A giant bottle of soft drink you’ll hear about in a 1932 ad on this week’s two hour non-stop swing jazz mix of live 1920s-60s radio, is your Greg Poppleton Phantom Dancer feature.

The Phantom Dancer has been produced and presented by 1920s-30s singer and actor Greg Poppleton since 1985. It can be heard online from 12:04pm AEST Tuesday 26 May at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

The last hour is all vinyl.

THE BOTTLE

Australia is a land of giant things as tourist attractions – the giant prawn, the big banana, the giant ram – but Alabama in the US had a big soft drink bottle. Though the bottle burnt down in the mid-1930s, its location is still called ‘The Bottle’. Here it is…

NiHi was a brand of soft drink in the US that was popular for its novelty flavours. The 1932 radio ad on this week’s Phantom Dancer praises Nihi’s ‘true fruit orange’. Fans of MASH would know that the character Radar drank Grape Nihi. Some other Nihi (pronounced Knee High) fizzy drink flavours included Chocolate, Root Beer, Lemonade, Wild Red, Blue Cream, and Peach. There were many more.

HISTORIC MARKER

The site of the giant bottle is now identified by a historical marker.

The marker reads,

“Built in 1924, and billed as ‘the world’s largest bottle’, The Bottle (also known as The Twist Inn) was built by John F. Williams, owner of the Nehi Bottling Company, in Opelika, Alabama. The Bottle stood 64 feet (19.5 m) tall, and measured forty-nine feet (14.94 m) in diameter at the base, and 16 feet (4.88 m) at the cap. The ground floor was a grocery store and service station, and the second and third floors were living quarters and storage. The neck of the Bottle had windows so as to be used as an observation tower. The bottle cap was the roof. Inside there was a spiral oak stairway. The Bottle became a gathering place for tourists and locals alike to swap yarns and have parties every Friday night on the balcony above the service station. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stopped briefly at The Bottle after visiting Auburn. The bottle burned one morning in te fall of 1936. Even though the structure no longer exists, the name survives on Alabama maps which still identify the area as ‘The Bottle’.”

Your Phantom Dancer Video(s) of the Week

Tune into band leader Griff William’s dance band show from the late 1940s / early 50s over WBKB TV (CBS) Chicago. Three clips + a fourth WKBK news from 1964 and the start of their Acuion Movie, Dragstrip Riot’ – Enjoy!!!

26 MAY PLAY LIST