# ground off hy



## madman (Jun 12, 2006)

hey gang heres a wierd one,
 i believe the ace hy brand name was changed to ace beverages, and they used the old ace hy bottles, somone painstaknly ground off the HY on the bottles to be used again for ace, my buddy found one from the miller becker co. cleveland oh. i found  one today that reads the electro pure bottling works toledo ohio   mike


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## madman (Jun 12, 2006)

close up


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## capsoda (Jun 12, 2006)

Hey Mike, It's always cool to find bottles with a story. I guess the bottles could make or break the company. We had a bottler here who ordered six different bottles and two were in teal. That is what sank his company. He ordered too many before he ever opened the doors and could never make enough money to pay them off.


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## JayBeck (Jul 27, 2010)

Rather than start a new post about this bottle, I dug up this post from a few years ago hoping someone here now might have some additional info. I just found one of these from Cleveland and was wondering if it was just the name change or what had happened. Even more interesting to see they did the same thing in Toledo. I wonder if they got sued or something for using the name or they just wanted to change it but it seems like a lot of effort to grind the HY off all those bottles for no good reason.


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## celerycola (Jul 27, 2010)

I've seen a lot of these with the Hy ground off.

 Ace Hy was a brand of fruit-flavored beverages owned by Miller-Becker of Cleveland and bottled there and other towns as franchises. They were sued by Nehi due to the similar name and had to remove Hy from the bottles as a result. Later bottles were embossed simply Ace.

 This wasn't the first time Miller-Becker found themselves in a trademark battle. Around 1910 they bottled a drink called Cola-Coke that was sued by Coca-Cola. After that they bottled My-Coca which was sued by Coca-Cola. In 1920 they got the franchise for Taka-Kola (based in Richmond VA) which was sued by Coca-Cola in a landmark suit that set a precedent for years.


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## JayBeck (Jul 27, 2010)

Thanks for the info! I suspected that something like that had happened. You mention later bottles being embossed only with Ace but I can't think of one that I have seen other than the amber squat Ace Ginger Beer. Is there a bottle like the clear Ace Hy out there that just has Ace? I have a few different Miller-Becker bottles but now I really want a Cola-Coke and Taka-Cola. I've seen the My Coca before but I don't have that one from Cleveland.


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## celerycola (Jul 27, 2010)

There is an embossed Ace like the ground off bottle. I've seen a lot that were never ground.

 Miller Becker put out a chocolate drink in the same shape bottle, except 6 oz and amber, for Victoria Chocolate with the queens face embossed. I've had a couple of those.

 I have the Cleveland My-Coca. I have never seen the bottles for Cola-Coke and Taka-Kola from Cleveland - only other towns.

 If you're going to the National Bottle Show in Ohio August 7th look me up. I'll have lots of sodas on my table.


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## bottleopop (Jul 27, 2010)

There's also the Faygo Ace Beverages bottle with almost the same design.  I don't know what the relationship in the Miller-Becker timeline is.  Here's a picture from this forum.


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## carling (Jul 28, 2010)

Here's a photo of the amber Miller Becker chocolate drink "Victoria Chocolate" that celerycola mentioned above.

 And its green cousin by Miller Becker, "Victoria Extra Dry Ginger Ale".

 Rick


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## carling (Jul 28, 2010)

embossing close-up


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## madman (Jul 28, 2010)

nice bottles the electro pure bottling works of toledo ohio had the same bottles!


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## celerycola (Jul 28, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

Taka-Kola and Old Dominion Beverage Co actually preceded the eight-sided Pepsi bottle in Richmond. Taka-Kola started in 1917 and was sued by Coca-Cola with the case coming to federal court in 1920. The judgment called for the removal of the Taka-Kola name from all advertising which included grinding the name from the bottles. They tried to continue as Takola but that effort was blocked by the court in 1921 causing Old Dominion to cease operations.

 When Roy Megargel rescued Pepsi from its first bankruptcy in 1921 he bought the defunct Taka-Kola plant at Richmond as his headquarters. He used the ground off Taka-Kola bottles temporarily until he was able to get a shipment of new eight sided bottles with Pepsi embossed.


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## cobaltbot (Jul 28, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

Thanks for the info!


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## JayBeck (Jul 28, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

I've been reading some old posts and found one from Madman that had a picture of an Ace bottle so I thought I would add it here since it is relevant


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## celerycola (Jul 29, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

Circa 2910 wagon for Miller Becker and Coca-Coke in Cleveland


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## celerycola (Jul 30, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

Miller Becker's Victoria Chocolate bottle design patent.


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## carling (Jul 30, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

Nice pictures, Dennis!

 Rick


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## carling (Aug 11, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

Here's two more Ace bottles by Miller-Becker, one with Ace only, and the other with the Ace Hy.  Ginger Beer bottles......


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## carling (Aug 11, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

And a Miller-Becker cardboard sign, maybe 1920's.  Not in the greatest shape, I'll probably cut off some of the right side of it and stick it in a frame.


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## carling (Oct 11, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

Had to add this photo.  Just picked up this crate from a friend who had it stashed away in his attic.  It's dated 1937.


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## carling (Oct 11, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

.


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## wonkapete (Oct 11, 2010)

*RE: ground off Taka-Kola*

I don't want to hijack madman's thread, but this ground off label made me think of a Lime Cola I've been planning to research.  Anyone know anything about the Las Vegas Lime Cola's label being ground off?  I purchased a group of bottles a while back and one of the Lime Colas was from Las Vegas.  "Lime Cola" had been ground off the front.  No big deal, I thought it was someone just playing around.  Well, I then came across this one for sale:  http://www.colacorner.com/licolasvene1.html

 So, this plant must have done all the bottles like that.  I know Bob Hope and somebody were investers back around this time in Lime Cola.  Then the deal went sour.  Not sure if there's a connection or what.  Just strange they'd just do all the fronts like this because 'Lime Cola' is still written on the back.  Anybody know the story?


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