Losing Dr Pepper

Time was, in the 1880s, when a pharmacist would concoct his own soft drinks. Charles Courtice Alder, at the Old Corner Drug in Waco, came up with a popular combination of fruit extracts and sweeteners. So popular that the store’s owner, Wade Morrison, named it after a physician and pharmacist he’d once worked for in Virginia named Dr. Charles T. Pepper.

In 1898, the Southwestern Soda Fountain Company of Dallas bought the rights to the soft drink and renamed itself the Dr Pepper Company. The product sold very well until the early 1980s. The company began looking for a buyer. It turned out to be Forstmann and Little, a New York investment banking firm, (on this date in 1984) whose chosen managers had, within a year, established Dr Pepper as the third most popular soft drink in America. Corporate headquarters remained in Dallas. But manufacturing, after a merger with the Seven Up Company, moved to St. Louis, MO. Now all that Waco has is the Dr Pepper Museum. By the way, there’s been no period after the Dr in Dr Pepper since 1950.