| News and Information Archive : 2002 |
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Date: January
2, 2002 Date: January
10, 2002 • We've got good news, and not-so-good news. The good news is that the date for the 4th Annual Downtown Collinsville Summerfest Catsup Bottle Birthday Party & Car Show is set for Sunday, July 7, 2002. • Now for the not-so-good news: Those who have the controling interest in the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group have again denied support for this Web site. Yes, I said, "again." Since the creation of this site in 1998 it has been a pro-bono volunteer effort by professionals. The Preservation Group has shown little appreciation. For the first two years it begrudgingly paid for the domain name and web hosting. Now, for the second year in a row, for whatever reason, it has elected to pay nothing toward this site. Go figure...  • We were pleased as punch when our saucy little Santa made it up on the Catsup Bottle this season. Unfortunately that brought more attention to the paint that has been flaking off the legs for quite some time now. To find out why this has gotten to be such an embarrassment, and to ask if anything is being done about it, contact the new chairman of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group. Date: March
1, 2002 Date: March
10, 2002 Date: May
15, 2002 • We all know the Catsup Bottle is "money," but now everyone else does, too! After being in the May 19 issue of the Chicago Tribune and the May 23 St. Louis Post Dispatch - Get Out Magazine, the World's Largest Catsup Bottle is today appearing on the CNN-Money Magazine web site! And when the June print issue of Money hits the newsstands our kitschy condiment will appear there as well! We're in the section entitled "5 Great Summer Drives."  •
The summer
issue of "Illinois Now!"
features a full page photo and a wonderful write-up about our towering
attraction and the July 7 Summerfest. They even call it one of
Illinois'
most "looked up to" monuments! (Heh, heh, we get it!) Log on to www.enjoyillinois.com
to get your copy of this beautiful, full-color, free magazine from the
Illinois Bureau of Tourism. • You can also get a load of our landmark in the upcoming issues of The Chicago Reader, AAA Midwest Traveler, St. Louis Home & Lifestyle, National Geographic Travel, American Profile, and Esquire magazines! • A couple of other noteworthy media things: * A production company in New York, Highnoon Productions, requested photos and info for a show they are producing for Food TV called "Unwrapped." It will air in late July or August. * We recently received a call from text book publisher Sundance Publications. They are creating a text book about landmarks and are interested in putting the Catsup Bottle on the cover! We'll have to wait and see how this turns out. * We received an email request from German TV & Radio Productions. A company based in New York that produces stories for the media in Germany. * And, a call requesting information came in recently from Food TV Network in Los Angeles. Date: June, 2002 • The legs finally get repainted! • Work begins in ernest to prepare the final draft of the nomination for the Catsup Bottle to the National Register of Historic Places. Date: July 7, 2002 • The 4th Annual Downtown Collinsville Catsup Bottle Summerfest is a huge success! Date: July
10, 2002 Date: July
15, 2002 • Judy DeMoisy makes the Brooks Catsup Bottle Water Tower presentation to the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council. The nomination is approved and passed on to Washington, D.C.  Date:
August 13, 2002 • It's official! The World's Largest Catsup Bottle (aka: the Brooks Catsup Bottle water tower) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here we have Beth Boland signing the nomination in Washington, D.C. Beth is the National Register of Historic Places reviewer for the state of Illinois. To take a look at the nomination paperwork click here. Date: September 20, 2002 • The October issue of Signs of the Times magazine includes a section called "Weird & Wonderful, Bizarre & Beautiful, & Just Plain Cool Signage" The Catsup Bottle is featured in a punny little piece entitled "This Sign Cuts The Mustard." Date: September 25, 2002 • One of our dearest friends and biggest supporters in Collinsville, Lois Metzger, brought in a newsletter she picked up on her vacation in Wyoming. The "Tidbits Cheyenne" #363 featured an article by Janet Spencer titled "World's Largest Things" that included a section about the battle to save our bottle. Date: September 28, 2002 • Our north-of-the-border buddy and culinary expert Cliff Lowe mentions us and includes a photo in his recent article titled "Make a Gourmet Gallop: Use Ketchup." His piece includes one of the best explanations of the history of ketchup we've ever read. Thanks, Cliff! Check it out in Cliff's Corner at www.inmamaskitchen.com.  Date:
Sunday, September 29, 2002, 9:00 pm CT • The premier of "Record Breakers Unwrapped" (episode #CWSP12) on the Food Network. • If you want to see the biggest, oldest, or the first - tune it to this special record-breaking edition of "Unwrapped" on Food TV. The biggest cookie factory! The top selling candy bar! The world's largest peanut! The Big Texan 72 oz. steak! And of course, the World's Largest Catsup Bottle! Scheduled air dates & times as follows. Check FoodTV.com for more! Sunday, September 29, 2002, 9:00 pm CT Monday, September 30, 2002, 12:00 am CT Saturday, October 5, 2002, 4:00 pm CT Sunday, October 6, 2002, 10:00 am CT Date: October 7, 2002 • We received a thank you letter reminded us that the Catsup Bottle will be featured in a book entitled "Uniquely Illinois". Part of the six-book Heinemann State Studies series for students in grades 3 thru 5. Ordering information is available on the Heinemann Classroom web site. Date: October 18, 2002 • The Faithful Lines article in "The Criterion" is titled "Thoughts about childhood landmarks." Author Shirley Vogler Meister was surprised to see a photo of the Catsup Bottle in the Indianapolis Star and it prompted her to write a very thoughtful and inspiring piece about what her daughters called "the big catsup" that "reached to heaven". Shirley is a member of Christ the King Parish in Indianapolis and is a regular columnist for "The Criterion."  Date: October 25, 2002
• Gerhart "Gary" S. Suppiger, Jr. died today at the age of 83. He was President of Brooks Foods after his father, Gerhart Sr., who was responsible for having the Catsup bottle water tower built in 1949. Suppiger's wife, Mary Jeanne, said Gary "had the greatest admiration for Judy DeMoisy and all the people who restored the catsup bottle." Gerhart Suppiger III said his father "was thrilled" that the people of Collinsville adopted the catsup bottle.  Date:
November 6-9, 2002 • Attendance at the Tri-State Main Street Program Conference in Dubuque, Iowa, afforded us the opportunity to do a little site seeing while we were out and about. The whirl wind road trip was a blast and not unlike the patented Hyper Tours contucted by our friends at RoadsideAmerica.com. • We visited uber-babe Vanna Whitewall in Peoria, Illinois, the World's Largest Strawberry in Strawberry Point, Iowa, and the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, where we graduated with honors from Poupon U...! We were also able to hit the Field of Dreams, House on the Rock, and a few other great roadside attractions, all the while spreading the word of our landmark water tower. Date: November 27, 2002 • Over three years in the making! The film titled "The Main Stream with Roy Blount Jr." will premier on PBS Tuesday, December 17, 2002, at 8:00 pm CT. It's an offbeat journey down the Mississippi River exploring the literal and metaphorical "mainstream" of America. This two-hour show was produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Roger Weisberg, shot in HDTV, and is presented by Thirteen/WNET New York. 
Roger, Roy, and the entire gang from Public Policy Productions in New
York
visited the Catsup Bottle in July of 1999 for an afternoon of shooting.
We had a great time! Unfortunately, a nice letter from Roger explained
recently that our segment ended up on the cutting room floor. Can you
believe
that?!? But that's okay. We still want everyone to know about this film and we're sure it'll bring home the Oscar! Date: Friday, December 6, 2002 • Santa Claus climbs again! The holiday tradition continues this year as a new partnership between Collinsville Progress, Inc. and Downtown Collinsville, Inc. And a special thank you goes out to Ron Reinick and his guys at Diversified Coatings of O'Fallon, Illinois for all the hard work. Santa wouldn't get off the ground with out 'em! (Update: Unfortunately, this new partnership with Collinsville Progress, Inc. was very short-lived. The "inner circle" of Collinsville Progress reared it's ugly head and put the kibosh on everything for the future!)  Date:
Wednesday, December 11, 2002 • We just learned that Superman is in peril. Kryponite is not the culprit this time, it's the city leaders of Metropolis, Illinois. The Chamber of Commerce and the Tourism Bureau are helpless, the mayor says his hands are tied... who can save him!? The 75-year-old landmark city water tower emblazoned with a Superman logo is scheduled to be torn down on January 6, 2003. Metropolis, at the southern tip of Illinois, is the only city in America with that name, and is the adopted home of Superman. Can we save the Man of Steel water tower? For the complete story and the latest updates go to the Super Planet Chronicle. (Unfortunately we have learned that the water tower came down as scheduled on January 6, 2003.) |
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