When It Positively Has to Be There

A dramatic staged photo illustration of a 1940s Mack semi pulling a Fruehauf Corporation (1918-1996) trailer near Greenville, Alabama. Mack Trucks gained a reputation for dependable service. In the early Thirties, their famous icon and logo, a tenacious Bulldog, began appearing on the hood of the trucks. "Built Like a Mack Truck" became common slang for anything indestructible. 

In 1900, the three Mack brothers opened their first bus manufacturing plant to complete an order from a sightseeing company. The first "Mack bus" was delivered. Two years later, The Mack Brothers Company moved to Brooklyn and, in 1905, moved their headquarters to Allentown, Pennsylvania, remaining there for over a century until its relocation in 2009 to Greensboro, North Carolina, home of its parent company, Volvo. 
 
Photo by John Vachon via shorpy dot com

Milk In A Paper Box

A toy factory owner in Toledo, Ohio, John Van Wormer (1856-1942), patented the folded gable-top paper milk carton, referred to as a “paper bottle,” in 1915. His cartons were delivered to dairies in flattened form. The dairy would fold, fill and seal the cartons. Because the cartons could be thrown away instead of reused, Wormer’s product became known as “Pure-Pak.”

Waxed gable-top paperboard carton structures were designed to be erected in wet environments of dairies during the 1920s. Nearly ten years later, Van Wormer created a machine to form, fill, and seal (FFS) the Pure-Pak containers. The American Paper Company later acquired the patent and worked to perfect the machines building the first six between 1929 and 1934. But it took nearly twenty years for the public and businesses to accept the square paper milk bottle. Glass was still the container of choice for milk deliverymen until the 1950s and self-service markets. The gable-top cartons were easy to handle and did not break. During this decade, a Norwegian engineer, Christian August Johansen, acquired the license for Pure-Pak cartons and filling, and the company Elopak (European Licence of Pure-Pak) was born. Over the years, Elopak has updated its carton design including plastic closures on the top to improve usability.

Note: In the US at least, milk today comes in plastic containers, while half-gallons of juice generally use a paper box with a plastic pour spout.

From Kankakee to Joliet

In 1938, Sherb Noble ran an ice cream store in Kankakee called Sherb’s. His supplier and friend, John McCullough, along with his son, Alex, came up with a softer ice cream and offered it to Noble. He tested the soft-serve as a 10-cent all-you-can-eat special. His entire stock, 1,600 servings, ran out in under two hours.

Two years later, Noble and the McCulloughs opened the original store in Joliet, Illinois (above). McCullough had referred to the cow as the queen of the dairy business, so Noble named his new store “Dairy Queen.” It was a huge success, and Noble saw the opportunity to open franchises. The location closed mid-century but the building is a city-designated landmark. There were 2,600 across the country by 1955. Today there are over 7,000 locations in more than 20 countries.

The Empire Builder

The Great Northern Railway reached the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century, and for this feat, their flagship passenger train was nicknamed "The Empire Builder." They also adopted "Rocky" as their mascot logo. The railway placed new streamlined and diesel-powered trains in service by the Forties that cut the scheduled 2,211 miles between Chicago and Seattle to 45 hours. The schedule allowed riders views of the Cascade Mountains and Glacier National Park, a park established through the lobbying efforts of the Great Northern. The advertisement shows an A-B-B-A set of EMD F7 diesel units in its stunning Omaha orange and Pullman green design. 

Coast to Coast...Alaska to Mexico

 

Al and Bob Pelton of San Francisco, working as an appliance salesman and drug store clerk, respectively, had experienced potato-based doughnuts in Germany and they tried a number of things before creating a dry potato mix that worked and made it possible to franchise the concept. They coined the word "Spudnut" and went into business in 1940 in Salt Lake City. By 1946, the company began establishing a nationwide chain of Spudnut Shops. Over 300  sprung up across the USA and were advertised widely with the slogan "Coast to coast...Alaska to Mexico." Their cartoon character "Mr. Spudnut" frequently appeared in advertisements, coffee mugs, and even in parades. When the brothers retired and sold their company in 1968, as is often the case with multiple company buyouts, things went downhill from there. The final owner, Dakota Bake N Serve, sold all of their stock to a promoter in exchange for tax-free bond notes that proved worthless. When the promoter was convicted on several charges of fraud and conspiracy in 1979, it was the end of the Spudnuts chain. Spudnuts have not disappeared completely though the original recipe no longer exists. Quality can vary depending on location. 

A Mississippi River Icon

 

The SS Admiral was a famous excursion steamboat operating on the Mississippi River from the Port of St. Louis, Missouri until 1978. From 1938 to 1940 Steamers Service Company rebuilt the metal hulled SS Albatross into five decks, two of which were air-conditioned---an unheard-of luxury at the time. The exterior and its interior furnishings and decorations were designed in the Art Deco style. The futuristic outward "casing" hid the side paddles and "gingerbread" details of traditional steamers under sleek steel designed and fabricated by Banner Iron Works. The largest passenger vessel on US inland waterways at the time, the 374' Admiral departed on her first excursion cruise from the St. Louis waterfront in June 1940. The steamer could carry as many as 4,400 passengers. Among the ship's many amenities included food service, a large ballroom, and a lido deck. Steam power gave way to diesel power by the early Seventies. The ship was briefly re-purposed as an amusement center in 1987, then converted to a casino in 1990. The boat was dismantled for scrap metal in 2011.