Woodbury Soap Company

Woodbury Soap Company, "The skin you love to touch" (J Walter Thompson Co, 1911) [ [http://www.tvacres.com/adslogans_w.htm Tvacres.com "Advertising Slogans"] ]

Woodbury Soap Company has existed as a brand for over one hundred years. Their name is or was on products such as cold cream, facial cream, facial powder, after-shave talc and ear swabs.

History

The John H. Woodbury company was established in 1870 in Albany, New York. [ [http://www.codehappy.net/sads/ad26.pngCodehappy.net] ] by a dermatologist. [ [http://lcweb4.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(gndf/V0000003/I0000142_back)):: "Nineteenth Century in Print"] ] The company was still in New York in 1901, making and retailing soap, when the Andrews Jergens Company (now themselves a subsidiary of Kao) purchased the company, [ [http://www.kaobrands.com/aboutus/ajcStory.html Koabrands.com] ] and moved the headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio. [cite news|url=http://www.cincypost.com/living/1999/jergens090799.html|title=Soapmaker built cosmetics giant|author=Barry M. Horstman|first=Barry M|last=Horstman|work=The Cincinnati Post|publisher=E. W. Scripps Company|date=1999-09-07|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070818191659/http://www.cincypost.com/living/1999/jergens090799.html|archivedate=2007-08-18]

Between 1907 and 1910, the Andrew Jergens Co, John H Woodbury and the John H Woodbury Dermatological Institute were all involved in lawsuits against each other, for use of the name "Woodbury". [Corporation Plaintiffs 1824 to 1911, New York Chancery and Supreme Court Equity Action Ledgers. Renamed as New York Supreme Court Plaintiffs 1824-1911 online at www.ancestry.com] In 1908 the John H Woodbury Dermatological Institute was brought to court for practicing medicine without a license, and in 1911 they filed for bankruptcy protection. [ [http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/~law00059 Papers of Learned Hand 140-14] ]

The litigation in the 1908 lawsuit, established precedent involving the state's right to prevent "corporations from practicing medicine." The defeated argument being that they did not need a license, as they were a corporation, not an individual.

In 1931, Woodbury Soap signed singer Bing Crosby, and later Bob Hope. [ [http://www.tvacres.com/adslogans_w.htm TVacres.com] ] In 1936, Woodbury soap was the first product to use a picture of a nude woman in its advertisements. That same year, they were a sponsor of the radio program "Paul Whiteman's Musical Varieties" on WJZ in New York City, and later sponsored "Mr. and Mrs. North", the 1940s radio show about husband-and-wife crime solvers that played the detective genre for laughs.

See also

Benjamin H. Freedman

References

Resources

* [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:ZkJm5vZywfkJ:www.radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p3.cgi%3FArtistName%3DAlexander,%2BDurelle%26ArtistNumber%3D08795+%22Woodbury+soap%22+-principal&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 list of some programs on WJZ]
* [http://shop.vendio.com/vintageads4u/category/7772/ Woodbury's Soap ads from 1902 to 1934]
* [http://www.paperboynews.com/links.asp?catagory=4&sub_id=528 More vintage Woodbury Soap ads from 1924 to 1955]

External links

* [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC03888071&id=1R2pmw2jEV8C&q=%22John+H+Woodbury%22&dq=%22John+H+Woodbury%22&pgis=1 Patent Case of use of name "Woodbury"]
* [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0805055517&id=_etvJIvhD_MC&pg=RA1-PA122&lpg=RA1-PA122&dq=patent+woodbury+soap&sig=FNNOwOSZU4dV0rDPUK8m_83Qb0A "Hope in a Jar", p 122]