May 8, 2023 • 11 mins
On this day in 1886, Coca-Cola was sold for the first time at a pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that serves up a tall glass of history every
day of the week. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode,
(00:22):
we're talking about the birth of one of the world's
most recognizable brands, a soft drink that combined the uplifting
effects of coca leaves and cola nuts with the simple
joys of fizzy water and a boatload of sugar. The
(00:43):
day was May eighth, eighteen eighty six. Coca Cola was
sold for the first time at a pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.
Originally billed as a health tonic, the bubbly beverage was
sold for a nicola glass and quickly became one of
the most popular drinks at the soda fountain. The inventor
(01:04):
of Coca Cola was doctor John Stith Pemberton. He was
born on January eighth, eighteen thirty one, in Knoxville, Georgia.
He later studied medicine and pharmacy at a medical college
in Macon, and in eighteen fifty, at the age of nineteen,
he was licensed to practice herbal medicine. He briefly did
(01:24):
so in Rome, Georgia, and other nearby towns, but in
eighteen fifty five he settled in Columbus and established a
wholesale drug store. Five years later, Pemberton expanded his operation
by opening his own research and manufacturing laboratory. There, he
began producing his own line of patent medicines. In eighteen
(01:46):
sixty one, the American Civil War began, and Pemberton joined
the Confederate Army, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
He was badly wounded during the Battle of Columbus in
eighteen sixty five and soon became addicted to the morphine
he used to control his pain. After the war, Pemberton
settled in Atlanta and began working on a kind of
(02:08):
cure for his addiction. His goal was to produce a
pain relieving tonic that was morphine free, and he experimented
with lots of different botanicals while trying to perfect the formula.
He eventually created a recipe that contained extracts of coca leaf,
cola nut, and demonia, an aromatic flower used to make
(02:28):
a traditional Mexican liqueur. The resulting concoction was called Pemberton's
French Wine Coca, and for the next couple decades it
was the most in demand alcoholic beverage on the market,
not just in Atlanta but throughout the Southeast. Of course,
him being a doctor in all, Pemberton didn't market the
drink solely on the merits of its taste or its
(02:51):
alcoholic content. Instead, he focused on the drink's supposed health benefits,
calling it the most excellent of all tonics, assisting digestion,
imparting energy to the organs of respiration, and strengthening the
muscular and nervous systems. Whether those claims were true or not,
Pemberton's French Wine Coca continued to do strong business all
(03:14):
the way up to eighteen eighty six. That's the year
Atlanta and Fulton County enacted a temperance ban on alcohol,
effectively cutting out Pemberton's biggest market. Down but not out.
The doctor set to work on producing a new, non
alcoholic version of his signature drink. To help perfect the formula,
(03:34):
he enlisted the aid of Atlanta drug store owner Willis Venable.
The revised recipe omitted the demonia leaves and substituted sugar
syrup for wine, but the caffeine rich coala nut extract
was retained, and so was the coca leaf extract, complete
with its trace amounts of pain relieving cocaine. Once the
(03:56):
recipe for the base syrup was locked down, Pemberton and
Venable mixed a small amount with still water and gave
it a taste test. Satisfied with the results, Venable went
back for seconds, but that time he accidentally used carbonated
water instead. To both men's delight, the carbonated version tasted
even better than the original and was more refreshing too.
(04:19):
That's when it dawned on the men that the drink
might have wider appeal than the average tonic. It could
even act as an alternative to kid friendly sodas like
ginger ale and root beer. On May eighth, eighteen eighty six,
doctor Pemberton decided to test that theory by taking a
jug of his new product over to Jacob's Pharmacy on
(04:40):
Peachtree Street. There, the syrup was mixed with soda water,
sampled by those present, and promptly deemed delicious. The new
soda fountain refreshment was immediately put on sale for five
cents a glass, and when Pemberton was asked what the
drink was called, he dubbed it Coca Cola, a nod
to the kee the ingredients of coca leaf and cola
(05:02):
nut extracts. To be clear, though the name was not
his own invention, it was actually coined by Pemberton's bookkeeper,
Frank Robinson. He also suggested changing the K and cola
to a sea, as he thought the symmetry of two
seas would look pleasing in advertisements. To show what he meant,
Robinson wrote out the name Coca Cola in flowing script letters,
(05:26):
and Pemberton liked it so much that he used the
handwriting sample as the basis for the product's logo, which
is still in use today. Shortly after the drink's debut,
the first newspaper ad for Coca Cola appeared in the
Atlanta Journal. Then, hand painted oilcloth signs began popping up
on store awnings, inviting thirsty passers by to stop in
(05:49):
and try a glass for themselves. Surprisingly, though not all
that many people did. In fact, during Coca Cola's first
year on the market, only about nine glasses were sold
each day. The total sales for that first year added
up to just fifty dollars, which put Pemberton in the
red as it had cost him over seventy dollars to
(06:10):
create and distribute the drink. Although he had a winning
product on his hands, doctor Pemberton never quite figured out
how to market it. Unable to fully shake the idea
that coca cola was a health tonic, he touted it
as a way to quote cure all nervous afflictions headache, neuralgia, hysteria, melancholy,
(06:30):
et cetera. But even though soda fountains were often found
in drug stores, the younger crowd that hung out there
weren't all that interested in medicine. If Pemberton had played
up the drinks sweet unique taste, he may have had
better luck. But as things stood, he wasn't making nearly
as much money off Coca Cola as he had hoped.
(06:50):
If that weren't bad enough, Pemberton was still addicted to morphine,
and soon after coca cola was introduced, he fell ill
with stomach cancer as well. He started selling off portions
of his business to pay for his medical care and
his costly addiction. He made sure to retain a share
of the ownership of the Coca Cola formula, however, as
he remained convinced that it quote someday will be a
(07:14):
national drink. Unfortunately, his son was less convinced and eventually
persuaded his father to sell his remaining interest in the
patent shortly before his death in eighteen eighty eight. The
buyer for that patent was a fellow Atlanta pharmacist named
Asa Griggs Candler. A shrewd businessman, Candler quickly bought up
(07:34):
the other rights Pemberton had sold off, eventually securing himself
full control of the product. Within a decade, Candler turned
Coca Cola into the national drink its inventor always knew
it could be. Under his leadership, the company went from
one million serving sold in eighteen ninety to one hundred
million in nineteen hundred. The secret, of course, was advertising
(07:58):
and marketing by the two or. In the twentieth century,
the drink was sold in pharmacies, soda fountains, and ice
cream parlors all across the US and Canada, and around
the same time the company also began selling its syrup
to independent bottling companies. They would pay a licensing fee
for the right to sell the drink and would then
mix bottle and distribute batches of it to local shop owners,
(08:22):
a business model that's still in place today. In nineteen nineteen,
the Coca Cola Company was sold again, and the new president,
Robert Woodroff, placed even more importance on bottling. With him
at the Helm, advertising began to focus on the idea
that Coca Cola was a drink to enjoy everywhere. Sure,
you could still buy a freshly mixed glass at your
(08:43):
local soda fountain, but you could also buy a bottle
to drink at home later. And, come to think of it,
why stop it just one when you could pick up
a whole six pack carton from metal coolers all over town.
Woodroff's hunch that bottling was the future of the brand
turned out to be true. Soda fountains fell out of
fashion by the nineteen sixties, but bottled Coca Cola continued
(09:05):
to be sold at restaurants, gas stations, and just about
everywhere else. And I do mean everywhere, because during the
Second World War, Woodruff opened sixty bottling plants in North Africa, Europe,
and the Pacific. The ostensible goal was to make sure
American troops had easy access to Coca Cola overseas, providing
(09:26):
them a little taste of home, one bottle at a time. However,
there was also a welcome bonus that the company almost
certainly foresaw, namely, by exposing foreign populations to the universal
pleasure of Coca Cola, they had created both brand awareness
and local demand. As a result, the company continued to
(09:48):
operate globally even after the war. Sadly, its unethical business
practices have often wreaked havoc on local communities, leading to
water scarcity and trade union disputes. Today, Coca Cola and
its various offshoots are available in more than two hundred
countries and county. The company sells more than one point
(10:08):
three billion drinks every day, with the original Coca Cola
accounting for a large percentage of that total. The world
famous soda no longer costs a nickel, and it no
longer contains cocaine either. But hey, at least you don't
have to hang out in a pharmacy all day. Just
a drink. I'm Gabe Lucier, and hopefully you now know
(10:31):
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can learn even more about history by following us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and
if you have any comments or suggestions, you can always
send them my way by writing to This Day at
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett
(10:52):
for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day
in History class Sutterpetan in the USU
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that serves up a tall glass of history every
day of the week. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode,
(00:22):
we're talking about the birth of one of the world's
most recognizable brands, a soft drink that combined the uplifting
effects of coca leaves and cola nuts with the simple
joys of fizzy water and a boatload of sugar. The
(00:43):
day was May eighth, eighteen eighty six. Coca Cola was
sold for the first time at a pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.
Originally billed as a health tonic, the bubbly beverage was
sold for a nicola glass and quickly became one of
the most popular drinks at the soda fountain. The inventor
(01:04):
of Coca Cola was doctor John Stith Pemberton. He was
born on January eighth, eighteen thirty one, in Knoxville, Georgia.
He later studied medicine and pharmacy at a medical college
in Macon, and in eighteen fifty, at the age of nineteen,
he was licensed to practice herbal medicine. He briefly did
(01:24):
so in Rome, Georgia, and other nearby towns, but in
eighteen fifty five he settled in Columbus and established a
wholesale drug store. Five years later, Pemberton expanded his operation
by opening his own research and manufacturing laboratory. There, he
began producing his own line of patent medicines. In eighteen
(01:46):
sixty one, the American Civil War began, and Pemberton joined
the Confederate Army, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
He was badly wounded during the Battle of Columbus in
eighteen sixty five and soon became addicted to the morphine
he used to control his pain. After the war, Pemberton
settled in Atlanta and began working on a kind of
(02:08):
cure for his addiction. His goal was to produce a
pain relieving tonic that was morphine free, and he experimented
with lots of different botanicals while trying to perfect the formula.
He eventually created a recipe that contained extracts of coca leaf,
cola nut, and demonia, an aromatic flower used to make
(02:28):
a traditional Mexican liqueur. The resulting concoction was called Pemberton's
French Wine Coca, and for the next couple decades it
was the most in demand alcoholic beverage on the market,
not just in Atlanta but throughout the Southeast. Of course,
him being a doctor in all, Pemberton didn't market the
drink solely on the merits of its taste or its
(02:51):
alcoholic content. Instead, he focused on the drink's supposed health benefits,
calling it the most excellent of all tonics, assisting digestion,
imparting energy to the organs of respiration, and strengthening the
muscular and nervous systems. Whether those claims were true or not,
Pemberton's French Wine Coca continued to do strong business all
(03:14):
the way up to eighteen eighty six. That's the year
Atlanta and Fulton County enacted a temperance ban on alcohol,
effectively cutting out Pemberton's biggest market. Down but not out.
The doctor set to work on producing a new, non
alcoholic version of his signature drink. To help perfect the formula,
(03:34):
he enlisted the aid of Atlanta drug store owner Willis Venable.
The revised recipe omitted the demonia leaves and substituted sugar
syrup for wine, but the caffeine rich coala nut extract
was retained, and so was the coca leaf extract, complete
with its trace amounts of pain relieving cocaine. Once the
(03:56):
recipe for the base syrup was locked down, Pemberton and
Venable mixed a small amount with still water and gave
it a taste test. Satisfied with the results, Venable went
back for seconds, but that time he accidentally used carbonated
water instead. To both men's delight, the carbonated version tasted
even better than the original and was more refreshing too.
(04:19):
That's when it dawned on the men that the drink
might have wider appeal than the average tonic. It could
even act as an alternative to kid friendly sodas like
ginger ale and root beer. On May eighth, eighteen eighty six,
doctor Pemberton decided to test that theory by taking a
jug of his new product over to Jacob's Pharmacy on
(04:40):
Peachtree Street. There, the syrup was mixed with soda water,
sampled by those present, and promptly deemed delicious. The new
soda fountain refreshment was immediately put on sale for five
cents a glass, and when Pemberton was asked what the
drink was called, he dubbed it Coca Cola, a nod
to the kee the ingredients of coca leaf and cola
(05:02):
nut extracts. To be clear, though the name was not
his own invention, it was actually coined by Pemberton's bookkeeper,
Frank Robinson. He also suggested changing the K and cola
to a sea, as he thought the symmetry of two
seas would look pleasing in advertisements. To show what he meant,
Robinson wrote out the name Coca Cola in flowing script letters,
(05:26):
and Pemberton liked it so much that he used the
handwriting sample as the basis for the product's logo, which
is still in use today. Shortly after the drink's debut,
the first newspaper ad for Coca Cola appeared in the
Atlanta Journal. Then, hand painted oilcloth signs began popping up
on store awnings, inviting thirsty passers by to stop in
(05:49):
and try a glass for themselves. Surprisingly, though not all
that many people did. In fact, during Coca Cola's first
year on the market, only about nine glasses were sold
each day. The total sales for that first year added
up to just fifty dollars, which put Pemberton in the
red as it had cost him over seventy dollars to
(06:10):
create and distribute the drink. Although he had a winning
product on his hands, doctor Pemberton never quite figured out
how to market it. Unable to fully shake the idea
that coca cola was a health tonic, he touted it
as a way to quote cure all nervous afflictions headache, neuralgia, hysteria, melancholy,
(06:30):
et cetera. But even though soda fountains were often found
in drug stores, the younger crowd that hung out there
weren't all that interested in medicine. If Pemberton had played
up the drinks sweet unique taste, he may have had
better luck. But as things stood, he wasn't making nearly
as much money off Coca Cola as he had hoped.
(06:50):
If that weren't bad enough, Pemberton was still addicted to morphine,
and soon after coca cola was introduced, he fell ill
with stomach cancer as well. He started selling off portions
of his business to pay for his medical care and
his costly addiction. He made sure to retain a share
of the ownership of the Coca Cola formula, however, as
he remained convinced that it quote someday will be a
(07:14):
national drink. Unfortunately, his son was less convinced and eventually
persuaded his father to sell his remaining interest in the
patent shortly before his death in eighteen eighty eight. The
buyer for that patent was a fellow Atlanta pharmacist named
Asa Griggs Candler. A shrewd businessman, Candler quickly bought up
(07:34):
the other rights Pemberton had sold off, eventually securing himself
full control of the product. Within a decade, Candler turned
Coca Cola into the national drink its inventor always knew
it could be. Under his leadership, the company went from
one million serving sold in eighteen ninety to one hundred
million in nineteen hundred. The secret, of course, was advertising
(07:58):
and marketing by the two or. In the twentieth century,
the drink was sold in pharmacies, soda fountains, and ice
cream parlors all across the US and Canada, and around
the same time the company also began selling its syrup
to independent bottling companies. They would pay a licensing fee
for the right to sell the drink and would then
mix bottle and distribute batches of it to local shop owners,
(08:22):
a business model that's still in place today. In nineteen nineteen,
the Coca Cola Company was sold again, and the new president,
Robert Woodroff, placed even more importance on bottling. With him
at the Helm, advertising began to focus on the idea
that Coca Cola was a drink to enjoy everywhere. Sure,
you could still buy a freshly mixed glass at your
(08:43):
local soda fountain, but you could also buy a bottle
to drink at home later. And, come to think of it,
why stop it just one when you could pick up
a whole six pack carton from metal coolers all over town.
Woodroff's hunch that bottling was the future of the brand
turned out to be true. Soda fountains fell out of
fashion by the nineteen sixties, but bottled Coca Cola continued
(09:05):
to be sold at restaurants, gas stations, and just about
everywhere else. And I do mean everywhere, because during the
Second World War, Woodruff opened sixty bottling plants in North Africa, Europe,
and the Pacific. The ostensible goal was to make sure
American troops had easy access to Coca Cola overseas, providing
(09:26):
them a little taste of home, one bottle at a time. However,
there was also a welcome bonus that the company almost
certainly foresaw, namely, by exposing foreign populations to the universal
pleasure of Coca Cola, they had created both brand awareness
and local demand. As a result, the company continued to
(09:48):
operate globally even after the war. Sadly, its unethical business
practices have often wreaked havoc on local communities, leading to
water scarcity and trade union disputes. Today, Coca Cola and
its various offshoots are available in more than two hundred
countries and county. The company sells more than one point
(10:08):
three billion drinks every day, with the original Coca Cola
accounting for a large percentage of that total. The world
famous soda no longer costs a nickel, and it no
longer contains cocaine either. But hey, at least you don't
have to hang out in a pharmacy all day. Just
a drink. I'm Gabe Lucier, and hopefully you now know
(10:31):
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can learn even more about history by following us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and
if you have any comments or suggestions, you can always
send them my way by writing to This Day at
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett
(10:52):
for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day
in History class Sutterpetan in the USU
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
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