Coca-Cola – A Grateful Invigorant Without Reactionary Lassitude

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No, this doesn’t have anything to do with classic movies, but sometimes something comes through here that I just want to be able to archive on the site so I still have it once it’s sold. This is a single page advertisement for Coca-Cola from the May 1906 issue of the Burr McIntosh Monthly.

I’ve talked about Burr McIntosh and the Burr McIntosh Monthly before on the site. The Burr McIntosh Monthly was a high quality magazine published during the first decade of the last century largely dedicated to showing off names familiar to the elite in high quality photographs. Subjects included an abundance of opera and stage stars from the turn of the century. Complete issues are rare to find because the photography was of such high quality that even the Burr McIntosh itself encouraged readers to detach issues and frame the photos inside.

Each issue of the Burr McIntosh Monthly included a section with some advertisements in the back of the issue. The May 1906 issue is one of a handful I’ve seen with an early Coke ad, and since I just listed this one for sale today (sold!) I had it on hand to capture a good enough image to share and archive here:

A hundred and five years later the wording is really hilarious. It’s probably a little too small to read up above, especially the print between the two banners (which is the funniest), so here it is:

Coca-Cola is Pre-Eminently the Drink of Quality

Its unprecedented sale is crucial proof of its superiority as a universally accepted temperance beverage. It is a most refreshing relief from fatigue and excitement; a grateful invigorant without reactionary lassitude; it brightens the faculties mentally and physically, and banishes the worries of business from the brain like a benediction.

On sale at all soda fountains also carbonated in bottles – 5c

I have hundreds of Burr McIntosh single pages for sale on eBay featuring subjects as varied as turn of the century opera stars, major theatrical stars, landscapes, architecture, statesmen and society matriarchs.

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