Rubbing It In, the Father of Vicks: Lunsford Richardson-- Part 2

Of interest, at one time William Sydney Porter worked for Richardson, who went on to become short-story writer O. Henry.

Lunsford Richardson continued to experiment with a wide variety of medicinal concoctions, including Vick's Chill Tonic, Vick's Turtle Oil Liniment, Vick's Little Liver Pills, Little Laxative Pills, Vick's Tar Heel Sarsaparilla, Vick's Yellow Pine Tar Cough Syrup and Vick's Grippe Knockers.

Personally, I'm not sure I would have tried some of these.  These sold with varying degrees of success, but soon it was apparent that the best-seller was Vick's Magic Croup Salve, which he came out with in 1894.  This would be for babies with a lot of coughing and congestion.

In 1911, his son suggested dropping all the other concoctions and going with just the Magic Croup Salve and changing the name to Vicks VapoRub, and he did.

After that, there was heavy marketing.  In 1919, as the Spanish flu was spreading across the nation and world, Lunsford got sick and died.  His son, Smith, took over, buying out other companies until Procter & Gamble bought them out in the 1980s.

During the years Vicks continued adding new products including cold remedies, cough drops, nose drops, nasal spray  (watch out for these as I've been hooked on them two different times), inhalers, and cough syrup.  Formula 44, NyQuil are also their products.

Well, the Next Time I Get the Croup.  --Cooter