Quote:Back in 1920, this newlywed was living in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband Earle, and though married life agreed with her, housekeeping did not. Not that she didn't try. When Earle came home from his job as a cotton buyer at Johnson & Johnson, Josephine would always have dinner on the table. Unfortunately, she'd also have several cuts or burns on her fingers. Without an adhesive bandage, Josephine had no easy way of bandaging her own cuts. Earle had to cut pieces of adhesive tape and cotton gauze and make a bandage for each wound. This happened day after day-and, day after day Josephine needed more bandages. They were in a real bind.

Finally, after several weeks of kitchen accidents, Earle hit upon an idea. (Luckily for Johnson & Johnson, his idea was not to go out and hire a cook.) No, Earle sat down and prepared some ready-made bandages by placing squares of cotton gauze at intervals along an adhesive strip and covering them with crinoline. Now all Josephine had to do was cut off a length of the strip and wrap it over her cut. In a way, it was a mother who was responsible for the invention of the BAND-AID Brand Adhesive Bandage.
BAND-AID Brand Adhesive Bandages Beginnings

Quote:Fred and his father tinkered with the idea of producing a “better-flying cake pan” out of custom-formed sheet metal, but then along came WWII. Fred enlisted in the Army Air Corp and flew missions over Italy in a P-47 Fighter Bomber. His flying experience gave him new insights on the aerodynamics of flight...and, once out of the service, a new inspiration to pick up where he had left off.

In 1946 he drafted a brand new design for a flying disc and called it the “Whirlo-Way” (after the champion race horse). At the time Fred was moving their growing family about while searching for work as a carpenter. He took a job working for Warren Franscioni who had a business installing butane heating systems in the San Louis Obispo, California area. Warren had also been a WWII pilot and took a liking to flipping cake pans with Fred. Warren also took an interest in Fredʼs idea of producing a better-flying design...especially after Fred shared his Whirlo-Way drawing with him.

They decided to explore manufacturing the Whirlo-Way... but take advantage of the newly-developed plastic injection process instead of metal. An arrangement was agreed upon whereby Warren would secure the funds for developing Fredʼs design and both would contribute to the sales and promotion of their new product. In late 1947 their new business, PIPCO, was born. (PIPCO did NOT stand for “Partners In Plastic” as has been erroneously asserted by many sources beginning in the 1970s, but for—as Fred abashedly admitted—“If Itʼs a PIPCO Product, Itʼs a Pip!” A “pip” at the time meant a “humdinger.”)

By March 1948 Southern California Plastics (SCP) was molding the first colorful batches of the very first plastic flying discs. But instead of Whirlo-Way, “Flyin-Saucer” was tooled into the mold to take advantage of the publicʼs fascination with U.F.O. reports that had begun grabbing headlines in 1947.

Despite relentless effort by the PIPCO duo, Flyin-Saucers didnʼt take off. Direct sales to the public at various fairs and events were effective, but limited, and not cost-effective. Attempts to promote sales through stores or wholesale representatives were unsuccessful and by February 1950, Fred had had enough. He gave up his half-interest in PIPCO and never again had any contact with Warren.

Warren continued to keep the business afloat by engaging additional financial partners and in May 1950 entered into an agreement with Al Capp to promote Liʼl Abnerʼs Flyinʼ Saucers. The deal turned disastrous. Faced with financial ruin, Warren Franscioni shelved the mold and re-enlisted in the Air Force.

In 1953 SCP asked Warren if he would allow them to remold the Flyin-Saucer using the newly-developed softer, more-durable polyethylene plastic in exchange for royalties for all sales that might be generated through their own promotion. Warren agreed, and Flyin Saucers (no hyphen) were soon soaring again.

By 1954 Fred Morrison yearned to augment his income by selling saucers again in his spare time and decided to contact SCP to find out if Flyin-Saucers were still available. He learned they were! He placed several orders, but soon discovered that producing his own disc from a brand new mold would be much more profitable than continuing to buy them from SCP.

In early 1955 Fred sat down at his kitchen table and designed the disc that would prove to be the archetype for the modern plastic flying disc. The media was all abuzz with talk of future space travel. Fred wanted a name that was “spacey.” Pluto was the last planet discovered...what would euphoniously go with “Pluto”? A platter was disc-shaped. “Pluto Platter” it was! Lu added the instructions: “Flat Flip Flies Straight–Tilted Flip Curves, Experiment!”

Pluto Platters began sailing at fairs on weekends promoted by Fred and Lou through their new business: American Trends Co. Sales were so vigorous over the next two years that they caught the attention of Rich Knerr and Spud Melin, owners of Wham-O, who manufactured slingshots, crossbows, and boomerangs, but were interested in breaking into the burgeoning popular toy market.

After weeks of negotiation, Fred and Lu reached an agreement with Rich and Spud on January 23, 1957 (Fredʼs birthday) to allow Wham-O full control of manufacturing and sales promotion of the Pluto Platter in exchange for royalties on all future sales.

A few months later, apparently Rich Knerr learned that college students back on the East Coast were calling the Pluto Platter a different name: Frisbee. Being a passionate sportsman, it seems likely that Rich read about this in a May 13, 1957 article in Sports Illustrated about the new fad of flying discs. The article doesnʼt mention the Frisbie Pie Company at all. In fact it states, “Nobody at Princeton seems to know who named the Frisbee, or why.” Regardless of the unknown source, Rich liked the name, and, if it would help sell more of his new Pluto Platters, what the hell, heʼd call them Frisbees, too! By June 17th Wham-O did.

In 1958 Wham-O helped Fred obtained a design patent for his flying disc.

Sales of the Platters remained steady, but relatively modest until 1964 when
Wham-O hired Ed Headrick, a former appliance sales executive. Edʼs first job
was to boost sales of their flying discs by re-inventing the Pluto Platter. Gone was the “spacey” name and flying saucer design from the ʻ50s. Times were aʼchanging! Baby-Boomers were coming of age and needed an outlet for their hormones. Sports were in! Ed beefed up the weight of the rim for added stability, replaced the planet names with raised ridges for a better thumb grip, added a wide, black, racing stripe, and a label using the Olympic logo to legitimize the discʼs appeal to sports fans. The Pluto Platter had become “Professional”-ized and sales soared!

THE HISTORY OF THE FRISBEE (PDF) By Phil Kennedy, Co-author (with Fred Morrison) of FLAT FLIP FLIES STRAIGHT, True Origins of the Frisbee.

Quote:Where’s Tropic-Ana? Bring Her Back

We grew up and were always pals with Tropic-Ana. She not only graced the packages of Tropicana, but she was on the outside of the bright orange CSX freight trains that ran from Palmetto/Bradenton Florida to packaging plants up north.

Yes, she was topless, but somehow it was covered over by a nice sort of necklace that always stayed positioned PERFECTLY.

She was gradually phased out, somewhere in the 1990s, though the date is uncertain. She does appear in the Tropicana online company history. Today, the Pepsi-owned brand is best known for an orange with a straw coming out of it.

Quote:Tropic-Ana was portrayed as a native of the tropics. She graced the sides of the paper cartons, juice trains, ink pens, and much more advertising paraphernalia. What many may not know is that Tropic-Ana was inspired by a local resident, 4-year-old Christine Keston Pool. As a child, she often played with her friend Billy Burt, the son of Jane Beckley Burt who had been asked to design the new Tropicana logo.

As Jane drew what would become Tropic-Ana as a little girl with a French braid, she realized she was drawing Christine. This led to a short time of fame for the young Christine. She became the embodiment of Tropic-Ana at company parties and special events, as well as an early TV commercial that Christine remembers running in the New York market. Her mother made her costume which consisted of a grass skirt, lei and paper mache bowl and oranges.

Her time as Tropic-Ana was short-lived, when one day she accidently cut off her braid and was no longer Tropic-Ana. Christine Keston Pool recalled in a 50th anniversary Tropicana brochure, "I loved the attention I got. At Tropicana, I was everyone's little girl. But one day I was trying to cut the rubber band that held my pigtail, and ended up cutting the pigtail instead. It was a pretty important part of the Tropic-Ana character, so that was the end of an exciting era for me."

Tropic-Ana: The girl behind the logo - Manatee History Matters

Quote:The company is also looking for a new Tropic-Ana model to push the 50-year-old product for a 2004 TV spot. The winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship. The company kicked off the search in New York City last week as 50 girls, ages 5 to 8, auditioned in an event hosted by talk-show host Regis Philbin. The original Tropic-Ana, Chrissie Kesten Pool, whose childhood looks inspired the company caricature in the early 1950s, was on hand at the New York festivities.
'Tropic-Ana' celebrates juice's anniversary