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Dr Pepper has a great history and none of it is true...

In any event, here is the folklore. Back in 1885, a young pharmacist named Wade Morrison was working in a drug store in his home town of Rural Retreat, Virginia (the drug store closed in 1994). Like many pharmacists, the young Mr. Morrison gave his hand at formulating a new soda fountain syrup. He created a soft drink from a blend of 23 flavors that had an absolutely wonderful flavor whose individual components could not be determined by taste. Now, Mr. Morrison was quite happy in that this new syrup formula provided him with the solution to a problem. You see, the young Mr. Morrison was in love with the boss's daughter and he was sure that his boss did not approve of the relationship. He decided to name his new soft drink after his boss in an attempt to gain favor, and Dr. Pepper was invented. It didn't work. Dr. Pepper still would not approve of the relationship, and he even fired poor Morrison. Morrison eventually moved out West to Texas, and sold his soft drink in the town of Waco. Morrison would eventually meet another woman and get married, but Dr. Pepper's daughter would always be his first true love. (Other versions say Morrison and Dr. Pepper's daughter eloped to Texas).

The above story is pretty cool, but none of it is true. Here is the real story (it's almost as good as the folklore). In 1885, Charles Alderton was a pharmacist at the Morrison's Old Country Drug Store in Waco, Texas. Mr. Alderton was the person experimenting with different flavors, and he was the one who invented Dr. Pepper (not Morrison).  However, Mr. Morrison (the owner of the drug store) was the one who named Alderton's new soft drink. Morrison had worked for a Dr. Charles Pepper, but he was not in love with Dr. Pepper's daughter as she was only about 8 years old when he left Virginia. Morrison probably chose the name Dr. Pepper because it allowed him to pay tribute to the first person to give him a job, the name had a nice ring to it, and it was common practice to include "Dr." in a drinks title. (The period was dropped from Dr. Pepper in the 1950s).

The patrons at Morrison's drug store fell in love with Dr. Pepper (it's a love story after all). It was not long before the whole town of Waco seemed to be stopping by Morrison's Drug Store to sample the new beverage. Other drug store owners started buying the syrup from Alderton and Morrison, and eventually the demand became so large that syrup production out grew the little drug store. Morrison found a solution to this problem by bottling Dr. Pepper.

The first bottler of Dr. Pepper was a man named S. H. Prim. He owned a bottling plant in nearby Dublin, Texas, and that bottling plant still exists today. Not only do they still exist, but they still even bottle Dr. Pepper with 100% pure cane sugar. (You can order Dr Pepper made with 100% pure cane sugar from their website www.drpep.com). However, it was a young bottler named Robert S. Lazenby that helped Dr Pepper reach national proportions.

Lazenby owned The Circle "A" Ginger Ale Company in Waco, and greatly admired the new soft drink being produced by Morrison. Lazenby and Morrison formed a partnership in which Morrison would provide the formula, trademarks, and good will of current customers, and Lazenby would provide facilities, labor for bottling, and distribution. It appears Alderton was more interested in pharmacy than soft drinks, and he seems to fade into history. S. H. Prim, the first Dr Pepper bottler, would remain a small concern known for quality -- in 1922 he was offered his choice of any franchise territory he wanted, but he turned it down.

Dr Pepper's big break came in 1904, at the World's Fair Exposition in St. Louis. This was the same World's Fair that saw the introduction of the ice cream cone, and hamburgers and hot dogs served on buns. Nearly 20 million people attended the World's Fair and were able to sample Dr Pepper for the first time. Morrison and Lazenby would make their partnership a formal arrangement by forming the Artesian Mfg. & Bottling Company. In 1923, they would move the company to Dallas, and a year later they would change the name of the company to the Dr Pepper Company. By 1946 it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1984, Dr Pepper excepted an offer of $22-per-share by Forstmann Little & Company, and once again became a private company. In 1986 Coca-Cola was negotiating the purchase of Dr Pepper, and at the same time PepsiCo was in the midst of purchasing 7up. However, the FTC stepped in and said "NO!" Apparently, they felt that this would result in an anticompetitive environment. So, a Dallas investment firm, Hicks and Hass, decided that they would buy both companies, and in 1988 the Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Company was formed. In 1995 the Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Company was purchased by Cabury Schwepps for $1.7 billion (Schwepps is the oldest soft drink manufacturer in the world).

Some advertising notes: Dr Pepper was known as the "King of Beverages," from around 1910 to 1915. During the 1920s and 1930s they used "Old Doc," an old country doctor with top hat and monocle as their spokesman. In the 1950s they used "the friendly Pepper-Upper," and in the 1960s they were the most "misunderstood" soft drink. During the 1970s they were first the "the most original soft drink ever," but by the end of the 1970s they were asking the public to "Be a Pepper." They would continue the "Be a Pepper" campaign throughout the 1980s, and in the 1990s they were "Just what the Dr ordered."

However, Dr Pepper's most famous slogan revolved around the numbers "10, 2, and 4." In 1927, Mr. Lazenby's son-in-law J.B. O’Hara (in 1933 he would be appointed President of Dr Pepper) wanted to know at what times of the day we suffered from fatigue. He asked Dr. Walter H. Eddy of Columbia University to do a study, and he discovered that there was a natural drop in energy levels at 10:30am, at 2:30pm, and at 4:30pm. O’Hara then asked their advertising agency, Tracy-Lock-Dawson, Inc., to come up with a new slogan that capitalized on this information. The "10, 2 and 4" campaign was born, and would be used on and off for the next 50 years.