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was done using hard bar soap, washboards, and the repeated beating and wringing of the clothing items. The success of several new laundry washing products introduced late in the 19th century had proven that there was a ready market for what the consumer believed to be better and more economical cleaning agents. Many of these new products, however, were simply pulverized soap and fell short of having any significant improvement in doing the laundry.
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Radio Show—first broadcast in 1929 and created around the twins (and sponsored jointly by Gold Dust and Lever
Brothers)—was one of the first of its kind in marketing history. The back of the box depicted the twins tackling several household chores and a list of jobs made easier by using Gold Dust washing powder. "Let the Twins Do Your Work" was the product's slogan.
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Following its 1875 acquisition by the
American Cotton Oil Company, Fairbanks was renamed N.K. Fairbanks & Co. In the next quarter century the New York-based company introduced several soaps and soap powders to America, including Gold Dust washing powder and Gold Dust scouring soap. Powdered soap
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Manufacturing
Company. First introduced to the American consumer in 1889, Gold Dust Washing Powder became a success due in large part to its low selling price and bright, eye-catching packaging. The most easily recognized members of the soap line were Gold Dust Washing Powder and Gold Dust Scouring
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Lever
Brothers purchased the Gold Dust brand outright, in the 1930s. Gold Dust washing powder, found in many U.S. homes during the first half of the twentieth century, had a strong presence in the marketplace for more than sixty-five years. However, changing national sensibilities over the brand's
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The
Fairbanks Company, founded in 1864, was part of a changing landscape in American businesses' drive to give consumers more freedom in the timely completion of daily chores. The task of doing laundry began to change with the introduction of washing powders in the 1880s. Until that time, laundry
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were the 'faces' of Gold Dust products through most of their production, becoming one of the earliest brand-driven trademarks in
American advertising. They were often comically depicted, along with a huge stack of dishes in a washtub, with one twin cleaning, the other drying. The Gold Dust Twins
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While working at the research facility, Boyce developed an industrial hydrogenation procedure, which, when applied to cottonseed (and other plant materials), was a scientific breakthrough in cottonseed processing. The incidental discovery that the process also rendered the modified, extracted
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vegetable oils in its processing, a procedure the company pioneered, and industry quickly embraced. The formula for Gold Dust washing powder was developed and refined by industrial chemist
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By 1892, the product's advertising and attention-grabbing packaging—black and white graphics on a bright orange background—became more focused on the
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Introduced in 1889 by the N.K. Fairbank
Company, Gold Dust washing powder was the first all-purpose laundry powder made possible by employing
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Ad from 1915 for Gold Dust, depicting the twins, Goldie and Dusty, doing the dishes perched on top of a box of the product
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mascots, combined with increased marketing pressure from newer competing lines (especially
Procter & Gamble's "
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cottonseed oil as edible led to a revolution in food processing that was quickly exploited by the French chemist
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Soap. They were marketed in boxes and containers prominently featuring the brand's well known
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proved to be a substantial improvement over the use of simple, pulverized bar soaps.
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and other oil-based consumer products was a direct result of Boyce's discovery.
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Dailey, Jane
Elizabeth; Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth; Simon, Bryant (2000).
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Jumpin' Jim Crow: Southern
Politics from Civil War to Civil Rights
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274:"Your Advertisement Troubles Me : Atlanta's Goldust Twins"
250:"), caused the post-war demise of the Gold Dust product lines.
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on 2009-11-13 – via www.chicagohistoryjournal.com.
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Chicago Historical Journal Via WayBack Article-HTML
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228:Gold Dust Twins. The Gold Dust Twin characters of
441:Edward's City Directories, Chicago, IL; 1890–1910
76:Gold Dust washing powder, Gold Dust scouring soap
155:Gold Dust advertising on smoke stacks circa 1900
84:United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
16:Commercial line of all-purpose cleaning agents
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206:Company, headquartered at the time in
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111:Fairbank's Gold Dust washing products
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272:Thomas, Velma Maia (July 27, 2015).
198:Initially a regional success in the
369:"This Little Piggie Went to Market"
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187:and manufacturing giants such as
334:Schock, Barbara (July 1, 2019).
117:researched and developed by the
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375:. May 15, 2008. Archived from
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487:www.chicagohistoryjournal.com
416:"James Boyce : Obituary"
179:research lab of the company.
278:ATLS: Atalanta Studies blog
214:The Gold Dust Twins mascots
20:Fairbank's Gold Dust Brands
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113:was a line of all-purpose
93:N. K. Fairbank Corporation
494:; LiveJournal.com on-line
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208:Cambridge, Massachusetts
200:Midwestern United States
103:http://www.unilever.com/
508:Cleaning product brands
393:Die Historie von Persil
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303:"100 Years of Persil"
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189:Procter & Gamble
51:Unilever Corporation
340:Sandburg's Hometown
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513:Laundry detergents
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336:"Gold Dust Twins"
177:Chicago, Illinois
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119:N. K. Fairbank
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169:hydrogenated
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37:Product type
492:Vintage Ads
173:James Boyce
502:Categories
469:0691001928
426:2010-11-27
345:2020-11-27
313:2021-01-01
283:2020-11-27
254:References
134:Background
65:Introduced
124:trademark
518:Powders
99:Website
81:Markets
57:Country
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234:Dustie
230:Goldie
226:iconic
126:, the
47:Owner
464:ISBN
248:Tide
232:and
68:1889
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