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Charles L. Grigg, founder of
Seven-Up, became involved in the beverage industry as a salesman for
Silverster "Vess" Jones at Whistle and Vess Beverages,
Incorporated, in St. Louis, Missouri. While under the employment
of Jones, Grigg developed the orange drink he called Whistle. Unable
to get along with Jones, he left in 1919, invented another
orange drink "Howdy", and joined with Edmund G. Ridgeway in 1920 to
form the Howdy Company.
The new company thrived through
Prohibition and introduced another new soft drink at the beginning of
the Great Depression in 1929. Despite the catchy names used by
Grigg in his early inventions, he chose to call his new drink "Bib-Label
Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda". A Seven-Up historian stated
that "Grigg wisely changed the name before significant damage was
done". The drink next became "7UP Lithiated
Lemon-Lime" and then, simply, "7UP". Although the
origin of the name is uncertain, Grigg may have been inspired by a
cattle brand that consisted of a "7" and a "U."
With the end of Prohibition in 1933, the
company marketed Seven-Up as a hangover cure as well as a drink mixer.
By the mid-1930s, Seven-Up was franchised in Canada. Charles
Grigg died in 1940, and his son, Hamblett C. Grigg took command of the
company. Grigg used patriotic advertisements to carry the
product through the wartime sugar rationing. Seven-Up expanded
into the Caribbean and South America in 1948 and soon spread
world-wide. The Uncola promotion, begun in 1967, was one of the
company's more inspired advertising ideas.
Philip Morris Companies, Inc., instigated
a takeover in 1978 and managed the organization until 1986. At
that time, PepsiCo, Inc., bought the international rights to Seven-Up,
and an investment group purchased the American holdings. Two
years later (1988), the company merged with Dr Pepper to form the Dr
Pepper/Seven-Up Companies, Inc. Cadbury Beverages acquired the
joint companies in 1995.
For many years, 7UP was on the low end of collector desirability, but since the 80s, that has slowly changed. 7UP, as well as its first cousin, Howdy, has been gaining.
There are nice varieties of cardboard signs, cutouts, bottle displays from the 30s thru the 50s, thermometers and tin
signs for the collector. There are very little consistency with
the serving trays or calendars, but a number of very nice pin-up type of "pretty girl" calendars have turned up over the years.
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Top
Row
- First: 7UP Lithiated Lemon Soda. Amber w/paper label.
7UP Bottling Co of Nashville Inc. Nashville Tenn
- Second: 7UP. Green bottle
w/embossing.
- Third: 7UP Bottling Co. Clear
embossed. Hickory NC lgw 69
- Fourth: 7UP. Green ACL. G-94
Duraglas '52
- Fifth: 7UP crowncaps.
Second Row
- First: 7UP Lithiated
Lemon Soda crowncap
"Seven times as good"
- Second and Third:
Foreign
7UP bottles. Green ACL.
- Left: 7Up amber paper label bottle
- Below: 7Up magazine advertisement
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