Pine Brothers throat drops rescued from extinction

Whenever Martha Stewart gets a little tickle in her throat, she pops a soothing Pine Brothers throat lozenge into her mouth. Elvis Presley used to do the same.

 

Connecting the two cultural icons was Rudy “Tutti” Grayzell, a Rockabilly Hall of Fame singer from Saspamco, Texas. 

Grayzell was a paid spokesperson to comedically promote the old-fashioned Pine Brothers Softish Throat Drops. Appearing in costume, Grayzell sported a wild pompadour wig, wore a bunch of jewelry and displayed a pasted-on thatch of chest hair.

 

Writing about Grayzell for the San Antonio Express-News in 2011, Jim Beal Jr. interviewed Rider McDowell, chair of Pine Brothers LLC. McDowell, who is a professional screenwriter, playwright and novelist, said: 

“I’ve used Rudy in a movie and in three stage plays.I wanted somebody (for Pine Brothers) who had a great sense of humor and enormous charisma. You need that to cut through the flotsam that’s out there. Rudy can do that. He’s one of a kind. He’s almost electric in his energy.” 

“As a 17-year-old, Grayzell and his band were playing at a supermarket opening in San Antonio,” Beal reported. “Elvis Presley stopped by the gig.” Presley was impressed with Grayzell and hired him to go on the road as his opening act. 

Grayzell said: “I knew from the first time I saw Elvis in that grocery store parking lot that he was going to be a big star.” 

“One time, after a show,” Grayzell said, “my voice was giving me a little bit of trouble. I asked Elvis what he used to keep his voice so smooth. He told me he used Pine Brothers throat drops.”

 

“It wasn’t rare back then, if you were a singer, to use Pine Brothers, McDowell said. “Having ‘The King’ behind you isn’t half bad,” he joked. (Unfortunately, Grayzell died in 2019 at age 86.)

Pine Brothers was founded in Philadelphia in 1870 by brothers John Herman and George William Pine at their confectionary. 

The brand survived for more than 140 years, but clearly, it was on a respirator when Pine Brothers was acquired in 2011 by Virginia Knight-McDowell, the creator and former owner of Airborne. Her husband (Rider McDowell) had grown up in Princeton, N.J., and remembered Pine Brothers drops from his youth. 

“They tasted and felt like candy – at least I ate them that way – but they really soothed your throat,” Rider McDowell said.

 

Victoria Knight-McDowell penned an essay on entrepreneurship in 2012. She wrote: “My life as an entrepreneur began one morning in the mid-1990s when my husband awoke from a dream, and said, ‘I want to market your herbal remedy and I want to call it Airborne.’” 

“Once Airborne became successful, we began to discuss starting or acquiring other companies,” Victoria said. “We’d always felt that the most exciting time with Airborne was during the initial stages, growing the brand, versus maintaining it.” 

“Then serendipity stepped in.” They received a tip that Pine Brothers “might be ripe for acquiring, since the current owners were shifting into patented health products. Within a month we’d struck a deal to buy Pine Brothers, its assets, trademarks, inventory, recipes – everything,” Victoria said. 

“Not a day goes by when we don’t receive fan letters thanking us for bringing the brand back.”

 

Cybele May, a marketing specialist in Los Angeles, is one of those fans. He said the natural honey-flavored “pieces are beautiful little amber drops. The melt is wonderful, and they truly are soothing for a throat that’s a bit raw.”