Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Dixie Cup Lids

When I was in first grade, the school I attended was located only a couple of blocks from my house. But on the way, I passed two mom-and-pop stores that sold groceries, candy, and soft drinks. They also sold hamburgers to kids who didn't want to eat in the cafeteria. I usually just went home for lunch, but I loved to stop at one or the other of those stores after school and buy a little cup of ice cream that cost five cents, which also covered the cost of the little wooden spoon you got to eat the ice cream with. We called the ice cream "Dixie Cups" because, I suppose, the company that made the ice cream was named Dixie and because the ice cream came in cups. But nobody really cared about the ice cream, or at least I didn't. What I like was the photos of movie stars on the inside of the cup lids. I had a small but select stack of these that I'd collected, but somehow they disappeared over the years (I suspect that my mother tossed them along with my comic books). Recently I've picked up a few replacement lids on eBay. My favorites were always those of the B-western stars, like Allan "Rocky" Lane, Wild Bill Elliott, Charles (The Durango Kid) Starrett, and it's fun to have them again.

6 comments:

Cap'n Bob said...

"Dixie Cup Lidss," he hissed. But seriously, I remember eating a lot of Dixie cups when I was a kid but I don't recall ever seeing anyone's picture on the lid. Either I missed that campaign or I didn't pay attention. Dave Lewis has one with Alan Ladd, BTW.
But those wooden spoons were the worst. If you touched one to your tongue while it was still dry it would suck the moisture from your body like a giant leech.

Anonymous said...

Bob, You missed out. You were either too young or too old or maybe you lived abroad except in Canada.
The Dixie Cup Ice Cream Lid was the most popular retail ice cream buy from 1930 to 1954 because of the patented use of the color picture on the underside of the lid in contact with the ice cream. It was a near monopoly and a major coup in the retail market.
You missed a great period of Americana as a youngster.
Steve Leone

Blue_Rubicon said...

Dixie made the lid, not the ice cream, different icecream makers used the lids, I grew up calling them Hoodsies, because Hood made the ice cream, in New York, though, ice cream cups were universally known as Dixie Cups. Today, i guess they just call it ice cream.

Anonymous said...

Bob, I remember Dixie Cups as well, from when I was in elementary school during the 1960's. We (in Cleveland, Ohio) also called them Dixie Cups. As others have said, that's the brand of the cup/lid. Dixie Cups (i.e., paper cups for bathroom and kitchen use) are still sold today. As for the lids with pictures, I don't recall them either. They stopped making them the year I was born, 1954.

Anonymous said...

Dixie Cup Ice Cream were distributed by several companies including Hood Ice Cream. In some areas, these cups were called "Hoodies." The movie star picture lids go back to the early Thirties when they used movie stars such as Clark Gable or Joan Crawford. The use of cowboy stars came in the Forties where often cowboy stars and their sidekicks were shown together. The title of their latest picture was usually printed underneath. If you saved the lids and sent them in, they would send you a color photo of that star with black and white photos from their movies on the back. You can still find these for sale on Ebay where they will go for around $20. The practice of using movie stars on the lids was discontinued in 1954.

mybillcrider said...

Thanks for that info!