkets instead.

A&P continued to sell Eight O'Clock Coffee in its family of stores until the supermarkets closed in late 2015. Eight O'Clock is now sold in other supermarkets across the country. The Eight O'Clock Coffee Company is a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products, which is headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey with its production plant in Landover, Maryland. Tata Global Beverages has owned Eight O'Clock Coffee since 2006.