Part 21 (2/2)

Del Monte Coffee imitated the Maxwell House Show Boat Maxwell House Show Boat with its own with its own s.h.i.+p of Joy s.h.i.+p of Joy program, starring Captain Dobbsie. program, starring Captain Dobbsie.

62.

The same year they could have had the Coca-Cola radio account if they had agreed to merge with the D'Arcy agency. c.o.ke boss Robert Woodruff, used to instant obedience, ordered the consolidation but the partners declined.

63.

The life of the Depression-era housewife clearly was not easy. On a popular 1932 radio show one commentator advised housewives to ”keep a good big supply of coffee in the pantry. You'll find it something to cling to. . . . Otherwise, the day will surely come when you'll sit down in the middle of the kitchen floor and scream and yell at the ghastly, d.a.m.nable futility of it all.”

64.

The two original patriarchs, brothers Austin Herbert and Reuben Wilmarth Hills, died in 1933 and 1934, respectively, but their children carried on aggressively. Around the same time the second generation of Folger leaders.h.i.+p pa.s.sed on. Frank Atha died in 1935, followed by Ernest Folger in 1936, leaving third-generation Russell Atha and brothers Peter and James Folger III in charge.

65.

Also in 1933 Hills Brothers took advantage of the jigsaw puzzle craze, giving away 20,000 puzzles featuring a large coffeepot with cartoon characters. That same year Hills Brothers made much of its movie tie-in with Eskimo Eskimo, showing pictures of the cast drinking coffee on the Arctic ice.

66.

In 1909 two sisters in Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, created the Silex brewer, based on the French vacuum maker created by Madame Va.s.sieux in the 1840s. The Silex used fire-resistant Pyrex gla.s.s, however, making it far more durable, and soon was offered with an electric heating element.

67.

Such practices are still common, with coffee firms paying slotting allowances to supermarkets for shelf placement.

68.

Early pressure-brewers had been invented in nineteenth-century Europe.

69.

The founder's son, Ernesto Illy, a scientific researcher, took over the company after World War II. It is now run by the third generation.

70.

The s.e.xist Hills Brothers ads fit the times. Women were considered to be emotional, vain, insecure, and easily manipulated. ”Woman clings to purchasable things more than her husband,” advised Margaret Weishaar in a 1937 J. Walter Thompson publication. ”They can be a prop for her. They can bolster her courage, help her keep up appearances.”

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