Born in North Carolina PART 4: Headache Powders - BC, Goody’s, Stanback and Bromo-Seltzer
Why headache powders? It was very common for druggists in the early 1900′s to buy raw materials and make their own prescriptions. Pills were harder for the local druggist to make, so pain-relief powders developed as a regional heritage. In addition, to “take a powder” meant to leave the scene and thereby to shirk responsibility in most of the Country during the 1940′s. However in North Carolina the expression meant something entirely different. Headache powders, usually mixtures of aspirin and caffeine, proved to be remarkably popular in the Tar Heel State.
BC was the invention of pharmacists Germain Bernard
and Commodore Council.
The production of BC Powders began in 1906 at the Five Points Drug Company in Durham.
Combining their surname initials, Council and Bernard named their headache medicine “B.C. Powder” in 1910. The introduction of B.C. Powders coincided with Durham’s tobacco boom, and factory workers became loyal customers. In 1917, Council and Bernard hired their first salesman to distribute their product beyond the Southern region. He did more than that by carrying BC Powders out of the South and around the World during World War I.
In 1928 the growing company opened a production facility to meet increasing demand. Bernard and Council, hired a traveling salesman to sell the product in other parts of NC and the Southeast.
Block Drug Company of Jersey City, New Jersey purchased B.C. Powders in 1967. By 1972, production had moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
Meanwhile in Winston-Salem, pharmacist Martin “Goody” Goodman created his headache powder in 1932. A. Thad Lewallen Sr. bought the formula and trademark a few years later. His marketing strategy was based on sampling introduced Goody’s Headache Powder to the Southeast and beyond. Samples were handed out to factory workers at shift changes.
This promotional method created a dedicated following. In 1941, a growing customer base demanded larger production facilities and Lewallen moved the company to Salt Street in Old Salem, NC, while maintaining a shop in Durham.
Demand soon outstripped production. In 1941 a modern production facility and an increased sales force furthered boosted Goody’s. Shortly before acquiring Stanback Medicine Company, the Block Drug Company purchased Goody’s in December of 1995. The Goody’s manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem was closed soon after the Lewallen family sold the company.
Thomas Stanback, of Salisbury, created his headache powder in 1911, as a young pharmacist in a Thomasville drugstore. He moved to Spencer to work at the Rowan Drug Store while its pharmacist vacationed. There he gave samples of his new headache power containing aspirin to railroaders, who carried it up and down the Southern line. Stanback persuaded his younger brother Fred to try selling the powders to area stores. Thomas prepared the product by night, and Fred sold it by day.
Thomas used a flour sifter, then a sifter with a hand crank to speed production. The brothers began renting a building in Spencer in 1927 and sold their powders from Richmond, Virginia, to Columbus, Georgia. In 1932 a new Italian-made folding machine was purchased, and production moved to Salisbury. Full-scale national advertising began.
Bromo-Seltzer:
Isaac Edward Emerson, a native of Chapel Hill and 1879 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, moved to Maryland in 1881. In 1888, working behind the prescription counter of a modest drugstore, he created a remedy for headaches and indigestion.
His background in chemistry and pharmacy led to the granular effervescent salt he named Bromo-Seltzer and packaged in cobalt blue glass bottles.
The product took its name from a component of the original formula, sodium bromide. Each dose contained 3.2 mq/teaspoon of this active ingredient. Bromides are a class of tranquilizers that were withdrawn from the U.S. market in 1975 due to their toxicity. Their sedative effect probably accounted for Bromo-Seltzer's popularity as a remedy for hangovers. Early formulas also used, as the analgesic ingredient, acetanilide, now known as a poisonous substance.[2]
Bromo-Seltzer was discontinued in 1975 after the discovery that the sedative ingredient, bromide, was slightly psychoactive and a little bit toxic.
So now we have Alka-Seltzer (no relation)!
