# Lucky Strike Bottling Works Ltd. Vancouver B.C.



## Canadacan (Dec 23, 2018)

I'm telling this story as best I can in honor of Bob Williamson the son of Bill Williamson co founder of Lucky Strike Bottling Works limited. Some of this information is from email correspondence with Bob, some of it is my research to fill in a few blanks, as with much research we often find details that are missing from the original story but most of this is pretty much to the point.
While it is sad this business venture came to an end for Bill and his son Bob, but what blossomed from that was the start of the Shasta Beverages Ltd company and the birth of canned soda pop in western Canada, that too is one of the greatest stories to be told that I hope to eventually tell.


Lucky Strike Bottling Works Ltd. Vancouver B.C.

 This short lived company was formed in the summer of 1937 by Jack Christensen and Bill Williamson. The first location was at 214 W Broadway for a couple of years and later moved to 26th & Main, the final location was at 2120 Kingsway...I believe that was approxemently 1946 or so. They were a Mission Orange bottler and at the time when located at Kingsway the building had a fantastic neon sign! (see photo)

 Around 1952-54 they canned their house brand (I believe it was a house brand) Lucky Strike in cone top cans which were sent all across B.C. to various fish canneries, mining camps, and logging camps. This was a good way to supply product in a throw away container as previously they shipped a lot of product in returnable bottles from Steveston by boat  but it became too costly thus necessitated a more economical method, which was the cone top can!

The beginning of the end as told by the son of Bill, whom also worked for the company, that Jack's sons (also worked for them) and did not see eye to eye, and quarrelled quite a bit so Bill allowed himself to be bought out and the business suffered as a result until they finally went broke. Bob recalled that was around 1957, but newsprint articles from May 1964 show the ordered Tender sale of the assets, including property, bottling line, compressors, washers, bottles...everything including the bottling rights to Mission Orange. So I guess the company did struggle along for a while longer than remembered.
Bill left the company to start on another venture at around 1955-56 that company became Shasta Beverages Limited, Vancouver B.C. ,So the
 story does not end here though...but that's for another time!



Lucky Strike Bottling 2120 Kingsway, Vancouver B.C. -Check out that Mission Beverages bottle sign!








Bottom left Jack Christensen and Bill Williamson is center, son's of Jack bottom right Clyde and above him is Lyle.







Far left is Jack Christensen and Bill Williamson is far right.








Far left is Bill Williamson and far right is Jack Christensen






Bill Williamson







Here is a nice photo of the fleet!



























The phone number on the truck matches the address for 195 E 26 & Main so I believe this photo to be from the 1940-47 time frame.

















Lucky Strike Incorporation- The Vancouver Sun, 13 Aug 1937













Lucky Strike-Mission orange-The Vancouver Sun, 17 Jul 1952. 





The Chilliwack Progress, 12 Jun 1957









Lucky Strike-Mission Beverages- The Vancouver Sun, 10 Aug 1961. This seemed like

an odd advertising for the Glass Can which was a neckless NDNR bottle more commonly

used by breweries in the USA at the time.







And this is one part of four describing the assets being sold off.

Lucky Strike-forclosure1-The Vancouver Sun, 02 May 1964, Sat.









And here are the few items that I have from Lucky Strike, I'd sure love to find a carton and maybe a crate one day!


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## bottle-bud (Dec 23, 2018)

Great Story! Wow, It would have been really cool to see that Mission sign in your first picture lit up. I wonder if it survived?


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## shotdwn (Dec 23, 2018)

Super story on the history of this company. I love the old photos. Can't wait to hear the Shasta part of the story.


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 23, 2018)

This is some great research!  I've got, or at least once had, a wooden Lucky Strike crate.  I'm not sure if it survived one of our disastrous moves.  It was built like the ones in the photo but rather than having "Lucky Strike Bottling Works Limited" just said "LUCKY STRIKE" in big block letters.


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 23, 2018)

Actually this has inspired me to go look for it and I found it almost immediately.  I remembered wrong, it actually is very close to one of the crates from the photo but is quite badly worn so all that remains is "Lucky Strike". Looks like there used to be more though.  I'll get a photo up later tonight.


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## Canadacan (Dec 23, 2018)

CB thanks!...yea that'd be great to see it!


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 23, 2018)

Here's the crate.  It's not much to look at, but at least it's still partially legible.  This one has definitely seen better days.


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## Canadacan (Dec 23, 2018)

CanadianBottles said:


> Here's the crate.  It's not much to look at, but at least it's still partially legible.  This one has definitely seen better days.



Oh yea nice!..just too bad it's worn off. So it looks to be the same as the one on Bill's shoulder. One thing I could never confirm is if Lucky Strike had any relation to the USA Lucky Strike Beverages.
All that history or knowledge is with Bill and Jack.


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 23, 2018)

It's not quite the same one, the font on mine is more widely spaced apart.  The crate design is the same though.  As for the US Lucky Strike I really doubt they're related, since the US one seemed to be primarily a Ginger Ale brand whereas the Canadian one was a line of different flavours.  "Lucky Strike" seemed to be a fairly common brand name in those days anyway, since it was one of the most popular brands of cigarettes at the time.  
Do you have a picture of a "Glass Can"?  I've tried searching it up and came up empty.  I also wonder if there are any surviving examples of Lucky Strike house brand bottles.  I imagine if they ever existed they would have just had paper labels.


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## Canadacan (Dec 23, 2018)

Yup I see that now on the crate, and the ends have strips on yours. I was doing some digging and it shows Lucky Strike (USA) in the 40's had ginger ale, cola, root beer, orange and strawberry. 
Lucky Strike Vancouver did do Mission Beverages in cone tops, orange, cola, and ginger ale... so who knows what the product was in the Lucky Strike cones, but I'm sure they did their own mixing of concentrates for it.
I don't know if they bottled it or not and have never seen a paper label for it, the crowns with the horseshoe on it do exist but are quite rare! 
As for a glass cans I'm about to show you, even though they are no deposit no return they are referred to as a glass cans, 12oz and just a bit higher that a steel can.
In fact they much more resemble a cone top can!


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 23, 2018)

Ah I was wondering if that was what it was referring to, or if it was something with a wider mouth.  I don't think I've ever seen those used for a Canadian product, that'd be an interesting one to find if any of the Lucky Strikes are still out there.
Now that you mention it I have a vague memory of once seeing a crown with a horseshoe on it, are the bottles a plain design with a white ACL?


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## Canadacan (Dec 23, 2018)

I've never seen a Canadian soda in one of those, that's what really struck me as odd. If you fefer to the ad it says 'LOOK FOR MISSION BEVERAGES' … so at this point they weren't doing anything with an in house brand. I think those USA bottles did have white labels on plain bottles.


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## Canadacan (Dec 23, 2018)

Pouring over the archives and the earliest mention so far of Lucky Strike for the USA is 1951 and it's actually the Lucky Strike Ginger Ale Co.
So I'm leaning ever further that any affiliation was possible.

Lucky Strike orange- New Hampshire- Nashua Telegraph, 23 Jan 1951.


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## Canadacan (Dec 24, 2018)

Ok I found an add from 1950, same newspaper as above post, it's pretty lengthy to post but it is describing the day to day operations of the company and the founder Joseph Simoneau went on to say he started the company 28 years ago! so that's 1922 then, strange I have not found too many ads for the company.
And an interesting twist I found a photo of a waxed carton for quart bottles, not flavor specific...but the amazing part is the statement 'Reg US Pat off and Canada'.
So there is a possible connection....but at this point I'm still grasping!...lol


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 24, 2018)

Oh that's interesting!  1922 is really early, I'm surprised I've never seen any earlier sign of it as well.  I wonder if maybe they were operating under a different name then?  Or maybe it grew out of an earlier franchise?
As for the box, do you know which of the Lucky Strikes it came from?  There could be a connection, but it seems so odd for the US one to be based in New Hampshire and the Canadian one to be based in BC.  Maybe they registered their logo in both countries in anticipation of a possible expansion?


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## Canadacan (Dec 25, 2018)

Yea it's a strange thing, the distance that is. There was also a Lucky Strike in many places in California...the ads running in the 50's, but it seems that it was a grocery store chain brand, Lucky Cardinal Division and Cardinal was a division of Lucky Stores Inc., so I can't see that being any connection.
Found this advertisement that mentions it was sold in Canada...but this still doesn't confirm that it was any affiliation.

Lucky Strike Beverages-New Hampshire-Nashua Telegraph, 07 Jun 1951, Thu, Page 21


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## Canadacan (Dec 27, 2018)

Jumping back to the Brand name it's self all I had ever seen in Canada were the 12oz cone tops. But I found this very interesting!...they did bottle the brand as well! 
So far this is the earliest ad was for 1939, offering ginger ale in pints...which is such an oddball size equating to about a 20oz?, a small quart I guess...but there it is!
Apple Beverage is the only other product I've seen in the papers. I would love to see what a Vancouver label looked like!....it's killing me not to see one!..lol

Lucky Strike- Surrey Leader, 20 Dec 1939, Wed, Page 6



The next ad I found was from 1944 for Apple Beverage.
Lucky Strike- The Vancouver Sun, 17 Jul 1944, Mon, Page 5




And still rolling along in 1952 right up there with Gurd's!...this time in big 30oz er!
Lucky Strike-The Vancouver Sun, 10 Dec 1952, Wed, Page 14


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## Canadacan (Dec 29, 2018)

Here is another advertisement again from 1944 for the apple beverage, I like how it mentions that it's made with B.C. apples.
The bottle label however does not depict a horse shoe like I was hoping. 

Lucky Strike- The Vancouver Sun, 05 Sep 1944, Tue, Page 5


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 29, 2018)

Oh that ad with the picture of the label is great!  I'm guessing that was something like the modern day sparkling apple juice?  I really wish we could find a surviving bottle!  And the line about "New England and Canada" cements my thinking that the two brands are unrelated.  I imagine that if they were starting to engage in franchising they would have mentioned it in that piece, and if they had a franchise option they probably wouldn't talk about serving customers directly.


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## Canadacan (Jan 1, 2019)

Something interesting...and a pretty strong connection, was the fact that the side of the Lucky Strike Bottlers truck has the wording Lucky Strike Lime ______? <Rickey.
The truck photo is from c1940-47
Now I discover this ad for????...yes Lime Ricky!...the ad is dated 1944. Now I know it's still not concrete evidence but by no means is this a big stretch either.





Lucky Strike- Lime Rickey- The Vancouver Sun, 21 Dec 1944, Thu, Page 15




[SUB]Just to touch on something worthy of noting was that the USA Lucky Strike had a full flavor line as per this section of article....love that Canada-styled Cream Soda!
Lucky Strike- USA- Nashua Telegraph, 27 Jul 1951.
[/SUB]


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## Canadacan (Apr 15, 2020)

It was pretty nice to finally ad the famous Mission Beverages quart from Lucky Strike Bottling Works, Vancouver B.C.
So this one is dated 1944, and I noticed it has 'Under Licence of Mission Dry Corporation' ...it was changed to 'Authority' at some point, what year that took place I'm not sure because my next earliest one is a 1955 6.5 oz. that already has 'Authority'. I'm assuming there are white label 10 and 6.5 oz with 'Licence'.


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## CanadianBottles (Apr 15, 2020)

That's a great find!  I'm not sure if I ever knew this one existed or not, but if I did I'd definitely forgotten.  I don't think I've ever seen a quart Mission bottle before at all, let alone one marked from BC.


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## Canadacan (Apr 15, 2020)

CanadianBottles said:


> That's a great find!  I'm not sure if I ever knew this one existed or not, but if I did I'd definitely forgotten.  I don't think I've ever seen a quart Mission bottle before at all, let alone one marked from BC.


Yeah not one that shows up very often, I had noticed on another soda page one post was showing a dig spot with lots of Giant soda's 16oz and many white label Missions like 20-30 of them, but no quarts!


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## SKjugcollector (Apr 16, 2020)

What a great bottle.
Fits right in with that amassing collection of yours.


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## Canadacan (Apr 25, 2020)

Here's an ad I recently acquired it's from June 12th 1957, I can't be positive this was the actual year of release because my interview with the former owners son suggested it was in 1952-53 that they started bottling in cans. I wonder about the ad too because they don't show the 'Strike Up'.
 From my research the latest ad for this product was at Safeway stores in june 1958


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## hemihampton (Apr 25, 2020)

Nice Ad, first time I seen that Ad. At one time I had all 6 flavors in real nice grade 1 or 1- shape. Don't have a pic of them unfortunately. There was a guy in Canada that had a find of them in a dump in Canada many years ago, about 20 years ago. I had 3 sets of all 6. sold 2 sets the worst condition sets at the Dearborn Michigan BCCA Canvention for $200 each set of 6. Sold my nicer set for $900 a few years later. LEON.


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## Canadacan (Apr 25, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> Nice Ad, first time I seen that Ad. At one time I had all 6 flavors in real nice grade 1 or 1- shape. Don't have a pic of them unfortunately. There was a guy in Canada that had a find of them in a dump in Canada many years ago, about 20 years ago. I had 3 sets of all 6. sold 2 sets the worst condition sets at the Dearborn Michigan BCCA Canvention for $200 each set of 6. Sold my nicer set for $900 a few years later. LEON.



Thanks @hemihampton , yes you know what it means to get an ad like that for a local guy, first Lucky Strike ad I've seen as well.
Yeah I spoke to a lady two years ago about a cream soda and cola she sold back in 2002. Both cans in mint condition, the cream soda sold for $3400 USD!!!!..the cola she said went for less being more common....I believe it was just over $2000 on that one.
I'm not sure how deep collectors pockets are today? but I'd suspect a mint can will not be less than $1500.


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## hemihampton (Apr 26, 2020)

$3,400 sounds like way to much to me at any point in time. I wish I knew people with that kind of money, I've had super rare mint cans I could barely give away.


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## Canadacan (Jun 8, 2022)

Well it's been over two years with nothing new, until this week!
I just received what is thought amongst a handful of collectors to be the first example of an early intact Lucky Strike 30oz quart!
After another review of this brand with a fellow collector we are both of the opinion that there is no connection with the USA brand.

So about the bottle! The shoulder is embossed on two sides with a circle and Lucky Strike within it. This example is dated April 4 1939, that's pretty early considering the company incorporated Aug 1937. The base has a horseshoe and the L S embossed.









This ad is from 1944 and seems to depict the same bottle, less the shoulder embossing.





A ginger ale label that is in the same style as the one on the ad.


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## CanadianBottles (Jun 8, 2022)

Wow, I never would have expected that there would be an embossed Lucky Strike out there!  I'm surprised that it managed to go so long without showing up.


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## acls (Jun 8, 2022)

That Mission sign on top of the bottling plant in the very first post is amazing.  I also would love to have tried a Lucky Strike Apple.


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## Donas12 (Jun 8, 2022)

Congrats that’s a great addition! Really like the embossing on the neck and base. Great history on Lucky Strike… thanks for posting.


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## Canadacan (Jun 9, 2022)

CanadianBottles said:


> Wow, I never would have expected that there would be an embossed Lucky Strike out there!  I'm surprised that it managed to go so long without showing up.


Yes it's been hiding out! So a friend had contacted about 5 Vancouver area diggers and 3 had responded they never seen or dug one, and one responded that he had dug only a couple but they were broken. So at this point it seems to be a pretty scarce bottle.....at 83 years of age!...lol


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