The Road to Dr Pepper, Texas: The Story of Dublin Dr Pepper (review)

2007Book Reviews113 The primary weakness ofthe book, however, is its lack ofstrong argumentation. Fort Worth regularly hosted famous performers, including Bob Hope, the Marx Brothers, Will Rogers, and Sally Rand, thereby tying the city to a national entertainment market and, thus, to a national urban culture. Explications of how Fort Worth reflects key shifts within American or regional culture are obscured however by the tight focus on local events. The sheer number of community performers recounted byJones dulls the text for readers not familiarwith local acting pedigrees. Further explanation of why particular plays reached the stage when they did and why Fort Worthians ignored or embraced those performances would strengthen the significance of this study by using performance as a mirror of community values. WhileJones accomplishes this in regard to the Casa Mañana by identifying the extravaganza as part of boosters' "publicity tactics," the closing chapters offer little in the way of similar analysis (p. 162). For instance, the success of the Hip PocketTheater in the late 1 970s, which "defied any conventional designation" and operated on the "fringes of Fort Worth's theatrical establishment" (p. 274), likely reflected through its campy and nostalgic productions the post-Watergate malaise and suspicion ofauthority (p. 275).Jones, however, recounts rather than unpacks the performances. JanJones nevertheless provides an enlightening and entertaining romp across the various front and back stages of Fort Worth theater, including a pioneering survey ofAfrican American and Hispanic performing arts since the late nineteenth century. Jones's work will serve as a valuable reference for future studies of both Fort Worth and the history of the performing arts after the Civil War. Texas A&M UniversityAnthonyJ. Stanonis TheRoad toDrPepper, Texas: TheStory ofDublin DrPepper. By Karen Wright. (Abilene: State House Press, 2006. Pp. 172. Illustrations, notes. ISBN 1933337044. $16.g5, paper.) This is a pleasant, unpretentious history ofthe world's first Dr Pepper botding plant, which is located halfway between Waco and Abilene in the small town of Dublin, Texas. It is still operating in spite ofchanges in the business: the consolidations ofDr Pepper with Seven Up and Cadbury Schweppes; the switch ofsweetening agents from sugar to saccharine to high fructose corn syrup; the use ofcans instead ofbotdes; and the elimination of the period after "Dr" in the name. Sam Houston Prim, who was born during the Civil War, established a botding business in Dublin in 1891 and over time Prim; Ted Lyon, his son-in-law; his daughter, Grace; and Billie Kloster, a trusted employee, ran the company. Two circumstances were the secret to longevity. Prim and his successors, in the first place, stubbornly continued to use cane sugar as the sweetening ingredient for Dr Pepperjust as they had done when they originally received the syrup from the Waco inventor ofthe drink. This gave Dublin Dr Pepper a unique taste and a niche market. In the second place, when Prim was asked to select his franchise territory he inscribed a forty-four mile radius around Dublin, an area he could service. It 114Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJuly turned out to be small and marginal, but it saved his business from the crushing competition of large, big-city bottlers. Although based upon company records, newspaper accounts, and interviews, this account by Karen Wright, a Dublinjournalist and civic leader, is not a heavy-duty business history. There are no extensive financial details, little information about sales technique except for advertising, and almost nothing about the mechanics ofbotding. The characters of the story are treated gentiy, and there are no secrets revealed about the Dr Pepper syrup formula other than it has never included prune juice. There is no index. This is the simple history of a small business in a quiet Texas town; it is a tale ofcommon things. Still, for people who have enjoyed drinking Dr Pepper, there is something to be learned. A half-century ago when I was a student-athlete at Southern Methodist University , for example, I would wake sometimes at nightwith asthma attacks. I discovered tiiat a cold botde ofDr Pepper with its caffeine and sugar would ease the discomfort of the attack. At three o'clock in the morning while struggling for air, I savored the flavorful ice...