World's Largest Catsup Bottle - Collinsville, Illinois

Hey, we're famous! Latest "Twilight" movie mentions Collinsville's Catsup Bottle

By ELIZABETH DONALD ©2010 News-Democrat
Thursday, July 01, 2010

COLLINSVILLE -- Apparently the vampires of "Twilight" have a fondness for catsup as well.
   An oblique reference to the Brooks Catsup Bottle in the new "Twilight" movie had a local movie audience screaming, according to Mike Gassmann, president of the catsup bottle fan club.
   His daughter Katie attended the midnight showing and called him at 2 a.m. Wednesday to tell him about the catsup bottle's mention.
   At one point, ingenue Bella's mother shows her a quilt stitched from places they've been, and says that sometime they should go visit the World's Largest Catsup Bottle.
   "(Katie) said the theater went nuts!" Gassman said.
   The Brooks Catsup Bottle stands 170 feet over Collinsville and is officially the largest catsup bottle in the world. In August 2002, the former water tower was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
   Gassmann has been getting e-mails all morning from Twi-hards who stayed up late to see the new movie, and all of them had to let him know about the catsup bottle's guest appearance.
   The midnight showings of "Eclipse" garnered about $30 million from 4,000 theaters, which beat the previous record held by "New Moon" at $26.3 million, according to ComingSoon.com. The movie opened nationally Wednesday.