I have seen these great vintage orange juice cans for years along with the miniature reproductions but have never been to a place that had one for sale. Today I was visiting a flea market/antique store and there one was, holding up a glass shelf with four other vintage juice cans (non-Disney).
$15.00 later and it was mine!
Anyone thirsty?
It took a little research to date this particular 48 Fluid Oz. can but here is what I came up with. Donald Duck juice was a brand of frozen and refrigerated orange (and grapefruit) juice produced by the Florida’s Natural Growers agricultural cooperative, which was known as Citrus World from 1969 to 1998, and before that as the Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative.
You can see in the picture to the right below that the Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative is listed on this particular can which should place it pre-1969. The Donald Duck brand was first introduced in 1940 so it had to be manufactured between those dates, but only knowledge of when different label designs were used would date this sample with any more accuracy.
The fact that the can is also stamped with W.D.P. (Walt Disney Productions) doesn’t help us narrow the date of release down for this company name was used by Disney from 1929 to 1986. So both the Canners Co-op and W.D.P. could have appeared on this can between 1940 and 1968.
Top and Bottom w/vintage rust
There are some random production letters on the bottom of the can but I doubt they would help with our attempts to date the can unless we could find documentation from the plant that recorded them and their meaning. Not going to happen!
So again, are you thirsty?
Fun Fact: This can mentions that it was distributed from a production plant in Lake Wales, Florida. For many years Donald Duck also appeared on the juice plant’s water storage tank in Lake Wales, until 1998, when the cooperative decided to remove the Donald Duck logo as part of its name change and re-branding.
I love reading these articles because they’re short but inomifatrve.