The name Bireley embossed in script on the subject bottle is the last name of Frank W. Bireley who in 1924, at the age of 25, established a local citrus juice business in Hollywood, California.
Manufacturing his signature drink, a non-carbonated orangeade, Bireley ultimately grew the business into a multi-million dollar company that by 1936 was the largest single buyer of oranges in the United States.
A May 4, 1937 feature on Bireley and his company published in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen,” gets his story started.
Frank W. Bireley, former Hollywood High School student, and a schoolmate, Harold Peery, now European representative of the company, bought a squeezer and a few crocks and began selling orangeade to defray their Stanford University education expenses.
Within two months business had grown so fast they took a leave of absence to keep up with it. The next year, in 1924, the fast growing infant enterprise was transferred to Hollywood and a small plant opened at 6619 Santa Monica Blvd.
Initially called the Golden Bear Orange Products Company, over the next two years while marketing primarily to schools and sporting events demand for their beverages grew rapidly. This snapshot of their early clientele was found in an August 14, 1926 story published in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen.”
During the school session the Golden Bear Orange Products Co. serve their fresh fruit orange drinks to one hundred and thirty-two schools throughout the Southland (Los Angeles, Hollywood, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Glendale, Burbank, Sawtelle, Westwood, Santa Monica, Venice, Palms, Culver City, Alhambra) because of the cleanliness and purity of their drinks and the high percentage of vitamins. At the fights at the Hollywood Stadium, Olympic Auditorium, Vernon arena and at Wrigley’s ball park, Golden Bear drinks are the most popular sellers in the house. Last week alone at the Hollywood Stadium more than 2,000 bottles of Mr. Bireley’s fresh fruit drink were sold.
At the same time the company also operated two “Golden Bear” retail stands in Hollywood. They were described like this in an October 29, 1926 “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story.
His fresh fruit drinks, which consist of Orangeade, Grapeade, Lemonade, Grapefruitade and pure Orange Juice are sold to the public at two Golden Bear retail stands in Hollywood. One is located next door to the Hollywood Theater and the other is at the corner of Cahuenga Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. Malted milks and sandwiches are also sold at these stands which have become quite popular during the lunching hour.
In August, 1926, due to increasing demand the company was breaking ground for a new Hollywood factory to be constructed just north of Santa Monica Boulevard at 1117 North Milton Way (later 1117 Mansfield Ave.). The August 14th “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story included this photograph of the ground breaking.
A little over two months later another “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story, this one published in their October 29th edition, announced construction was complete and the company was in the process of moving in. The story included the following promotional photograph of their new facility describing it as…
…a two-story Class A brick structure, equipped with elevator and cold storage plant, the upper floor being used exclusively for storing, squeezing and mixing the fruit, while the lower floor is given over to the bottling, bottle washing, cold storage plant and loading departments. The total floor space utilized by the Golden Bear Company is over 9,000 square feet.
Also pictured in the lower right-hand corner was their Hollywood Boulevard retail stand.
By this time Bireley’s sister Ruth (also pictured) was involved, managing both the office and bookkeeping departments.
Also visible in the photograph was the company’s fleet of delivery trucks one of which was featured in the November 3, 1926 edition of the “Hollywood Daily Citizen.”
The caption below the photograph reads:
One of the specially designed Graham Brothers Trucks employed by the Golden Bear Orange Products Co. to deliver 40,000 fresh fruit drinks daily to more than 150 schools throughout the southland. There are 10 similar trucks in the Golden Bear fleet, which is one of Hollywood’s most active industries.
This advertisement exhibiting their new address appeared in the February 4, 1927 edition of the “Hollywood Daily Citizen.”
Later that year the Golden Bear Orange Products Company name was dropped in favor of the Frank W. Bireley Company (later Bireley, Inc.) and throughout the rest of the 1920’s the company continued as a successful local business under that name.
Then in the early 1930’s the company transitioned into a national enterprise when it began providing concentrated orange juice to dairy companies who would then bottle and distribute it. By 1934 promotional announcements like this one found in the September 13th edition of the “Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser,” were appearing in newspapers across the country.
Announcing a vigorous advertising campaign on Bireley’s California Orangeade, C. H. Sanford of the Dixieland Dairy, distributors, yesterday declared his company had been encouraged to do so by the widespread approval with which the new beverage has been perceived.
“Since becoming distributors for Bireley’s California Orangeade in this territory” said Mr. Sanford,”we have been delighted with the popularity which it has already received. Our experience, we find, is duplicated by dairies all over the country who have taken on the distribution of Bireleys”
The announcement went on to describe the dairy’s relationship with Bireley’s.
One of the unique features of Bireley’s Orangeade is that its final preparation and bottling is done only by dairies. This enables us to know exactly what the quality of the product is and to guarantee its purity and freshness to our customers.
The orange juice from which Birley’s Orangeade is made is extracted from oranges of standard quality at the Bireley plant in Southern California. Special equipment, operated under immaculately sanitary conditions makes it only a matter of moments from the time the juice is taken from the fruit until it is mixed with pure cane sugar and packed in hermetically sealed, enamel lined tins ready for shipment. No artificial flavoring or preservatives are used. Lemon juice is also added in order to give the beverage a delicious tang. By using only oranges of uniform quality, fresh picked and by handling the juice so rapidly, the full tree-ripe flavor of the fruit is retained.
“Bireley’s is not carbonated. The final preparation takes place in our own dairy and the bottling is done by the same methods and with the same care as our milk. It is bottled tonight for delivery tomorrow morning,”
Bireley’s comes in quart bottles for home delivery by the Dixieland Dairy milkman and in five-cent bottles for sale at restaurants, lunch counters and wherever beverages are sold…
…It is only comparatively recently that the idea of getting national distribution for Bireley’s Orangeade through dairies was conceived. The dairies have accepted it readily because they can bottle it during the period when their machinery would otherwise be idle, and can deliver it to homes and to drink stands with their milk on their regular routes…
This Dixieland Dairy advertisement touting Bireley’s ran in several editions of the “Montgomery Advertiser” around that time.
What was happening in Montgomery, Alabama was happening all over the country such that by 1937, a May 4th story found in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen” announced:
Three thousand dairies in the 48 states, Canada and Alaska buy concentrate from the company for dilution into a beverage and…more than 250,000,000 individual bottles of the Bireley product sold in 1936.
According to a story in the August 24, 1940 edition of the “Wisconsin State Journal” the dairies were serviced by a series of warehouses located throughout the country.
Present consumer demand for Bireley’s Orangeade is met by the shipment monthly from the Hollywood California plant of 40 freight cars of concentrated, flash-pasteurized orange juice in hermetically sealed No. 10 cans according to Bireley officials. The juice goes to 30 warehousing points throughout the country, from whence it is distributed to leading dairies all over the United States and Canada.
Needless to say, meeting this demand required expansion of their Hollywood plant from time to time. According to a June 25, 1936 story in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen”
Today this firm is celebrating the completion of its greatly enlarged and remodeled plant on N. Mansfield Ave. near Santa Monica, a plant which provides a capacity eight times that of the old, covers a floor space of 75,000 square feet and occupies property with a 240 foot frontage and a depth of 147 feet.
This photograph of the enlarged plant appeared in the May 4, 1937 “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story.
The story went on to say that the expanded facility had a capacity for handling 300 tons of oranges daily and employed 150 to 250 people depending on the season. At the same time the company also operated seven bottling plants and seven sales offices from coast to coast. All of which made the Bireley company the largest single buyer of oranges in the United States at twenty thousand tons annually.
And while orangeade was their signature product, the “Wisconsin State Journal” story made ir clear that it wasn’t their only product, naming five others, grape, grapefruit cocktail, tomato cocktail, pineapple and lem-o-nip, all of which were non-carbonated. This August 22, 1941 advertisement in L. A.’s “Highland Park News-Herald” also included “Berry” on the menu.
In 1943, the March 24th edition of the “Hollywood Daily Citizen” announced that Bireley’s, Inc. was acquired by the General Foods Group.
Bireley’s, Inc. Joins General Foods Group
Bireley’s, Inc., of Hollywood, Calif., pioneer manufacturer of citrus fruit beverages and other fruit products has joined the General Foods group of companies.
The announcement was made today jointly by C. M. Chester, chairman and Clarence Francis, president of General Foods Corp. and Frank W. Bireley. Mr. Bireley, founder of the California company, will continue as general manager of the newly created Bireley’s Division of General Foods Corp.
It wasn’t long before General Foods was expanding operations overseas as evidenced by a story that appeared in the “Honolulu Star-Bulletin” on September 15, 1949.
Bireley’s Orange Begins Operations at Kobe, Japan
News has been received that Bireley’s Orange Japan, Ltd. began its operation in Kobe, Japan, Wednesday.
The Kobe plant will service Tokyo as well as other areas… Bireley’s plants are already successfully operating in Manilla and Cebu in the Philippines… Birelley’s Division General Foods Corp. extended franchises to the foregoing operations.
Ten years later, a May 15, 1959 story in the “Mount Vernon Argus” included this “end of the decade” status of the business that described even further expansion outside of the United states.
The Bireleys division, headquartered in Hollywood, California, produces an orange soft drink concentrate which is sold to franchise bottlers throughout the United States. It exports to franchise operators in Mexico, Hawaii, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Bangkok, Singapore, Thailand and Saigon, and a concentrate plant in Japan serves franchise operations there.
Meanwhile back in the U.S., by the late 1940’s Bireley’s had expanded their bottling franchises to include soda companies as well as dairies. One of the first that I can find went to the “Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Los Angeles.” The announcement appeared in the January 23, 1949 edition of the “Santa Barbara News-Press.”
Acquisition of the Los Angeles County franchise for Bireley’s bottled beverages by the Pepsi Cola Bottling Co., has been announced by Darrell Ingalls, General Manager of the Bireley’s Division, General Foods Corp., and James F. McGregor, president of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company., of Los Angeles.
Pepsi-Cola will bottle Bireley’s orange, grape, grapefruit and berry drinks in its plants at Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale. Distribution will be consolidated with trucks carrying both Bireley’s and Pepsi-Cola throughout the territory.
Other local soda bottlers that got involved included one’s associated with Squirt and Dr. Pepper. This announcement, awarding a franchise to a local Dr. Pepper Bottling Company in Kentucky appeared in the February 6, 1959 edition of the “Mayfield (Ky.) Messenger.”
As late as 1959 Frank W. Bireley was still serving as the head of General Food’s Bireley division when it was acquired by the Krim-Ko corporation. The July 15th edition of the “Chicago Tribune” made the announcement.
Krim-Ko corporation, a leading dairy supply company with headquarters in Chicago, said Tuesday it has acquired the Bireley division of General Foods corporation for an undisclosed amount of cash.
Bireley is the name of a line of non carbonated soft beverages with distribution and franchise operations in many parts of the United States. George F. Gallagher, president of Krim-Ko, said Bireley’s Hollywood California headquarters will be moved to Chicago.
The acquisition is part of Krim-Ko’s expansion plans, Gallagher said. Krim-Ko, which has plants at the four principal United States ports of entry and another unit in Canada, plans to widen distribution and franchises of Bireley beverages to other parts of the country and also to Canada.
Krim-Ko, founded thirty years ago by Gallagher, is not new to the franchise bottling business, the executive said. This company sells chocolate and other supplies to dairy companies.
Gallagher said Krim-Ko will maintain a Bireley export office, citrus division, and franchise office in Hollywood. He added that many key Bireley employees will relocate in Chicago and continue with the company.
I suspect that it was this development that triggered Frank Bireley’s retirement and sadly, a year later, in October, 1960, he died of a stroke.
In 1965 the August 27th edition of the “Los Angeles Times” announced that Krim-K0 merged with the National Sugar Refining Company.
NATIONAL SUGAR REFINING CO. announced Thursday in New York, a merger agreement has been signed by its directors and Krim-Ko. …Krim-Ko makes nationally distributed chocolate and eggnog flavorings for milk and Bireley’s soft drinks and institutional flavorings.
Though infrequently, Bireley’s products continued to appear in U.S. grocery store advertisements up through the late 1970’s. As late as September 27, 1978 their orange drink was still available in a grocery store called “McCoy’s Market” in Rodondo Beach,California for 59c a half gallon.
Today, it’s still marketed in Japan by Asahi Soft Drinks.
The bottle I found is machine made and contains 12 ounces. The maker’s mark embossed on the base indicates it was made by the Illinois Glass Company in 1957.
It matches exactly the bottle pictured in this July 3, 1958 “Chicago Tribune advertisement.”
