Vintage Cups, Glasses and Mugs

In our blogs, we’ve been featuring a different promotional or corporate restaurantware product made over the years. This is another in the group of cool retro cups, glasses or mugs from our large collection. Here we’ll be sharing what we’ve learned about it and we welcome your additional input and comments.

Tab, a product of the Coca-Cola Company was the first major brand of diet cola. It was introduced into the soft drink market in 1963 as a soft drink for consumers trying to watch their weight. Tab was very popular until Diet Coke was released in 1982. Tab is still sold today, but with limited distribution. This cup is stamped with the words “Free Sample” and probably dates to the earliest days of Tab’s history when it was first being introduced to the public.

Manufactured by:
Dixie Cup Division
American Can Co.
Easton, PA

This is an illustration of a unique soda vending machine from the 1930s. This vendor was built by Gertner Manufacturing Company about 1932. It was a unique machine for the time in that it required two nickels to get a bottle of soda. One nickel was to pay for the soda and the other was a deposit on the bottle. Once the two nickels were inserted into the machine, a bottle of soda was dispensed. One of the nickels was returned to the customer once the empty bottle was placed into the drawer in the lower part of the machine. This drawer was opened using the crank handle.

The dimensions for this vendor were 69”H x 23”D x 31”W. It weighed 380 lbs.

Have you ever seen one of these? We’d love to hear from you if you have any additional information to share about this unique machine.

Vintage Cups, Glasses and Mugs

In our blogs, we’ve been featuring a different promotional or corporate restaurantware product made over the years. This is another in the group of cool retro cups, glasses or mugs from our large collection. Here we’ll be sharing what we’ve learned about it and we welcome your additional input and comments.

Mission Orange Soda was first produced by California Crushed Fruit in Los Angeles, California. In 1933 the first Mission soda was bottled using distinctive black glass bottles. The Mission soda brand existed until 1970. This cup dates from about the late 1960s to 1970.

Manufactured by:
Continental Can Company, Inc.
Newark, NJ

We know that this is a Vendo V-240 case vending machine, but have not seen any more information on this machine. It looks like a model designed specifically for factories and other large places and was probably produced in very small numbers. It was a very large machine, capable of dispensing 10 cases of soda, or 240 bottles.

The way this machine dispensed soft drinks is unique too. Rather than starting out with bottles being loaded into a drum or onto shelves, the entire case of soda was loaded into the machine. As you can see in this diagram, the conveyor transported the whole case around the interior of the machine as each case was emptied. The motion resembles that of a Ferris wheel. Once a bottle was released, gravity would take over and the bottle would drop into the chute.

As clever as this design is, it obviously didn’t catch on, as this is the only machine like this that I have seen. Please let us know if you’ve seen one of these.

Vintage Cups, Glasses and Mugs

In our blogs, we’ve been featuring a different promotional or corporate restaurantware product made over the years. This is another in the group of cool retro cups, glasses or mugs from our large collection. Here we’ll be sharing what we’ve learned about it and we welcome your additional input and comments.

Mello Yello is a soft drink created in 1979 by the Coca-Cola Company to compete with Pepsi’s Mountain Dew. Like their competitor’s soda, Mello Yello is a citrus-flavored soft drink with caffeine. This cup dates to the 1980s and was manufactured by the Solo Cup Company of Chicago, Illinois. Solo Cup was founded in 1936 by Leo Hulseman, a former employee of the Dixie Co.

Manufactured by:
Solo Cup Co.
Chicago. IL

This is a gas pump that we restored at Vintage Vending years ago. It is a twin pump model called the Tokheim 350-P. Manufactured from 1956 to 1960, this pump was made by the Tokheim Corporation of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There is a large “face” on each side, allowing gas to be pumped from both sides as well as offering two different brands of gasoline on each side.

Restoration consisted of stripping, repairing and painting with our auto body restoration process. It was clear-coated and detailed with the Sky Chief and Fire-Chief Texaco brands.

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby.