WEBVTT - RHS May 7th 2026 Solo Cup 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:27.640 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.319 the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:35.479 much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer, 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:40.520 mister Max Party America Premium Williams. 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:50.800 I don't understand, but I couldn't get at. I can't retard. 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:57.680 Max says, that's none other than the legendary mister Noel Brown. 0:00:57.400 --> 0:00:58.080 In his mind. 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:02.600 Yes, yes, they call me, Ben Bullen, your legendary in 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:07.080 my mind as well and my heart. Oh my gosh, 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.400 Hey guys, when's the last time you had a solo 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:16.959 cup by myself? Ah, that's a great question, nol. But 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:22.560 we're specifically talking about those plastic red cups. Yeahs, you 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:24.480 know it's funny, Ben, it's been a minute. 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:26.280 I don't really see those pop up as much. But 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:28.440 you know what I always think of, and I'm not 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:35.280 a fan of modern country and Western music, red solo cup. 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.320 I feel you up, Let's have a party. It became 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.680 a bit of a like a pop cultural touchstone for 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:50.800 the redneck class in any pejorative sense. I think they 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.720 would gladly accept that term in the country music world 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:55.720 and embrace it. 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.760 And I will argue that Toby Keith is somewhat of 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.520 a bankrupt artist. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:02.320 Is that who does that song? Yes? 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.360 Uh, it is the guy who does that song. It 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.800 will share more of the lyrics as well. The Internet 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:14.280 calls it a novelty country song. Yes and uh. Mister 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:19.160 Keith himself, also in an interview, called it the worst 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:20.320 song he had ever heard. 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.000 Yeah. Yeah, it reminds me of a well it's funny. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:24.079 At least he owns it. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:25.680 It reminds me of a song about the Zach brown 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.440 Man that goes just a little chicken fry, cold b 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:30.720 are on a Friday night, a pair of pants. 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.160 The fits just right. It also, Yeah, I agree with you. 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:38.119 It feels very American such that it reminds me of 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:42.080 the Alan Jackson song where they're like way down yonder 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.400 on the chat hooch. Never knew how much I've went to. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.799 Is that that muddy water? How much that much muddy 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.120 waters to me? But I learned how to swim, and 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.520 I learned what a lot about living in a little bit. 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:55.680 What the second thing you learned how to do? The swim? 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:56.280 He learned. 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.280 I learned how to swim, and I learned who I 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.720 was who I was living in a little bit. 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:03.880 See, I was picturing its sort of like the mud 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.639 skipper emerging from the water and swimming and then immediately 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.880 sprouting legs, evolutionarily speaking down on the chattahoots. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:17.840 So if you are so Pardner, are very specific references here, folks. 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:22.359 This is not just for our American ridiculous historians in 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.880 the crowd. Yeah, hey, right on, brother, But if you 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:30.560 are from the United States or have spent some time 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:35.440 in this country, you are going to recognize this bad boy, 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:46.400 the humble red solo cup instantly. They're at cookouts, there 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.480 are picnics, there are house parties, they're at college campuses. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:57.160 Noll Backwen, our pal Max used to work at the hospitality, 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:03.400 beverage entertainment industry. You would give people plastic cups if 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:05.080 you knew they would break a glass. 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.880 We actually had all of our rocks glasses for a 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.720 very very very long time. We're just plastic rocks glasses. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.400 It's a very large concerned effort to actually switch them 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.640 to real glass like many years later. But we also 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.760 were known for being a place that would involve some 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.200 fights and a little bit of vomit. 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:32.000 Yeah, yes, you learn who you was. Yeah, a little vomit. 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:33.680 Ben. 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.080 By the way, research associated shortened air on this particular topic. 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.799 I grew up in the shadow of a Dixie cup 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:45.600 factory in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia, where the building, 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.440 the facade of the building looks like a giant cup. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:55.960 Amazing phenomenal. Yeah, and I think there's Dixie down in Dixie. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.200 Dixie plays into this, Yes. 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.800 Very much so, Noel, you're correct. The solo cup that 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.560 you are going to see in film and fiction and 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:11.880 television shows today, it's ubiquitous, it's cheap, disposable, it's pretty 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.120 bad for the environment. It is super convenient. It's one 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.640 of those inventions we take for granted. I remember a 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.479 few episodes ago we were talking about how we all 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.400 took cups for granted. But we have to remember that 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:31.640 somebody at some point in history looked at water and said, 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:33.360 what if I could take this somewhere? 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.479 Oh, a vessel perhaps, right? Right? We were so appressed. 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.039 What if it didn't leak? Right? What if it was 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:40.800 not a sieve? 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.919 Why are we dedicating an entire episode to solo cups today? 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.719 It's because there is more to these cups that meets 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.599 the eye, the red Solo cup in particular, and it 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.280 is a brand name owned by a place called the 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:02.600 Dark Corporation. Now it has become this ambassador for American culture. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.400 It's celebrated or venerated. If we want to use that 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.880 word across the planet. How do we get there? We 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.240 got to start at the beginning. You absolutely nailed it. 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:18.000 Null. It really starts with Dixie cups. So to your point, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:24.360 Ben about you know, glassware versus disposable cups. It takes 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.520 for granted that there was a time where disposable cups 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.520 just weren't a thing, dude, not even individual cups. Maybe 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.040 at the dentist, you know, where you'd spit into something, 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.400 or like those tiny cups you'd see at the water cooler, 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.240 but it wasn't as much of an ubiquitous thing. At barbecues, 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:45.000 people would have like plastic, stacky reusable cups or glassware. 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:46.599 Way before this man. 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.000 This is one of the first ridiculous facts of the 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.839 day of this episode. Individual cups, folks, were not always 0:06:54.920 --> 0:07:01.160 a thing. It wasn't until the early twentieth century that 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:07.120 people in the United States figured out cups for yourselves. Uh, 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.600 it was common it was commonplace for the public to 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:15.520 use communal cups. They called them ten dippers. So instead 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.600 of a water fountain at your railway station or a 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:22.520 public building, there would be a barrel of standing water 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.360 and there would be a little ten thing that looks 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:27.720 like kind of a ladle exactly. 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.760 I've certainly seen that depicted in I want to say 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.240 dead would those kinds of shows, but yeah, I mean 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.880 you would literally just scoop yourself up a swig and 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.360 guzzle it down. It's a lot like what does perpetual stew? 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:48.880 Yes, Oh, distressingly so, man, because this was a pool 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.080 for all the germs. It was before the invention of 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.720 the water fountains you will see in schools and hospitals today, 0:07:55.800 --> 0:08:00.880 which people still call dirty. This stuff, this communal idea 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.920 was cheap to manufacture, but it was a disaster for 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.000 public health because think about it, all it takes is 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.840 one thirsty guy with a communicable disease to. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.960 Hit that little tin dipper, and their mouths are gross, 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:22.000 even the circumstances reminkable diseases assigned. Yeah, all it. 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:27.000 Took was one thirsty person and everybody after that person 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.680 who hit up that communal tin dipper was going to 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:36.319 be exposed to all sorts of nasty conditions. The buffins 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:40.040 of the day, like the biologists, the public health folks, 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.520 they embraced what we know as germ theory. By the 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.800 eighteen nineties they said, yeah, this is real. The things 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.320 that are too small for your eye to see can 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:59.000 transmit between you. They can kill you. Microscopic organisms, bacteria, virus, 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:06.000 but similar to the covid pandemic which continues today. Most 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:11.240 Americans in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, they 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.440 still fought against the idea. They were like, who are 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.640 these nerds? If I can't see it, if I can't 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:19.480 smell it, why would it make me sick? 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.840 Get out of here, pencil neck egghead? Get out of here. 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.920 And this is where we have on to the stage 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:31.920 of history. Strolling two brothers in law, Lawrence Llewellyn and 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.640 Hugh Moore that's his real name. I have to note 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.760 this because you know I love a dumb joke, nol 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:48.120 Hugh Hugh Moore Moore, But Hugh Moore, that's his real name. 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:50.400 Was he a funny guy? Do you think? I hope 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.000 so it was a fun guy. I hope so. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:59.800 Was his brother in law. Lawrence was a lawyer in Boston, 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:04.640 and one of Lawrence's clients was this physician. And this 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.800 physician came up and asked the same thing that you 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.480 were talking about earlier. He said, Look, I got a 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:17.400 lot of tuberculosis patients. I need easily disposable cups so 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.560 I can test their fluids or spoot them. 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.880 Jesus, yeah, man spewed them. That's sort of like the 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.920 froth that is ejected from one's lips when speaking a 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:33.400 little too robustly. Yeah, taker, shout out to Doc Holiday. Right. 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.319 So our buddy, who is again an attorney in Boston, 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:43.240 he creates this small, pleated, wax coded paper cup, and 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.880 then he further comes up with this idea of or cups, 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.520 up with this idea of a vending machine. Right, so 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.679 you put a penny in this awkward looking porcelain device, 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:59.080 it will dispense a cup made of wax coded paper 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.719 filled with cold water. This is the ancestor of the 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.000 modern dixie cup. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.040 Well, yeah, I don't. And again, those little mouthwashed cups, 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.920 the little dentist cups that we remember from our childhood, 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.640 wax coated I remember that distinct tactile sensation of a 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.439 waxy cup. I even remember scratching on him, making little 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.400 etchings or whatever. It doesn't seem like those are nearly 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.920 as popular anymore. You don't see the waxy cups as much. 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.000 Maybe in a water cooler, but even nowadays you see 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.160 more little plastic ridged cups in the water dispenser in 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:36.640 an officer like a waiting room. 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:42.080 Yeah and okay, so this guy's brother in law, Hugh 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.679 Moore never not funny name. Sorry about history there, Bud, 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.400 but he was. This guy is a pretty smart dude. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.080 He had actually moved into the neighborhood in Boston to 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.000 go to Harvard, but as soon as he learned about 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.000 this cup idea, he dropped out of one of the 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.479 best schools in the nation to help with this business, 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.240 and he got into politics. He joined the progressive movement 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.240 at the time to abolish ten dippers. 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.439 What a cost. I think we can all support that. No, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.439 no more ten dippers. It's fun to stillboards, share cups. 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:23.240 But also little self interested right, I mean absolutely was 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.600 he was lobbying. Yes, I mean he had a business 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.880 plan that would directly benefit from the abolition of the 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.200 ten dipper and it also happened to align with the 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:35.719 greater good. 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.720 Yes, happened to is the perfect phrase. It's nineteen oh 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.559 eight and the brothers in law they incorporate something they 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:49.160 call the American Water Supply Company of New England, and 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:55.000 their whole business is creating, installing, and servicing these vending 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.920 machines that will give you a paper cup of water 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.160 for one penny. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:06.240 One single penny. Writing for Canals, historian Martha Capwell Fox 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.600 put it this way. The same year, a Lafayette College 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.880 biology professor Alvin Davison published Death in School Drinking Cups 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.239 The Lurid. The title was understated compared to the results 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.719 of his study of illness and Eastern school children as 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:27.480 a result of common cup hyphenated contamination CCC. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.800 she goes on paraphrasing here. He found, Davison that classroom 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.160 cups were absolutely riddled, as you like to say, ben 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:39.600 with germs, causing everything from colds and flus to more 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.040 serious conditions that didn't even have vaccinations. I believe at 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.000 the time, things like chicken pox and diphtheria. I mean, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:50.319 we already know that schools, especially elementary and middle are 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:55.360 already breeding grounds for these kinds of illnesses, let alone 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.800 introducing shared you know, spit troughs into the. 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:06.600 Yeah, he reminds me of how every year, without fail, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:10.559 one of my friend's children will get hoof and mouth disease, 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.120 foot and mouth disease. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.360 Like, why is that a thing? This guy that we're. 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.920 Mouth humans, but foot foot mouth definitely is. 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:21.360 That's the one we're looking for. 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:28.520 And the real name of it is cocksacky virus. 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:32.640 Phones bags And he dropped in the knowledge. 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:33.080 It's just for you. 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:40.800 So good there we go, all right, what's your mouth? Right? 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:44.800 So most children, human children do not have hoofs. We 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.360 have confirmed it here for the first time. This guy, 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:56.240 this professor Alvin Davidson, found that, look, there is a problem. 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:03.560 He went to various public health institutions, various political outfits, 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:08.600 and said, you know what's really smart, This guy Llewellyn 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:14.440 has invented a vending machine with disposable paper cups. And 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.560 so state after state begins passing laws that ban those 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:25.720 shared cups, those tin dippers, and railroads start saying, hey, 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.640 if we want to look fancy, we're going to put 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.400 something like this in our passenger cars. We'll have a 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.480 closed tank of water in each car. These guys are 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.040 blowing up, dude. This is like, this is like when 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.960 podcasts became a thing. It's nineteen oh nine. The guys 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:47.840 have to move past Boston. They move their operation to 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.960 New York City, where they eventually get New York City. 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.560 But also the most clever name for any company ever, 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.080 I have to say, the Individual Drinking Cup Company. That's 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.520 almost as good as the company the Individual Drinking Cup 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.840 Company of New York's. Yea, we needed to know where 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:08.360 they were headquartered. 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.240 Right, They had to put it in the name, apparently, 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:17.160 and their business skyrockets. A few years later, they're selling 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:21.600 something they're calling the health Cup with a K, and 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.800 they make a lot of money during the influenza epidemic 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:30.600 of nineteen eighteen. But they're still not called Dixie cups. 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.960 So riddle us this know. How did they become called 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:38.880 Dixie cups? 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.880 It's kind of weird, man. I didn't know this at all, 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:50.760 but mister Moore had the idea that the term Dixie 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.760 might be a positive association to make with the cup 0:16:55.800 --> 0:17:00.400 because of the Civil War and the Dixie dollar. It 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.040 was a type of yeah currency that was used. They 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.720 called it the what is it the French French dix 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:11.480 yayya French word for ted uh huh okay. I wish 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.480 I was in Dixie. Hooray, hooray Dixie l I don't 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:16.520 know about all that, guys, but at the time it 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.919 seemed like it was gonna hit. But unfortunately there was 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.600 already a doll company. Yeah, that's right, like dolls, like 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.280 like QB Dolls, but you know, not that brand that 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.080 bore the name Dixie, the Dixie Doll Company, of course. 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.240 And so he asked the doll maker laureate there if 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.720 he could borrow the business name Dixie and use it 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:38.960 as a marketing tool, because he figured that adding that 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:45.119 very popular and zeitgeisty name word to it was going 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.800 to convey a sense of reliability, kind of finding because 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:50.439 no one only no one really talks about the Dixie 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.320 Buck anymore. But I guess at the time it was 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.359 it made sense. It would read as like, oh, this 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.040 is an old trustee that's gonna get us through the 0:17:59.040 --> 0:17:59.679 hard times. 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.240 It's kind of like naming your disposable cup old reliable. 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:06.959 Because just so they should put that in the name 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:07.560 of the company. 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.240 They should have Maybe they didn't they didn't have the 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:12.159 space to print it. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:18.160 The old reliable Dixie Cup Company of New York. Oh wow, perfect. 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:23.720 Yeah, the French issued a currency in Louisiana, or was 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.520 French language prior to the Civil War. So it's a 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.600 weird thing for our buddy Hugh Moore to seek out. 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.239 It is out of the box thinking. This is just 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:39.119 what the company needed. Their reputation as a dixie cup 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.359 grows over time, and they get this huge boost when 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:49.760 soda fountains throughout the United States introduce their own vending machines, 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:53.960 kind of automatic machines that can fill a cup with 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.160 two flavors of ice cream at. 0:18:55.960 --> 0:19:00.000 The same time. Nice. Nice, right forward to the future, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:01.639 sure a girl. 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.640 Yeah, just so, we're not at Neapolitan just yet. 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.160 But we're on the way. This is also quite soft serve, 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.000 it's not. I believe you're correct. You know, we should 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:14.800 do we should do a history of soft serve because 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:19.639 there's a lot of interesting technology and cultural significance in 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.600 soft serve. You know that really popular thing in Japan. 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.680 There's like a whole milk based soft serve. The people 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.280 are screaming about it finally made its way over here. 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.639 I would love to know about all of those things. 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:31.879 We should do it. 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.680 That's an excellent idea, Nol. We also know that there 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.800 was a new kind of cup that came along with 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.480 all these new ice cream machines. It is called the 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.680 ice cream Dixie. It's still the same cup, and the 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:51.680 Dixie brand is around today. But this is not answering 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.720 our question about the solo cups. So while the Dixie company, 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.960 or while this paper cup manufact company is blowing up, 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.480 there is a guy who works there named Leo Holsman. 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.360 It's yeah, yeah, this is our solo cup guy. By 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.919 the way, Ben, there's apparently even a historical debate on 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.439 who invented soft serve, So we've got to do it. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:18.760 We have to. There's a lot of science behind it. Sorry, 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.119 just putting that out there. It's between Tom Carvel and 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.600 Dairy Queen, the big beef, the soft served beef. So 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.720 we'll get to that in a future episode. Feels real 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:33.000 pepsi versus coke, It really does. So, as you said, Ben, 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:38.520 we've got Leo Holtzman Hoolsman entering the Chat nineteen thirty six. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.000 He ventured out on his own and founded another brilliantly 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:48.560 descriptively named paper container Manufacturing Company, not of Chicago. It 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.879 wasn't in the name, but it was in Chicago. And 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:52.760 by this point a lot of folks were trying to 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:56.160 get into the old paper cup game. There was a 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:00.000 boom time for the big cup. Yeah again like podcast. 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:04.639 During the pandemic, public opinion grew increasingly on board with 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:09.320 germ theory. Paper cups are a huge business, and their 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:14.679 business is often supported by the medical community and politicians. 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.639 So what we're saying here is if there was ever 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.919 a tin dipper communal cup lobby, they were done for 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:29.359 at this point. Holsman's the paper container Manufacturing Company. Again, 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.680 weird name. I agree with you. There they created a 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.479 signature item. It was not read, it was not round. 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.680 It was a cone, so very familiar to the kind 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.560 of cone paper you might see it a dentist office. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.840 Right. That's right, Then you really nailed it, because I 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.399 wasn't even hearkening back that far. But that's certainly you're 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.240 triggering a core memory from me because the earlier days 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:55.840 were a come. But problem there is you can't set 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:56.600 a cone. 0:21:56.320 --> 0:22:00.200 Down, no, just throw it away, right, It's a paper 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:02.520 cone for a limited time. 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.160 It was Aldso that's kind of a feature, not a bug, 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.280 isn't it. You don't want people setting them down. You 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.119 want them drinking it once and then tossing it because 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.639 it was a built in safeguard from maybe somebody accidentally 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:14.040 sharing it. 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.080 Yeah, because you can't put it on the table. God forbid, 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.959 there'd be some sketchy dude who rocks up and sees 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:26.920 a sees a paper cup of unidentified liquid and says, 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:28.320 is that tuberculosis? 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.920 Spit mary over right? But you know it's funny. Then 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:38.000 those paper cones did still get some use at places 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:42.439 like diners who invented these little little cone holder things. 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:44.960 So you'd have a cone full of say French fries 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.320 or even a moll and it would be in one 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:49.040 of these paper cones, and then the cone would go 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.200 in these weird little little uh what do you call 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.520 it caddies kind of you know, okay, yeah, kind of 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:59.880 defeats the purpose a little bit. Yeah, that's maybe that's 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.840 discussion for another. It's a good way to serve fries. 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:08.680 Also, we have to emphasize that these little guys, these 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:13.879 cone cups, they were called solo cups first, meaning cups 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.280 you don't have to share with strangers, just for you, 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:18.600 just for you. 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.679 This Solo cups, Solo Dolo and Solo You. 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:26.520 And so Solo went on to make other innovations. They 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:31.320 made disposable coffee cups. They made the cups that you 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:35.479 will see in movie theaters, fast food restaurants. So if 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.840 you go to a theater and you get a medium soda, 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:41.119 or you go to a fast food place and you 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:45.000 order a drink with your combo meal, you'll see that 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:49.960 the inner and outer lining is wax. That's the Solo cup. 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:52.600 Guys. They're the ones who figured that out. But it 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:57.119 wasn't until the nineteen seventies that Leo's son, Robert Leo Hoolseman, 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:02.840 decided to do a little bit of rebranding because you know, 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:05.480 when we think of the Solo cup, we always think 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:10.280 of the quintessentially fire engine red version. Kim Healy, who 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:14.320 is the VP of Consumer Business for Solo in twenty eleven, 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:18.520 actually admits that the history might be considered a little 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:21.399 bit sketchy, a little bit of a gray area. However, 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:24.480 the company does maintain we know we were one of 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:28.480 the first to introduce a party cup, so making it right, 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:31.560 was just making it fun. It's a fun cup, a 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:35.320 party cup that sounds so crazy. I have a party. 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:39.440 We've been in a lot of situations, folks, the three 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:42.760 of us over the years, and we have walked into 0:24:42.800 --> 0:24:46.240 places where someone says, oh, do you have your badge, 0:24:46.640 --> 0:24:50.680 do you have your bracelet or whatever, here's your party cup. 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:53.440 We've been in those situations. 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:53.960 Well. 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:57.960 The funny thing about these these cups as well, Ben, 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:02.760 is they're practically I mean, are you not supposed to 0:25:02.800 --> 0:25:05.520 dishwash them? I feel like they're not gonna melt if 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:10.280 they're top dishwasher top top exactly. They're top rack. 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:13.480 So I mean, it's sort of like they're becoming less 0:25:13.520 --> 0:25:17.760 disposable at this point, but it's more a product of 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:20.680 consumerism that they're still considered disposable. 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:24.639 It's interesting. It's just sort of a cheap plastic cup 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:27.920 that is fun looking, right. 0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:33.000 Steve Stevenson, writing for Slate back in twenty eleven, describes 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:37.520 it as the Sherman Tank of disposable mealware. It is 0:25:37.600 --> 0:25:42.680 made of a thick, molded, specific type of polystyrene, and 0:25:43.080 --> 0:25:45.360 it gets uh, let's just. 0:25:45.320 --> 0:25:47.640 Give you the pack. Oh he's good. This is good writing. 0:25:47.440 --> 0:25:51.680 Okay, so he says, quote, the Sulu party cup could 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:54.720 be squeezed in meadi frat guy pauls it could be 0:25:54.760 --> 0:25:58.320 dropped to the ground by tipsy high school cheerleaders and 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:03.360