Coca-Cola Coolers

Some great photos here from the Vintage Vending archives. These pictures are from a Coca Cola salesman’s book of coolers he sold in California in the late 30’s early 40’s. It looks like after the cooler was on location he took some pictures and put them in a scrapbook.

He recorded the name of the business and the address on the page with the picture. All of the Coca-Cola coolers are Westinghouse models but the coolers are not the most interesting things in the photos.

Along with the cooler are great pictures of Gilmore and Texaco gas stations, grocery stores, factories and more. The pictures offer a glimpse of life in Southern California a long time ago. If you live in California and are familiar with the addresses it would be interesting to write in and tell us what is on that location now or if any of the businesses are still around. Hope you enjoy them.

They can also be viewed and downloaded from our PDF library.

Alpha Beta Market Display 116 E. Chapman Ave. Orange, CA

Baxter Crowe 590 Coast Blvd. So. Laguna, CA

Brock Glass Co. Ltd. 202 Santa Fe Santa Ana CA

Don Hobbs 1001 S. Spadra Rd. Fullerton, CA

Preston & Cox 405 D. St. Tustin, CA Grocery Store

The Careful Laundry 1606 S. Main Santa Ana CA

Alpha Beta Market 116 E. Chapman Ave. Orange, CA

Arch Beach Market 1910 S. Coast Laguna, CA

Arch Beach Market 1910 S. Coast Laguna, CA Photo 2

Balboa Yacht Basin Balboa Island, CA

Chiksan Tool Co. 330 N. Pomona Ave. Brea, CA

Edwards Brothers Gas Station 102 N. Broadway Santa Ana CA

Frank Angel 17th & Green Leaf Santa Ann, CA

George Gelser 520 Ocean Blvd. Huntington Beach, CA Texaco Gas Station

Hiway Garage 1749 Newport Blvd Costa MESA, CA Gilmore Gas Station

I. D. Wallingford Bolsa, CA Grocery Store

J. E. Tracy 212 W. Central La Habra, CA Grocery Store

James Flying Service at Fullerton Airport Fullerton, CA

McCoy Mills 124 W. Commonwealth Fullerton, CA

Patton & Oman 400 D St. Tustin, CA Gilmore Gas Station

R. E. Doss 17th & Greenleaf Santa Ana, CA Macmillan Gas Station

Ray Berney 323 S. Spadra Rd. Fullerton, CA

Towner Manufacturing Co. 2111 W. 17th St. Santa Ana CA

Withers Brothers Packing House Placentia, CA

 Coca-Cola Truck and Car Paint Schemes

Coca Cola did not become one of the worlds most recognized brands by accident. From day one they spent lots of time and money developing their identity. Every year or when needed the company would put out standardization bulletins covering how everything with the Coca-Cola name should look. The Coca-Cola logo & look needed to be the same worldwide on everything. Stationary, checks, uniforms and of course trucks. Trucks were and still are an important way for Coca-Cola to advertise. Here are some pages from two different years, 1957 and 1948 on how Coca Cola trucks and cars should be painted. Hope you enjoy them.

To view larger photos and to print, please visit our PDF Library under Vintage Vending Archives

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1948

Coca-Cola Truck Painting Standard Scheme

Coca-Cola Standard Truck Body Paint Theme

Coke 1948 Car Painting

1957 Coca-Cola Truck Paint Scheme

1957 Coca-Cola Truck Paint Scheme #2

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1957 #3

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1957 #4

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1957 #5

Coca-Cola Car Painting 1957

Choosing A 1950’s Classic Soda Machine To Restore

Back when we were in the restoration business the items we restored most were soda machines. The model we restored most often was the Coca Cola Vendo 81. The reasons that made it our best seller are the same reasons you should consider it if you are planning on spending the time and money to restore an old soda machine.

A little background. The Vendo 81 was manufactured between 1954 and 1959. We are talking about the round top mechanical coin mechanism models here. Vendo used the 81 model number into the sixties but those machines have square tops and electrical coin mechanisms and are not as desirable as the 1950’s machines. The number 81, like most old soda machines, refers to the number of bottles the machine can hold.

Why an 81 ?

Size - The Vendo 81 is a relatively small machine measuring 58H x 27W x 16D and weighs in at 286 lb… Compared to the monsters you see these days it is tiny and fits nicely in your home or office.

Variety - The Vendo 81 has nine shelves so you can have up to nine different flavors to choose from when you open that glass bottle door. Most early Coke machines vend one size bottle and flavor and that is Coke.

Versatility - The shelves on the 81 are adjustable so you can fit different sized bottles including long neck beer bottles. Most early Coke machines vend one size bottle and that is the 6.5 oz. bottle of you guessed it Coke.

Esthetics - It is a great looking machine.

Now if all you drink is Coca Cola and you want to restore a single selection model such as the Vendo 44 or 39 that would be fine except that Coca Cola recently changed the size of the 6.5 oz bottles and they won’t vend in the old machines.

Vendo produced three different 81 models.

The 81A which was painted all red and had a smaller version of the Coca Cola embossing as the next model the 81B.

The 81B’s embossing on the front was much bigger and looks much more proportioned. It was painted in the familiar two color scheme White top, about a quarter of the machine, separated with a strip of chrome trim with the lower section in red. Both models have what is referred to as a small coin door.

The 81D is the newest model, large embossing on the front, two tone paint scheme but it has what is referred to as a large coin door. This was needed because the coin mechanism was able to give change so it was larger and more complex.

What happened to the 81 C ? Not sure, for some reason Vendo skipped over the C.

Vendo 81’s are getting harder to find but not impossible. Look for a good solid machine with no major dents and rust. The money you think you are saving buying a beat up machine you will spend on extra body work and paint. It should be complete also, some parts are impossible to find.

If Coca Cola is not your thing the 81 is also available in Pepsi, Royal Crown, 7-Up and a generic ( non embossed ) that was used by Dr. Pepper. These machine were manufactured by VMC. They are virtually the same machine with only slight differences. Not sure what the connection was between the two companies. Keep in mind that VMC 81’s are significantly more expensive with the 7-Up and Royal Crown machines being very rare.