{"product_id":"vintage-1960s-1970s-coach-four-sarsaparilla-label-philadelphia-pa","title":"Vintage 1960s-70s Philadelphia Coach and Four 🐎 Sarsaparilla Soda Label","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWho Drank Sarsaparilla in Philadelphia? 🐎 Vintage 1960s Coach and Four Sarsaparilla Soda Label\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 3 1\/2\" x 2 1\/2\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2giLX-3D2kc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSay \"sarsaparilla\" and half of us picture a dusty cowboy leaning on a saloon bar. This little Philadelphia label is a lot more city than that, but the drink it names has one of the wildest histories on any soda shelf. Great yellow and black colors, that stagecoach, and a story worth telling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🐎 What's on it\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCOACH AND FOUR\u003c\/strong\u003e over a black coach-and-four silhouette, \u003cstrong\u003eSarsaparilla\u003c\/strong\u003e across the yellow band, and the fine print: \u003cem\u003e\"Contains carbonated water, sugar, caramel coloring, artificial sarsaparilla flavoring, preserved with sodium benzoate.\"\u003c\/em\u003e Along the foot: \u003cem\u003e\"Bottled under authority of Coach and Four Products Co., Phila., Pa. 19140.\"\u003c\/em\u003e Plain paper back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e👬 The people behind the stagecoach\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCOACH AND FOUR first went on soft drinks on \u003cstrong\u003eJune 26, 1956\u003c\/strong\u003e. \u003cstrong\u003eSheffield Bottling Co.\u003c\/strong\u003e, a Philadelphia partnership trading as \"Coach 'N Four Products Co.,\" registered the name with the U.S. Patent Office on \u003cstrong\u003eJanuary 29, 1957\u003c\/strong\u003e (trademark No. 640,759), with \u003cstrong\u003eHarry Labovitz\u003c\/strong\u003e signing as partner. On \u003cstrong\u003eJuly 11, 1969\u003c\/strong\u003e the name and goodwill went to \u003cstrong\u003eCoach and Four Products Company\u003c\/strong\u003e, the partnership of \u003cstrong\u003eHarry Labovitz and Arthur Labovitz\u003c\/strong\u003e on North 6th Street in North Philadelphia, ZIP 19140, which is the company named on this label. The mark was renewed in 1977 and lapsed in 1997.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📅 How old is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo clues on the label itself. The five-digit ZIP, 19140, can't predate \u003cstrong\u003eJuly 1, 1963\u003c\/strong\u003e, when ZIP codes began. And look at the words \"artificial sarsaparilla flavoring.\" Old-time sarsaparilla leaned on sassafras oil, but on \u003cstrong\u003eNovember 30, 1960\u003c\/strong\u003e the FDA banned safrole and sassafras oil from food after safrole was found to cause cancer. Every American sarsaparilla after that had to get its flavor another way, and this label says so right on its face. Late 1960s into the 1970s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e💊 From \"blood purifier\" to soda pop\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSarsaparilla started out as medicine. The real thing came from the root of a tropical vine, \u003cem\u003eSmilax\u003c\/em\u003e, and in the 1800s it was sold by the bottle as a cure for \"skin and blood problems.\" One of the biggest names was Charles Ira Hood, a druggist's son from Chelsea, Vermont, who opened a drug store in Lowell, Massachusetts and started compounding \u003cstrong\u003eHood's Sarsaparilla\u003c\/strong\u003e in 1876. His mix had sarsaparilla root, dandelion, gentian, juniper berries and about \u003cstrong\u003e18 percent alcohol\u003c\/strong\u003e, and he claimed it purified the blood and helped everything from rheumatism to heart trouble. It sold like crazy. By 1898 his Lowell laboratory had 175,000 square feet of floor space, the largest building in the world devoted to making patent medicine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere's the part I love as a paper collector: Hood was a leader in using color lithography for advertising. He printed everything in-house on twenty presses of his own, trade cards, posters, calendars, cookbooks and pamphlets, which is why so much colorful Hood's ephemera still turns up today. A label like this one comes straight out of that tradition of selling a drink with a great-looking piece of printed paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce the medicine claims faded, sarsaparilla settled in as a soft drink, and popular culture did the rest: the parched cowboy asking for a sarsaparilla at the saloon. It's much harder to find in America now, but it's still a big seller across Southeast Asia, as \"Sarsi\" in the Philippines and Singapore.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🎨 A coach and four\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA coach and four is a carriage pulled by four horses and driven four-in-hand by one driver. Philadelphia's own famous one is Thomas Eakins's painting \u003cem\u003eThe Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand\u003c\/em\u003e (1879 to 1880), in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with the horses posed from Eadweard Muybridge's 1878 photographs of horses in motion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏡 Display\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis one's fun framed in a kitchen, a bar, or a western-themed den, and it looks great with the rest of the Coach and Four flavors as a set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-coach-four-black-raspberry-soda-label-philadelphia-pa\"\u003eVintage 1960s Coach and Four Black Raspberry Soda Label 🐎 from Philadelphia, PA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-1970s-coach-and-four-soda-labels-set-of-7-philadelphia\"\u003eVintage Combo Coach and Four Soda Labels 🐎 from 1960s-70s\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-coach-four-sarsaparilla-soda-beverage-label-philadelphia\"\u003eVintage 1960s Coach and Four Sarsaparilla 🍺 Soda Bottle Label Philadelphia PA Coach \u0026amp; Four Products Co.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42096731914472,"sku":"VAG-7463111622888","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3532411471_9w5z.jpg?v=1785356332","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-1970s-coach-four-sarsaparilla-label-philadelphia-pa","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}