Walldogs

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Published: Tuesday, 04 February 2014 13:44

On North Mill Street in Pontiac, Illinois, the International Walldog Mural & Sign Art Museum preserves the murals, hand painted advertisements, and the history of the artists who painted them. 

It all started in the late 1880’s when it became very trendy to paint advertisement on the brick wall of a building, old barn, or early billboards. There have been artists who engaged in advertising painting and sign making for centuries, however, the artists who painted on buildings and barns would by 1900 become known as “Wall Dogs.” Some researchers attribute the name to the vast amount of hours that the artists would spend painting from ladders and scaffolding. Hence, “working like a dog!” It would not be long before an entire cottage industry of roaming artists traveling from town to town painting signs, buildings, and barns grew up from the trend.

Around 1895, the President of Coca-Cola Company, Asa Candler, hired a small army of artists to fan out throughout the United States and pay businesses and citizens to paint the familiar Coca-Cola logo on the sides of their buildings and barns. According to most documentation, Coca-Cola Company would continue this pay-and-paint advertising program until the late 1950’s. Many of these hand painted logos can still be found scattered throughout America and, to a small but growing group of preservationists, the faded logos have become roadside attractions.  Starting in the early 1990’s, a movement began to restore and repaint the famous Coca-Cola logos.

In 1935 John G. Carter, the owner of the roadside attraction called “Rock City” at Lookout Mountain, Georgia, had his famous logo, “See Rock City,” painted on the sides and roofs of barns. He contracted sign painter and Walldog legend, Clark Byers to deliver a few “See Rock City” logos on barns. Byers, who was being paid by the barn, painted 900 barns in 19 different states.

Coca-Cola and See Rock City are the most prevalent of the early Walldog works, and however faded, these antique advertising paintings can be found on buildings in nearly every town incorporated before 1950.  A lead historian for StrangeHistory.org has been on a fifteen year long project to locate and document Walldog advertising. In his research he has found and documented hundreds of hand painted ads including hotels, furniture stores, drug stores, and livery stables. He notes that in some cases he has documented a piece of advertising that was later covered over by the construction of a new building, encasing and preserving the ad for all times. Furthermore, in an odd case, a one hundred year old building, located in New York, was removed in 2001 revealing a much older hat store advertising on the wall of the adjoining building. The hat store ad was photographed and documented; then another building was constructed encasing the advertisement once again.                                                              

StrangeHistory.org has created an extensive file on Walldog advertisements that exist throughout America, however we can’t find all of them. We are asking our readers, fans, and friends to help us with the very important work of documenting the antique and disappearing wall advertising. In the event your town possesses one of the types of advertisements that you see below, please send a photo of the work and tell us what street and town/city that the fading advertisement can be found.

Thank You
G.S. Smith
StrangeHistory.org.
   
   

Real or Not Real??? A Brief History of Food Names.

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Published: Friday, 11 October 2013 11:58

Betty Crocker

Not a real person! The “Betty Crocker” name was presented to the world in 1921 by the advertising executives at Gold Medal flour. It was thought by the team that the name “Betty”, was the most friendly of all of the names considered. “Crocker” originated from William G. Crocker, a Gold Medal executive who had retired only months before the introduction of “Betty Crocker”. The famous Betty Crocker signature was written by an unnamed female employee of Gold Medal.

Dr Pepper (no period behind Dr)

Not a real person! Dr Pepper stands as the oldest major brand name soda in the United States. It was created by pharmacist Charles Alderton in 1885 and first sold at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store, in Waco Texas.

Uncle Ben (Rice)

A real person! (Maybe) Legend tells that the founders of Converted Rice Incorporated were having dinner in a Chicago restaurant and pouring over ideas regarding a new ad campaign. Their waiter told them of an old black rice farmer in Houston, Texas, named “Uncle Ben” who provided “the highest quality rice” to the mills and his customers. Although the “Uncle Ben’s” named has been a part of American food history since 1940, the true origin of Houston’s own, Uncle Ben remains an indelible mystery in America’s Strange History.

Aunt Jemima

Not a real person! ‘Aunt Jemima pancake mix’ debuted in 1889 and received it’s name from the 1875, Billy Kersand song “Old Aunt Jemima”. The first person to play the “Aunt Jemima” character for the R.T. Davis Milling Company (later purchased by Quaker Oats Company) was a former slave, Nancy Green. Nancy, as “Aunt Jemima”, toured the U.S. representing and demonstrating ‘Aunt Jemima pancake mix’ for thirty-three years, during which she presented ‘Aunt Jemima’ at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Her booth was located next to the “Largest Flour Barrel in the World”.

Sara Lee

A real person! Baking entrepreneur, Charlie Lubin, created a line of cheesecakes which he named “Sara Lee’s” for his eight year old daughter, Sara Lee Lubin. Within a year, Lubin sold his cheesecake recipe and the “Sara Lee” name to Consolidated Foods, presented day Sara Lee Corporation.

Mr. PiBB(two capital B’s)

Not a real person! Mr. PiBB was born from the Coca-Cola Company in 1972. Lawsuits regarding Mr Pibb’s close resemblance to Dr Pepper, caused the company to change the name to incorporate two capital b’s.

Little Debbie

A real person! The cute girl in a straw hat and blue checked shirt is none other than Debbie McKee, the four year old granddaughter of McKee Foods founder, O.D. McKee. The “Little Debbie” line of snack cakes were first packaged as a family-pack and introduced to U.S. households in 1960, featuring the little Debbie McKee’s likeness. It was then that Debbie’s parents, Ellsworth and Sharon McKee, discovered that their daughter’s name and likeness had been used for the product.

More StrangeHistory.org Food Facts…………….

Campbell’s Soup

In 1900, Campbell’s Soup, which had been founded in 1869 by Joseph A. Campbell, adopted the iconic red and white label with the metallic gold seal and the words, Paris International Exposition. The seal from the 1900 Paris Exhibition while the red and white represents the colors for Cornell University, the alma-ata of Campbell’s executive, Herberton Williams.

Underwood Deviled Ham

The William Underwood Company, founded in 1822, began to can food in steel cans in 1836. William Underwood was the first person to perfect the canning of meats and vegetables for store shelves and holds a place in Strange History as the oldest canner in America.