Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 9, 1994 TAG: 9408100015
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
In less than two years, three histories of the Coca-Cola Co. have been published, joining several earlier tomes examining the soft drink as both a business and cultural phenomenon.
If Coke's popularity as a refreshment seems indisputable, it is more of an acquired taste for readers.
``Obviously, there's an appetite for this information, what makes the company tick. I think American corporate histories are of interest to Americans,'' said Kim Becker, spokeswoman for the New York-based Barnes & Noble Inc. bookstore chain.
``But it's a very specific interest, and accordingly those people who are interested are looking for it,'' said Becker, whose company operates 1,000 stores across the country.
The latest Coke book, ``Secret Formula'' by Frederick Allen, was published in July. Last year saw the publication of ``For God, Country and Coca-Cola'' by Mark Pendergrast. In late 1992, ``The Real Ones'' by Elizabeth Candler Graham and Ralph Roberts came out.
The Pendergrast book was a ``mediocre'' seller in the chain's stores, Becker said, adding that it was too soon to make a judgment on the Allen book. She did not have sales figures on ``The Real Ones.''
The authors say they tackled the Coca-Cola story not out of a dream to become a nonfiction John Grisham, but because they were captivated by how a soda pop invented in the 19th-century South could evolve into one of the most ubiquitous products in the world.
``I didn't write about it because of the market,'' said Pendergrast, an Atlanta native who now lives in Stowe, Vt. ``I wrote it because it is a fascinating subject ... Coca-Cola has touched almost everyone's lives.''
Pendergrast said his book has sold about 20,000 copies in hardback and another 20,000 in paperback. With generally favorable reviews and extensive publicity for its claim - disputed by the company - of including Coke's original formula, he had hoped for more.
``This was my first book, so I was expecting the moon,'' he said. ``It has sold quite well, actually.''
Graham, co-author of ``The Real Ones,'' is a great-great granddaughter of Aza Candler, who founded Coca-Cola Co. Her book focuses on the company's early days.
Allen, a political commentator for Atlanta's daily newspapers and Cable News Network, began his book as a biography of Robert Woodruff, the executive who dominated the company from the 1920s to the 1980s. He then expanded the book into a full company history.
``That animated my research and writing for 4 1/2 years. How do you take a product that's 99 percent sugar and water with a Victorian name that as a practical matter doesn't refer to anything in the product ... how does that become a $50 billion business in 195 countries?'' Allen asked.
``It would make a good novel,'' he added.
He interviewed 130 people and had access to 200,000 of the reclusive Woodruff's personal papers. That access dispelled some myths, but also confirmed Woodruff's extraordinary power, both as a corporate kingpin and an influence on Atlanta politics.
Woodruff was a key force in keeping Atlanta relatively free from the racial strife that gripped most of the South. But Allen concluded that Woodruff's motivations were as much to advance the fortunes of Coca-Cola as out of humanitarian concerns.
``In Woodruff's patriarchal view of things, racism was wrong because it was cruel and unnecessary, and most of all because it was bad for business,'' the book says.
The same Woodruff who quietly pushed civic leaders to support the civil rights movement also maintained an Old South-style plantation with black sharecroppers, according to Allen.
``By today's sensibilities, you can't look at that without having your flesh crawl,'' Allen said. ``But he was a man of eminent practicality - there were 15 million black consumers he couldn't afford to offend.''
Allen's book also reveals that current Coca-Cola Chairman Roberto C. Goizueta, then in the running for the top job, endeared himself to Woodruff - who hated change - by arranging for the toilet in Coke's new headquarters to be identical to Woodruff's ``throne'' in the old building.
by CNB