BATHROOM
The Quick Quirk Quiz
The Surprising Stories, Hidden History,
and Unusual Origins Behind Familiar Things
By Janet Spencer, Trivia Queen of the Universe
Royal Ruler of Useless Information
Master of Arcane Knowledge & Extraneous Lore
Keeper of Forgotten Facts & Startling Statistics
Published by Janet Spencer at Smashwords.com
Copyright 2009 Janet Spencer
Discover other works by Janet Spencer at
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/triviaqueen
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Adventures in Toilet Paper
Cellucotton
Protector of Toilet Paper
Paper Pulp Product
A Man and a Mouthwash
Sterile Dressings
A Better Bandage
A Greasy Substance
A Home Remedy
A Pain Reliever
Chocolate Flavored Remedy
A New Prescription
Townsend R22 Gets a New Name
A Baby’s Bottom
Optical Shop Discovery
Sunglasses & Sales
A Sweet Scent
A Free Gift
A Cosmetic Company
A Determined Woman
Relief for Rough Skin
John’s Shampoo
Razor’s Edge
A Close Shave
Crazy for Curls
Soap & Candles
White Soap
Wall Cleaner
Adventures
in Toilet Paper
When brothers Irvin and Clarence moved to Philadelphia and started a paper business in the 1870s, they sold butcher paper, paper bags, and stationery from a push-cart. When they moved into a storefront, sales dropped. They needed a product that would be constantly in demand. Just at that time, indoor plumbing was becoming popular. In private homes, people used catalogs in the bathroom. But hotels and restaurants, after going through the trouble of installing indoor plumbing, couldn’t bring themselves to put catalogs in bathrooms. So Irvin and Clarence started experimenting with toilet tissue, an idea that had been around a while but had never caught on. First they manufactured stacks of individual sheets, but it was difficult to keep the pile neat. So they tried wrapping it around a cardboard tube. It worked. They set up a factory, named the business after themselves, and started selling toilet paper directly to merchants since the issue was too delicate to bring up in polite society. Gradually, they introduced their product to the public through advertisements aimed at snob appeal: “They have a pretty house, Mother, but their bathroom paper hurts.” In 1907 an uncut roll of defective toilet paper material was delivered to their factory. It was heavy, wrinkled, and unsuitable for toilet paper. It was about to be returned when someone suggested marketing it as disposable ‘paper towels’. Hotels, restaurants, and railroad stations bought them because they were more sanitary than cloth towels. Irvin and Clarence’s business became the largest paper goods maker in the world, and was bought out by Kimberly-Clark in 1995. What’s the name of their company?
Answer:
Scott, as in Scott Tissue and Scott Towels.
Cellucotton
During World War I, cotton was used for surgical dressings and as filters in gas masks. As the war progressed, demand outstripped supply and it became urgent to find a substitute material. The Kimberly-Clark company, a paper manufacturing firm based in Wisconsin, came up with a substitute called Cellucotton that was made from wood fibers. It made an excellent cotton substitute not only for gas masks but also for bandages. When the war ended, Kimberly-Clark had huge surpluses of Cellucotton on hand. Searching for a peace-time use for their product, in 1924 they came up with a tissue designed to remove cold cream make-up used by actors. It was a far better alternative than using towels and handkerchiefs to remove makeup. They called them Celluwipes at first, before settling on a new name. Advertisements using Hollywood movie stars convinced ladies that the tissues were the best way to remove makeup at the same time that Hollywood movie stars were convincing the American public that wearing makeup was acceptable. In 1928 the pop-up tissue dispenser was invented and the tissues began to be used as a disposable handkerchief, an idea proposed by a Kimberly Clark researcher who suffered from persistent hay fever. The company introduced the slogan, ‘Don’t carry a cold in your pocket’ while pushing the sanitary benefits of using the product. Today the product is used worldwide and the name has become a nearly generic term for tissue. What’s it called?
Answer:
Kleenex.
Protector
of Toilet Paper
Riccardo DiGuglielmo was born in England in 1916 to an Italian father and an English mother. The family moved to Canada when he was a child. His father was a vaudeville performer and his mother was a singer, and he grew up knowing he was destined for show business. As a young man he took on his mother’s maiden name and became Dick Wilson. After World War II he moved to the U.S. where he began picking up bit parts in movies and on TV shows. He landed roles in 38 different films, and made guest appearances on a wide variety of TV shows such as Maude, Fantasy Island, Bewitched, McHale’s Navy, Hogan’s Heroes, and The Bob Newhart Show. But his true claim to fame happened when he was chosen to star in a series of commercials for a particular brand of toilet paper. Over the course of the next 30 years, Dick appeared in over 500 toilet paper commercials. Appropriately enough, the first series of commercials was filmed in Flushing, New York. Dick worked just 12 days a year and was paid $300,000 annually. He died in 2007 at the age of 91, and was quoted as saying, “I've done thirty-eight pictures and nobody remembers any of them, but they all remember me selling toilet paper.” In the commercials, he always played the role of a grumpy grocer trying to protect his stock of toilet paper from harm. What was the name of Dick Wilson’s character? Bonus points for naming the brand of toilet paper.