Get-Up Soft Drink Debuts – April 1955

June 2, 1958 Lorain Journal ad

Lorain County has a rich history of soda pops, bottling companies and distributors: Sickles Bottling Company (Ma's Old Fashioned Root Beer); Whistle Bottling Company (Whistle, Brownie); The William Seher Company (Seher's Old English Ginger Beer); Canada Dry Bottling Co. (on Colorado Ave.); T. J. Bottling Co. (Dodge City Sarsaparilla, Quiky); Dr. Pepper at 2215 Lake Ave. in Elyria; and both Pepsi and Coca-Cola bottling facilities still located in Elyria. And leave us not forget perhaps the most beloved soft drink of all, Wild West Sarsaparilla, distributed by World Trade, Inc.

Well, here's another soft drink to add to that fizzy legacy: Get Up, a lemon drink apparently not unlike 7Up. It was launched in our area by the Get Up Beverage Co. at 2215 Lake Ave. in Elyria – the same address as Dr. Pepper.

Get Up was introduced to Lorain Journal readers via a full-page ad (resembling a typical newspaper page) that ran in the April 7, 1955 edition.

The main selling angle appears to be that Get Up had fewer calories than other other soft drinks, as well as being available in king-size bottles – making it ideal for families.

There's not very much information about Get Up on the internet. I'm not sure, but it appears to have been an Ohio-based, regional beverage, because all of the existing bottles and marketing items for sale on eBay are located in cities in the Buckeye State.

Mentions of Get Up in grocery store ads in the Journal seem to fizzle out by the early 1970s. 

Perhaps the whole field of lemon-lime drinks competing with 7Up (Get Up, Bubble Up, Sprite, Teem, etc.) was just getting too crowded. 

7Up was never one of the Brady household favorites anyway. Mom and Dad may have liked it, but for my siblings and me, it was something Mom gave us to drink when we were sick. Consequently, I still associate it with not feeling well – thus rendering it an unlikely choice for me to enjoy on a normal basis.