I was meandering in Rockaway Park in December 2016 and, when outside Boardwalk Bagel and Delicatessen, found what appeared to be a pair of vintage ads. One showed a Coke bottle with the inscription “Trade Mark Registered December 25, 1923.” It turns out that in 1923, the patent for the renewal of the hourglass Coca-Cola bottle shape was up for the first time. The new mold design carried the patent date of December 25, 1923 (Christmas Day). Because of this, all bottles produced between 1923 and 1937 were known as Coca-Cola Christmas bottles. It’s possible that this ad was produced in that 14-year period, or this is a faithful reproduction.
Also seen is a worn ad for Bazooka bubble gum. Since the brand was introduced in 1947 the red and blue logo has not changed very much. In 1947, a piece of Bazooka bubble gum cost one cent and by the 1980s, it was a nickel. I am unaware how much an individual piece costs today. I’d say this ad goes back to the late 1980s or so.
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11/29/23
12 comments
GSV from 2022 shows a old sign, possibly two, to the right of the entrance, but the resolution isn’t high enough to make them out.
The Bazooka Joe character with the turtleneck shirt over his nose and mouth was doing the mask mandate decades before it was “cool”
I worked at Bazooka Gum for a few months in 1975 right after earning my MBA from NYU in the heart of the great oil criisis of 1975 and the employers were frankly not interested. Remember taking
the el on a bridge over the East River looking at and vowing to obtain a Wall Street job.
Bazooka gum was at that time located a Bush Terminal in Brooklyn and owned by the Shorin Family. I do recall seeing the actual draft table used to draw Bazooka Joe. Lunches were tedius affairs with all the guys in the office talking incesently about sports (Topps, as expected with their baseball cards, got lots of free tickets for staff.)
Within 5 years I was working at 1 Wall Street and my career later soon went to many places that had names and addresses both obscure and legendary, but at the top of the list will always be
proudly listed ‘Bazooka Bubble Gum’!
PS I would date the sign mid-seventies when the gum went above a penny.
Bazooka was ok,but Dubble Bubble by Fleer was far superior.Now its made in Canada
by a different company and sucks out loud
Back in the 50’s/60’s there were 1¢ gum vending machines on all the subway platforms, but it was rare to find one that worked! Dentyne was the main brand advertised…
There’s a popular video genre on You Tube of people doing walkthroughs of nearly dead shopping malls. One of the last holdouts in almost any dying mall, besides GNC and Bath & Body Works, will be a row of gumball and candy machines. Either the stuff in them is very old and probably inedible, or dutiful vendors continue to service them.
The correct term of art with respect to a trademark is a “registration,” not a patent. As long as a particular trademark is used in interstate commerce, the federal trademark registration can be renewed, theoretically indefinitely. When I practiced trademark law some years ago, and used to read the USPTO’s publications, on occasion, I’d see references to trademarks going back deep into the 19th century. (Procter & Gamble was still filing for registrations for its old “man in the moon” mark at that point.) By contrast, both copyrights and patents have finite lives, though in the case of copyrights, these have been repeatedly extended since the 1970s. With respect to trademarks, you can file for a registration of a trademark not only for a logo (like the flowing Coca-Cola script), but also the shape of a package, if you can convince the USPTO it has acquired a distinctive association with a product or service. The hourglass-shaped Coca-Cola bottle is a classic example of such a distinctive association.
I remember the gum machines in the subway.3 flavors were available but the gum was always stale.
Even back then I wondered how the hell you could make that big of a profit selling gum for a penny
in the ratty old subway but I guess they do eventually add up.
The gum dispensers were about two feet in height, and were the width of the steel columns on the mezzanine or on the station platforms. They were small enough to not really be in anyone’s way, but were obvious enough to entice folks. Or, at least to entice small children, like me, who would try to convince a grandparent to get a piece for me. They were usually smart enough to distract me long enough for the train to come and leave the gum machine (and the stale candy) behind for someone else!
Bazooka gum was still 1 cent at the time when the price of comic books went up from 10 cents to 12. In a Jersey burb I would ride my bike to a store and for a quarter I could get two comics and a 5 cent Hershey bar. Then one day I had to start settling for two comics and a Bazooka gum. OH NO a web page says the comics price increase was 1962. HOW AMI STILL ALIVE
There was a Bazooka gum shaped like a cylinder with six segments for a nickel during the 60s, and the comic inside was also worth more (probably 5?) in redeemer points. I don’t remember every sending them in, though..
Currently, a 6 pack of Bazooka gum cost 0.99 cents plus tax. I know as I still buy it!