If you have more money than you can spend, you invest. That's how Bing Crosby and Bob Hope found themselves in 1947. Usually they invested wisely. And then came Lime Cola. The boys got lured into investing in an Alabama company that needed funds to expand its marketing of Lime Cola nationwide. Each forked over $25 Grand in 1947 dollars to make it happen. Bing began mentioning Lime Cola and "LC" on his weekly Philco radio show. The boys inserted mentions of Lime Cola into their forthcoming Road picture, "Road to Rio," over the objections of Paramount executives. The following year, the Lime Cola Company went bankrupt, leaving the boys with only empty bottles of soda. And it was too late to remove the promotions from "Road to Rio," or change the name to "Road to Bankruptcy."
Not long after the collapse of Lime Cola, Bing got lured into investing into yet another beverage company -- the Vacuum Foods Corporation, makers of the first canned concentrated frozen orange juice called Minute Maid. A company executive and golfing buddy of Bing's offered Bing 20,000 shares in the company at a discounted price of 10 cents a share if he would promote their product. From this transaction was born yet another Crosby radio program, "This is Bing Crosby," better known as the Minute Maid show because Minute Maid frozen orange juice was its principle sponsor.
The syndicated pre-recorded show went on the air five days a week beginning Nov. 22, 1948 and lasted until Oct. 27, 1950. The format was similar to a show he would do for CBS from 1954-56. Bing's show seldom had guests. Instead, Bing served as disc-jockey, spinning mostly his own records while singing the praises of frozen orange juice versus fresh squeezed ... just add water and stir. Bing worked for 'minimum wage,' with the real rewards down the road when he sold his shares of stock in the company.
Listen to the premier broadcast of the Minute Maid show:
Bing's image began appearing in newspapers and magazines pouring Minute Maid orange juice for his thirsty youngsters. He even set up a distributorship to serve frozen Minute Maid orange juice concentrate along the Pacific Coast. When television became dominant in 1954 Bing recorded his first televised ad for Minute Maid.
The campaign was so successful that Vacuum Foods Corporation changed its name to the Minute Maid Corporation in 1949. In 1960 Coca Cola bought the Minute Maid Corporation and Bing reaped a significant profit. Crosby's initial 20,000 shares were purchased at $0.10 each ($2,000 total investment) in 1948. In 1960 Minute Maid shares traded around $28, implying a value of roughly $560,000 for his block of stock, a ~280x return on the original investment. Stockholders in Minute Maid received equally valued stock in the Coca Cola Corporation.
By the 1960s Bing had a new family to feed, so in 1967 he signed with Coca Cola to once again promote Minute Maid orange juice in a series of televised ads that featured his family. These ads continued to be produced until his death in 1977.
Not long after the collapse of Lime Cola, Bing got lured into investing into yet another beverage company -- the Vacuum Foods Corporation, makers of the first canned concentrated frozen orange juice called Minute Maid. A company executive and golfing buddy of Bing's offered Bing 20,000 shares in the company at a discounted price of 10 cents a share if he would promote their product. From this transaction was born yet another Crosby radio program, "This is Bing Crosby," better known as the Minute Maid show because Minute Maid frozen orange juice was its principle sponsor.
The syndicated pre-recorded show went on the air five days a week beginning Nov. 22, 1948 and lasted until Oct. 27, 1950. The format was similar to a show he would do for CBS from 1954-56. Bing's show seldom had guests. Instead, Bing served as disc-jockey, spinning mostly his own records while singing the praises of frozen orange juice versus fresh squeezed ... just add water and stir. Bing worked for 'minimum wage,' with the real rewards down the road when he sold his shares of stock in the company. 
Bing's image began appearing in newspapers and magazines pouring Minute Maid orange juice for his thirsty youngsters. He even set up a distributorship to serve frozen Minute Maid orange juice concentrate along the Pacific Coast. When television became dominant in 1954 Bing recorded his first 
By the 1960s Bing had a new family to feed, so in 1967 he signed with Coca Cola to once again promote Minute Maid orange juice in a series of