| Welcome to the Official World's Largest Catsup Bottle® Web Site and Fan Club! Collinsville, Illinois U.S.A. Join us as we celebrate over 50 years of The World's Largest Catsup Bottle® stands proudly next to Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. This unique 170 ft. tall water tower was built in 1949 by the W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant - bottlers of Brooks old original rich & tangy catsup. In 1995, due to the efforts of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group, this landmark roadside attraction was saved from demolition and beautifully restored to its original appearance. Recognized the
world over as an excellent example of 20th century roadside Americana,
the World's Largest Catsup Bottle regularly garners national attention
and attracts visitors and tourists every day. In August of 2002
it
was named to the National Register of Historic Places. |
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
An enjoyable evening was had by all as we attended the Baptist Student Union reunion held at Meadow Heights Baptist Church in Collinsville. Organizer, Helen Galagher, asked us to give a 30 minute Catsup Bottle slide show presentation as part of the event's "Nifty 50s" theme. Those in attendence were BSU members at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. A lot of hard work was put into tonight's event and we all definitely appreciated it!
To the right is Helen with Judy after the evening's festivities.
Friday, September 5, 2008The World's Largest Catsup Bottle welcomes the Route 66 Association of Missouri!
As part of the annual Motor Tour kick-off, participants gathered at the base of the Catsup Bottle to hang out and get set for the "Come to Dinner" themed weekend road trip down Route 66 through Missouri. Many thanks to Kip Welborn and the other organizers for including us in their plans.
You can check out our photo gallery of the visit right here!
The video we shot with The Uglistick back in May is up and running! The piece was produced by NAPA Auto Parts and features Rich Christensen from "Pinks" as the host. The 6-1/2 minute clip follows The Uglistick as the band travels Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis. We were one of their stops along the way. Our segment is a part of Episode 4 on The NAPA Channel which is broadcast online and in all of its stores.
This link will take you to our photo page, and this other link will take you directly to The NAPA Channel video site.
The 10th Annual Brooks® World's Largest Catsup Bottle® Festival and Car Show Bash was a huge success! The American Legion Post 365 location was perfect! A big thank you to everyone involved and everyone who came out and enjoyed the day with us.
Log on to the official Catsup Bottle Festival website to see the photo gallery!!
Sign up for our free Fan Club emailing list so you don't miss the announcement when the photos go online!
The World's Largest Catsup Bottle is inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame!
The induction ceremony was held in Lincoln, Illinois, with members of the Catsup Bottle Fan Club Board of Directors on hand.
Special thanks to Marty Bilecki for submitting the application, and thank you to all on the committee who voted us in! The Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum is located in downtown Pontiac, Illinois.
The Big Tomato & the Catsup Bottle Lady
This morning we sent off a bunch of Catsup Bottle photos to AutoWeek Magazine to by included in an upcoming issue. More info to come!
We said goodbye this morning to Bruce and Pammy and the rest of our Cow Bop friends. After 2 successful evenings of playing and hanging out with us, they headed west to continue the Route 66 Challenge Tour.
Please make a donation to the cause by supporting JazzMastersWorkshop, a music mentoring nonprofit program for kids.
We took some great photos and video - Check 'em out by clicking here!
The Big Tomato sits in with Cow Bop!
TONIGHT: Cow Bop will play on Route 66 in Edwardsville at the Stagger Inn... Again on Wednesday, May 14. It's "Open Mic Night," so everyone bring your instruments and we'll have us a grand ole time!
Our all time favorite, totally authentic cowboy-jazz-western-swing band Cow Bop is traveling Route 66 from Chicago to LA in support of their new CD and their nonprofit JazzMastersWorkshop.
On Tuesday we hope you were able to catch Bruce's fantastic interview with Jeff Corbin during the "The Back Country" program on KDHX radio in St. Louis.
To get the full tour schedule and updates on the band's progress cross-country, click over to www.wayoutwestmusic.com.
Photo
credit: Molly Morrow
We had a really quick, fun little interview at the Catsup Bottle with The Uglistick. The band played Chicago last night and hit sites along the way as they geared up to play at the Way Out Club in St. Louis on Wednesday night. More info coming soon as to why they paid us a visit. Click here to see the photos!
The World's Largest Catsup Bottle has been inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame! Special thanks to Marty Bilecki for submitting the application, and thank you to all on the committee who voted us in!
The induction ceremony will be held in Lincoln, Illinois, on June 7 during the 2008 Illinois Motor Tour from the Chain of Rocks Bridge to Wilmington. The Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum is located in downtown Pontiac, Illinois.
The Route 66 Association of Missouri is starting its motor tour on our side of the river this year! They're going to kick things off at the Catsup Bottle of Friday night September 5 and cruise to Lebanon, Missouri, on the 6th and 7th. Click here for official motor tour information!
An educational publisher Les Editions CEC in Montreal, Canada, was in touch with us to use a Catsup Bottle photo in its "Real Time" activity book for English as a second language courses. The text about the Catsup bottle and the Fan Club will be used to highlight different verb forms.
Publication is scheduled for May and the book will be used mainly in the Québec province and then a few other schools and colleges throughout Canada.
Lottery thief has other employees seeing RED! An employee with Bethel-Eckert Enterprises (owners of the grocery distributor which owns the Catsup Bottle) has been charged with stealing a $10,000 winning Mega Millions ticket from the office lottery pool!
Get the scoop from Jasmine Huda from KSDK Newschannel 5 in St. Louis by clicking here, and get the Belleville News-Democrat story by clicking right here.
We're excited to report after attending the Governor's Tourism Conference last month, we won some free advertising space from the Illinois Press Association to help promote this summer's festival. Awesome!
The Danish magazine Historie will include a photo of a vintage Brooks advertisement and postmark in an article on the history of ketchup. Our contact, Lisa Henssel Joergensen, tells us the magazine is read throughout Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Letland.
We were contacted by the photo editor at Midwest Living magazine and happily provided a CD full of Catsup Bottle pictures. Look for us on the "Discoveries" page of an upcoming issue!
Here at Catsup Bottle Central Command Headquarters we did a video interview with Miranda Summers of KDHX. She is doing a documentary on the Bottle District development in St. Louis which features the giant Vess bottle. The developers are friends of ours and suggested she add a bit about the Catsup Bottle restoration.
The Illinois Governor's Conference on Tourism was held in Springfield. Attending is always a good time and a lot of fun seeing our industry friends from around the state. It's especially fun hanging out with our pals from the Tourism Bureau of Southwestern Illinois. The best part of the conference is networking and meeting new people who enjoy the Catsup Bottle.
Our good friends at roadsideamerica.com are helping Pabst Blue Ribbon put together a travel guide which will feature some of their favorite roadside landmarks from around the country. Details are sketchy for now, but we'll let you know when we know more!
We want everyone to have the chance to get their "Wow! Wild Water Towers" calendar! We still have a few left!
It's a fundraiser for the nonprofit Community Resource Group which helps rural communities with projects concerning their H2O needs.
Don't miss out! This is perfect for the water tower lover in your family! (... and don't deny it, you know there is one!)
Click here to go to the order form page.
Contact info:
bigtomato@catsupbottle.com
Just for the record: All marketing, promotion, merchandising, and usage permissions for the World's Largest Catsup Bottle®, Fan Club, Web site, and Festival Birthday Party are handled by the Catsup Bottle Fan Club through an exclusive agreement with Bethel-Eckert Enterprises and permissions from Brooks Foods. Brooks® is a registered trademark of Birdseye Foods, Inc. There is no affiliation with the Collinsville Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Collinsville, Inc. Main Street Program, or the City of Collinsville. Unauthorized use of anything having anything to do with the World's Largest Catsup Bottle® is strictly prohibited.
This site created September 6, 1998. ©1998-2008 G-Mann Graphic Design & the World's Largest Catsup
Bottle Fan Club.
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