THE CASE: I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about the Silver King Beverage Co. I own this bottle and I’d love to know the story behind it. — Sharon Butler, Winlaw
THE INVESTIGATION: It’s not well remembered, but soda companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola used to license bottling of their products to franchisees, which often made their own brands as well.
In 1926, the McDonald Jam Co. of Nelson diversified by acquiring the local franchises for Coca-Cola and Orange Crush and bottling their own ginger ale. They continued in the pop business after they stopped making jam in 1953.
In 1961, McDonald’s foreman Lloyd Galbraith and Len Cutler bought the business, now the site of the Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences, and changed the name to Silver King Beverages. Within a year, Len’s son Noel bought Galbraith out.
Their franchise covered the East and West Kootenays — lots of territory with a limited population, Noel says. They had about a dozen employees.
Silver King-brand pop was only bottled for a few years in the early-to-mid-‘60s.
“It was a whole line of flavours. Not only ginger ale but cream soda, orange, and grape,” Noel says. “Then Coca Cola came out with Sprite and Tab — what they called Diet Coke back then — and their Fanta line of flavours. We had to quit manufacturing our own.”
Around 1968, the Cutlers built a modern bottling plant on Lake Street, after tearing down two former brothels.
“There was a fairly large structure at 608 that had many, many rooms in it,” Noel says. “And then 612 had a smaller house in the middle of the property. I have the parlour light in my summer cottage at Christina Lake out of 612.”
The Cutlers continued with the bottling works until 1973, when they sold to George Wood, who was part of the Ferraro/Super Valu family. He changed the name to Columbia Beverages, and later sold to an Okanagan concern.
In the 1980s, Columbia amalgamated with a bottling plant in Trail and moved to various locations, including Ymir Road and the present Front Street Emporium. Civic directories show the company existed until around 2000, although by that point it would have been exclusively a distributor. It’s not clear when the bottling business ceased.
In 2002, someone in Trail listed a wood crate from Silver King Beverages on eBay, but it didn’t sell. In February of this year, another Silver King bottle went on eBay for $12.
Noel Cutler says he didn’t save any bottles himself: “I’m sure there’s quite a few kicking around somewhere, but I didn’t keep any mementos.”
Today the former bottling plant at 608 Lake Street is the youth centre.
Got a local history mystery? Put our sleuth on the case: reporter2(at)nelsonstar.com