This year we celebrate the 218th birthday of our country. And it seems like a good time for a nostalgic look at some of the companies and products that have also been around a long time. Here's a peek at just a few of the things that have changed or enhanced our lives over the past century or so.
CRACKER JACK: 101 yearsThe Cracker Jack story actually dates back to 1871, when a German immigrant named F.W. Rueckheim started selling popcorn at a one-popper street stand in Chicago shortly after the Great Fire.
Business was good, but nothing great, until he dreamed up a new concoction for the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 featuring popcorn, peanuts and molasses. The name, however, didn't come along until 1896, when a salesman munching on the confection exclaimed, "That's a cracker jack!" - Victorian slang for "That's great!" The name was further immortalized when lyricist Jack Norworth wrote the song "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" in 1908.
Three innovations ensured the continued success of Cracker Jack: The company discovered a special (and still top-secret) method for keeping the popcorn kernels from sticking together; it developed a wax-sealed and moisture-proof package that retained freshness; and beginning in 1912, it inserted a prize in each box. Add to this the now-famous figure of Sailor Jack - modeled after Rueckheim's grandson - and his dog, Bingo, that have saluted every box since 1918, and you have a red, white and blue tradition of no small proportions.
The company was purchased by Borden Inc. in 1964 and still pops nearly 20 tons of popcorn daily.
MAYTAG: 101 years
Strange as it may seem, the company founded by F.L. Maytag in 1893 started out making farm machinery. As a boy Maytag had worked in the fields, cutting grain and feeding bundles into threshing machines and had visions of making safer machines for the task.
By 1902 the company had become the world's largest manufacturer of threshing machine feeders and was looking for other areas of enterprise. An employee named George Seed was able to translate the workings of farm machinery into a design for a wooden-tub washer, called the Pastime, which could replace the back-breaking washboard used for cleaning clothes. Maytag also made a short venture into the automobile industry but sold that in 1911 to concentrate on washers.
Washer technology was a fast-changing field. In 1909, there was the Hired Girl, which added the capability of using power from any common farm engine to power the washer. It also featured a wringer on top to squeeze the water out of the clothes. By 1911, a swinging wringer was added, so the washer could be positioned near adjacent sinks or tubs. In 1915, the first gasoline-powered washer targeted homes in areas where electricity was not available.
The first automatic washer was introduced in 1947, and today's modern versions have lots of options for both convenience and style. But washers are still a bargain, says the company. In 1947 that first automatic washer carried a price tag of $279.95. Average hourly wages, as recorded by the U.S. Department of Labor, were $1.47, so it took about 220 hours to "earn" one of the new washers. When the company celebrated its centennial last year, automatic washers sold for $439; hourly wages were up to $10.32, so consumers only had to work 43 hours to earn their washers - 80 percent fewer hours than a century ago.
HERSHEY: 100 years
If Milton Hershey's father had had his way, the world would have had one more printer and one less candymaker. The elder Hershey apprenticed his son to be a printer, but the younger Hershey discovered that it wasn't printer's ink but chocolate that was in his blood.
He left to work for a confectionery shop, and at age 19 opened his own business, making candy at night and selling it from a pushcart by day. But it was too much for him to handle and six years later he gave it up, deeply in debt.
He sought his fortune in the silver mines of Colorado; unfortunately, most of the silver had been mined by the time he got there, so he had to find another job - working for a candymaker. He didn't earn his fortune, but he learned a secret that was to help later on: the best caramels are made with fresh milk.
Moving back East, he decided to try it on his own again. His Crystal caramels were a hit as far away as England, and his success put an end to his financial hardships.
By the 1890s the Lancaster (Pa.) Caramel Co. covered an entire city block. And a chocolate line had been introduced (after Hershey saw chocolate making at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago) that included sweet chocolate bars and novelties, along with cocoa and baking chocolate.
In 1899 Hershey sold his caramel company, retaining only the rights to make chocolate. Back then, milk chocolate was considered a luxury item - handmade and expensive. Hershey was sure he could mass-produce it and make it affordable.
So successful was he that this "luxury" item continued to sell during the panic of 1907 and the Great Depression. And there's a whole town in Pennsylvania dedicated to the production and celebration of chocolate.
A&W: 75 years
On June 20, 1919, Lodi, Calif., was having a parade to honor its returning World War I vets. And so a man named Roy Allen mixed up a batch of his creamy root beer and sold it for a nickel a mug to parade-watchers.
Allen had purchased his secret formula from a pharmacist in Arizona (the exact blend of 16 herbs, spices, barks and berries is still a secret), and he soon opened a stand in Lodi. Another was added in nearby Sacramento. And it was there that what is thought to be the country's first drive-in, featuring "tray boys" for curbside service, opened up.
In 1922, Allen took on a partner, Frank Wright, and A&W was born. Three units were opened in Sacramento, then on to other California locations and into Texas and Utah. In 1924 Allen bought out Wright and began pursuing a franchise program. By 1933, he had 170 franchises operating in the West and Midwest.
The company slowed down a bit during World War II, due to manpower and sugar shortages. And in 1950, with more than 450 A&Ws operating nationwide, Allen retired and sold his interest in the company. The A&W Root Beer Co., however, continued to expand and by 1960 had 2,000 outlets. Today, headquarters are in Livonia, Mich. But the "taste that America grew up with" hasn't changed.
DIXIE CUP: 75 years
Back in the olden days, if people wanted a drink of water in a public place, they used a common drinking vessel or "old tin dipper." It wasn't exactly sanitary, but no one was going to carry a cup around with them.
Enter Hugh Moore and his brother-in-law Lawrence Luellen. They founded the American Water Supply Co. of New England, which made water vending machines featuring an inverted five-gallon bottle of spring water. One of their machines featured a column for 100 five-ounce cups. Eventually, they decided it was simpler to skip the water vending and install cup machines by public watering places.
But it wasn't exactly an easy sell. The old tin dipper tradition was firmly entrenched. And no one thought the manufacturing of paper cups would ever be a successful industry.
But their efforts received a considerable boost in 1909 when a biology professor at Lafayette College published a report after examining some public drinking cups under a microscope and discovering germs of communicable diseases. Soon after, states began passing laws forbidding the use of the common drinking vessel in public places, and the idea of disposable paper cups began to take hold.
The name of the company went from the Individual Drinking Cup Co. to Health Kups. But Moore thought that name was too clinical. Next door to his cup factory was the Dixie Doll Co., a name that appealed to Moore. He remembered a story about a bank in New Orleans that issued $10 value notes with the word "dix" on them (French for 10). Riverboat men refered to these notes as "dixies." And legend said that Dixie Land was originally the area where these notes were printed. He liked the sound of the name and the history, and so in 1919 the Dixie Cup was born.
The company expanded from drinking cups into making individual paper containers for ice cream. At one time lids from "ice cream dixies" featured pictures of Hollywood stars, including Bob Hope, Fred Astaire and Myrna Loy. Collect just 12 and you would receive a full-color enlargement of any one of the 24 stars featured in the series.
The first home paper-cup dispenser was introduced in 1946; and in 1950 Dixie introduced its first paper plate.
In 1982, the Dixie brand was purchased by James River Corp., which estimates that in a single day approximately 40 million people use some type of Dixie product. Each year 13.2 billion paper cups and 4.6 billion plates are manufactured.
SMOKEY BEAR: 50 years
Smokey Bear, one of the endearing animals of our times, is the longest-running public service campaign in the history of the Ad Council. He was created in 1944 as a symbol to tackle the nation's growing problem of accidental human-caused fires.
In 1941, 208,000 fires had burned 30 million acres of America's forest and range land - an area about the size of New York state. The Forest Service estimated that about nine out of 10 fires were person-caused and could have been prevented.
Then during World War II, the threat of forest fires from enemy shelling prompted the U.S. Department of Agricultural Forest Service to organize the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) campaign. Walt Disney's Bambi was originally incorporated into the campaign, but officials later decided to use their own character: a bear.
Artist Albert Staehle created the Smokey Bear symbol. Further interest in the logo was generated in 1950 when a bear cub displaced by a forest fire in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico was rescued by a firefighting crew and was sent to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., to become the living symbol of Smokey Bear.
This year, as every year, his message is important: "Only YOU can prevent forest fires."