The lemon-lime drink, known to have been made in San Antonio and El Paso, is one of the most obscure and mysterious of fizzy drinks.
While researching certain bottle caps known to have come from San Antonio , I came upon the many fine articles you’ve written about the area and its history. So I wonder if you can help on this. The Seven-Up Texas Corp.
, at some time prior to 1966 , produced a soft drink called 6 Tone, apparently only in or for San Antonio. My questions are: • What is the meaning or external reference of the name 6 Tone?• What is the significance of the bell motif?• What was the flavor of the beverage?• During what time period was it produced? Any other details also will be welcome. — Barry Oremland, Walpole, Mass. This product, known to have been made in San Antonio and El Paso, is one of the most obscure and mysterious of fizzy drinks, an elusive grail to collectors of old soda bottles and bottle caps . S.A. BEVERAGE HISTORY: Soda bottle held lots, cost only a nickel If it weren’t for the comparatively few bottles and even fewer caps that have washed up on the shores of the 21st century, we wouldn’t know that 6 Tone soda had ever existed. There are fewer than 20 such bottles in circulation, as estimated by Tom Pettit, Florida-based collector and curator of a website dedicated to the hobby at www.vintagesodacollector.com According to the text on the back of the extant clear-glass bottles, 6 Tone was “a new note in refreshment,” and the bottle was the “property 7-Up Texas Corp./San Antonio, Texas.” On the front, there’s an applied color label that shows a staff with six musical notes, the soda’s name, a yellow ringing bell and a white scroll. Whether 6 Tone was a formula originated by 7-Up or by another company that franchised it to local bottlers doesn’t seem to be known. Judging from existing bottles, it was made in just two cities, San Antonio and El Paso. S.A. BEVERAGE HISTORY: Family business behind Hippo sodas Launched in 1929 in St. Louis, the 7-Up company looked for locations with naturally pure, pleasant-tasting water, to save distilling time and costs. An ad in the Light, June 16, 1938, notes that “San Antonio’s water supply comes from 32 artesian wells, 800 to 1,400 feet deep. No water could be purer.” The lemon-lime-flavored soda first was bottled here in 1936, according to the San Antonio Light, June 11, 1939. The parent company gave San Antonio and its trade territory, 14 adjoining counties, “an introductive newspaper campaign that told San Antonians and southwest Texans, ‘Try it and you will buy it.’” Early advertisements in local papers proclaimed the drink’s “slenderizing” properties and its efficacy as an antacid or hangover cure. . S.A. FOOD HISTORY: House was home to handmade chip factory Recipe ads promoted cooking with 7-Up to “perk up” pie crusts, meats, gravies and sauces or as a base for party punch or a cocktail mixer. In San Antonio, the bottling company also sponsored baseball and softball teams, adult and children’s radio quiz shows and a 7-Up girls’ department in the Vogue department store . Children, especially, were invited to exchange bottle caps or “crowns” for admission to the “Dr. IQ” quiz show at the Gunter Hotel rooftop, a special show in the Majestic Theatre featuring prize giveaways and minor league baseball games at League Park. S.A. FOOD HISTORY: Corn King’s innovative products helped launch San Antonio’s Mexican food industry This marketing push was so successful that the company moved into a new plant in 1939 at 1623–1627 N. San Marcos St. A photograph in the June 11, 1939, Light shows “an exterior of flawless white” with a sign over the front door for the 7-Up Texas Corp., created the previous year with the consolidation of 7-Up’s San Antonio and Houston franchises. The building housed the “latest-type bottling machines for packaging delicious 7-Up and Sun Spot beverages … Big production necessary to care for demand created by quality of product and strong advertising campaigns in the San Antonio area.” Among all those ads were some for 7-Up and Sun Spot, an orange soda that’s almost as obscure as 6 Tone. But there don’t seem to be any in the Light or the San Antonio Express for 6 Tone. S.A. FOOD HISTORY: Double Dip Ice Cream thrived during World War II The surviving 6 Tone bottles from San Antonio and El Paso date back to 1941 and 1943. “Little is known about these bottles,” Bill Lockhart writes in “Bottles on the Border,” an article available on the website of the Society for Historical Archaeology at sha.org. The “squat-style cylindrical … were probably only used for a short period in the early 1940s.” “Soda brands decreased at this time, as it was the start of World War II,” Pettit said. The war caused shortages in sugar as well as glass, so less popular brands could be casualties. Bottles during this period were unlikely to be kept, as a 7-Up ad from 1943 exhorted housewives to bring empties back to the store since it was “almost impossible to replace bottles these days.” There are theories out there about the 6 Tone logo — that the bell is a reference to San Antonio’s Spanish Colonial missions and their bell towers; and that the six tones could have been different fruit flavors would have looked good in a clear bottle. S.A. FOOD HISTORY: Classic crispy dogs are still tempting diners The 6 Tone bottles are “scarce to rare,” says Lockhart. Pettit estimates the value of one in good condition as “in the $150-$200 range.” Thanks to Beth Standifird, Conservation Society of San Antonio librarian, for finding the 7-Up/Sun Spot plant in late 1930s city directories and Sanborn Insurance Co. maps. Anyone with information about 6 Tone may contact this column. Replies will be forwarded and may be featured in a future column. historycolumn@yahoo.com | X : @sahistorycolumn | Facebook: SanAntoniohistorycolumn
7-Up Seven-Up Texas Corp. House San Antonio Light Vogue Corn King Spanish Colonial Society For Historical Archaeology 7-Up/Sun Spot Conservation Society Coca-Cola Sanborn Insurance Co. 7-Up Texas Corp. Tom Pettit Barry Oremland Texans Beth Standifird Sanantoniohistorycolumn Bill Lockhart San Antonio El Paso Mass Walpole Florida Texas Corp. Tone St. Louis Majestic Theatre League Park Gunter Hotel Mexican Houston San Marcos St. World War II Www.Vintagesodacollector.Com According Hippo Southern Comfort Dr. IQ Maryland Punch Historycolumn@Yahoo.Com | X Twitter @Sahistorycolumn Facebook Sun Spot Double Dip Ice Cream Light Bottles On The Border
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