Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains
The soda fountain was an important social center in American towns from just before the turn of the 20th century until it faced overwhelming competition from supermarket bottled drinks and fast-food chains by the 1950s. If you've ever wondered why the first soda fountains were located in drugstores, the book Sundae Best: A History of Soda
Fountains explains this and much more.
The history of soda water is tied to the popularity of the curative springs of the 1800s. These mineral water spas were exclusive destinations only for the rich, until one Benjamin Silliman, a young chemistry professor at Yale, sought to bring the miracle curing powers of the springs to the wider public. The earliest artificially produced mineral waters were viewed as medicinal, and traded on the names of the famous springs of that time.
Carbonation was produced by combining sulfuric acid and ground marble, and was dispensed in drugstores from metal urns with gooseneck spigots. Upscale drug stores bought more elaborate and ornate marble fountains featuring mythological scenes in bas-relief. Some were built for special occasions, such as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and cost up to $10,000.
Beginning in 1903, the counter-service fountain was introduced, and became extremely popular. Now customers could get quicker service and enjoy watching their order being prepared. Also around this time, drugstores began to add light meals in order to attract a lunchtime crowd.
Funderburg does an excellent job of showing how soda fountains profited from Prohibition, and how drinks such as Hires Root Beer made the transition from health remedy – "soothing to the nerves, vitalizing to the blood, and refreshing to the brain" – to a booming business as a temperance drink. The soda fountain continued to compete with the saloon for business, as an article in a 1915 issue of Soda Fountain states: "The soda fountain of today is an ally of temperance... Ice cream soda is a greater medium for the cause of temperance than all the sermon ever preached on that subject."
The enormous effect of advertising on the success of the earliest brand names is interesting to note. Moxie, for example, was an innovator in the use of creative advertising, and in 1920, Moxie's sales of 25 million cases outpaced even Coca Cola. The Moxie logo was printed on everything from cardboard fans to Tiffany lamps, and eight-foot-high Moxie bottles were pulled by horse-drawn wagons. Soaring sugar prices in 1925 forced the company to cut back on advertising, and now Moxie survives mainly in our language as a word meaning "courage" or "spirit."
It's humorous to find out that there are at least three separate claims to the invention of the ice cream soda, and each of the three inventors has published an account that conflicts with the others. In the end, it's difficult to determine who deserves the credit, but each story makes for captivating reading. Similarly, there are conflicting tales of the invention of the ice cream sundae; most of the stories refer to the blue laws that forbade the sale of soda water on Sundays.
The most glaring weakness of this otherwise fine book is the limited number of photographs – only nine pages of photographs and pictures in all. Although this is a scholarly approach to the history of an important American social phenomenon and not intended to be a coffee-table book, I believe the story could have been told better with more photographs. That said, Sundae Best remains entertaining and informative reading. --David Bennett