Niagra-Dry

Niagra-Dry is an interesting case in the history of Niagara Dry Ginger Ale. The brand was created in Buffalo, New York sometime in 1939, and was around until some point in 1942. Their bottles used an existing ACL design from Niagara Dry, but with a little tweak to remove the 2nd "a" in Niagara. I'm not sure how copyright/trademark disputes worked back in the 1930's/1940's, or if Niagara Dry Beverages were even aware of this infringement. I've been told that when the company in Buffalo shut down, all the crates they had used were set to be incinerated. For the longest time, I was only aware of the existence of two Niagra-Dry crates that survived the incineration, and I owned both at the time. Eventually I came to find that there was a third crate owned by someone out in Owen Sound, and a fourth one owned by Rustbelt Retro out in Buffalo. The standard bottle has some ACL on the backside that states "Bottled by B&F Beverages". Some archive.org results for documents related to Niagra-Dry has turned up some confusing and conflicting information:

• The Official gazette of the United States Patent Office has a listing for "Niagra Dry" where the bottler is listed as "Mission Bottling Company of Buffalo, Inc.". However, the published and filed dates for these are listed as 1955 (Published 9-6-55, Filed 1-6-55) which contradicts the information I was given about the company shutting down in 1942.
• A book published in 1986, called the 1986 KLCVI Conglomerate, has an advertisement on page 114 that features "Niagra Dry" alongside other beverages, and is listed as a product of Star Beverages Ltd. with the address "56 Porteous" and the phone number 567-7377

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