THE TIP STORY

Though not nearly as famous aside from its association with the creation of Mountain Dew, and Tri-City Beverage, the origin and story of the Tip soft drink is mostly unknown to the population in general, and even to soda collectors apart from its association with Mountain Dew during the Tip Corporation era. I have been collecting Tip bottles almost as long as I have been collecting Mountain Dew bottles, and a few things have left me scratching my head like references to Tip Orange in Dick Bridgforth's book, and the Tip Cola bottle caps that have been floating around. So I decided to create this page for the researching and telling of the story of the brand that due to its very existence shaped the future of the wildly popular Mountain Dew as we know it today.

The Tip trademark was first registered on February 8, 1921 by Joseph Lee Wood who owned the Orange Tip Co. located at 2551 Ave. E, Bessemer, Alabama. Apparently he had been using the trademark since May 24, 1920. The Trademark was signed over to a W. C. Clutter on April 26, 1939, who signed the trademark over to the Charlotte Gary Beverage Company on May 3, 1939.

An Orange Tip label from the Orange Tip company of Bessemer, Ala.

The Tip that we are most familiar with was created by the Gary Beverage Company, which is owned by J. N. Gary, Jr., in 1938.(2) The Tip trademark was signed over to the Charlotte Gary Beverage Company by W. C. Clutter on May 3, 1939. Much of what I have found so far deals not with the parent company, but with one of its offspring, namely the Tip Bottling Company of High Point, NC. This branch was originally ran by Fred B. Gary, who was replaced by Frank L. Lewis as Manager as reported by the High Point Enterprise of July 15, 1941.(1) It appears the Fred B. Gary went to Birmingham, Alabama to start another branch Tip Bottling plant.(1) The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 eventually brought a halt to the production of Tip in Birmingham, Alabama.(2) They also had plants in Raleigh, Greenville, and Charlotte, NC.(2)

A Gary Beverage letterhead

An article from the High Point Enterprise of January 12, 1942 mentions that the company is bottling Tip and Tip-O (1), I can only assume that this Tip-O is the "Tip Orange" that is referred to by Dick Bridgeforth in his Mountain Dew books.(3) This is the first time that I have found any period reference that stated that the Gary Beverage Company developed anything other than the Tip Grape that would eventually be bought, and franchised by Clay Church later in the decade. In the May 11th, 1942 edition of the High Point Enterprise I finally found a reference, and an ad, for one of my questions pertaining to Tip, that question being "what is Tip Cola, and is it actually related to Tip Grape?". The aforementioned article is about Frank Lewis' new program that allowed employees to buy war savings stamps from a percentage of their salary earned, but at the end it mentions that Tip Cola, for which High Point, NC was the proving ground (aka test market), was meeting with growing demand.(1) At the bottom of the page was an ad for the same referring to the "New Sensation". Tip Cola was introduced to it's test market of High Point North Carolina in an interesting way. Jim Steele promoter and the general manager of the Hippodrome, along with Frank L. Lewis Manager of the Tip Bottling Company decided to get together to promote a wrestling bout to the High Point area. Lewis, through the Tip Bottling Company paid part of the admission into the contest, and of course this bout would also be the introduction of Tip Cola to High Point, NC.

One of the wrestlers is pictured above holding a six pack of Tip for a photo shoot. From my research I think I can safely say that this "Angel" is Phil Olafsson otherwise known as the Swedish Angel, who suffered from a disfiguring disease known as Acromegaly.(4) A modern example of a sufferer of this disease would be Andre The Giant.(4) It appears that Olafsson wrestled the majority of his career in the Midwest(4), but apparently he was paid to come to High Point, NC for this bout.

The trademark was transferred to J. N. Gary, Jr. himself on September 16, 1942. Gary transfers the trademark to N. S. Forester, Jr on July 6, 1944. Forester and Clay Church created the Tip Corporation in Marion, VA. As to what happened to cause this buy out when things seemed to be going so well for the company in the early 1940's is hard to tell, but most likely America's entry into World War II and the shortages that caused many plants to close during the war years, may have had something to do with it. Either way Tip-O and Tip Cola appear to have died out by that point as Clay Church only wanted Tip Grape to market as a Grapette competitor; however, the Tip Corporation did also market a lesser known beverages line known as Sun Flower and at least the Orange may have been moved to it.

The Gary Beverage Company stayed in business in Charlotte, High Point, and Durham; however, they also went out of business during the 1940's.(2) I do wonder about exactly when they actually did go out of business, because I have a Tasty Beverages bottle from 1950 with Tip Beverage Corp on the back. Could this be the Gary Beverage Company with a modified name, the same company operating as a franchise of the Tip Corporation of America, or a different company altogether?

6oz Tip bottle from Gary Beverage Company dated 1938

6oz Tip bottle from Gary Beverage Company dated 1939

6oz Tip bottle from the Tip Bottling Company dated 1940

An ad introducing Tip Cola from May 11, 1942

6oz Tip bottle from the Tip Bottling Company dated 1941

Tip Cola bottle cap from Fayetteville, NC

6oz Tip bottle no company name listed dated 1943

A different ad for Tip Cola

7oz Tip bottle from the Tip Bottling Company dated 1943

6oz Tip bottle from The Tip Corporation dated 1946

6oz Tip bottle from Tip Beverage Co. of Biloxi, Miss. dated 1946

Two different 6oz Tip bottle from The Tip Corporation dated 1947

6oz Tip bottle from Tip Beverage Corp. of Charlotte, NC dated 1947

An ad for Tip from May 1946

6oz Tip bottle dated 1948

10oz Tip bottle from the Tip Bottling Company of Asheville, NC dated 1948

An ad for Tip from July 1947

A June 19, 1942 ad for Tip

An interesting twist in the Tip story comes post Pepsi acquisition. It appears that around 1981 for some reason Pepsi renewed the trademark registration for Tip and the label above was included in the renewal. The interesting part is that the label isn't for Tip Grape but Tip Citrus Soda, which begs the question, was there some reason that the Tip name was being transferred to what appears to have been the Mountain Dew formula? Maybe the explanation had something to do with the name Mountain Dew itself, as it is a slang term for alcohol, and in order to sell Mountain Dew in certain areas they had to drop the controversial name for Tip. The story may never be known, but it's great to ponder the reason.

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