Category: Hair Products

Barry’s Tricopherous For the Skin and Hair, New York

Barry’s Tricopherous was primarily billed as a hair care product that was popular both in the United States and abroad from the mid-nineteenth century up through the early twentieth century. Originally touted as a cure for baldness, by the late 1800’s its suggested uses had expanded to include skin disruptions as well.

An elegant dressing. Prevents baldness, grey hair, and dandruff. Makes the hair grow thick and soft. Cures disruptions of the skin. Heals eruptions and diseases of the skin. Heals cuts, burns, bruises and sprains…

Later, by the 1920’s its claims had been toned down quite a bit with one ad simply saying:

There is no more effective treatment for the scalp and hair than a few drops of Barry’s Tricopherous gently massaged into the scalp two or three times a week… You will feel the healthful effect of Tricopherous. It makes your scalp tingle with health!

A product labeled Barry’s Tricopherous is still made today by the firm of Lanman & Kemp-Barclay.

According to several stories making the rounds on the internet Barry’s Tricoperous was invented in 1801 by the father of a man named Alexander C. Barry. Later advertisements, published in the 1880’s actually state “Established in 1801.”

That being said, New York City directories and early newspaper items paint a different picture, suggesting the product got its start, not in 1801 but in the mid-1830’s, and not with the Barry’s but with a man named  Vair Clirehugh.

In 1835/1836 Clirehugh, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland,  was first listed in the NYC directories at 158 1/2 (later 160) Fulton Street with the occupation “wig maker.” As early as October 27, 1835 this advertisement touting his business appeared in New York’s “Evening Post.”

The advertisement reads:

TO THE LADIES. – CLIREHUGH, Ladies Hair Dresser, from London, respectfully solicits the patronage of the ladies of New York.

The experience of 20 years, and the patronage of the Royal Family and principal Nobility of England, may have some influence in recommending him as an artist whose classic and scientific engagement of the hair will be esteemed by all who study the true graces of the person.

The intended winter fashions have arrived. The costume of the Courts of London and Paris are to be the prevailing mode; and those ladies who will honor his abilities with a trial may at all times depend on his personal attendance.

Ornamental Hair of every description.

158 Fulton street. one door from Broadway, north.

Three years later Clirehugh began advertising what he called “The Tricopherous or Medicated Compound” for the prevention of Badness and Grey Hair, with his earliest ads appearing in October, 1838 editions of New York’s  “Daily Herald.”

Sounding introductory in nature the ad stated, in part:

It is the only effectual remedy ever discovered to prevent baldness and Grey hair – to restore the Hair where it has fallen off – and to eradicate Scruff and dandruff. Prepared by CLIREHIGH, Hair Cutter, 160 Fulton Street, New York.

Although in number and variety there may be no want of specifics for the preservation of the Human Hair, yet the article now presented to the public, though entirely new in its composition, has claims superior to anything of the kind ever offered for the same purpose, its production being the result of extensive medical research and experience.

The proprietor is favorably known in this city, and celebrated as a Hair Cutter and Wig Maker; and for some years prior to his arrival in this country, attended the Lectures of the most distinguished Physiologists in London and Edinburgh, for the purpose of attaining a correct knowledge of the Anatomy of the Skin, the Organization and Structure of the Human Hair, and to trace the causes which produce baldness and grey hair.

The opportunities afforded by his professional duties have assisted his studies, and he has become skilled in the various Diseases of the Skin, as connected with the growth of the hair; and after a series of experiments, this Compound has been produced, with a confidence that it will restore the hair wherever it has fallen out or got thin, as well as preserve it from ever changing color.

By the early 1840’s, advertisements for Clirehugh’s  “Tricopherous or Medicated Compound” were appearing in U.S. newspapers up and down the east coast from Massachusetts  to Washington D.C. This May 19, 1840 “Baltimore Sun” advertisement naming a wig maker named August Croyeau as his local Baltimore agent was typical. 

Sometime, likely in 1841 , three years after Clirehugh began advertising Tricopherous, Alexander C. Barry apparently came on the scene working in Clirehugh’s salon on Fulton Street (he’s not listed in the NYC directories until 1842). At some point, there was some sort of disagreement and Barry was either fired or resigned depending on who you believe, after which Barry, now listed two blocks away at 160 Fulton Street, began selling Clirehugh’s Tricopherous at the discounted price of fifty cents a bottle. The drama that followed played out in the local newspapers beginning with this October 20, 1841 “New York Tribune” item run by Clirehugh.

DARING ATTEMPT AT IMPOSITION. –  A person lately discharged from my employ has had the bare-faced audacity to possess himself of numerous show bills and fancy labels connected with the sale of my Tricopherous. He has likewise issued a handbill headed “Clirehugh’s Tricopherous,” into which he has had the impudence to copy verbatim the principal advertisements of my wrapper, and has put a label and printed “directions for use” on each bottle, similar in every respect to the original, and adds “that it is the same article which he manufactured while in my establishment.” The circumstance of such a gratuitous, unmitigated, and unlashing falsehood only requires to be denied by me, and the person making such assertion held up to public scorn.

I scarce deem it necessary to say that no one at any time, in or out of my employ was ever entrusted with the secret, and could not by any means arrive at it, and that none but myself and son ever knew any thing of its composition or manufacture. His attempt to impose a spurious imitation of the genuine Tricopherous, where he, in his ignorance and cupidity thinks the public will be entrapped to purchase because charged only 50 cents, will be duly appreciated.

The individual who could be guilty of such conduct will not hesitate as to any means he may adopt to deceive and impose on the public…

VAIR CLIREHUGH

Barry’s response appeared the next day in the  October 21, 1841 edition of the “New York Tribune”

TO THE PUBLIC. – The despicable fellow who keeps the Hair Cutting Rooms at the corner of Fulton and Broadway, is openly, but fruitlessly endeavoring to lessen me in the estimation of the Public regarding the sale of “The Tricopherous” elicits this response. So far from being discharged from his employ, as he asserts, I beg to say, that I voluntarily resigned my situation, for the sole reason that he in his usual and degrading system of swindling refused to pay me my just demand, a fact which can be proved in the Third Ward Court. It is likewise false to assert that I did not manufacture the article called “The Tricopherous,” in his establishment; in proof of which I hereby offer the sum of $500 to any chemist in this or any other city, to analyze its ingredients and say that it is not the identical compound sold at the above place for One Dollar, that I sell at Fifty Cents. If this does not satisfy the Public, I will publish the constituent parts of the compound.

A. C. BARRY, 146 Broadway.

Making matters worse, by 1843 both were located on Broadway within two blocks of each other; Clirehugh at the corner of Fulton Street and Barry at the corner of Liberty Street. By then, each was advertising what was almost certainly the same exact product under their respective names, “Clirehugh’s Tricopherous” and ‘Barry’s Tricopherous,” while at the same time accusing the other’s as being an imitation. In a series of September 1843 “New York Tribune” items they went so far as to even accuse each other of copying the wording in their newspaper items.

In his September 1, 1843 item Clirehugh wrote in part:

…To assist the deception, C.’s advertisements have been copied verbatim – the fellow being to ignorant to write one…

And here’s Barry’s September 23, 1843 response, copied verbatim:

To assist the deception Barry’s advertisements have been copied verbatim, the fellow being to ignorant to write one.

The battle in the newspapers simmered down shortly afterward but the two remained competitors for the next decade and a half with each of them marketing what was almost certainly the same, or nearly the same product under their respective names.

During this time Clirehugh  listed various addresses on lower Broadway, with the New York City directories associating him with various occupations that included “tricopherous”as well as “wig maker” and “perfumer.”  An October 24, 1851 advertisement in the “Brooklyn Evening Star” that led with the following headline…

…went on to locate Clirehugh’s ‘principal depot” at 179 Broadway.

At the same time Barry, who had recently anointed himself with the title of “professor…”

…listed his business in the directories at 137-139 Broadway with occupations that included both “wig maker and “tricopherous.”

Clirehugh died suddenly on May 27, 1860. His obituary, published in the June 11, 1860  edition of Toronto’s “Globe and Mail,” told the story.

Our obituary of today contains the announcement of the death of Mr. Vair Clirehugh, a native of Edinburgh, and long a resident of New York, which melancholy event took place on board the steamship “Glasgow” on her voyage to New York. His death was wholly unexpected. He embarked on board the “Glasgow” in apparently robust health, with the view of returning to New York, after a lengthy visit to his native land with the view of spending the remainder of his days in the United States.

Clirehugh’s son who the New York City directories suggest joined him in business sometime in the 1840’s remained in the hairdressing business but apparently did not continue to manufacture or market Clirehugh’s Tricopherous, at least to any great extent. The last mention of Clirehugh’s Tricoperous that I can find was in the September 20, 1862 edition of a Norwich, Connecticut newspaper called “The Bulletin.” Ironically it appeared in an advertisement run by a local retailer that listed both Barry’s and Clirehugh’s Tricopherous  under the single heading of “Hair Preparations.”.

Barry pressed on and sometime in the late 1850’s he moved his operation to 374 Pearl Street where it was first listed in New York City’s 1859 directory. Over the next ten years his operation continued to gain notoriety so much so that advertisements for Barry’s Tricopherous began appearing in such far away places as Australia. One such ad appeared in the August 13, 1862 edition of Austrailia’s “Newcastle Chronicle.”

In 1868, Barry also passed away unexpectedly when according to a story written years later in the September 8, 1912 edition of the “New York Times:”

…Barry fell down three flights of stairs in his residence, 471 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, and died of a fractured skull.

Subsequently, according to another story found in the November 17, 1907 edition of Buffalo, New York’s “Illustrated Times,”

Not long after her husband’s death Mrs. Barry sold the business for $10,000. to a nephew.

Not long after, Barry’s nephew, also named Alexander Barry, turned the rights to Barry’s Tricopherous over to a merchant and exporter named  George C. Barclay. In a notice dated  July 15, 1870 Barclay announced that he had acquired the rights to  the generic  name “Tricopherous,” having  not only acquired the rights to “Barry’s Tricopherous,”  but “Clirehugh’s Tricopherous” as well. The announcement appeared as a “Special Notice” in the July 27, 1870 edition of the “New York Daily Herald.” The notice read in part:

AN IMPORTANT NOTICE TO DRUGGISTS AND dealers in proprietary articles. Office of Barry’s Tricopherous for the Hair, 374 Pearl Street, July 15, 1870.- The undersigned begs to notify the trade that he has, by purchase, become sole owner of the good will, trademarks and business of and in “Barry’s Tricopherous,” and of and in “Clirehugh’s Tricopherous;” and he thus becomes the sole possessor of the right to the word “Tricopherous,” and also of the names “Barry” and “Clirehugh” in connection with the word “Tricopherous”…

He then went on to sign the notice

GEORGE C. BARCLAY, Sole Proprietor of “Barry’s Tricopherous” and of “Clirehugh’s Tricopherous.”

The notice in full is shown below.

Initially it appears that the younger Barry and Barclay continued to work together at Barry’s Pearl Street depot where both were listed in early 1870’s editions of Goulding’s Business Directory. As early as 1871 they had even added a hair dye to their menu as evidenced by this July 30, 1871 advertisement that reads:

Barry’s Tricopherous

Does not color hair. It is the best of all dressings and preservers, but BARRY’S SAFE HAIR DYE is expressly for coloring any shade, from a light auburn brown to a beautiful black…

Court records, “Clara S. Barclay v. Reginald G. Barclay,” summarized in the 1915 edition of the “Trade Mark Reporter,” pick up the story from there.

A co-partnership known as Barclay & Co., was formed in 1873 between Alexander Barry and Thomas Barclay. George C. Barclay was not a member of the firm of Barclay & Co., but he controlled and owned the firm name, good will, and the various trade-marks used in the business, which the co-partnership used under a rental agreement with George C. Barclay.

Now located at 26 Liberty Street, the company continued to expand their product line under the “Barry” name, as evidenced by this September 6, 1873 advertisement for Barry’s Pearl Cream.

As early as 1877  they were also selling products under the name “Dr. Reuter” as well. This 1879 “Reuter’s Life Syrup” advertisement  found in a Hartford, Wisconsin newspaper called the “Times Press,” also included a pitch for Barry’s Tricopherous

The partnership between Thomas Barclay and Barry was apparently time limited and “expired by its own limitation” on December 31, 1877. A notice to that effect appeared in the January 14, 1878 edition of the “New York Herald.”

Less than a month later, on January 18, 1878, a new partnership was formed. Also called Barclay & Co., a notice that appeared that day in the “New York Herald” named George Barclay’s sons, William O. and Reginald G., as principals with no mention of Barry.

Initially the business listed 7 Burling Slip as their address until the company moved to what would become their long-time headquarters on the corner of Pearl Street and Stone Street (44 Stone Street and 77 Pearl Street), a location acquired by George C, Barclay in March of 1881. The real estate transaction was documented in the March 25, 1881 edition of the “New York Times.”

Over the next 20 years Barclay & Co. remained on Stone & Pearl during which Barry continued to be associated with the firm for much of the time. After disappearing from the NYC directories for a while in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s, he was once again listed at the firm’s address in 1883, and by the late 1880’s the NYC  Copartnership and Corporation directories were again naming him as a principal in the firm, but now under the name Alexander Barrie. According to a December 1, 1885 story in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle:”

Changed His Name

Alexander Barry of Montague Street, yesterday obtained from City Judge Clement permission to change his name to Barrie, his family name from some years ago until his grandfather changed it. Mr Barrie is a member of the firm of Barclay & Co. New York Wholesale druggists.

New York City’s Copartnership and Corporation Directory dated March, 1888 reflected the name-change from Barry to Barrie.

The court records, “Clara S. Barclay v. Reginald G. Barclay,” went on to say that after George C. Barclay’s death in 1897, the business relationship between his sons and Barrie continued.

George C. Barclay died in November 1897, and bequeathed the aforesaid property to his two sons William O. Barclay and Reginald G. Barclay, in equal shares with certain monthly payments to his wife and daughter. On December 31, 1897 a partnership agreement was entered into between William O. Barclay, Reginald G. Barclay, and Alexander Barrie to carry on business under the firm name of Barclay & Co. On the same date an agreement was made by the executrices of the will of George C. Barclay with the said persons, as co-partners, whereby during the continuance of the co-partnership they were given the right to use the name of Barclay & Co. and the good will thereof, and various trademarks which at his death had been the property of George C. Barclay.

Four years later William O Barclay also passed away after which Barrie and Reginald G. Barclay continued as partners under yearly agreements.

According to court records  “Clara S. Barclay v. Reginald G. Barclay,” by 1904 their product menu included a series of products using both the Barry and Reuter name.

This early U. S. advertisement for one such product, Reuter’s Soap,  appeared in the December 16, 1905 edition of “Brooklyn Life” (later ads suggest it was being marketed overseas as early as 1880).

On December 31, 1912 Alexander Barrie announced that he was separating from the business. The notice appeared in the January 4, 1913 edition of the “New York Times.”

The younger Barry (now Barrie) passed away four years later, in January 1917.

Around the same time Barrie left the business it apparently moved to 26 Beaver Street and in April, 1913 Reginald Barclay incorporated the business in Delaware. An August 3, 1915 “New York Times”  story filled in some details.

… Reginald C Barclay incorporated Barclay & Co. in Delaware in April 1913 with a capitalization of $3,000,000… During May, 1914, Barclay conveyed his rights in the old Barclay & Co. to the new Delaware corporation and later it was discovered that the new company owned all the assets and business of the old.

Six years later, in December, 1919, with Reginald G. Barclay now apparently out of the picture, a company called Reuter-Barry was incorporated, with the notice appearing in the December 21st edition of the “New York Times.”

Still located at Barclay & Company’s 26 Beaver Street address, this 1923 price list found in the “Druggist Circular” confirms that the company continued to market products under both the “Barry” name and “Reuter” name including “Barry’s Tricopherous.”

This Reuter-Barry advertisement found in the 1925 “North American Almanac,” touted both “Reuter’s Soap” and “Barry’s Tricopherous.”

Sometime in the early 1930’s it appears that Reuter-Barry merged with Lanman & Kemp of  Florida Water fame forming Lanman & Kemp-Barclay. The first listing I can find for the company appeared in New York City’s 1933 directory.

Following the merger, it appears that Lanman & Kemp-Barclay primarily focused the marketing and sale of Barry’s Triccopherous  on overseas markets. U. S.  newspaper advertisements for Barry’s Tricopherous vanished by 1930 and by the mid to late 1940’s the product had all but vanished from newspaper advertised drug store price lists. That being said, as late as 1973 it was still  being advertised in Austrailia, as evidenced by this ad that appeared that year in several editions of a Melbourne newspaper called “The Age.”

Today, Lanaman & Kemp Barclay is still in business and still producing a version of Barry’s Tricopherous.

The bottle I found was blown in a mold and closely matches the one pictured in this late 19th century advertisement.

 

 

Imperial Perfumery and B. S., Inc., New York

The letters “B. S.” embossed on the subject bottle stand for “Barber Supplies,” making the full name of the business “Imperial Perfumery and Barber Supplies, Inc.” A long-time New York City business located in the Bronx, its roots date back to the  mid-teens and a  partnership consisting of Arcady Gunzburg and Alex Weiss.

The Gunzburg and Weiss partnership was first listed in New York City’s 1914  directory with an address of 485 East 174th Street and the occupation “perfumers.” A year later. in 1915, the business began using the registered trade name “Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supplies.” Around the same time the company moved to the corner of Park Avenue and 176th Street where they’re listed at 4164 Park Avenue in the 1916 directory.

In 1917 Gunzburg and Weiss apparently dissolved their partnership at which  time Gunzurg, now in partnership with Louis Rasumoff, continued the business. Two years later, along with Paul Budgetti, they formed a corporation called the “Imperial Perfumery and Barber Supplies, Inc. A notice to that effect appeared in the August 21, 1919 edition of “The New York Tribune.”

Sometime between 1920 and 1922 the company moved again, this time to 2645 Webster Avenue. This September 11, 1922 advertisement found in a  weekly newsletter published by the Trestle Board of New York described the business as “Manufacturers of High Grade Toilet Preparations.”

In 1923 the company registered trademarked labels for two of their toilet preparations; “Imperial Lilac Toilet Water,” and “Imperial Bay Rum.” They also trademarked a label that included the phrase “Hygiene De La Tete.”

The company used the phrase “Hygiene De La Tete” (2nd label above) on the label of a product called Eau de Quinine which they packaged to closely resemble the packaging a long used product sold under the ED Pinaud name by  H & G Klotz & Company. The Klotz Company took exception claiming  that the casual purchaser will be deceived and misled, and mistake Imperial Perfume’s Eau de Quinine for Pinaud’s. According to the April 10, 1924 case of Klotz et al vs. Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supplies, Inc. (298 Fed. 174):

The product of defendant is contained in a bottle practically identical in appearance as to shape and size. The liquid contents are the same color in both. The neck labels of both bottles is a dull red, with white lettering. The labels on both are approximately of the same size and shape except that defendants label has rounded corners, while corners of plantiffs’ label are beveled. On plantiffs’label appears the basket of flowers. On defendant’s label is a wreath of flowers. Above the wreath on defendant’s label appear the words “Hygiene de la Tete.” Below the basket of flowers on plaintiffs label appear the words “Hygiene of the scalp.” The most prominent words on both labels are “Eau de Quinine.”

The argument is further supported by an ED Pinaud bottle also found in the Long Island bays.

Comparing the two its clear that there’s absolutely no difference in the size and shape of each bottle. With similar labels applied it would certainly be difficult  to distinguish one from the other. More on ED Pinaud and the Klotz Company can be found in another Post on this site.

ED. Pinaud

The court granted a preliminary injunction and as far as I can tell this put an end to  the matter.

That being said, the court’s decision didn’t put an end to the Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supplies, Inc., and in 1924 they moved to what would become their long-time home at 1077 Intervale Avenue, also in the Bronx. That same year they  trademarked a label for another new product, a dandruff remedy called “Imperial Elixir.”

Newspaper advertisements for Imperial Elixir began appearing in New York’s “Daily News” in November/December, 1925

The “Daily News” ads continued through much of 1926 and 1927 before disappearing completely by 1928. This March 2, 1927 advertisement suggests they continued to use the same bottle design previously used for Eau de Quinine.

While newspaper advertisements for their products vanished in the late 1920’s the business was still listed on Intervale Avenue in the late 1940’s at which time it appears both Gunzburg and Rasumoff were still involved.

The company apparently remained active in the Bronx throughout the 1950’s. Though directory information I can access is limited, I did find the company listed at 334 East 149th St. in 1953 and 250 East 150th St. in 1960.

As late as 1990 an item in the “Mount Vernon Argus” puts the Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supply, Inc. just north of the Bronx at 211 McLean Avenue in Yonkers, New York.

The bottle I found is machine-made,  6-3/4 inches tall and 2-3/8 inches in diameter. It includes “Inc.” in the embossed company name dating it no earlier than 1919 when the business incorporated. I suspect it was made in the 1920’s and contained either Eau de Quinine (early 1920’s) or Imperial Elixir (mid- late 1920’s).

HERBEX Hair Tonic, Parker Herbex Corp., New York

Herbex Hair Tonic was one of a multitude of hair products sold in the United States under the name “Herbex” that were popular for the first 60 or so years of the 20th Century.  Herbex was the brainchild of a man named William Frank Parker who typically went by his middle name of Frank. According to this brief bio included in a 1928 Herbex advertisement:

Frank Parker, originator of the famous Parker Method of Hair and Scalp Treatment is the last of a distinguished English family who have been hair specialists for four generations. By virtue of his heritage, plus his own perfected scientific method, he is today the acknowledged, foremost specialist in hair and scalp treatment in America and England.

His sales pitch can be found in 1920’s Herbex advertisements.

Dr. Frank Parker, eminent British hair authority and originator of the Parker Herbex Method, discovered that baldness is the result of starved, strangled, abused hair – hair which has become dry, broken and shriveled, often by the use of so-called tonics and pomades.

He also found that extracts of certain herbs can be fed to the hair, just as foods can be fed to the body, bringing new strength, beauty and vigorous health. His counsel is: Never give up hope as long as there is life in the hair roots – look to Herbex to revive, foster and promote the growth and final health of a really beautiful head of hair.

While he may or may not have been a legacy hair specialist, I have to think his success had more to do with his approach to marketing than the efficacy of his products.

To promote the Herbex  line of products he established an “institute” that offered a course of instruction aimed at professional hair dressers and beauty parlor operators teaching them how to implement what he called “The Parker Herbex Methods.” Highly successful, by the mid to late 1920’s his graduates were promoting his preparations and implementing his methods while operating beauty parlors all over the country.

So, with that as background, here’s what I found on the history of Parker and his Herbex products.

Census records indicate that William Frank Parker was born in England in 1863 and arrived in the United States sometime in the early 1890’s (1890 according to 1900 census records and 1893 in the 1910 records). Although his marketing materials over the years suggested his products dated back to as early as the 1880’s, as late as 1900 census records as well as the New York City directory listed his occupation as “chiropodist.”

It wasn’t until 1902 that Parker was listed in the New York City Business Directory with the occupation “toilet preparations, and on November 1st of that year, according to his Patent Application (No.39,517), he began using the “Herbex” name.

The business was originally located at 164 West 128th Street until sometime in early 1904 when Parker moved the operation downtown to 53 West 24th Street. This early advertisement that appeared in the 1905 edition of a publication entitled “Club Women of New York,” featured his new address along with an acrostic promoting his Herbex Tonics.

The advertisement also referenced his free booklet which he described as:”

a complete treatise on the care of the hair and all diseases which the hair is subject to.

Two years later, on November 29, 1907, Parker incorporated  “The Frank Parker Trichological Institute, Inc.” The Incorporation Notice, found in the November 30th edition of the “New York Times,” named Parker, along with his wife, Lucy, as directors. It was around this time that Parker, in addition to his “free booklet,” began to conduct in-person classes, teaching his hair care methods to outside hair practitioners.

Shortly afterward this November 7, 1908 item in the “Pharmaceutical Era” announced that the business was moving again, this time to 61 West 37th Street.

The Frank Parker Trichological Institute, Inc., manufacturer of the Herbex remedies and which in addition conducts an institute in which the Frank Parker method of treating the hair and scalp is taught, has removed from 53 West Twenty-fourth Street to 61 West Thirty-seventh Street, New York City. Mr. Parker, president and instructor in the Institute informs us that the sales of Herbex through the drug trade are constantly increasing. The remedies are extensively advertised in the daily papers and on billboards…

A feature on the Trichological Institute found in the May 9, 1908 edition of the “Atlantic City Gazette – Review” described the Trichological Institute’s overall approach in more detail.

Frank Parker Institute

Unique among New York Schools, in both purpose and method, is the Frank Parker Trichological Institute , at 61 West 37th Street, of which W. Frank Parker is president, and wherein instruction is given in the treatment of the hair and scalp with the “Herbex” preparations, and in hair dressing, facial massage, manicuring and chiropody. Each student receives a quantity of “Herbex” preparations, sufficient when sold to make the tuition absolutely free, and, in addition, is given one share of the institute’s stock. The school’s thorough instruction fits its pupils for an honorable and profitable vocation, and after graduation they are permitted at any time to submit sample combings for free examination and advice, proper directions for treatment being sent promptly without expense. Graduates being stockholders , they and the institute cooperate at all times to their mutual benefit. The idea is novel, generous and profitable.

The “Herbex” hair preparations, favorably known to careful hairdressers and scalp specialists as well as to many prominent and wealthy families here and abroad, number six in all, no pretense being made that a single remedy can correct the varied unhealthy or unnatural conditions of the hair and scalp. In brief, purchasers of the preparations, like the students of the institute, receive a “square deal.”

The above article mentioned a total of six Herbex hair preparations, five of which were described in this February, 1912 “Pharmaceutical Era” advertisement.

As early as 1909 Parker was attempting to attract students to the Institute from areas outside New York City, as evidenced by this October 31, 1909 classified ad published in the “”Boston Globe.”

Around the same time similar advertisements appeared in Louisville, Kentucky and San Francisco, California.

It wasn’t long before his graduates were spreading out across the country. Mrs.G. L Aslett was one such graduate whose advertisement appeared in the May 11, 1916 edition of the Ridgewood (N. J.) Herald.”

Another, Miss Mae Saunders of Scranton, Pennsylvania, bragged that her entire staff had graduated from the Parker Trichological Institute in New York.

Parker even went so far as to visit some of the hair parlors where his students had presumably set up shop. One such visit to Dayton Ohio’s Imperial Hair Parlor  was announced in the October 5, 1918 edition of the “Dayton Daily News.”

One such visit extended as far north as Canada where, according to this December 4, 1918 advertisement in the “Montreal Gazette,” Parker was slated to visit the SALON DE COIFFURE.

In 1922 the company apparently reorganized, this time under the name of the Parker Herbex Manufacturing Corporation. The incorporation notice, published in the February 13th edition of the “Oil and Paint Review” named both Frank and Lucy Parker along with K. H. Krichell as directors. By that time the business had moved to 47 West 49th Street.

An April, 1927 price list found in the “Druggist Circular” demonstarates that by the late 1920’s the company had significantly expanded their product line, more than doubling the number of hair preparations while at the same time adding toilet preparations and manicure items to the Herbex menu.

Sometime around 1930 it was announced that Parker Herbex treatments could be performed at home. A January 10, 1931 advertisement disguised as a news story in Wilmington, Delaware’s “Morning News” led with the following headline.

The advertisement went on to say, in part:

The Parker Herbex Method of restoring hair is now available for use in the privacy of your own home!

There in one sentence is the greatest news to be found in this paper for thousands who are bald or whose hair is withering and falling from the ravages of conditions with which they are powerless to cope… People by hundreds of thousands have gladly paid huge sums to enjoy the benefits of the Herbex treatments. But now, thanks to Dr. Parker, you can have the Parker Herbex treatment to use in the privacy of your home at an amazingly low price – a mere fraction of the cost others have paid for a single professional sitting.

That’s not to say this put the professionals out of business. In fact beauty shop newspaper advertisements promoting Herbex treatments were plentiful for years to come. That being said, by the mid-1930’s the tone of those ads had softened considerably, now focused primarily on beauty as opposed to cures.

A 1936 advertisement for a beauty salon in Montgomery, Alabama illustrates this change. Published in the January 5th edition of the “Montgomery Advertiser” it starts out like most early advertisements announcing that the salon was introducing  the Parker Herbex system.

Nachman and Meertief’s Beauty Salon is introducing the Parker Herbex hair and scalp treatment, a system in use for over 50 years at the Parker establishment in Fifth Avenue, New York. Mrs. Frances Burkes, authorized practitioner in charge of the local salon, stated that the method and treatment is exclusive with Nachman and Meertief, and that the operator giving the treatment was authorized by the Parker people.

The ad then followed up with the toned down expectations.

“We are giving the Parker Herbex treatment to men and women,” said Mrs. Burks. “It’s a scientific method in use over half a century and is positive in results. Women find that permanent waves look better and last longer when the hair is first treated by this method, and men and women find a decided improvement in scalp conditions and general appearance of the hair by this system. We give special attention to white, dyed and bleached hair, all of which are successfully treated,”

Similarly, this March 25, 1936 advertisement found in the “San Bernardino County Sun” replaced previously used phrases like “grow hair” and  “eliminate falling hair” with “revitalize your hair back to loveliness.”.

After Frank Parker passed away in September, 1946, his treatments continued to be touted in beauty parlor advertisements from coast to coast up through the 1960’s. This ad found in New Mexico’s “Alamogordo Daily News.” on June 19, 1964 suggests that the company’s approach and  message had changed little between the mid-1930’s and the mid-1960’s.

Available to Professional Hairdressers to Help Correct Damaged Hair. Remember, Only a Healthy Head of Hair can take a good Permanent Wave, a Perfect Color, and Always Looks Better After Styling.

During this time the company changed New York City addresses several times, listing Manhattan addresses of 306 East 61st St. (1920’s and 1930’s) and 607 Fifth Ave. (1930’s and 1940’s) before moving across the East River in the late 1940’s to 29-50 Northern Blvd. in Long Island City, Queens. Around this time their advertisements also mention a Stamford, Connecticut location so it’s possible they located their manufacturing facilities there for a while.

In 1981 a May 18th item in New York’s “Newsday” announced the Parker Herbex Corporation had moved east to Long Island at 1001 Franklin Avenue in Garden City. Around the same time, newspaper advertisements promoting the Herbex methods drop off dramatically.

Fast forward to the 1990’s and Herbex newspaper advertisements are sparse and  limited to the east coast states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. That being said, as late as 1991 an August 25th “Atlantic City Press” ad announced that a Parker Herbex scalp treatment could still be had at Biscov’s Beauty Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

A year later the company was still in business when, on May 6th this advertisement appeared in Long Island’s “Newsday.”

Thousand’s of people use Parker Herbex prescriptive to keep hair and scalp young, vigorous and beautiful. Dr. W. Frank Parker’s century old blend of rare botanicals, natural herbs and exotic tinctures may help your problem hair and scalp. Dr. Parker’s works even after other treatments have failed. Used successfully by professionals all across the country. Shampoo, conditioner and scalp treatments for all common hair problems. Just call:

This was the last newspaper advertisement mentioning Herbex that I can find. What finally became of the company is not clear, at least to me.

The bottle I found is machine made with a threaded finish and contains 6 ounces. It’s embossed HERBEX HAIR TONIC” along with the company name “Parker Herbex Corp., a name they began using after incorporating in 1922. The base of the bottle is embossed with the Illinois Glass makers mark of an “I'” inside a diamond, a mark that was used between 1915 and 1929.

This certainly dates the bottle’s manufacture to the seven year period between the company’s incorporation date of 1922 and the 1929 end date of the maker’s mark.

It likely contained one of three Herbex Tonics (No. 1, 2 or 3).  According to their 1927 price list, pictured earlier in this post, each could be purchased retail that year for $1.

This earlier (1915) labeled version of a Herbex Hair Tonic No. 1 bottle is similar in shape but exhibits a prescription type finish in lieu of threads.It was pictured in an August, 1915 advertisement found in “The Druggists Circular.”

Fiebert Frères, New York (Fiebert Brothers)

Research using the  “Fiebert Freres” name  embossed on the subject bottle did not reveal anything relevant to its origin or history. That being said, recognizing that “freres” is the French word for “brothers,” I gave  “Fiebert Brothers,” a shot and came up with a New York City based business that operated during the early 1900’s.  Located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Fiebert Brothers sold barber supplies, hair tonics and perfumes.

One of Fiebert Brothers’ early products was a hair tonic called EAU DE MONDE, a name the company trade-marked in October, 1906, as evidenced by this item that appeared in the November 26th edition of “The Trademark Record.”

Later, in 1912, the company registered another trademark for a hair tonic. This one featured the portrait of a woman with flowing hair who was described as “fanciful.”

Marketing a product called “Eau De Monde” and others that were promoted with the image of a “fanciful” woman, its not a big leap to think the Fiebert’s were targeting a wealthy audience; one that around the turn of the century had a preference for French toiletries and perfumes. Any way you look at it, the name “Fiebert Freres” embossed on a bottle of  “Eau De Monde” projected a more sophisticated image than “Fiebert Brothers” did.

So, on that premise I went ahead and researched Fiebert Brothers and here’s what I found.

The roots of the business date back to 1889 when, according to U. S. Census records, Louis R. Fiebert, an Austrian immigrant who spoke Yiddish (not French) arrived in the United States. Throughout the 1890’s and up through 1903 he was listed in the New York City directories with the occupation “barber” at 144 Norfolk Street.

In 1904, Fiebert apparently partnered with Adolph (sometimes Adolf) Fiebert and established Fiebert Brothers. That year the company was listed in the NYC directory for the first time with an address on Madison Street and the occupation “perfumery.” In 1906 Fiebert Brothers moved to 106 Rivington Street, now listing their occupation as “barbers supplies.”

Two years later the Fiebert’s dissolved their partnership and went their separate ways.  It’s possible that the dissolution of the business was the result of Louis Fiebert declaring bankruptcy in February, 1909. The announcement appeared under the heading: “Trade Items” in the February 1st edition of the “Soap Gazette and Perfumer”

Louis R. Fiebert, of 140 Essex Street, New York, buyer and seller of perfumeries, has filed a petition in bankruptcy, with liabilities $11,200 and no assets.

Adolph Fiebert went on to establish another company nearby at 152 Rivington Street where he remained in business through the mid-teens.

Meanwhile, less than four months after being declared bankrupt, Louis Fiebert’s name appeared on a September 16th “New York Times” list of bankrupts that had been discharged suggesting that his financial problems were short-lived. Apparently able to retain the business, in 1910 Louis was listed as the sole proprietor of Fiebert Brothers,  now located in the adjacent building at 100 Rivington Street. That year, census records indicate the business was a family affair with both his wife, Clara, and son, Hugo, involved as well.

The company remained at 100 Rivington Street up through 1917 during which time, according to a February 16, 1914 item found in the “Passaic (N.J.) Daily News” they also established a sales agency across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

Michael J. Colca, of this borough (Carlstadt N. J.) has taken the agency for the Fiebert Brothers celebrated perfumes and tonics and anticipates building a good business.

Fiebert Brothers moved to 40 Great Jones Street in 1917. “White Orr’s Reference Register” listed the company there as late as 1920.

Louis R. Fiebert passed away in June, 1923; his obituary appearing in the June 24th edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

According to “streeteasy.com the building currently located at 100 Rivington Street was constructed in 1900 so it’s the same building that housed the business from approximately 1910 to 1917. Today it’s a rental building with 24 units. The commercial space at street level likely housed the business.

The adjacent building at 106 Rivington Street was also constructed in 1900 so its the building the business occupied from roughly 1906 to 1909. There are several steps down to what was likely the Fiebert business.

Coincidently, the building Fiebert Brothers moved to in 1917 at 40 Great Jones Street was also built in 1900 and remains to this day. According to street easy.com, it’s a 7-story, 7-unit co-op building. Like the others, the commercial space at street level likely housed the business.

The bottle I found is 7 inches tall and contains roughly 6 ounces. Blown in a mold it likely dates to the first 10 years or so of the business. Its shape certainly speaks to a hair tonic or something similar, maybe EAU DE MONDE?

Hill’s Hair Dye No. 1

 

Hill’s Hair Dye, sometimes called Hill’s Hair and Whisker Dye, was on the market for roughly 80 years from the 1850’s up through the early 1930’s and possibly longer. Originally sold by a New York City barber named William Hill, the rights to the product were later obtained by C. N. Crittenton and later still by the Century National Chemical Company.

It was one of a class of products commonly marketed as instantaneous hair dyes. A summary of “Hair Dyes and Restorers” included in “The Popular Health Almanac for 1876” described them like this:

Instantaneous hair dyes come mostly in two small vials, the one containing a watery solution of gum arabic and soda, or an alcoholic solution of gallic acid (obtained from nut-galls), the other a solution of nitrate of silver, in dilute aqua ammonia. These dyes when carefully applied may be considered harmless. Batchelor’s, Briest’s, Cristidoro’s, Hill’s, Miller’s, Vessey’s dyes, and Hoyt’s Hiawatha Hair Restorative belong to this class. They can readily be compounded for less cost by every pharmacist.

Two years later, the 1878 -79 “Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal” documented the actual contents of the two Hill vials:

Hill’s Instantaneous Hair and Whisker Dye.

Bottle No.1 contained a light brown liquid, of acid reaction; no residue on evaporation of pyrogallic acid.

The contents of Bottle No. 2 consisted of an ammoniacal solution of argentic nitrate. One fluid ounce contained 17.5929 grains of silver.

The product’s namesake and  initial proprietor, William Hill, was first listed in NYC’s 1837 Directory as a hair dresser at 86 Pearl Street. That same year this classified advertisement for his “Inimitable Style of Hair Cutting” began appearing in several springtime editions of the “New York Daily Herald.” This all suggests that he opened his first salon or barber shop sometime in 1836 or 1837.

Another advertisement, this one published in the March 28, 1838 edition of New York’s “Evening Post” mentioned that in addition to providing hair cuts and shaves, he also carried an assortment of perfumery and fancy articles.

Hill’s  focus however was certainly on hair cutting and a September 19, 1838 advertisement in the “Evening Post” eloquently laid out his marketing pitch.

THE INIMITABLE STYLE OF HAIR CUTTING – Hill’s Hair dressing establishment, No. 86 Pearl Street, upstairs – The unexampled approbation which has hitherto attended the adoption of Hill’s Inimitable style of hair cutting, induces him to call public attention more fully towards it. Nothing contributes more effectually to give ease and dignity to the human form than the judicious and graceful arrangement of the hair, and yet nothing is more generally neglected. While every advantageous ornament is sought to decorate the person, and bestow on the wearer an elegant deportment, that graceful appendage which nature has so profusely provided is overlooked, or if attended to at all is arranged so unskillfully as rather to detract than to adorn. To secure the graceful arrangement of the hair everything must depend upon the manner in which it is cut. It is to this subject therefore that Hill has devoted his particular attention, and he flatters himself that, having given it the fullest consideration, he has succeeded in forming a style which unites elegance with utility, and which will secure, as his increasing patronage fully attests, the universal approbation of the public; also particular attention paid to the shaving part of the business.

N.B. Call and judge for yourself.

Over the next several years his business, while always located in lower Manhattan, moved around quite a bit, listing addresses of 91 Broad Street (1839) and 118 Water Street (1840 – 1842). Then, in 1843, March and April advertisements in the “New York Daily Herald” announced that he was back at his “Old Stand,” 86 Pearl Street, where you could get your hair cut or curled for 12-1/2 cents or a shave for 6 -1/4 cents.

Two years later he moved again, this time to 13 Nassau Street. Just prior to the move Hill began advertising the sale of a proprietary hair product called “Hill’s Infallible Onguent.” An announcement, sounding introductory in nature, suggested that he had been using it on his barber shop clientele since 1840.  The announcement appeared in the May 27, 1844 edition of the “New York Daily Herald”

Hill’s Infallible Onguent, or never drying Pomade, has been satisfactorily tested during the last four years by thousands as being superior to all others afforded to the public for ameliorating the hair…Sold wholesale and retail by Hill, the original and inimitable Hair Cutter, No. 86 Pearl Street, adjoining the Pearl Street House.

Another advertisement in the November 4, 1845 edition of the “Brooklyn Evening Star” described it’s many purported benefits.

Alopecy, or falling off of the hair and pityriasis or dandruff scuff, etc., are positively cured by the use of Hill’s Infallible Onguent, which is an old and well tried specific for all diseases of the hair or scalp of the head. It is a certain preventative of grey or red hair, or if they do exist, a thorough use of the Onguent will change the color; it will make the hair flexible, inclined to curl, kept moist longer and give it a glossier appearance than any other preparation now in use…

In 1853 Hill began advertising his “Instantaneous Liquid Hair Dye.” Around the same time he was on the move again, this time to 45 Nassau Street where you could buy his dye and, if you preferred, have it applied there as well.  The earliest newspaper advertisement I can find for his hair dye along with the announcement of his move to 45  Nassau Street both appeared  in the May 2, 1853 edition of “New York Daily Herald.”

Two years later he added a second location at 1 Barclay Street that according to this July 3, 1855 “New York Daily Herald”announcement included “hair dyeing, cutting, curling and shampooing parlors.”

Just Opened, Hill Branch Hair Dyeing, cutting, curling and shampooing parlors, at No, 1 Barclay Street, fitted up in a neat, comfortable and practical style. Shaving at this or the old stand, No. 45 Nassau Street, six seats.

Hill dropped  the Nassau Street address a year later, after which his hair parlors operated solely out of 1 Barclay Street for the next 10 years. The location also served as the depot for his brand name products as evidenced by this November 9, 1859 “New York Times” advertisement.

During this time he added two additional products; a hair tonic called “Floralia,” and “Arctic Ointment” for the treatment of burns, etc. Advertisements for both began appearing in the late 1850’s. The following ad which mentions both, along with Hill’s Hair Dye, appeared in the May 21, 1859 edition of the “New York Tribune.”

Sometime in 1865, Hill left his long-time Barclay Street location subsequently listing addresses of 66 John Street (1865 to 1867), 95 Duane Street (1867 – 1868) and 266 Broadway (1868 to 1869).

As late as 1868 Hill was still advertising his hair dye as evidenced by this June 9th advertisement published in the “New York Daily Herald.”

Then sometime in 1870 Hill apparently formed an association with C.N. Ctittenton. Crittenton operated what he called a “patent medicine warehouse” that at the time was located at 7 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. As early as December 22, 1870, Critteton included Hill’s Instantaneous Hair Dye on a list of his preparations published in “The Sun” (Last one listed).

Below the listing a note read:

C. N. CRITTETON of 7 6th Ave., near Bleecker St., purchases Helmbold’s genuine preparations direct from Dr. H. I. Humbold, as also all other genuine family medicines now direct from the manufacturers and warrants all goods to be as represented. Give him a call.

This suggests that for a time in the early 1870’s Crittenton served as agent and distributor for the hair dye, while Hill was still involved with its manufacture. This period found Hill listing addresses of 127 Grand Street (1871), 39 Fulton Street (1872) and 41 Fulton (1873-74).

Several internet sources indicate that this arrangement changed in 1880 when Crittenton obtained the rights to the hair dye from Hill. That being said, I suspect this change may have happened as early as the mid-1970’s for two reasons. First, as early as 1876 Hill’s advertisements began naming Crittenton as the product’s “proprietor.” One of the first ads to this effect that I can find appeared in the “Erie County Independent” on June 16th of that year.

Secondly, as early as 1877, Hill, still a barber and now located at 10 Ann Street, began touting a different hair dye, this one called “Ching Foo Hair Stain.” This ad touting “Ching Foo Hair Stain,” appeared in the August 9th edition of “The Sun.”

INIMITABLE HAIR CUTTER. SHAVING 10 cents, 12 for a dollar, at 10 Ann St., Ching Foo Hair Stain, black or brown, one application.

Another ad featuring  “Ching Foo Hair Stain” appeared in the August 2, 1880 edition of  “The Sun.”

NYC directories continued to list Hill as a barber at 10 Ann Street until 1884 at which time he announced he was moving to Brooklyn in a May 3, 1884 special notice published in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle”

Brooklyn directories listed him as a barber up through the mid-1890’s after which the listing disappears.

Meanwhile Crittenton continued to advertise Hill’s Hair Dye, much of the time in connection with other Crittenton products, primarily Glenn’s Sulphur Soap. This advertisement that included both was found in the September 13, 1885 edition of the “Kansas City Times.”

Renew Your Age. Ay, but how? that is the question. In the first place, ladies, discount twenty years from your actual age by giving a youthful transparency to your complexions with “Glenn’s Sulphur Soap.” You can do it; there is no mistake about it, and with absolute safety too, for the preparation contains no injurious matter. Beware of counterfeits. See that “C. N. Crittenton, proprietor,” is printed on each packet, without which none is genuine. Sold by druggists at 25 cents; three cakes, 60 cents. Then, if your hair be slightly tinged with gray, take off another ten years by converting it to a splendid brown with “Hills Instantaneous Hair Dye,” which has the double advantage of being the cheapest and best Dye in the world.

Both products were included on this list of Crittenton’s “Proprietary Articles,” included in their 1902/1903 Catalog.

Crittenton passed away in 1909 and seven years later his heirs, who controlled 60 percent of the business, opted to liquidate the company. According to the October, 1916 edition of the “American Druggist:”

The drug trade will learn with universal regret of the passing of the house of Crittenton, which is now in process of liquidation…On his death in 1909 it was found that Mr. Crittenton had made five grandchildren and the Florence Crittenton Mission of New York, a house of refuge for young girls, founded and supported by him, his principal heirs. These heirs, controlling 60 percent of the company stock, voted last January to convert the business into cash as quickly as possible. The corporation was dissolved in July, but it was assumed by the trade that the business would be carried on after a reorganization. It was only recently that it had become generally known that the business is to be liquidated, although it is in a very strong position financially, the outstanding obligations being less than $50,000, while the assets are estimated at four or five times that amount. The liquidation has been brought about purely for internal reasons and has no significance from a trade point of view…From the Crittenton ranks many men have risen to prominence in the wholesale drug trade, and the disappearance of the name of Crittenton from the annals of the drug trade will cause regret among a very wide circle, including all the wholesale trade and a great many of the leading retail druggists.

The Crittenton company continued to advertise both Glenn’s Sulphur Soap and Hill’s Hair and Whisker Dye right up to the very end, as evidenced by this August 2, 1916 ad found in the “Middletown (N.Y.) Times-Press.”

More on the Critteton company can be found in another post on this site.

C. N. Crittenton

Sometime in the late teens Dr. Franklin J. Keller of Paterson, N. J. acquired the rights to manufacture several Crittenton preparations including both Hill’s Hair Dye and  Glenn’s Sulphur Soap. Around the same time he established a corporation to manufacture and distribute them called the Century National Chemical Company.

The incorporation notice was published in the October 12, 1918 edition of the (Paterson N. J.) Morning Call.

The Century National Chemical Company, to locate at 379 Totowa Avenue, this city, filed papers of incorporation with County Clerk Slater yesterday. Dr Franklin J Keller is named as the agent of the business. The articles state that the company proposes to carry on a general business as chemists, druggists, chemical manufacturers, importers, exporters and dealers in chemicals.

An authorized capital stock of $100,000 is provided, to consist of 1,000 shares at a par value of $100 a share. The company will commence business with its entire capital stock paid in. It is held by the following incorporators: Franklin J. Keller, 997 shares; Jane D. Keller, two shares, and William J. Lickel, of New York City, one share.

In addition to their Paterson New Jersey factory the company maintained an office in New York City at 86 Warren Street in lower Manhattan. In the company’s early advertisements and labeling they referred to themselves as “Successors to The C. N. Crittenton Co.”

Hill’s  was still included in a list of Century National Products found in the February 21, 1925 edition of “The Pharmaceutical Era” (half-way down)…

…and it was still being advertised, along with Glenn’s Sulphur Soap, in newspapers as late as 1933, as evidenced by this July 7th ad in the “Bristol (Vt) Herald.”

I can’t confirm when the product was discontinued but I can’t find any newspaper advertising for it after 1933.

The bottle I found is blown in a mold and is 3-1/4 inches tall with one inch wide panels front and back. One panel is embossed “HILL’S,” the other “HAIR DYE No. 1.” The bottle is 3/4-inch wide with slightly rounded sides. It contains no more than one ounce. It almost certainly dates to the Crittenton years.

Wildroot

A dandruff remedy, Wildroot Hair Tonic debuted in 1911 and was the first of what would eventually become an entire array of Wildroot hair care products manufactured in Buffalo, New York.  An advertisement that appeared in the December 3, 1915 edition of the Buffalo Evening News was typical of the early sales pitch associated with the hair tonic.

We don’t say it will grow hair – nothing will do that but healthy hair roots. But we do say Wildroot will make sickly hair roots healthy and keep them healthy. Wildroot is a vegetable compound. It is sure death to dandruff germs, sure health to hair and scalp.

Give hair new life in both reality and appearance. Every hair can be saved if you start in time to use Wildroot – don’t delay. Thousands of users root for Wildroot.

A feature on Wildroot published in the December 19, 1921 edition of the Buffalo Commercial described how the business got its start.

The business was started by Robert J. Kideney and Morrell C. Howell. In fact in the early days Wildroot Hair Tonic was made in 5 gallon crocks in Mr. Howell’s home from the formula worked out by these men and first marketed to friends and acquaintances of the barber trade in the vicinity.

The 1908 Buffalo city directory listed  Kideney’s occupation as “manager” of the barber shop located in Buffalo’s Iriquois Hotel, so it’s a safe bet that the product was first used there. This circa 1908 post card depiction of the hotel is courtesy of the Buffalo History Museum.

The name “Wildroot” was filed as the trademark for a dandruff remedy on September 2, 1911 by a business called the “Retone Company.” The notice was printed in “The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office,” dated October 11, 1911.

Retone was apparently short-lived as the company name. That same year the 1911 Buffalo directory named Kideney “president” of the Wildroot Chemical Company and the following year the company itself was listed with that name and an address of 45 North Division Street. Later in 1918 the company name was shortened to the Wildroot Company.

Wildroot Hair Tonic newspaper advertisements began appearing as early as 1912. Curiously, the first advertisements appeared not in the Buffalo Commercial’s advertising section where they might get overlooked, but in the paper’s “Lost and Found” section. The two notices below were typical of this rather unique approach.

The following year the business expanded their product line advertising “Wildroot Shampoo Soap” as “specially recommended for use with Wildroot.”

By 1914 the business had outgrown their Division Street location facilitating a move to Buffalo’s Sidway Building. Located at Goodall and Main Streets, the company occupied two floors there for the remainder of the decade. Around the same time Harry Lehman assumed the presidency, with Kideney remaining with the company as vice president. Over the next 44 years the business would flourish under Lehman’s leadership.

During much of its first decade the company associated their name with a beauty parlor (or parlors) called the “Wildroot Hair Parlors. The parlor was operated by a woman named Bertha Courtright whose advertisement in the 1915 Buffalo city directory mentioned services that included hairdressing, shampooing, manicuring, facial massage and scalp treatments. A November 28, 1915 item published in the Buffalo Times leads me to believe it served a high end, female clientele.

Thats not to say that women were their only target audience as evidenced by this November 19, 1915 advertisement found in the Buffalo Evening News.

One “over the top” advertisement found in the Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal targeted both men and women blaming dandruff on the hats they wore. Disguised as a news story the March 23, 1915 item was headlined:.

The following story read in part:

The tight fitting hats worn by men nowadays and women’s stylish but poorly ventilated hats are to blame for the hair-destroying dandruff germ. Lack of fresh air and the pressure of the hat band shuts off blood circulation from the arteries of the scalp. The scalp tissue then gets weakened and is attacked by the microbe. The truth of this statement is proven by the fact that leading scalp specialists all over America have accepted it…

Our great chemists have given the world one positive way of regaining long, heavy, wavy, silky hair in “Wildroot,” that wonderful old remedy that has never failed to destroy the dandruff germ. But “Wildroot” as made nowadays is lots quicker in action than it used to be, for its nourishing, cooling vegetable oils are at once absorbed into the hair pores, and its first few days’ use brings back a healthy scalp in which no dandruff germs can live…

Their advertising, while misleading, was successful to the point where by decade’s end an October 19, 1919 story in the Buffalo Courier announced that another move to still larger quarters was in the works.

To adequately care for their growing export trade and the nation-wide demand for their products they have been compelled to purchase a property which will permit of greater production.

Through Parke, Hall & Co. this firm has just purchased the premises of the Bison City Table Company…situated at 1490 – 1500 Jefferson Street. This property now consists of a large two-story brick building 90 x 170 and several smaller frame and brick buildings which give a floor area of about 50,000 square feet.

This photograph of the main building was included with the Buffalo Courier story.

The company immediately  set about remodeling the plant and by the time the December 19, 1921 Buffalo Commercial feature was published had increased the available factory space by 5o percent to 75,000 square feet. The feature went on to make it clear that the company had come a long way from their days at 45 North Division Street, where their entire work force initially numbered six.

80 x 260 feet ground space with a factory space of 75,000 square feet, giving steady employment to 100 people…

The concern is now doing an annual business of $1,000,000. The Wildroot line is being handled by 75,000 barber shops, some 50,000 drug stores, as well as being found on the toilet goods counters of the leading dry goods stores and hair dressing establishments of the country.

The concern maintains a staff of eighteen traveling representatives in the field, three men of which are engaged in New York alone. To assure prompt service and distribution to the trade, the company maintains seven warehouses in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City and San Francisco. Shipments are made to these points in car lots, from which spot distribution is carried on. The product is now likewise being exported to Great Britain, South America and several other foreign countries.

It was also around the end of the decade that the Wildroot Company made a little aviation history when they shipped 600 pounds of their product from Buffalo to New York City by air. According to a story in The (Carlisle, Pennsylvania) Sentinel:

“It was the first aerial freight trip across the state,” said W. G. Richardson. Other short trips have been made around the state, but it was the first time that the state was crossed by air with a load of freight.”

The trip took place on October 20, 1919 and the following day this photo, shot just before take-off, appeared in the Buffalo Courier.

The details surrounding the flight were included in the Sentinel’s story and are worth a read.

This was the situation that cropped up for the Wildroot Company:

An advertising campaign that it is conducting in New York made it extremely necessary that a quantity of its product be sent there as soon as possible. The railroads were tried and found wanting. Strikes on the express companies and other strikes forbade their use as a messenger.

“We didn’t know what to do at first,” said Robert J. Kideney, vice president of the company…” Then we thought of sending it by air and the Cuttiss company supplied an aeroplane and a pilot. That did the trick.”

Captain Chase took the air at the Curtiss field at Buffalo and planned to make the trip by way of Syracuse and Albany, because of the stops provided there. He had to descend at Troy, because of slight engine trouble, but he got started again.

The Wildroot product line grew throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s over which time some non-hair related products were added. One, advertised in the early 1920’s was a liniment called “Lincohol’ that got its name from “Lin,” meaning liniment and “cohol,” meaning alcohol. Others included a concentrated mouth wash called “Five Star Anteseptic Powder,” and another simply called “Wildroot Skin Lotion.”

That being said their main focus remained hair products as evidenced by this advertisement entitled “12 Best Sellers,” found in the August, 1941 edition of a publication called Chain Store Age. All twelve were hair related products.

World War II and the need to ration alcohol served as a catalyst for what would become Wildroot’s biggest seller during the 1940’s and 1950’s, Wildroot Cream-Oil. The June 13, 1943 edition of the Wichita (Kansas) Eagle told the story.

Introduced at a time when the hair tonic business was at its wits end to devise means of getting around alcohol rationing, Wildroot Cream-Oil got off to a head start because it contains no alcohol. Instead it contains Lanolin, a well-known and frequently prescribed soothing ingredient which closely resembles the natural oil of the human skin. The product is homogenized for uniformity and what the customer buys is a pleasant smelling cream that flows readily – only a few drops being required to keep the hair in place, relieve dryness and remove loose dandruff.

The story went on to say:

Few products have ever hit a market as much “on the nose” as the new Wildroot Cream-Oil formula according to J. Ward Maurer, advertising manager for the Wildroot Company who today announced an extension of advertising plans with the Wichita Eagle. Intensive advertising in newspapers rounds out the heaviest campaign in the annals of the company.

That fall several versions of this advertisement appeared in newspapers across the country.

A story in the October 19, 1946 edition of the Pittsburgh Courier made it clear that print was only a part of their overall marketing strategy when they hired Nat King Cole as the headliner for a national radio program to be aired on a weekly basis.

In the first move of its kind in more than ten years, the Wildroot Company signed the King Cole Trio to an indefinite contract to headline their own nationally aired commercial program.

Scheduled every Saturday via the NBC chain, the new commercial will be given its airing this Saturday at 5:45 P.M. EST. For several weeks it will present a stage, screen or radio famous star. It’s initial broadcast will be guest teed-off by song sensational Jo Stafford, the internationally known radio and recording artist.

The program’s debut was publicized in newspapers nation wide. In Minnesota, radio station KSTP’s promo was included in the Minneapolis Tribune and looked like this:

The Pittsburgh Courier story went on to say:

The program long under wraps in New York as executives of both the radio chain and Wildroot cleared the way for a national airing, will be presented as a musical show spotlighting the trio. They will be presented as star entertainers, America’s number one musical outfit without racial or religious tags.

The King Cole commercial will be aired for fifteen minutes and will not be an audience show. It will follow through with the usual product announcements and be heard on every NBC station in the country.

The program, well received, went on to broadcast weekly for well over a year. An April 23, 1948 story in the Lincoln (Jefferson City, Missouri) Clarion served to underscore the popularity of the venture even while reporting its demise.

The King Cole fans received quite a shock this week to learn that the famous trio has been dropped recently by the Wildroot Hair Oil Co., after 78 consecutive weeks of broadcasting. Reason for the latest venture on the part of the Wildroot Company was that the company budget had allotted the radio spot to a series of commercials. Doesn’t make much sense in view of the fact that the trio figuratively “sunburned” from spotlight honors this year, to say nothing of the tremendous popularity of the radio spot itself.

The company’s innovative advertising campaigns continued into the 1950’s with print, radio and television commercials. They even had famous cartoonist Al Capp come up with a character named “Fearless Fosdick,” who promoted their cream oil in a comic strip. Here’s an example from the March 1, 1954 issue of Life Magazine.

The company even sponsored one of, if not the first, give-away at a major league baseball game. According to the July 19, 1950 edition of the (Bucyrus, Ohio) Telegraph Forum:

Barbers Have Day At Tribe Stadium Aug. 2

It will be the well-groomed man, complete with hair shampoo and sheared looks, that attends the Cleveland Indians – Washington Senators night game here Aug. 2.

Some 4,000 barbers minus their shears, will converge on the stadium as the guest of the Wildroot Company.

To make sure the barbers feel at home, the company will hand out a regular bottle  of the new Wildroot cream shampoo to the first 20,000 males to pour through the gates.

The company remained at their Jefferson Avenue location until 1946 when the need for expansion forced another move. According to preservationready.org, at that time they took over the former Grennan Bakery building located at 1740 Baily Avenue.

Wildroot took over the former bakery and connected two warehouses on Fay Street with a second story bridge. Wildroot also constructed a three-story administration building that connected the original warehouse to Baily Avenue.

By 1959 the company was topping $60,000,000 in sales but that same year Lehman, then 76, sold the company to Colgate-Palmolive.  The March 2, 1959 edition of the Charlotte (N. C.) News reported the sale.

Colgate Buys Wildroot Firm

The Colgate-Palmolive Co. has announced that it has completed negotiations for the purchase of the Wildroot Co. The formal signing took place in Buffalo N.Y.

The Wildroot Co. will now operate as a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive. Manufacture of the Wildroot products will be continued at the Wildroot plant in Buffalo, but marketing will be taken over by the toilet articles division of Colgate-Palmolive April 1.

Lehman would pass away later that same year on October 29, 1959.

Despite their commitment to keep the Buffalo plant open, two years later the Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reported the plant’s closing in their April 13, 1961 edition.

Buffalo Plant to Be Closed

The Colgate-Palmolive Co. yesterday said it will close its Wildroot Division plant here by mid-July.

The company which purchased the hair tonic business two years ago for $14 million from the Wildroot Co., said production would be shifted to other Colgate-Palmolive plants.

A spokesman for the company said “rising freight and re-shipping costs, plus duplication of operations,” were responsible for the shutdown.

About 90 persons are employed at the Buffalo plant. There was no indication that transfers would be made of the personnel.

Colgate-Palmolive continued to manufacture Wildroot products until 1995 when they sold several brands, including Wildroot to a Florida firm called Stephan for $12 million. According to a story that appeared in the January 3, 1996 edition of the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sentinel.

The name Wildroot hair tonic conjures up images of the 1950’s: the stuff that teenagers oiled their hair with in those days.

What most people don’t know is that the brand name is alive, still on store shelves, and is now owned by a Fort Lauderdale based maker of skin and hair care products, Stephan Co.

“It has market, it has sales and it has earnings,” said Stephan spokesman Chuck Walsh.

On Tuesday, Stephan closed a deal to buy Wildroot and five other personal care brands from Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Colgate-Palmolive spokesman Bob Murray said the company sold the brand names because it wants to focus on its core brands such as Colgate toothpaste, Palmolive soap and Mennen deodorant.

The brand name is still visible today as both a hair tonic and hair cream.

 

The company’s last Buffalo home at 1740 Baily Avenue remains standing to this day, though its been unoccupied for years. This relatively current picture is courtesy of Google Earth.

I’ve found two Wildroot bottles, both machine made. The first appears to be an early hair tonic bottle with Wildroot embossed along both sides. A labeled example recently appeared for sale on the internet.

 

The second bottle has a one inch square cross-section with slightly sloped sides and a screw-top. Two sides are embossed “Wildroot.” On the other two sides, one is embossed “Special Wave Set,” and the other “Extra Heavy.”

I actually found a 1930 advertisement touting the two products side by side.

Lewis Brothers, Inc. New York – Vitalis

Lewis Brothers, Inc. introduced the hair product Vitalis to the market sometime in the mid 1920’s but the business itself dates back to 1913 when it was first listed in the New York City directories with an address of 22 West 115th Street.

The 1914 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory listed the business with the occupational heading “chemists,” and named the proprietors as Morris, Max and Louis Lewis. Census records in 1910 show that Morris immigrated to the United States from Russia at around the time he was born in 1885 while the younger Louis was a native New Yorker, born in 1894. Both, along with Max, whose census records I can’t find, are consistently associated with the business throughout the teens and 20’s while other Lewis family members, Charles and Herman, appear sporadically in the directories during that time.

The business incorporated sometime in the late teens and was first listed as a New York Corporation in the 1919 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory with Morris named president and Max and Louis named secretary and treasurer respectively. Around the same time, the company moved to 125th Street where they were listed in the early 1920’s at 1 West 125th Street and later in the decade at 26 East 125th Street.

The company registered the trademark “ELBEE VITALIS” on March 25, 1924 (Serial No. 187872). As far as I can tell, the word ELBEE is the phonetical spelling of their initials L.B.

Not long after it was trademarked, drug stores began to include Vitalis in their newspaper advertisements. This advertisement for the Stanley Drug Co. of Philadelphia, published in the April 8, 1926 edition of Camden New Jersey’s Courier-Post, was one of the earliest I could find. L-B Vitalis was listed under the heading “Toilet Needs.”on the lower left (enlarged below the entire ad).

A series of late 1920’s Lewis Brothers advertisements published in the New York Daily News delivered their early marketing message.

If only you had taken care of your hair! You would have no regrets now. Vitalis cares for the hair in three important ways. It retards falling hair – it tends to eradicate dandruff – and is a perfect vegetable dressing that has no stickiness. Use Vitalis only twice a week – you will be surprised at the results.

Another ad in the series provided these directions for its use, claiming “Twice a week is sufficient!”

You who have hair troubles – here is the simplest treatment in the world. On Tuesday and Saturday mornings rub a small quantity of Vitalis into your scalp, then comb your hair. The other mornings of the week, dampen the hair with water, and comb. Vitalis will retard falling hair, tend to eradicate dandruff – and is a gentlemen’s dressing.

While these advertisements skewed toward men, the company also made a short-lived effort to develop a female following as well. Advertisements in 1930 touting it as a way to curl straight hair appeared in several New York City newspapers.

YOU CAN HAVE CURLEY HAIR

I’m not spoofing you…for I’ve seen ’em with my very eyes begin to wave and curl after the directions in “How to Care for Your Hair” had been followed. The booklet is distributed through the courtesy of the makers of Vitalis. Every step in the complete home care of the hair is given. I will send you without charge a copy of this beautifully illustrated booklet and if you add 6c in stamps I will include a bottle of Vitalis…the preparation that brings out hidden waves…or, you can purchase a large bottle at your drug store for $1 or less with booklet enclosed.

By the early 1930’s, the product’s success made it a target for acquisition by Bristol-Myers. This item announcing the acquisition appeared in the March 31, 1931 edition of the Boston Globe.

Drug, Inc., announces the purchase from Lewis Brothers, Inc. of Vitalis, the well-known hair preparation. The purchase was effected out of surplus, without the issuance of any additional stock.

Vitalis has been transferred to the Bristol-Myers Company, a subsidiary of Drug, Inc., and, after April 1, the product will be manufactured and sold entirely by the new owners. Additional advertising and sales support will be applied during the current year to this product.

Harold B. Thomas, who has been in charge of Vitalis sales and advertising under Lewis Brothers’ ownership, will be associated with the sales department of the Bristol-Myers Company in promoting the sale of the preparation.

By this purchase, the Bristol-Myers unit handles the manufacture and sale of six nationally advertised specialty products in the drug field.

The story specifically promised “additional advertising and sales support,” and advertise they did! By July  an advertisement with the heading “The Hot Sun is Severe on Hair! But don’t let it ruin yours!” was appearing in newspapers all over the country. It promoted the “2-Minute Summer Treatment.”

2-Minute Summer Treatment

Want to play 36 holes of golf…7 sets of tennis…take a long, long swim – and still have your hair manageable, healthy, neat?

Then just before you dash out for your day’s sport, massage Vitalis into your scalp. It won’t take 2 minutes!

Later that year the product’s long-time catch phrase was born when the two minute treatment was cut in half and branded the “60 second workout.” Advertisements published in the Fall of 1931 pitched it like this:

The way to handsome hair is through a healthy scalp. Your tight dry scalp can’t grow good-looking hair. It needs excercise, action, stimulation – it needs this twice-a-week schedule of 60 second workouts with Vitalis and massage.

Other advertisements around the same time demonstrated how it worked.

Twenty years later the message had changed very little as evidenced by this March 13, 1951 New York Daily News advertisement.

In 1952 things did change when Bristol-Myers  incorporated  what they called their “New Greaseless Grooming Discovery V-7” into Vitalis, now referring to the product as the “new finer” Vitalis Hair Tonic.

Vitalis Hair Tonic with V7 can still be purchased to this day on line.

The Walgreens web site describes it like this:

Vitalis liquid is specially formulated to leave your hair neat, well groomed and healthy looking. Vitalis liquid works to restore manageability to all hair types using a non-greasy formula that contains V7.

According to a book called “Did Trojans Use Trojans?: A Trip Inside the Corner Drug Store,” by Vince Staten, the Vitalis secret wasn’t, and still isn’t V7, but actually alcohol, and lots of it.

The days of secret ingredients are past. So its okay if I reveal what they really were…

Perhaps the most interesting secret ingredient is V7 itself. Its not the main ingredient in Vitalis. That’s alcohol, which, because of its drying power, has been a staple in hair tonic for decades.

In the fifties, Vitalis trademarked the name “V7” for trimetozine, a drug whose main use was as a sedative. That’s right, if you used Vitalis hair tonic in the fifties you were smearing sedative in your hair. Now you know why you slept so well back then. Your hair tonic contained the original hair relaxant.

So what’s in the modern version of Vitalis? Let’s see, the main ingredient is SD alcohol 40. In other words, alcohol. That’s followed by PPG-40 butyl ether, a compound derived from ethyl alcohol. In other words alcohol.

Then there’s water, which you know about, benzyl benzoate, which is a solvent used as a fixative in perfumes and chewing-gum flavors, and dihydroabietyl alcohol. More alcohol. That’s alcohol, alcohol, water, solvent and alcohol. No wonder winos used to drink this stuff. They knew what the real secret ingredient was.

A  list of Vitalis ingredients presented on the Walgreen’s web site is almost identical to the list Vince Staten presented in his book.

Lewis Brothers, Inc., having sold Vitalis in 1931, continued to be listed in the New York City directories up through the early 1950’s as wholesale dealers in barber supplies. They remained at 26 East 125th Street up through at least the early to mid 1930’s.

According to street easy.com, today’s building at that location was built in 1909 so it’s certainly the one utilized by the Lewis Brothers’ company when they were manufacturing and selling Vitalis in the late 1920’s. Here’s the building today courtesy of Google Earth.

Later, the company moved downtown, listing addresses at 2 W. 18th (1940’s/early 1950’s) and 822 Broadway (early 1950’s). This September 24, 1950 story in the New York Daily News confirms that the Lewis family was still managing the business at that time. It presented Charles Lewis’ opinion on the future price of a New York City haircut ($1.25!).

10-Bit Haircut Ahead?

A hair-raising prediction was made yesterday by leaders in the barbering field. Haircuts at $1.25 and 75-cent shaves are in the offing for New Yorkers patronizing union shops.

Charles Lewis, president of Lewis Brothers, Inc., barber suppliers of 2 W. 18th St., said that a survey just completed by him points to price hikes of from 25% to 50% by the first of next year.

The bottle I found is machine made and 16 ounces in size. It’s embossed “Lewis Brothers Inc.” on its side. “Vitalis, is embossed across the bottom and “this bottle property of Lewis Brothers, Inc.,” around the bottom’s perimeter. This dates it between 1924 when the Vitalis name was trademarked and 1931 when the product was acquired by Bristol-Myers.

The bottle matches the one illustrated in the late 1920’s Lewis Brothers’ advertisements in the New York Daily News.

 

Armour and Company, Chicago (Armour Laboratories)

Established in the mid 1860’s by Phillip Danforth Armour and John Plankinton, Armour and Company was a meat packing business that by the turn of the century had grown into one of the largest companies in the United States. For many years its presence in Chicago’s Union Stock Yards contributed, in no small way, to that city’s reputation as the capital of the American meatpacking industry.

Not only a meat producer, the company was heavily involved in the manufacture of by-products utilizing materials that were typically wasted in the slaughtering process. According to an October 20, 1901 story in the Buffalo (N.Y.) Times:

It is a saying in Chicago that the house of Armour & Co., in the slaughter of hogs, “loses nothing but the squeal of the hogs” when they are led to the slaughter. Employing many thousands of men in the varied industries growing out of their vast slaughtering business, the firm has found it immensely profitable to utilize all portions of the raw material by the firm.

The story went on to provide this menu of  products manufactured under the Armour name at the turn of the century. The list would grow well into the hundreds by the 1920’s

The business got its start with John Plankinton, not in Chicago but further north in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His biography, available on wisconsinhistory.org tells the story.

John Plankinton was a meat packer and businessman. In 1849 he began the packing of beef and hog products, and in 1852 formed a partnership with Frederick Layton under the firm name of Layton and Plankinton Packing Co. In 1861 Layton withdrew and Plankinton continued the business alone until 1863, when he was joined by Phillip D. Armour, and the firm became Plankinton, Armour and Co. (Plankinton & Armour)

Armour had arrived in Milwaukee by way of California where he had been lured by the gold rush.  Whether he made any money on the west coast is apparently open to speculation. According to his biography published in “A History of the City of Chicago,” published in 1900:

Mr Armour returned to the East in 1856, after having a varied experience in mining enterprises, and it was conjectured at the time that he brought back with him considerable of the golden dust, but the facts of this interesting matter are known only to himself.

Another biography, this one published in the January 7, 1901 edition of Chicago’s “Inter Ocean,” described Armour’s Milwaukee years leading up to his association with Plankinton.

Mr. Armour went to Milwaukee, where he had a friend, Frederick S. Miles, who was engaged in the wholesale grocery and commission business, and soon became his business partner, the style of the firm being Miles & Armour. The firm was prosperous, but in 1863 Mr. Armour withdrew from it to engage in the shipment of wheat, in which he saw more money. He purchased the largest grain elevator in the city, and was again as successful as could be desired.

In the meantime the pork-packing firm of Plankton & Layton was dissolved, and John Plankinton formed a new firm, in the same business with Mr. Armour, under the style of Plankton & Armour.

It appears that shortly after his association with Plankinton the financial foundation for the Armour business was laid. His “Inter Ocean” biography went on to say:

The firm was successful from the first, and suddenly amassed a great fortune, all through the brilliant management of Mr. Armour. This happened in the spring of 1863, when the war of the rebellion was drawing to a close. At that time pork was selling at $40 a barrel, and the New York operators were buying it recklessly under the impression that it would go to $60. Mr. Armour believed that the war would soon end, and that pork would decline to $20 or less. He laid his plans before his partners, who gave him their approval, and then went posthaste to New York, where he sold pork short for $40 as long as anybody would buy it. Sure enough, pork soon fell to $18, and Mr. Armour and his partners were made millionaires.

In the meantime Phillip’s brother, Herman O. Armour, had started a grain commission business in Chicago sometime in 1862 and by 1864 the two brothers along with Plankinton had joined together in that city under the name H. O. Armour & Co. In 1868 they began packing pork under the name Armour & Co. and by 1870 all the business transacted in Chicago was  done under the Armour & Co. name.

According to a story written years later in the December 2, 1951 edition of the Tribune, the Chicago operation moved to the Union Stock Yards in 1872 where it would remain until the late 1950’s.

The first Armour hog plant was the old Bell house in the Archer Avenue packing center which had been built up during the Civil War. About 1868 packers began to move south to the area just west of the stock yards and Armour followed in 1872.

As early as 1865 Herman left another brother, Joseph, in charge of the Chicago operation and opened an office in New York under the name Armour, Plankinton & Co. The office was first listed in the 1866/1867 New York City directory at 129 Broad Street in Manhattan.

By the end of the decade the Armours had also established another plant, this one in Kansas City run by a fourth brother, Simeone Armour, under the name Plankinton & Armours.

As early as the mid-1870’s a story in the Kansas City Times clearly viewed their operation as the leader in the country and world’s meat packing industry.

Thoroughly identified with the packing business of the whole country, there are no names in the United States more familiar to the trade than those of the Plankinton’s and the Armours, there being two of the former-father and son-and four of the latter-brothers. These six gentlemen stand at the head of beyond all comparisons the heaviest beef and pork packing business of the world…

A May 10, 1880 story published in the The (London) Times featured the American bacon and pork industry and included this description of the Armour business.

A few hogs are slaughtered and salted by the farmers, but the great bulk pass to the packers…

Messrs. Armour & Co. handle nearly 1,000,000 hogs annually at Chicago, and have similar establishments at Milwaukee and at Kansas City, at each of which upwards of 400,000 are slaughtered and packed. From small beginnings in 1860 their business has steadily increased; within six years it has doubled. At the Chicago works at the stock yards, 10,000 pigs are frequently killed daily in summer; 20,000 constitute a full day’s slaughtering in winter. Two thousand tons of meat are sometimes dispatched in a single day from the railway sidings which are conveniently brought into the premises. The work covers 14 acres; the buildings are four stories high, and are being constantly added to. There are six lifts, and hydrants and fire hose are fixed at convenient points on every story. A trained fire brigade is recruited from among the operatives. The premises are insured for a million dollars, the annual premium on different parts of the works varying from 1 to 1 3/4  percent. Two thousand men are employed in summer and 3,500 in winter.

The raw material which keeps this great establishment moving is conveniently found in the contiguous market where 60,000 hogs are sometimes pitched (sold) in a morning, and on one occasion last summer the number ran up to 80,000… Messrs. Armour have large pens and yards where their purchases are fed and watered until required. No fasting is practiced as in England. The grunter has his breakfast even if he is doomed before dinner time.

An advertisement published in the March 18, 1882 edition of the (New Orleans) Times-Democrat, for one of Armour’s agents, McCloskey & Henderson,  provided this list of canned meat products being  produced and shipped out of Chicago by Armour at the time. By this time the business included beef and even chicken soup, as well as pork.

Over the course of several years during the early 1880’s the Armours and Plankinton severed their various business relationships, apparently amicably. As the dust settled, the resultant situation was summarized in the October 26, 1884 edition of the Kansas City Times.

As appears from a dissolution notice published in the advertisement column of THE TIMES this morning, the partnership which has existed for twenty-five years between Mr P.D. Armour and Mr. John Plankinton, has been dissolved, Mr. Armour retiring from the Milwaukee house and Mr. Plankinton from the Kansas City house, which will in the future be known under the firm name of the Armour Packing Company.

The dissolution does not effect either the Chicago or New York houses, as Mr. Plankinton has not been connected with the former business for several years and a few weeks ago sold his interest in the New York house to Mr. H. O. Armour retaining an interest in but one establishment, that of Milwaukee, of which he is the chief owner.

It was during the remainder of the 1800’s that the Armours laid the foundation for much of the company’s expansion into industries related to their meat packing business, adding a glue factory, soap works and a pharmaceutical department among others to their operation.

A story in the January 1, 1886 edition of the Chicago Tribune announced the acquisition of the Wahl Bros. glue factory.

In a circular-letter to the trade, dated December 21, 1885, they announce the purchase of Wahl Bros’ extensive glue factory (which covers eight acres) in this city, together with the good will and all appurtenances. They will continue to produce glue in all it’s varieties, and all other products that their predecessors did, including gelatin, brewers’ isinglass, size for papermakers, bone-meal, neatsfoot oil, etc., etc. The regular packing business of the firm furnishes them with a fresh daily supply of materials, which is such an essential feature in securing superior qualities and perfect results… They employ 300 hands in the glue factory.

Ten years later, another item published in the Chicago Tribune, this one on May 5, 1896, announced the formation of their soap works.

Commencing this day the firm of Armour & Co. has added another feature to their business, to be known as the Armour Soap Works. The new building and plant are situated at Thirty-first and Benson Streets. With the inauguration of the soap works Armour & Co. now utilize everything in the way of raw material from the hog and steer.

An April 17, 1897 advertisement For Oshkosh Wisconsin’s “Kruschke’s” Department Store, confirmed that less than a year later the soap works was manufacturing at least three different soap brands.

Both the glue works and soap works were included in this May 28, 1897 advertisement in the Chicago Chronicle.

By the early 1890’s a pharmaceutical department had also been established  as evidenced by this excerpt from an April 10, 1892 Chicago Tribune article.

In the downtown office of Armour & Co. are several rows of shelves filled with bottles and at first sight a stranger would think the “old man,” as P.D. Armour is called by his employees among themselves, was running a drug store on the side to make both ends meet. In these bottles are a great and unique variety of preparations extracted from animals killed at the yards. The man who manages this department is a duly licensed druggist and physician, and the big packer’s hobby when receiving visitors is to invite them to sample his dried bullock’s blood or desiccated ox gail.

It’s likely that the above mentioned licensed druggist and his department were the very beginning of  Armour Laboratories. According to a November 13, 1949 Tribune story:

One of their earliest (products) was pepsin, a commercially valuable compound recovered from the stomach linings of hogs. For many rears the rudimentary laboratories at Armour’s were called the “pepsin department.”

On April 15, 1900 Phillip Armour formed a corporation that included most, though not all, of the Armour businesses. His reasoning was explained in a February 18, 1900 Chicago Tribune story.

The business of Armour & Co always has been carried on as a partnership. The recent death of Phillip D. Armour Jr., and the illness of Phillip D, Armour, the founder and head of the firm, are said to have supplied the reasons for deciding to put the business in a stock company. For several months the elder Armour has been ill, but it was not believed his illness was sufficiently grave to warrant any change in the management of the business. The death of his son was a severe blow, however, and is said to have determined the plan of incorporation.

The new corporation included the packing houses (excluding the Armour Packing House of Kansas City),  glue factory and soap factory, as well as a felt and hair factory and rail car shops.

The factories that will be taken into the stock company are large concerns. The glue factory is one of the largest in the country. The soap factory of Armour & Co., a more recent establishment, is also an important plant. The hair factory has an output which is said to be unequalled by that of any similar institution. The car factory is used to manufacture and keep in repair the hundreds of cars used in the transportation of the meat and other products of the various Armour industries.

In addition to the manufacturing plants, the packing house includes the large cattle interests of the firm. The agencies of Armour & Co. also will fall into the corporation. In every city of any size in the United States Armour & Co. has an agency for the distribution of dressed beef and the other packing house products of the firm. There are besides agencies in foreign countries. These are to be found in every port of consequence in Europe. In Asia and Africa the firm also carries on its widespread business.

The stockholders of the new corporation were Phillip D. Armour (50%), his son, J. Ogden Armour (25%) and the estate of his deceased son Phillip D. Armour, Jr. (25%). Shortly after the business incorporated, Phillip Sr. also passed away and J. Ogden Armour assumed the presidency. It was J. Ogden Armour who, according to an August 17, 1927 Chicago Tribune story, developed the business into a world wide organization.

Expansion in this country was followed by invasion in the South American field. In 1909 Armour & Co. acquired an interest in an Argentine packing plant. Now (1927) it has in that country five large plants whose products go to the world meat trade.

In the teens their food product menu extended well beyond the by-products of their meat packing business.  A product list published in 1919 bears this out.

According to the February, 1917 edition of a journal called “Advertising & Selling,” their food product line alone had reached over 300 items that were being distributed by 350 branch houses throughout the country. So it was out of necessity that around this time they unified much of their advertising under the “Armour Oval Label”

According to the 1917 story in “Advertising and Selling:”

About two years ago (1915) it was adopted as a permanent trademark for all Armour top grade products, and since then has appeared in all the advertising of these products; newspaper, poster, magazine, window display, booklet advertising, alike, all have the Oval Label as a prominent and permanent feature of the copy. (A label committee , composed of representatives from the selling, operative and executive departments, decides upon the eligibility of a product for the Oval Label, only the highest quality products being admitted to this class.)

Armour Laboratories had also grown significantly from the fledgling department of the early 1890’s.  An advertisement published in the 1919 edition of the “Modern Hospital Year Book,” included the laboratory’s pitch to the medical community.

We are headquarters for the organotherapeutic agents. Our abattoirs supply enormous quantities of glands and membranes from which digestive ferments and endocrine gland preparations are made. Raw material is selected with rigorous care. Nothing but healthy normal material is employed, and this is put into process before any deterioration has set in.

The laboratory is conveniently located. All desiccating is done in vacuum ovens at a low temperature, which prevents injury to active principles.

The advertisement went on to provide a descriptive list of their preparations.

The post World War I years brought pressures on the business that would ultimately, in the 1920’s, transition it from a company closely held by the Armour family to a publicly held company. A feature on J. Ogden Armour published at the time of his death in the August 17, 1927 edition of the Chicago Tribune described the influence of World War I on the corporation.

During the war American packers carried tremendous meat supplies, both for the American armies and for those of European allies. Prices of live stock and meat joined the wartime inflation.The business of Armour & Co. increased sales to around $1,000,000,000 a year…

With the abrupt ending of the war American packers and the allied governments alike had vast quantities of meat on hand. The wartime demand faded. Governments cancelled contracts and threw their surplus stocks on the market for whatever they would bring. Prices of live stock and meat dropped. With the post-war depression the currencies of Europe also plunged down in value.

The result of all this was that the large inventories of American meat packers lost tremendously in value. Their stocks in Europe were paid for in constantly depreciating currencies. It is estimated that Armour & Co. lost around $125,000,000 in two years.

Ultimately in 1923 a refinancing of the business was effected that ultimately resulted in J. Ogden Armour both relinquishing the presidency and selling the majority of his stock.

The Associated Press announced the organizational change on January 3, 1923.

Armour & Co. for the first time since it was organized in 1862, today operated without a member of the Armour family in the president’s chair.

Instead F. Edison White, a worker from the ranks, occupied the controlling station made vacant by the resignation of J. Ogden Armour yesterday, who became chairman of the board of directors.

However, members of the Armour family will retain important positions with the company. Phillip D. Armour III who has been a vice president of the company was designated first vice president, and Lester Armour was continued as a member of the board of directors.

A Chicago Tribune Story, dated February 14, 1925 revealed that the refinancing plan also included an option to purchase the bulk of Mr. Armour’s stock holdings within five years. The story went on to say that the purchase began at that time with a third of his holdings.

Armour & Co., largest of the packing concerns, will be owned by a large body of investors and will cease to be a family corporation with the working out of plans made known yesterday.

It is understood that about one third of the total stock holdings of J. Ogden Armour will be bought by the banking group, which conducted the financial reorganization of Armour & Co. two years ago, and then offered publicly to investors. Later on and as market conditions permit, further offerings of stock will be made.

J. Ogden Armour’s 1927 Chicago Tribune obituary mentioned that Armour’s stock holdings at the time of his death were not large, so it appears much of his remaining stock was sold over the next two years. Four years later in January, 1931 P. D. Armour, the grandson and namesake of the founder, resigned as first vice president. He would be the last member of the Armour family to hold an executive position in the corporation.

Overall the company had its ups and downs but continued to grow through the 1930’s and early 1940’s as evidenced by this financial snapshot included in the Chicago Tribune’s January 23, 1943 edition.

Stockholders were given a glimpse of company progress as indicated by a comparison of balance sheets of last year and of 1923, after a reorganization. Funded debt was reduced from 144 million to 62 million dollars during the 20 years, and sales increased from slightly more than 800 millions to 1 billion 300 millions.

Around this time they were contributing significantly to the World War II effort, so much so that an April 11, 1943 Chicago Tribune story announced that 90 to 95 per cent of Armour’s total production was devoted to war production. As a result, the army and navy awarded their E flag to company officials.

Notice that Armour & Co. had been elected to the award came in a letter from Robert P. Patterson, Undersecretary of War. The letter read in part; “You men and women of Armour & Co. are making an outstanding contribution to victory. You have every reason to be proud of the record you have set, and your practical patriotism stands as an example to all Americans.

Among the company’s specific accomplishments in aiding the war, (Armour)President Eastwood cited the following: “The development of wood veneer drums to replace metal drums, such as are used in the shipment of lard; a new method of smoking ham and bacon for army use which takes 96 hours instead of seven days; the telescoping of lambs to save shipping space.”

He also pointed to a new product “Tushonka,” a canned pork popular with Russians; to a new style of “stuffing horn” for packaging of ground beef; and, finally to the formula for “Pemmican,” an emergency ration carried by airplanes and ships.

The award also recognized the achievements of Armour Laboratories.

Brig. Gen. C. C. Hillman, acting Surgeon General, Washington D. C., said in his statement of the award to Armour Laboratories that they had “given a rich endowment, not only to the war effort but to the entire field of medicine. Listed on the chart of Armour’s achievements will be their production of ligatures, insulin, and other medical supplies for the military service. In addition to this, your conversion of facilities for the absorption of great production loads all shall be listed on the war chart victory.”

After the war the company continued to introduce new products and innovations. In 1948 the company introduced their famous brand, DIAL deodorant soap.

An August 11, 1948 Chicago Tribune advertisement bragged that the soap was so popular that after being introduced, it immediately sold out.

In the mid-1950’s Armour became the first company to vacuum package their bacon as well as other meats. A May 5, 1956 Chicago Tribune feature provided the details.

Armour was the very first to discover how to keep bacon slicer-fresh from packing house to your pan. Old style packages of bacon usually lost freshness after a week or 10 days, so Armour research set about developing a package that would maintain freshness for three weeks.

Since air was known to be the villain that made bacon lose flavor, the obvious solution was to remove the air and pack bacon in a vacuum.

Obvious? Well not exactly. While vacuum packed jars and cans have been used for years, the requirement that a bacon package be both flexible and transparent gave the problem new complexity.

Several hundred kinds of materials, and nearly as many different shapes and types of packages were tried and discarded.

Finally, a new plastic was tested and found to have just the right combination of strength and pliability for use in newly developed vacuum packaging machines.

Subsequent taste tests revealed that bacon packaged the new way keeps fresh much longer than was once thought possible. This fundamental research on bacon packaging was so successful that it soon led to vacuum packaging of many other products.

Armour Laboratories was also making significant advances during the late late 1940’s and 1950’s. Some were enumerated in a December 2, 1951 story.

Recently the science of animal utilization has reached its highest point at Armour & Co., which is now headed by Frederick Specht. The company views its laboratory accomplishments primarily from a humanitarian, rather than a money making angle.

The outstanding achievement was development of the pituitary hormone , ACTH, which was ordered into production in the early summer of 1949. It has been used in treating arthritis and 20 other diseases. A later development is trypsin, which has the ability to turn dead flesh into liquid without damaging live tissue. Trypsin, like the insulin used by diabetics, come from a meat animal’s pancreas.

Hormones are not the only medical products of meat packing. Liver extracts are used in treating anemia, many products are made from animal blood, and a stomach lining substance is used for ulcer.

As the 1960’s approached the overall corporate picture was apparently beginning to lose some shine. In 1959 Armour discontinued all slaughtering operations in Chicago. A story dated June 9, 1959 in the Chicago Tribune detailed the facts and reasoning behind the decision.

Armour & Co. announced Monday that it will discontinue all slaughtering operations at six plants, including the one at Chicago…

Approximately 5,000 employees will be affected at all plants, including 2,000 in Chicago. Armour employs nearly 3,000 persons in its Chicago unit, but not all of them work in slaughtering operations. Such Chicago operations as refining of fats and oils, wool pulling, soap manufacturer, and sales and distribution will be continued. In addition, Armour will continue to buy cattle on the Chicago market for its eastern plants…

The company said there were several basic causes for its inability to reverse substantial losses encountered at these plants. These include obsolescence of buildings, many of which were constructed more than 50 years ago; shifts in live stock numbers sectionally; declining receipts of live stock at some markets; and a general and widely recognized condition of excess production capacity in the meat packing industry.

Ultimately Armour was acquired by the Greyhound Corporation in 1970. This strange marriage is explained by company histories.com.

The country’s leader in the motor coach industry since 1930, Greyhound under chairperson and CEO Gerald H. Trautman had begun to diversify its operations in the 1960’s in response to declining bus ticket sales. As automobiles and airline tickets became less expensive and bus line profits dwindled, Greyhound acquired small companies in the fields of automobile leasing, money orders, insurance, and catering. Greyhound board members were approached by Armour in the late 1960’s when General Host threatened Armour with a hostile takeover, and Greyhound was persuaded to add Armour to its subsidiaries. The 1970 $400 million purchase was Greyhound’s first major acquisition. To reduce its investment, Greyhound immediately sold $225 million of Armour assets, retaining only the meatpacking and consumer products subsidiaries. The meatpacking operation was renamed Armour Foods, while the consumer products operation was renamed Armour-Dial.

Less than a year later, and after more than 100 years, the Arizona Republic announced that, now a subsidiary of Greyhound, the Armour headquarters was leaving Chicago for Phoenix Arizona.

Greyhound Corp. the nation’s 29th largest firm, and its big subsidiary, Armour and Co., are moving from Chicago to Phoenix.

Gerald H. Trautman of Paradise Valley, chairman and chief executive said the move will affect ” a few hundred”employees of the headquarters staffs of the Greyhound Corp. and of these subsidiaries:

Armour and Co., Greyhound Bus Lines, Greyhound Leasing and Financial Corp., and Greyhound Computer Corp., except its service center personnel.

The largest of Greyhound’s subsidiaries is Armour and Co., acquired in 1970. From its start in meat packing, that firm has diversified into a modern industrial complex.

Today Armour meat products continue to be sold by Smithfield Foods and are still marketed under an oval label.

Over the years I’ve found two Armour bottles, both small and mouth blown. One embossed “Armour Laboratories,” is colored brown and approximately one ounce in size. The Armour Laboratory Pharmaceutical List, published in the 1919 “Modern Hospital Yearbook” included a one ounce bottle size for both pepsin and pancreatin powders.

The second bottle is approximately two ounces in size and embossed “Armour and Company,” not “Armour Laboratories,” which leads me to believe its not a pharmaceutical bottle. Armour produced lemon, orange and vanilla flavoring extracts in several size bottles, including two ounces, so I’m leaning in that direction.

 

ED. Pinaud, Paris

Not far from Paris, on the Ourcq Canal, is the thriving town of Pantin, famous for the works of Ed. Pinaud, where is manufactured the delightful perfumery which has made its name so widely known.

That’s the opening paragraph of an October, 1893 Merck Report feature on Ed. Pinaud. A French perfume and cosmetics line originally founded by Edouard Pinard, their brand strength was and continues to be such that, although produced for almost two centuries and under several different company names, the brand name “Pinaud” has remained steadfast.

There are several different versions of Pinaud’s early history, but I’ll stick with the one presented on the web site of Washington D. C.’s Dumberton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Ed. Pinaud (Ed. Pinaud’s Perfumery) is a Parisian perfume and cosmetics company founded by Edouard Pinaud (1810 to 1868) in 1830 at 37, boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris. He named the business A la Corbelle Fleurie. In the 1850’s, Emile Meyer (1817 to 1888) became a partner and opened a second shop called Parfumerie de la Noblesse. After Pinaud’s death, his son-in-law, Victor Klotz (1836 to 1906) took over the company, which was renamed Victor Klotz et Cie although its products were sold under the Ed. Pinaud name.

The 1893 Merck feature hinted at the size of the Paris operation just before the turn of the century.

To return to the factory at Pantin, which is an imposing building, we find that no less than 200 hands are employed, and, if that does not give an idea of the magnitude of the business transacted, the sight of several private freight cars bearing the firm’s name, most assuredly do so.

The presence of Pinaud’s products in the United States dates back as least as far as the mid-1840’s. The earliest Pinaud reference I can find was in a newspaper advertisement for the business of G. Saunders & Son, located at 177 Broadway in New York City. Printed in several October and November, 1845 editions of the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, the advertisements touted cosmetic and shaving products under a wide range of categories one of which was “perfumery,” where it stated:

PERFUMERY – The most choice of Guerlain’s, Lubin’s, Prevost’s, Ede’s, Patey’s, Roussel’s and Pinaud’s Extracts, with a full assortment of Perfumery, in boxes suitable for presents.

This October 13, 1855 Brooklyn Evening Star advertisement for a company called the McNary Brothers mentioned Pinaud products “Cosmetique” and “Almond Soap” by name.

Back then Pinaud’s business in the U. S. was with firms like G. Saunders & Son and McNary Brothers who apparently imported the company’s products directly from Paris. That being said, there was no orchestrated plan for growth in this country. According to Merck’s 1893 feature that all began to change in the late 1870’s.

Long ago demand for the Ed. Pinaud’s goods necessitated the establishment of branch offices in London, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Melbourne, and other leading cities of the world; but, strange to say, only within the last seventeen years has the house been represented in this country. Their first New York office was at 10 Cortlandt Street, subsequently moved to 496 Broadway; but very little business was done, and our visitors to Europe continued to bring back dainty bottles of Ed. Pinaud’s perfumery, sachets, and sweetly odorous soaps as Parisian souvenirs, in ignorance that they could have purchased them here.

In May 1890, the agency was transformed into a branch house with Emile Utard in charge, and soon after “Parfumerie Ed. Pinaud” was a sign which became naturalized and the goods, once being known, leaped into popular favor.

The 10 Cortlandt Street address was actually the address of Henry Dreyfus & Co., who was listed there (sometimes 6 Cortlandt St.) as a perfumer (sometimes importer) from 1880 up through 1887. In a series of 1886 advertisements that ran in several U. S. cities they referred to themselves as Ed. Pinaud’s “sole agent for the United States.”

 

During the same time Dreyfus also listed another office in Manhattan at 13 (and later 25) Maiden Lane. That office listing included the occupational heading of “diamonds,” so Pinaud’s lack of growth mentioned in the above story could certainly have been, at least partially due to Dreyfus’s other interests.

In any event, by 1890, Utard, not Dreyfus, was listed as a “perfumer,” now at the 496 Broadway address. A year later the company was listed at 42 East 14th street where they would remain until the  early 1900’s.

The feature goes on to name a wide variety of perfumes, essences, toilet preparations and perfumed toilet soaps being produced by Pinaud in the late 1890’s. Here’s an advertisement touting their “latest creations,” in the Spring, 1898.

Around the same time, a December 1897 item found in the Druggist Circular and Chemical Gazette advertised a line of extracts that included 37 scents with names like Lilly of the Valley, New Mown Hay and Spring Flowers.

Men were also in luck with a number of hair and shaving products. This December 1891 advertisement included products like “Brillantine” (for hair and moustache brilliancy and softness), “Eau De Quinine” (the king of all hair tonics), “Cosmetique” (whose reputation for excellence is universal), and “Lavender Water” (for use after shaving has no equal).

They even advertised dental products as evidenced by this December, 1897 advertisement.

Product’s Pinaud called their “leading specialties” were included in this price list published in the October, 1897 edition of the “Practical Druggist and Pharmaceutical Review of Reviews.”

The company’s growth through the turn of the century lead to their construction of a new United States headquarters in 1903. Located in Manhattan at 84 – 90  Fifth Avenue, Pinaud advertisements in the following years would mention its address as simply “the Pinaud Building.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described its opening in a March 6, 1903 story, referring to the new building as a “skyscraper.” (By my count it’s 11 stories.)

NEW ED. PINAUD BUILDING

On the site formerly occupied by the Old Guard Armory, the proprietor of the Ed.Pinaud perfumery has erected a skyscraper that contains all the latest devices in construction and equipment. To celebrate the opening yesterday Victor Klotz, the proprietor, tendered a reception during the afternoon to his friends and customers. The building is at Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street, Manhattan.

Mr. Klotz came from Paris to attend the opening. The offices, all newly fitted up and finely decorated, were adorned with French and American colors and floral pieces. A collation was served, during which corks popped merrily.

The story goes on to credit advertising for fueling much of their expansion.

The growth in popularity of Pinaud’s perfumes in the United States is due alike to their fine quality and business ability of the American manager, Emil Utard. During his incumbency of thirteen years it has necessitated a constant increase of room and facilities. Mr. Utard attributes his success to the wide and unique advertising used in popularizing Pinaud’s perfumes.

In an interview with Emile Utard, published in the February 12, 1902 edition of Printers Ink, he stated that the company began investing in advertising at the time they established their American branch in 1890. Since then, in the following twelve years, according to Utard:

The volume of our trade in America has grown six-fold since we began advertising.

The interview goes on to say that at the time they didn’t have much experience with the daily newspapers but did advertise heavily in a wide variety of magazines.

If we like the character of the publication, and have a fair estimate of its circulation, the price being right, we adopt it.

The interview also mentioned mass transit advertising.

We are, however, liberal patrons of street cars and of the elevated system. This year we are in all the surface cars of the city and on the stations of the elevated.

Another of their advertising avenues that caught my attention involved what they called “schemes.”

But really our greatest efforts, those on which we expend the most thought and have our greatest outlay, are our schemes. Among these, those that have to do with theaters engage our attention most, and yield the best results…

Concerning theaters, we own between twenty and twenty-five drop-curtains in good theaters in leading cities throughout the country. The better the theater the more benefit it is to us. Each of these curtains is a specimen of the scene painter’s art. All representing some view of the Riviera, along the Mediterranean Sea, where our flowers are grown…

Among the drop curtains of this kind that we now own are those of the Casino in this City (New York); the Alvin of Pittsburg; the Park in Boston; the Century in St. Louis; the Academy of Music in Montreal, Canada; the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia; the Dallas Opera House of Dallas, Tex.; the Boyd Theater of Omaha, Neb; the Grand Opera House of New Orleans.

We perfume a great many theaters in addition. For instance, we have no less than six in this city, which we serve every night. One of our young employees makes the round and sprays the lobby before the performance and the house during the performance. We have consequent mention made of this nightly in the respective programs.

By the mid to late 1890’s, Pinaud products were  pretty much included in drug and department store advertisements nation wide. This item appeared in a May 13, 1899 department store advertisement in the Salt Lake (City, Utah) Herald.

You could even pick up a bottle of Eau de Quinine while in Helena, Montana as evidenced by this November 19, 1896 advertisement in the Anaconda (Montana) Standard.

Victor Klotz continued to run the business under the name Victor Klotz & Co. until his death in 1906. At that point his sons, Henry and George took control of the company and while the product line continued to be called Pinaud, the name of the company was changed to H & G Klotz & Co.

It was around this time that the company apparently added the daily newspapers to their advertising strategy. Between 1905 and 1908 you could see a number of celebrities including Lilian Russel touting Eau de Quinine and Lilac Vegetal in the local newspapers.

While other products were mentioned, it was these two in particular, Eau de Quinine and Lilac Vegetal that were the focal point of their advertising from the early 1900’s up through the 1920’s. In a series of advertisements in 1911 they were even offering sample bottles for five cents.

Sometime around 1927 the name of the U. S. business was changed to Pinaud, Inc., and the business moved to a new location in Manhattan at 220 East 21st Street. It appears that in addition to distribution, by this time they were also using this new facility to manufacture products as well.

By the mid 1930’s the Klotz brothers were no longer running the company, or at least the New York operation. The 1931 NYC directory named George Klotz as president of Pinaud, Inc. but by 1938 the listing of Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States named Jacques Heilbronn as President.

During the late 1930’s and early 1940’s the business was still profitable but apparently headed in the wrong direction. Court records (Perfumers Manufacturing Corporation, Transferee Petitioner, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent) pick up the story from there.

The business of Pinaud, Inc. had been a profitable one prior to World War II, but it suffered several reversals after the war because of its obligations , usual in the perfume and toiletry trade, to accept sizable returns of unsold merchandise from customers who had purchased and paid for its products but had failed to sell them. The volume of returns was large and Pinaud, Inc., found itself required to issue substantial merchandise credits to its customers representing a liability to deliver merchandise for which it will not be paid. To add to its difficulties, Pinaud, Inc., found itself unable to meet its cash liabilities.

The court records went on to say that Pinaud, Inc. eventually sold the business.

Pusuant to an agreement entered into on June 24, 1947, Pinaud, Inc., transferred its entire business to Ed. Pinaud, Inc. (then known as Barbara Alice, Inc.),  which was, and is, owned by persons unrelated to the owners of Pinaud, Inc…

…Ed. Pinaud, Inc. was granted the exclusive general agency to manufacture, sell and distribute “Pinaud” products for 15 years with the option to renew for additional terms of 15 years.

At this point Ed. Pinaud, Inc.,was operating under the umbrella of the Joubert group that, two years later, in 1949, merged with the Nestle-LeMur Company. The merger was announced in the July 17, 1949 edition of the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant.

Nestle-LeMur Company announces shareholders have voted to merge the company with the Joubert group of companies in New York and New Jersey. The Joubert group includes Joubert Cie Incorporated and Irresistible Incorporated which controls Blue Waltz Incorporated, Irresistible Blue Waltz Exporters Incorporated and Ed. Pinaud Incorporated…

The new firm would keep the Nestle-Le Mur name.

It appears Ed. Pinaud, Inc. continued to operate under that name as a subsidiary of Nestle-Le Mur up through the early 1980’s and, based on this September 12, 1980 advertisement in the Belleville (N. J.) Times, they continued to operate out of the 22o East 21st Street location.

Nestle-LeMur was merged into a subsidiary of Kleer Vu Industries in December, 1983.

Currently the the Pinaud  brand is owned by American International Industries and today they sell a line of men’s toiletries under the name “Pinaud Clubman.” Their web site states:

Grooming Generations for Over 200 Years

The Pinaud Building, built by Victor Klotz in 1903, still exists to this day on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street.

 

The building at 220 East 21st Street is currently occupied by the School of Visual Arts.

The bottle I found is mouth blown and resembles the smaller Eau de Quinine bottle pictured on this turn of the century poster.

       

According to this 1906/1907 price list published by the Des Moines Drug Company, Eau de Quinine was sold in 4oz, 8oz, 1/2 liter and liter bottles. It’s certainly the 4 oz size.

On a final note, Eau de Quinine is still available today, albeit in plastic bottles.

 

 

Wm. Jay Barker, New York, Hirsutus

Wm Jay Barker was listed in the New York City directories for over 100 years from 1847 until sometime in the mid-1950’s. During this time the business was listed with a wide range of classifications including hairdresser, barber, wigs, wigs and human hair, human hair merchant, patent meds and toilet goods. Many of the listings also included the name of the hair tonic that the business manufactured called “Hirsutus.” My daughter, who has a minor in Latin, tells me “Hirsutus” is a Latin adjective and can mean “hairy” or “shaggy”

Barker was first listed in the 1847 NYC Directory at 349 1/2 Broadway. The business remained on or near Broadway for almost 50 years utilizing many different addresses. In 1851 they were located at 459 Broadway and by 1857-58 they had moved to 565 Broadway. In the 1859-60 directory their address was listed as 622 Broadway where they remained through 1871. The 1867-68 NYC Directory included an expanded listing for the business.

In 1870 they opened a second location at 1275 Broadway. The opening of this location was announced in the June 22, 1870 edition of the New York Herald.

They maintained both addresses for just a year or so, dropping 622 Broadway in the 1871-72 Directory. In 1876-77 they moved again, this time to a location four doors off Broadway at 36 West 29th Street.

After leaving Broadway they were located at 112 Fulton Street (1895 to 1903); 106 6th Avenue (1903 to approx. 1930) and 1826 Park Avenue (approx. 1930 to the mid-1940’s). By 1948 they had moved to 160 East 127th Street where they remained listed through 1953. They were no longer listed in 1957.

The business was run by William Jay Barker until his death sometime prior to 1894 after which it appears that the business remained in the family. NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directories between 1901 and 1919 listed  the business as “William Jay Barker (Mary Barker Fareira, only)” and a February 7, 1918 New York Times article,  named his son, also William Jay Barker, as president of the company until his tragic death, at the time of the article, in a Connecticut house fire.

Management of the company after Mary Fareira’s death sometime in the 1920’s is not clear.

Company advertisements stated that their hair tonic “Hirsutus” dated back to the start of the business in 1847, however the first mention of it that I can find was in an April 12, 1869 advertisement in the New York Herald.

This advertisement from 1902 claims that dandruff, thin failing hair, baldness, scrub, scalp humors and itching scalp were all relieved with one application of “Barker’s Hirsutus.”

Another 1902 advertisement went further, stating:

Thousands of persons are today scratching their heads and saying they would give anything in the world if they could only get some kind of a remedy that would relieve or cure them of dandruff and other scalp diseases, a large number not knowing of a wonderful remedy which has been in existence over half a century, called Barker’s Hirsutus, which is a positive and well known cure used by the most fashionable people of the world, and if they would use it would never be troubled by these diseases.

Hirsutus is a vegetable preparation, free from grease and poisonous chemicals. Positively cures dandruff, failing hair and all scalp diseases. Grows hair on any bald head if directions are faithfully carried out.

Hisutus is indispensable to ladies and children. By its use they can keep the scalp free from scruff and dandruff, thereby creating a healthy condition of the scalp , and promoting a soft, pliant and luxurious growth of hair. This preparation costs more than most other remedies of this nature, but IT DOES MORE. Anyone troubled with scalp diseases, takes no chances in using HIRSUTUS. It positively does all that is claimed for it.

It’s not clear how long the Hirsutus hair tonic was actually on the market. NYC phone books included the word “Hirsutus” with company listings right up through the 1950’s but I don’t see it advertised or included in drug store listings after 1936.

As far as I can tell, none of the buildings occupied by the business still exist today.

The bottle I found is mouth blown (maybe 8 to 10 oz) with a tooled finish. It’s sun-purpled indicating the presence of manganese dioxide which was predominantly used as a decolorizing agent prior to 1920. It’s shape and embossing are similar to a labeled example recently advertised on e-bay that exhibits the 6th Avenue address utilized by the company between 1903 and 1930.