Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S11E14 - From Batawa To Port Sunlight: The Story of Company Towns

Episode Date: April 9, 2022

This week, we look at cities and towns that are actually named after companies. We’ll talk about one town named after a shoe company, one named for a chocolate bar and another town that’s even named after a dish soap.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. We'll see you next time. new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. This is an apostrophe podcast production. Monocastrophy Podcast Production You're so king in it.

The gore's all but in and it's out. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon. You're not you when you're hungry. You're in good hands with all things. You're Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. When it comes to names, there is nothing stranger than the history of place names. According to an article on

mentalfloss.com, a group of pioneers settled in southwest Indiana in 1854. They called their small town Santa Fe. But when they went to register a post office, they were denied, because they were told there was already another town called Santa Fe. So, the townspeople organized a month-long series of meetings to decide on a new name, but couldn't agree on one. The last meeting took place on Christmas Eve after church services. During the debate, a gust of wind blew open the church doors and everyone heard the ringing of

sleigh bells close by. Several children got excited and yelled, Santa Claus! That's when the light bulb went off. And that's how Santa Claus, Indiana got its name. When ad legend David Ogilvie decided to sell his farm in Pennsylvania, he knew how to write a good real estate ad. The headline said, For Sale, David Ogilvie's Farm in Intercourse. He knew his name would draw attention, and the town name sure did. As he often said, if you can't advertise yourself, how can you advertise for your clients? The town of Intercourse is nestled in Pennsylvania's Amish country. Apparently, there was once a racetrack nearby. The sign at the entrance to the track said,

Enter Course. Locals began referring to the town as Intercourse, and that eventually evolved into, well, you know. There is another small town in that same state called Glen Campbell, Pennsylvania. But it has nothing to do with the rhinestone cowboy. The town is actually named after a Mr. Cornelius Campbell,

the first boss of the Glenwood Coal Company that mined in the area. The Glen in the name comes from the Scottish word for valley, which reminds me of a municipality in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha-Ha. The city actually has two exclamation marks in its name, one after each Ha. The name comes from an archaic French term, the ha-ha, which meant

unexpected obstacle or dead end. When early French explorers came to the area, they turned a corner and suddenly, a big lake came into view. It wasn't ha-ha funny, it was ha- haha unexpected. The residents of San Luis de Jaja are proud to say it is the only city name in the world that features two exclamation marks. They know good publicity when they see it. There are also many towns around the world that give companies big publicity. While there are a lot of companies named after their founders, there are many towns named after companies. And the stories behind those towns, cities, and villages are surprising.

There are even places in the Arctic named after beer companies. They're not ha-ha funny, but they sure are ha-ha unexpected. There are many towns and cities that have been around so long, we tend to forget the origin of their names. And some of those places were either created or anchored or funded by major companies. Take Times Square in New York. While not a town, Times Square is one of the most recognized landmarks in the world and is the number one tourist attraction in the U.S., drawing 50 million people every year. Many people don't realize Times Square was named after a company.

Back in the late 1880s, the triangular area wedged between West 47th and 45th Street was then called Long Acre Square. It was a horse exchange and consisted of a large open space surrounded by drab apartment houses. But soon it began to change. First, electricity transformed the square. Bright theater marquees and streetlights lit up the area, making it safer and more inviting. Second, the construction of New York's first rapid transit system gave New Yorkers unprecedented mobility in the city.

The arrival of public transit got the attention of shrewd real estate investors who knew the increased foot traffic in the area would generate profits. Over 5 million passengers passed through the long Acre Station. One of those shrewd businessmen was Adolph S. Oaks, owner of the New York Times newspaper. He wanted to build a skyscraper for his company and saw an opportunity to give it a highly visible location. The Times Tower opened its doors in Long Acre Square

in January of 1905, which was the second tallest building in the Big Apple at the time. The mayor of New York was so enthralled by the skyscraper, he drafted a resolution and renamed the area Times Square in honor of the New York Times.

Soon, hotels, major restaurants, popular bars, and theaters moved into Times Square. Oaks wanted to celebrate his new building and staged a big bright ball, illuminated by 100 incandescent bulbs, to slowly drop down its flagpole on New Year's Eve to welcome in the year 1908. That celebration would become a huge event that is still watched around the world and attracts over a million partygoers

to Times Square every year. In 1939, Thomas J. Bata had a decision to make. His father had created a large international shoe enterprise in Czechoslovakia, but had died in a plane crash. So before the German army marched in, Bata decided to leave his home country and emigrate to Canada. 100 Czech families decided to follow him. Upon his arrival in Canada, he chartered a small plane to look for acreage in Ontario to build a new factory.

He chose attractive land that ran along the Trent River Valley in Ontario, situated between Toronto and Ottawa. It was perfect. It had a river, a railway, and an airport. The land was cheap to buy because the area had been hit hard by the Depression. Bata purchased an old paper mill in the area, converted it into a manufacturing facility hired 82 Czech workers and began to rebuild his family's shoe business. As the business grew, it needed to hire more workers so Bada built an even bigger factory a few kilometers away.

Not only did Thomas Bada build a plant but he and his wife Sonia began to build a planned community for their workforce. They built houses for their employees to live in. They built stores for them to shop in. There was a Bata grocery store, a Bata recreational hall, Bata clubs and Bata sports teams. And of course, a Bata shoe store. There was also a post office, a bank, a library, two churches, and a pair of schools.

In 1940, a buyer from the Eaton's department store attended a meeting at Bata's office. The new community needed a name, and he suggested combining the word Bata with the last syllable of Ottawa. Why not call it Badawa? Bada and the town of Badawa would grow and prosper, manufacturing almost 150 million pairs of shoes over 60 years of operation. The company created thousands of jobs and stayed competitive on the world stage until the year 2000 when the factory finally shut its doors. Today, the historic Bada factory has been transformed

into luxury condos called the Bada Lofts. And about 300 Badawa residents still live in the picturesque village. When Milton S. Hershey was 15 years old, his aunt got him a job with a candy merchant. It was 1872, and young Mr. Hershey was ambitious. He would eventually go off to work for confectioners in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York. Along the way, he learned how to make caramels from fresh milk. He worked his way back to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and opened the Lancaster Caramel Company.

He sold his sweets in bulk and shipped them across the country. He made a good living. Then one day, while attending the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he saw something that would change his life. What young Milton Hershey witnessed that day was a demonstration of German chocolate making. In a flash, he knew the chocolate business was the way of the future. He purchased the machinery he saw that day and started the Hershey Chocolate Company in 1894. He managed to sell his caramel company for $1 million, and that helped fund his chocolate dreams. Soon, his company was making 114 different kinds of chocolate, as well as his famous Hershey

Milk chocolate bar. Not long after, the rapid growth of his chocolate business outgrew his original factory in Lancaster. So he broke ground for a big new factory in his hometown of Dairy Church, Pennsylvania. His decision to build there went against the advice of friends and business associates.

When they looked at Dairy Church, they saw a tiny village. But Milton Hershey saw a ready supply of fresh milk from neighboring farms. Where they saw isolation, he saw a steady workforce of hardworking Pennsylvanians. Hershey saw something else, too.

He envisioned a new, planned community. He wanted to create a place where his employees could have not just a good job, but a sweet life. Workman began building the new factory in 1903. Within six months, a school and several other key buildings were also underway. Hershey built affordable houses for his workers, which he encouraged them to buy and not rent. He built roads with names like Chocolate Street and Cocoa Avenue. He built department stores, churches, and schools. Land was

set aside for parks. There was a bank, a post office, and utilities. Rail and trolley lines were added. Soon, a hospital and a college would be built. Hershey Chocolate became the second largest chocolate company in the country and employed over 600 people. In 1905, in honor of Milton Hershey and his accomplishments, Dairy Church was renamed Hershey, Pennsylvania. Hershey entrusted a great deal of his wealth to the town in his will. He wanted the town's folk to determine their own future. The Hershey Chocolate Company is still headquartered there today.

The current population of Hershey, Pennsylvania, is over 14,000. It's one thing to name a town after chocolate, but what about a town named after dish soap? Don't go away. We'll be right back. William Hesketh Lever was born in the northwest of England in 1851. He had a privileged upbringing, as his family owned a prosperous grocery company, and young William cut his teeth working in the business. In 1879, the Lever family bought another grocery business, and William was given the store to run.

He showed a flair for advertising and branding and had big success differentiating Lever products in the marketplace. Five years later, William saw an opportunity to capture an even greater share of the market by manufacturing soap. Instead of selling soap by weight, as was the method at the time,

Lever cut the soap into small pieces and wrapped them in individually branded packages. He christened it Sunlight Soap. The Trademark Registration Act of 1875 meant brand names were now protected, and Lever registered a series of trademarks, including the brand name Sunlight. In 1886,

he convinced his brother James to start a stand-alone soap company. By 1887, Sunlight Soap was such a success, Lever brothers had to build a bigger manufacturing facility.

They decided to move it to 56 acres of land in Wuerl, south of the River Mersey. It was a prime location between the waterway and the railway line, and it provided an able labor source nearby. Like Milton Hershey, William Lever had a plan. He wanted to build a village where workers could have a good life. He called it prosperity sharing, where he would invest the profits of the company back into the town to create a livable community. Lever didn't want his company town to look like a company town of cookie-cutter houses.

Instead, he hired 30 architects, assigning each to a different block. Every house was uniquely designed. Homes even had a toilet and hot running water, rare for the era. Over 900 houses and flats were built. Amenities included a tennis court and a swimming pool, along with extensive park areas. Lever named the town after its best-selling soap, calling it Port Sunlight. It had a church, a hospital, post office, fire station, schools, social clubs, a concert hall, a library, and a theater. While Lever advocated for shorter work hours, better welfare, education, and pension plans,

the company also imposed strict ethical rules on the residents, or sunlighters as they were called, and participation in activities was compulsory, which made many of the residents bristle. The house rentals were strictly tied to employment. The population of Port Sunlight grew to 3,500 by 1914, and the plant was producing about 5,000 tons of soap per week. Some music history was made in the village

as Ringo Starr made his first official appearance with the Beatles at a Port Sunlight Horticultural Society dance in August of 1962. Today, Port Sunlight is still largely unchanged in its beautiful parkland setting and many of the 19th century buildings are designated historically significant. And Lever Brothers, now a global corporation called Unilever, still operates in the village, still employs about 1,800 people, and still makes liquid soaps and detergents there. Captain John Ross of the British Royal Navy was tasked with finding the fabled Northwest Passage.

He commanded a ship in 1818 and set out to find that passage through the Arctic. While sailing through Lancaster Sound near Baffin Island, he suddenly ordered the ship to turn around halfway, convinced he saw a mountain range blocking the way up ahead. But it wasn't a mountain. It was a trick of Arctic light. When he arrived back in England, word got out that he had been fooled by a mirage, and he was shamed for the expensive debacle.

Desperate to go back, the disgraced captain was denied another Royal Navy ship. So he turned to private businessmen to fund another voyage. He met a rich man named Felix Booth, the owner of Booth's Gin. The brand was a household name, and the gin had earned Booth a fortune. Booth was intrigued by the possibility of a Northwest Passage and agreed to underwrite a second voyage.

Captain Ross set sail again in 1829. Ross made it partway into the Arctic archipelago, but his ship froze in the ice in the winter, which was expected. What wasn't expected was that it remained frozen for the next four years. Captain Ross had a lot of time on his hands, so he began exploring the area. He surveyed a vast point of land and named it the Boothia Peninsula in honor of his benefactor, Felix Booth. It is a significant geographical spot, as it is the northernmost point of land in North America. Ross named the gulf he found himself in the Bay of Boothia. He even named his frozen encampment Felix Harbor. Four years later, in 1834, Ross gave up waiting for a thaw, walked out with his men, and managed to flag down a passing whaling ship.

Those weren't the only Arctic locations named after a brand. In 1896, a Norwegian explorer named Otto Sverdrup was looking for wealthy patrons to fund a polar voyage. He got the help from two brothers, Amund and Elif Ringness, owners of the Ringness Brewery. While on his Arctic journey, Sverdrup named three islands for the Oslo Brewers. He named one Amund Ringness Island, he named a second one Elif Ringness Island, and a third, the seventh largest island in Canada, he named Axel Heiberg Island, for the brewery financial director, who cut the check.

The brewers were thrilled, and later said it wasn't about advertising their beer, it was about claiming land for Norway. Although, interestingly, alcohol advertising was forbidden in Norway at the time. So I'm sure the Ringness company wasn't about to turn down three gigantic cartographic billboards. In the mid-1930s, Koromo, Japan, was struggling. It was a textile town. Silk was the main product. But the industry was in decline. Meanwhile, a man named Kichiro Toyoda,

Toyoda spelled with a D, had an idea. His father had invented the automatic loom, and Kichiro not only shared the same entrepreneurial spirit, he was an heir to that fortune, and he wanted to build cars. He considered several communities for his factory and chose Coromo. The land was cheap,

transit was nearby, and there was an available workforce there. Plus, the mayor of Coromo welcomed the auto factory with open arms. So in 1937, the Toyota, with a T, automotive industry opened its doors. The factory was huge, 495,000 square meters or 5.2 million square feet with enough room for 5,000 workers.

After the war, Toyota was on track to become one of the major automotive manufacturers in the world. Then, in 1959, to reflect the importance of the carmaker to the fortunes of the city, the town of Coromo changed its name to Toyota City. That decision was controversial at the time. It was welcomed by the mayor and the Chamber of Commerce, but opposed by the local people

who wanted to respect the original historical name. But Toyota was such a powerful economic force, it stuck. Toyota funded municipal projects like schools and hospitals. It sponsored museums. It created divisions for real estate, tourism, and insurance. Today, 80% of the city's 420,000 population owe their livelihoods to Toyota. Head office is still in Toyota City. There are 15 Toyota-owned offices, training centers, and manufacturing plants there.

In the last 20 years, Toyota has encouraged its employees to commute to work via train. Toyota even added a shuttle between Toyota City's two train stations to make it even more convenient. Apparently, when people drove to work, they were often late. The problem? Traffic jams caused by too many cars. When Amazon was recently looking for a new location to build a second headquarters for 50,000 employees,

it sent towns into a tizzy. One city in Georgia not only offered Amazon a huge swath of land to create a city within their city, they offered to name it Amazon. Facebook, or Meta, is also planning to build an entire standalone community. Company towns are a delicate subject. Historically, some companies created them to give their workforce a community and a better quality of life. On the other hand, company towns also tethered workers to the corporation. Housing was tied to employment.

Management wanted loyalty and commitment in return. And sometimes those corporations had rules, written and unwritten, about how life should be conducted in their towns. Time also blurs history. When rich businessmen sponsored exploration in the 19th century, they expected landmarks to be named after them. Explorers, eager to please, assumed those so-called Arctic white spaces had no names. But that wasn't true. Most of the names we see on maps today

were written over long-standing indigenous place names. It's also easy to forget that Badawa was named after a shoe company, Hershey was named after a chocolate manufacturer, and Port Sunlight was named after a dish soap. And while those companies no longer have the same grip on those towns, they are still home to proud Badawanians, Hershians, and Sunlighters. And we can soon add Amazonians and Medivites to that list. When you're under the influence.

I'm Terry O'Reilly. Posner and Ian Lefevre. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like The Frankenstein Factor, Inventors Who Regret Their Inventions, Season 6, Episode 11. You'll find it in our archives wherever you listen to podcasts. If you'd like to be the first to know the latest under the influence news,

get sneak peeks at upcoming episodes, and see how this show is put together behind the scenes, subscribe to our newsletter at apostrophepodcasts.ca. See you next week. Fun fact. A century ago, there were over 2,500 company towns in North America.