Imagine my surprise when I learned that the company was founded in 1871 and is still producing sparkling water, tonic water and ginger ale today. It was actually enjoying its heyday from the 1920s through the 1950s and only fell into hard times in the 1980s.
The White Rock Girl is a depiction of the Greek goddess Psyche gazing at her own reflection in a crystal-clear pool of water. She has appeared on millions of bottles and cans of White Rock products, and in every one, she is topless, which company president Larry Bodkin says was the ultimate sign of purity when the company first adopted the logo at the turn of the century.
White Rock was "a real upper-class type of an item," according to Bodkin, who also says it was used at the coronation of Queen Victoria. (This would have been a little difficult, since Queen Victoria's coronation was in 1837, some 34 years before the company started. I found that it was reportedly used at King Edward VIII's coronation, so the company president could benefit from a crash course in history.) He also claims that Charles Lindbergh christened his plane with it, and Gloria Vanderbilt was baptized with it. Who knows? It makes a good story, whether it's true or not. There can be no doubt, however, that White Rock was served in the very best restaurants in the country and was the leading manufacturer of ginger ale in the 1940s and 1950s.
Over the years, the Psyche image has gotten a little thinner and a little taller, but she is still naked from the waist up. A bigger change has taken place in the structure of the company, which employed hundreds at its height but now only employs 12 people since Coca-Cola and Pepsi took over as the giants of the business.
From npr.org
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| 1950 White Rock ad ebay.com - pauldyroff |
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| 1951 White Rock ad ebay.com - balovell |
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| Vintage White Rock bottle, c. 1960 etsy.com - helloagainvintage |
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| New White Rock Girl npr.org |
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| White Rock products today whiterockbeverages.com |
You must be psychic! Here I am watching said series, just heard that statement from old Nuch lips and here you are blogging about it! Simpatico Ms Dana! :)
ReplyDeleteWith everything going on in that series, why I even noticed the comment about the White Rock Girl is beyond me! :)
DeleteFantastic ads! Great to see the White Rock Girl is still being used on the labels today.x
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to me that the logo has remained relatively unchanged all these years. Most companies have undergone major branding changes since their inception.
DeleteI HAVE seen that image a million times but don't think I ever knew the brand. How is that possible? Love learning new things here.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the brand wasn't carried much where I grew up...or if my mom was just a dyed-in-the-wool Canada Dry gal, but I really don't remember seeing it or hearing about it before now. Maybe I just always bought what my mother bought and never really looked at anything else, which I think we do sometimes without even knowing it.
DeleteI remember White Rock growing up in Connecticut. Wonder if location has something to do with it? Growing up, there were small bottling companies, just like there were local beers. Both soda and local beer production are growing, we seem to be realizing that bigger isn't always better or the best.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very likely that White Rock wasn't carried in the small grocery stores in East Texas and Louisiana where I grew up. I remember Canada Dry and Schweppes very well, but White Rock didn't ring a bell at all when I heard that on Boardwalk Empire.
DeleteFor as far back as I can remember, there has been a Dr Pepper bottling company in the small town of Dublin, Texas, which is about 80 miles from Fort Worth, where I live. People from Dallas and Fort Worth would drive there to buy the soft drink, because that plant was the only one left that still used cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Last January, the company announced that there would be no more Dublin Dr Pepper, and the outcry was unbelievable. You're right that bigger isn't always better.
The White Rock Girl is also a fairy! A little naked fairy. And please, don't give me any new ideas for TV Shows that I can DVR ...
ReplyDeleteOh, I have to have my weekly fix of Boardwalk Empire. :) Thank goodness for DVRs. All my favorite shows air on Sunday night, so any given Sunday I can be found awake till all hours watching them all. (And then someone told me about Call the Midwife on PBS, as if I needed one more to watch!)
DeleteYou'll love the call the midwife series, book is great too, love uk drama series....ahhhhh Downton Abbey!
DeleteYes, I'm enjoying the midwife series very much!
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