Carolina Brights Ad - Let's See Some Carolina Brights Cards

[jimonym]

Recently I came across this huge half-page ad in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (July 9, 1905) for Carolina Brights Cigarettes. It predates the T206 release by several years, but I thought it was cool nonetheless.



A couple things:
The Wells-Whitehead Company was acquired by the American Tobacco Company in 1903, but the change in control was kept concealed from the public. Obviously that had changed by 1910, when the manufacture of Carolina Brights cigarettes had been shifted from Wilson, NC, to the ATC’s factory in Richmond (Factory No. 25) and the brand was included in their T206 release. So this ad demonstrates one of the ATC’s favorite anti-competitive practices: the policy of disguising ownership and using smaller, controlled companies to secure for themselves the benefit of public sentiment against the Trust. The kicker here is the highlighting of union labor being used; the ATC itself was notoriously anti-union, and in response many labor unions organized boycotts of their products and/or sought to support the business of independent companies.

The Hancock Cigar Company was a Richmond wholesaler. I found also a small column on them from a week earlier in the same newspaper. It’s clear from the ad and the column that Carolina Brights was being targeted to Richmond, to Virginia, and to the Southeast region. Not sure if that geographic distribution persisted until 1910, but kind of interesting nonetheless.



Anyway, let’s see some T206 Carolina Bright cards.

[Dustanh1]

This should be a fun thread. Here's the only one I have; picked it up a while ago off the BST.

[calvindog]

[Leon]

I have only 1 Carolina Brights back and the scan is in with a lot of others....here are a few envelopes though....a little bit pre-dating the cards but still neat....

[tedzan]

JAMIE

Great stuff....here are my last two CB's....Chase and Clymer.








Thanks for sharing this adv. with us.

TED Z

[rustywilly]

[sando69]

ok... here's the requisite red cobb:

[toppcat]

Snagged this on BST a while back, still one of my favorites:

[Jacklitsch]

[old-baseball]

[cfc1909]

BatchBenderf.jpg

BatchBenderb.jpg

[cfc1909]

CarolinaQuillen.jpg

CarolinaQuillenb.jpg

[B O'Brien]

Here is my Carolina Brights.
I would love to see the Eddie Collins if anyone has the pic, or happens to know the owner!!!
Thanks,
Bob
upperhandisforemost@yahoo.com

[jimonym]

Hi Ted.

No kidding, Carolina Brights would probably rival Piedmont for commonness in T206 cards. It’s always possible that Carolina Brights was just as popular in 1910 as it had been in 1905, and that the reason CB backs are tough is because ATC just didn’t include T206s with them for that long a period of time. But I think if that were the case, we’d see as many empty Carolina Brights cigarette packs floating around as we see Piedmont ones, and we clearly do not. So I think CB must have faded somewhat by 1910.

The prevalence of Piedmont might actually support that. I suspect the two brands of cigarettes were actually very similar products. In doing some research, there’s evidence that in the early 1900s the ATC used Piedmont as their “fighting brand” against Carolina Brights to try to run Wells-Whitehead out of business. They sold Piedmonts at cut-rate prices and included coupon schemes to try to get smokers to switch from Carolina Brights. Later, of course, they just bought Wells-Whitehead out. By 1910, that section of the smoking public that liked North Carolina bright leaf tobacco cigarettes might have moved on from Carolina Brights to Piedmont, or maybe slowly been pushed there by ATC.

[sreader3]

Thanks for sharing.

Scot

[tedzan]

I know you are aware of the following....but, for those who aren't......

There is no doubt about it that PIEDMONT was ATC's "flagship" brand. This was certainly evident during the production of the T206's.
As we all very well know, across the various series, PIEDMONT cards were printed in much greater numbers than any of the 15 other
brands.
Furthermore, the first T206's off the presses were the PIEDMONT cards.

Most AMERICAN BEAUTY, BROAD LEAF, CAROLINA BRIGHTS, CYCLE, DRUM, most PIEDMONT, SOVEREIGN, and many SWEET CAPORAL
cigarettes are all from Factory 25 (Richmond, VA). However, this does imply that all these brands were distributed only in the South.

The following original T206 recent finds have indicated otherwise......

DRUM......St Louis
SOVEREIGN #1.....Erie, PA
SOVEREIGN #2.....Connecticut
SOVEREIGN #3.....Upstate New York



TED Z

[PGACPA]

don has been inactive for some time due to his mobilization from the pentagon to mosul. god bless him and thanks for this nice pickup!