Chasing the Old Dutch Cleanser Girl

Old Dutch CleanserWe were curious about Old Dutch Cleanser; it was one of the most recognizable trademarks of the early 20th century consumer product era.

Old Dutch, along with Comet and Bon Ami, was one of the big brands of pumice-based kitchen cleaners; its railcars were even featured on Tyco and Lionel trains as late as the 1970s.

But the product is nowhere to be found on the web. And the empty can we threw away after we took the picture of it last week was NO help, though we THINK we got it at a dollar store.

A bit of Old Dutch history. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a trademark for Old Dutch was filed September 15, 1905 and registered March 27, 1906. The whole trademark is “Old Dutch Cleanser chases dirt, makes everything spick and span.”

The most recent trademark renewal was in 2006, by Dial, though the product is not shown on their website (they are now part of Henkel).

What the hell happened to the Old Dutch Girl? We’d love some help. Meanwhile, a bit of history from the web:

  • It was first registered as a trademark and made by the Cudahy Packing Co., which apparently had a mine in Meade County, Kansas and had roots in a company that used pumice to clean up the floors of the slaughterhouses of Chicago.
  • It was sold by Cudahy to Purex on April 24, 1955.
  • Later, the ingredients were apparently taken from a pumicite mine “hidden underground in the remote Mojave desert, produced 120,000 tons of cleansing powder for the company. The mine, along the Garlock Fault, closed in 1947.”

Author

  • Garland Pollard

    J. Garland Pollard IV is editor/publisher of BrandlandUSA. Since 2006, the website BrandlandUSA.com has chronicled the history and business of America’s great brands.

103 Comments

  1. MARGRET SUTHERLAND of Church street in westville nova scotia canada is the true artist of the old Dutch cleaner. Margret sutherland was a well known painter in the area during that time period. my great great grandmother owned a local history book written around the same period of beginnings of the company. My grandmother read that book years ago

  2. Been researching Sunbonnet Babies and the book Minnesota Quilts by Helen Kelley, Lee Sandberg, & Greg Winter ISBN 9781610604451 claims Bertha Corbett Melcher (1872-1950) designed the Old Dutch can. She was a commercial artist, and her Sunbonnet Babies generated a fad in the early 1900s, one that continues with quilters today. She employed 15 artists to keep up with company demands for Sunbonnet designs on merchandise.

  3. The Old Dutch Cleanser logo was adopter by the 50th Aero Squadron formed in 1917. Their first “Great War” mission was in France in October of 1918. Does anyone have any info about this?

    1. Yes. The logo was used as a nod to sweeping away the Germans. Two members of that unit earned the Medal of Honor in WWI. The unit is active today as the 50th Attack Squadron.

  4. Just a quick aside: My family owned a soap company called TIGER MOON based in Phoenix. They went bellyup in 1937. I’m specifically looking for product, boxes, bars etc. I have ads and official papers but I don’t know what the box looked like. Thanks.

  5. After 40 years of selling Vintage Paper to Corporations, Museums and Private Collectors, I am ready to retire.I am going thru all my boxes of paper and sending out last requests to former Customers…or people who put forth interest in the past but never followed up…. I have boxes and boxes full of wonderful Product Advertising….. . from all eras and publications going back to the early 1900’s. Many of my customers frame this material for Offices and Factories, add to their Archives and/or sell in Shops or at Fairs and Trade Shows. I will send just a few items on approval so you can view the actual material before deciding to purchase and prices will be reduced to $4 each with a generous lot price. Please give me an idea of what you would like to see and I will try to fulfill your requests. If you choose to buy, I will then send more. There is a barn full of paper to go thru and I want to be done by next year… Let me know either way, please so I can pass the offer on….. Thanks for your time….I look forward to finding a home for this great material…

    Sandra Baker 15 Elm St Searsport, Maine 04974 davidsgone41@yahoo.com

  6. I cant find it anymore , where is it ? I really think it is the best cleaner ever. I cant find it at Big lots or any of the dollars stores in Concord or Kannapolis NC. Please tell me where i can find it and that u still make it!!!

  7. I just viewed an episode on TV which featured Dutch Cleanser as a sponsor. Also mentioned were Sweet Heart Soap, Trend and Beads-O-Bleach. I would presume that all of these were made by the same manufacturer? I will try Big Lots as I have wanted to find Dutch Cleanser. Does anyone know if Sweet Heart Soap is still manufactured? This site is fun.

  8. I attended Kendall College in 1955 in Evanston Illinois.A classmate, “Dutch” Scott was so called because his grandmother in Chicago was the model for the Old Dutch cleanser label. Could be true or just a story.

  9. I recently came across a box of Dutch laundry detergent, It was found in an old shed and unopened it was manufactured by Purex Corporation .The Dutch girl is on the package.

  10. Does anyone have any photos of railroad cars advertising Old Dutch Cleanser. These would have been leased from the Cudahy company. Time period probably 1920s or before.

  11. My mother worked at the Cudahy plant near East Chicago, Indiana. This was in the 1950’s when I was in grade school. I still have the badge she wore to work each day.
    The workers did not wear protective masks and many became ill and died at a young age. My mother died at age 55 from lung disease, she lived longer than many others. All left young children.
    Factory conditions were awful, but these women needed work to support families so said nothing.
    The women were paid a very small payout and had to sign an agreement when the plant closed.
    It was a sad time for many hard working women.

    1. My Grandmother worked at an Old Dutch Cleanser factory way back in the late 1910’s. I thought it was on the outskirts of Gary Indiana but maybe it was the East Chicago Indiana Cudahy plant. I figured conditions weren’t the greatest. Always wondered if exposure there contributed to her cancer death at age 36 in 1936. She left 4 young children behind. My mom, one of her daughters, always remembered her mother saying she had worked there.

  12. I just received an old tattered quilt from a friend and one of the outline Redwork pictures is a can with the Dutch Girl. The quilt maker probably copied this motif from an advertisement for her needleworked square.

  13. I recently purchased an Old Dutch Cleanser box that the company used to ship the cleanser on E-bay. I’ve repainted the Dutch lady, repainted the words that were on the box. and will poly the box. Old boxes are very collectible I want to thank everyone for the info you provided. I remember my mother using Old Dutch in the 40’s. Chuck

  14. Old Dutch Cleanser, My wife told me the story of her dad entering an Old Dutch Cleanser contest, you were to submit a jingle incorporating the cleansers miracle ingredient ” sizematite” Into the jingle. The prize–a new car, he was sure his entry would win. Guys at his place of employment said,”Jack there’s a man here to see you—when he went to the front office his fellow employees presented him with a toy car—which was as close as he was going to come to the real prize. Some 70 years on my wife still remembers his disappointment—he was sure he had the winning jingle. Any way my curiosity looking up sizematite led me to this web site.

  15. Found the book “Bachelor’s Children”, a radio program sponsored by Old Dutch Cleanser. The book is “a synopsis of the radio program” of the same name and is published by Old Dutch Cleanser, 1939, Chicago, IL. The 25-page book “brings the story up to March 1st, 1939” and is in great shape. Anyone interested? Thank you for your time.

  16. I found an unopened can (14oz) of Old Dutch when I closed up my mother’s house nearly a dozen years ago. It had been around long enough, there, that the top was oxidized. It also has a UPC code so it isn’t from the ’40s or 50s. Reading from the red and yellow can gives the following information.
    a) Trademark is Dial Corp
    b) It can only be sold in USA because of trademark restrictions
    c) Manufactured by Fitzpatrick Brothers, Chicago
    The can, still unopened, is now a memento.

  17. I still call all forms of cleanser “Bab-o”. It is like here in the South where all carbonated drinks are coke. I suspect my mom used Bab-o because it was cheap. She didn’t listen to the radio and we had no tv.

  18. My father used to use the phrase, “What have you been doing, smoking Dutch Cleaner?” This was said when someone would say something that was goofy or something with which he disagreed. Not sure where THAT came from. Any ideas?


  19. About 1949-1950 I remember that Old Dutch had a flower seed promo on the radio. It seemed a bargain to this little kid.

  20. Babo cleanser is an interesting story …if this is indeed true…was named for the wife of the chemist who created the cleanser. Her name was Babs. As new owners of a property once owned by the Mendleson’s (Alan Mendelson, inventor of Babo Cleanser)we found a lovely green plastic “cover” for the entire can – makes any cleaner look classy! I am surprised to find out that Babo is still made, I thought it was a thing of the past. Now I can look for the real thing to place inside the pretty green cover!

  21. To hear Old Dutch Cleanser advertising spots from the 1940’s, download “Nick Carter, Master Detective” radio dramas at
    https://archive.org/details/nick-carter

    Beware, old time radio is addictive. You’ll marvel at the quality of the scripts, voice acting, and realistic sound effects (all mechanically done). These were live shows. The so-called talent of today doesn’t compare.

    Cudahy Packaging (makers of ODC) shows up as the sponsor. They say their product contains Seismatite, which I suppose is their trade name for pumicite.

    We buy Old Dutch Cleanser at Dollar Tree and Dollar General. It’s failsafe at removing dirt stains. Apply to the sponge and wet the powder thoroughly before scrubbing porcelain sinks and tubs. Very mild abrasion does no harm to surface, yet gets out the toughest stains.

    It’s wonderful that the famous icon of the traditionally dressed Dutch woman chasing dirt with a stick hasn’t been changed from its early days by some modern advertising dweeb. That iconic ODC image is recognized by countless millions around the world. Newfangled cleaners come and go, but this one lives on. “Updating” the icon would be very foolish, indeed, and destroy its charm. It would be like recasting the flowing Victorian-era script of the Coca-Cola logo into BLOCK LETTERS. Bad idea!

    Here are pictures of vintage metal cans of ODC :
    http://patricktillett.blogspot.com/2014/01/old-dutch-cleanser-mine-el-paso.html
    There are also photos of the Old Dutch Cleanser Mine in the Mojave Desert.

    Here’s a mining expert’s take on ODC and pumicite.
    http://patricktillett.blogspot.com/2014/01/old-dutch-cleanser-mine-el-paso.html

    Cheers!

  22. I discovered while doing some research that Georgia O’Keeffe created this image while working as a commercial artist in Chicago in 1908.

    1. per Roxanna Robinson’s book, Georgia O’Keeffe, A Life” page 75

  23. Chester Marhoff , Chicago, Ill. was an employee of Cudahy. He and my father Haeckel H. Giles, were childhood friends and until they died they always exchanged neckties at Christmas. We visited him in Chicago once (I was 16) and I remember he had a boat encased in a glass bottle on his mantle which intrigued me

  24. I have 2 small hard plastic dutch dolls 4-5 inches tall each. One is a girl and the other a boy. As children we all played with them at my grandma’s house. I will be sixty this year so they have been around for a long time. I remember being told they came free in some cleaning product. Can you help?

  25. An “Old Dutch Cleanser” doll appeared in the Butler Brothers “Santa Claus Edition” catalog in 1916, with a wholesale price of $1.25 for sellers, for whom the catalog was intended. The Butler Brothers company was a very prominent doll and toy importers and wholesale sellers. A note in the catalog stated “the NAME and design by special permission. Costumed like the well known advertisement. Sure to be a hit with the kiddies”.

    The doll was fifteen inches tall, with composition head and lower arms and a cloth body, a mohair wig, and was dressed like the Dutch girl on the cleanser’s can, complete with a red stick stapled to her hand. My nine-year-old mother received one of these dolls as a Christmas present, and was affronted that they’d given her a “work doll” for Christmas! So she pulled out the red stick so her new doll wouldn’t have to work. The doll also got a new dress – green and white, nothing like her “work dress”.

    Sadly, the doll was damaged by a house fire several years afterwards, and it was many years later that she was restored, using the artwork on the cleanser can as a model. She is definitely a little girl doll, not a grown lady, as she has a toddler body and a full-cheeked, childlike character face with blue intaglio eyes – character dolls with faces of this kind first appeared in Germany around 1910-11 (this doll’s face resembles those of Kathe Kruse dolls, though made of composition rather than molded cloth), although I think this doll was probably American-made. She is jointed at the hips and shoulders, and the joints resemble those of a Teddy bear. My guess is that the basic doll was used for other characters in addition to the “Old Dutch Cleanser Girl”.

    Information about the original catalog’s description and illustrations of this doll appeared in Patricia N. Schoonmaker’s column in “Doll Reader” magazine’s June-July 2002 issue, with a request for readers to share any additional information – I responded with my mother’s doll’s history and her picture. She’s now a treasured heirloom.

  26. What ad agency handled Old Dutch? I’m curious about C.S. Norton.

  27. Well, I just bought 4 BONUS SIZE 21Oz cans of Old Dutch Cleanser at the Grocery Outlet in Merced, California. The price—- 2 for $1.00! Can’t beat a deal like that on any day of the week. Good luck in your search! 05/12/2014


  28. Bon Ami was never a pumice-based cleaner. It was totally non-abrasive which made it excellent at cleaning the first grime off windshields for example.

    Old Dutch is nowhere to be found around out small town in Northern New Mexico, Only Comet here.

  29. Just recently acquired an old Dutch cleanser box, 20×13 and 10 deep. Nice pic of lady chasing dirt, old Dutch cleanser in red 1 1/2″ letters, Cuhady soap works USA 1/2″ letters, makes everything ” SPICK AND SPAN” 1/4 + 1/2″, and chases dirt 1/2″ all on both sides of the box. One end has 48 on left and cans on right of old Dutch cleanser all in red, makes everything SPICK and SPAN in black, covers the whole side. Other side has 4/15/30 giving me the clue to its age. Nice light brown aged color to it. Liked it for its display ability and now have some history to add to it, thanks for the history lesson!!

  30. Georgia O’Keeffe is alleged to be the artist and is given credit for creating The Old Dutch Cleaning girl chasing dirt in the book “Wideness & Wonder, the Life and Art of Georgia O’Keeffe, p.31, by Susan Goldman Rubin.
    It is amazing how many artists are given credit for this logo!

    1. Yes it is true in this book is documented. The shading of the Old Dutch Cleanser woman is compatible with O’Keeffe’s style.

  31. My buddy and I were just at the Old Dutch Cleanser mine out in the Mojave, yesterday, November 3, 2013. What a fascinating place. There’s still an amazing amount of the product still left there. I don’t think the pumicite is “hidden underground”. The stuff is pretty obviously visible and there’s virtually an entire mountain of the stuff. But who was the first to wander out in that remote region and actually find this stuff amongst all that desert?

    1. This is WAY cool that you actually saw this. Are there tours for people to see it or is it so rural that no one cares?

  32. I just bought four cans of Old Dutch Cleanser from Amazon, where it is readily available.

  33. I have a full can .On front it has new above old dutch cleanser. On back there is a date corp 1953. c.p. co and The Cudahy Packing Co. among other things. Would like to sell if worth anything

  34. I vividly remember the decal of the Old Dutch Cleaner girl on the door of Joe Plemich’s neighborhood grocery store on West 11th Avenue in Gary, Indiana. It was one of the stores where your Mom could send you to pick up a few items and tell Joe to put it on the bill, which Dad paid on payday. I also remember the cereal boxes up high on the shelves which Joe would retrieve with one of those grabbers on a pole, and the little boxes of Cheeze-Its.

  35. I’m a fan of Old Dutch. It really cleans and sanitizes deep down, whereas other cleansers seem to superficially treat the problem. I need to be honest, my interest was sparked when I saw the bathroom scene from the movie “Mommie Dearest”, and there it was… the Old Dutch can with the Dutch woman icon on it. This is all I use now; it’s a time-tested American classic and inexpensive to boot!

  36. Hello everybody, I have seen old dutch over the years but never used it sound good to me….
    I have recently come across a old wood box with the logo on it .
    The box is aprox 10 in by 12 in and 5 in deep, and the logo is finished the joints to keep it together are old school has a removable lid and thinking a box for cleaning supplys. im not sure if anyone is interested i could send you a pic

  37. I have an ad from a December 1922 magazine called The Delineator that has, on the inside cover page a full color ad of the Old Dutch Cleanser can and a picture of a lady with a scrub brush in one hand and a can of Old Dutch in the other scrubbing a tile floor. There are small caricatures of the Dutch girl running around the scrub brush. Very interesting ad.

  38. Well, the Dutch Cleaser logo inspired a character in a picture book by Marcia Sewall, that much I know.

    But I still use BABO as a verb. “Gotta babo that sink into kingdom come….”

  39. Old dutch is the best cleaner ever! It cleaned a stain in my bathroom that nothing else would touch.

  40. My Great Grandfather, Jan Svejda, a Bohemian artist immigrant to Omaha, Nebraska, originated the painting of the Little Dutch Cleanser Girl. Cudahy was searching for a logo for their newly created cleanser. My Great Grandfather had been asked to paint the meat market windows at Christmas time. This was a traditional time and all the stores wanted their windows decorated with Christmas scenes. He used the Little Dutch girl in his window paintings. Cudahy liked his paintings so much that they took his idea and used it for their logo. Cudahy paid my Great Grandfather, Jan Svejda with six months free meat for his family of seven.

  41. Anyone wanting vintage advertising material featuring the Old Dutch Cleanser Girl would do well to get their hands on the ‘Complete National Geographic Collection’ on DVD-ROM. I’ve been going through the magazine chronologically and I’m up to the September 1921 issue and have seen many
    different adverts of this product already.

  42. Does anyone know if a name was ever given to the caricature of the old cleaning woman on the Old Dutch Cleanser can?
    Thanks.

  43. Georgia O’Keefe designed the little Dutch Girl on the can, as was stated in ghe book “How Georgia Became O’Keefe”

  44. I asked grandma about 1944 what the lady on the can was doing. She replied “She’s a lot like you – she chases dirt”. Years later, recalling it, I realized that she was teasing &I probably needed a bath. I have a steel can (5″ high) with an imprint of the lady. Can is green, with a removal black painted bottom. Top has holes to shake the cleanser out. The original can fit inside and the “prettier” metal can could then sit in plain sight on the sinkboard.






  45. John B. Carroll mentions this fact in his 1955 introduction to B. L. Whorf’s ‘Language, Thought, and Reality’: “Harry Church Whorf drifted into commercial art… Among his productions which survive even today is the chain of little Dutch girls which encircles each tin of a well-known brand of cleansing powder.”

  46. It’s been rumored in our family that my grandfather, Harry church Whorf designed to logo for the Old Dutch Cleanser girl. He also created the logo for Sherman Williams paint – “It covers the earth”

  47. While cleaning under a porch in a NJ shore community I came across a wooden container lid, buried in the sand that must have been part of a box that contained Old Dutch Cleanser (containers). It is about 18″ w by 15″ h. by 1/4″ thick and has the Dutch woman walking along . . ., and carries the official logo, “…makes everything spic and span.”

    Surprised to see it’s over 100 years old, and while dirty, the paint picture remains surprisingly clear.

    If anyone is interested in the item I can be contacted at my website.

  48. I just listed a vintage Dutch Cleanser can of Dutch Girl Cleanser. It has 2 cents off on the label and says it contains “Purex Bleach” so it must be after 1955 when Purex purchased the company. It has never been opened and the label on top says “Rust proof-plastic, Pre-Punched holes lift tape.” The can is in very good condition considering it’s age. Just thought some of you might want to look at it. The graphics are, of course, very striking!

  49. This is for Ed Ryan:

    Ed, thank you for your note on the B. T. Babbitt Company. Do you have any further information on the company? I am a Sinclair Lewis scholar and trying to track down whether he used this name for his novel, “Babbitt.” Thank you for your note!


  50. To Tim Sheridon at Fitzpatrick Brothers. Tim I am the great
    grandson of Big Jim Fitzpatrick. My mother Sali Ann was the theme
    for one of those early soap operas on the radio. Thanks for the
    information. I did not know about some of the history.

  51. For Grace Duran, Old Dutch Cleanser, now producted by
    FitzPatrick Bros. is available at BIG LOTS stores. the Big Lots web
    site has a store locator to find the location near you. Big Lots
    also has FAB and DYNAMO liquid laundry detergent (Phoenix Brands)
    Oxydol liquid detergent (CR Brands) and Babbo Cleanser (FitzPatrick
    Bros). Happy shopping!

  52. I’m an archaeologist from Arizona, working on a 1920s-1950s ranch site for the state government. I have a cardboard container from a trash dump labeled Old Dutch. When did Old Dutch first appear in a cardboard can?

    This is a great website. It’s fun to read all the comments and the information is invaluable. Thanks for a great service!

    Gina Gage
    Project Director
    Northland Research, Inc.
    Tempe, Arizona

  53. I collected Old Dutch Cleanser wrappers in the 1930s enough to get a 1st aid kit. It was the my dream wish and had much to do with my becoming a nurse in later life . Our neighbors cooperated helping me to obtain the kit and I have never forgotten this event.

  54. I recently heard an episode of “Nick Carter” and the Dutch Cleanser ad featured “activated sizematite”. I am sure that is not spelled correctly but what actually was this “activated something”?

  55. I have an old metal “can”, green, with the Dutch Girl logo clearly visible on the side, but with no words indicating that the can once held Dutch Cleanser. The top of the can is domed, with 8 holes in a circle. The bottom pries off, ergo enabling the can to be refilled. I wonder about its age, and its potential worth. Any ideas? Thanks for the help.

  56. According to “Billboard Refrigerator Cars” (2006) back in the 1930s the Cudahy Packing Company would cover one entire side of their railroad cars with an ad for Old Dutch Cleanser while the other side of the same railroad car was an ad for one of their meat products, one of the few times a railroad car has ever had 2 completely different things advertised on its 2 sides.

  57. Myfather’s boyhood friend, Chester Marhoff , was an employee of Cudahy Packing Co. in Chicago and I understood that he was the person who designed the Little Dutch Girl or had something to do with the finalizing of the label. We visted this man in Chicago during one of the World Fair years 1932 or 1933 . At that time I believe he was retired.

  58. Where did the name Bab-O come from?


  59. Hi, I am an art historian and I’m studying the illustrator Walter Haskell Hinton. He painted a lot of advertising images for Old Dutch in the 1910s. The artist remembered (in a 1976 interview) they were mainly of women cleaning bathtubs and so on. I’m looking for examples, if anyone has any.

  60. Related to this discussion and what Ed Ryan mentioned about the radio show sponsored by Old Dutch, this is really interesting, since recently my wife has remembered a certain part of a classical piece that she heard on a radio show in the late 1930’s-early 1940s, more than one time.

    She also connects this with that Old Dutch was the sponsor of the show, but she does not remember the name of the show since was very young at the time. She does noto know if the music was incidental music of the show or part of the Old Dutch ad, though what she heard was instrumental, not just piano and not organ.

    Now this could be coincidental – but after she hummed the music to me, I hummed it into a file and posted to some classical music sites wherein folks help others identify pieces –
    and the answer was that it was Grieg’s Norwegian Dances #2.

    Now the search is on for what the radio show might have been, which has led to my coming to this site in researching what shows Old Dutch sponsored ! (I was also going to try to contact Fitzgerald Brothers, Cudahy, Dial and now from this site I see Church and Dwight – to find out who might be able to tell what shows Old Dutch sponsored, radio-wise.

    From basic browsing have seen so far it was
    Bachelor’s Children ( a soap), Nick Carter, private detective, a show called Helpmates
    and a show hosted by someone called the Old Dutch girl, who was a well known singer in those days.

    I’ve listened to two episodes of Bachelor’s Children and one of Nick Carter; the Bachelor’s Children one did have some musical interlude that seemed sort of classical but did not sound like the Grieg piece or the Hungarian Dances #5 but did have an old dutch ad; the nick carter episode was sponsored by someone else at the time.

    ===> Thus am wondering if

    1. Ed Ryan, could it be that the music was really the Norwegian Dances #2 , ie
    http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=JYrCj4lweLg

    for the soap opera you mention ?

    and if so, what was that show ?
    (or if it was not, what was that show anyway, now I’m curious about that one too 🙂

    2. Or could it be that Bachelor’s Children might be the soap opera you remember, which used actually the Hungarian Dance #5

    3. Or could there have been another show sponsored by Old Dutch in which the
    Norwegian Dances #2 was incidental music of the show

    4. or was there another show not related to old dutch that had the grieg music in it ?

    Ed, I really can agree with you about the earlier memories being clear – my wife said this happens as we age gracefully, and yet it can be a challenge to remember things today 🙂

    PS If anyone has any ideas just about researching which other shows old dutch sponsored in those days, or how to track down the show with the Grieg music, please let me know.

  61. Soap opera ads and radio, oh my!
    Bab-O, back in the day produced by the B. T. Babbitt Company.
    Also, I think, came in a green can like Comet.
    And wahtever soap opera was sponsored by Old Dutch used the “Hungarian Dance #5” as a theme. But I forget what i had for Breakfast!!

  62. dial sold old dutch cleanser to church and dewight co is the makers of arm and hammer. this is what the lady told me at dial co. 1800-524-1328 if anyone has more info about old dutch cleanser plese let me know thanks

  63. were can you buy old dutch cleanser

  64. Growing up in Kansas, my mother always referred to the kitchen cleanser as “Bab-O” even if it was Comet. I had occasion today to try to find the name for Comet in my brain when telling my husband what we needed to clean up a spill and the name “Bab-O” came out, though I hadn’t uttered it in 25 years. Thanks for all the information about Bab-O. I live in Chicago now so will look for it at the store!

  65. “Old Dutch Cleanser, famous for chasing dirt, presents…Nick Carter, famous for chasing crime!” A staple in the 30s/40s radio world.


  66. I keep getting my Old Dutch Cleanser from a chain of discount stores called Dollar General.

  67. As Anonymous above notes, the Old Dutch brand also still exists in Canada, where it is owned by Lavo Inc. of Montreal. They still market the powdered cleanser, creme cleanser, liquid bleach and laundry detergent under the Old Dutch name.

    It’s largely a discount brand, but you see it everywhere in chain stores, drug stores and dollar stores. It’s not a legacy brand to me, since I buy these products all the time.

    http://www.olddutch.ca

    Oddly, one of Canada’s largest potato chip companies is also called Old Dutch, but there’s no corporate relationship bewtween them. Thank God, I’d hate to think they shared ingredients!

    They’re at http://www.olddutchfoods.com/

  68. Thank you for tellin’ it like it is about who designed the artwork…. I did the original artwork for Trojan prophylactics in 1975

  69. I found this at the above website:

    Noted personalities who are buried here [Waynesville, Ohio] are…Maurice Collett, who originated the Old Dutch Cleanser logo; and Rachel Ward, an African-American woman who was Collett’s model for the Old Dutch woman.

    1. I remember in 1st grade our class girls did an Old Dutch Cleanser song dressed up in crepe paper costume. Was there a song or did my school make it up? “We are the Old Dutch Cleanser Girl we ……….”

  70. I am currently researching history concerning veterinary medicine in the El Paso, Texas area and we came upon an individual by the name of Horst Schreck who we believe was the originator of the “Little Dutch Girl.” Legend has it that he entered a national brand logo contest, and his logo was selected and bought for a fee of $2.00. His family also claims he was the originator of the Arm & Hammer logo. Does anyone have information that would qualify or disqualify this information? Please email @ gkjohnsen@aol.com.

  71. found this at pictou county facts:

    1905 – Maude E. Sutherland of Cowan Street, Westville designed the cleaning lady for the “Old Dutch Cleanser” container.

  72. Family lore has it that my grandmother was the original girl who modeled for the dutch cleanser label. I assume it was when photo ads appeared in the late 40’s-mid 50’s. I’ve never found a photo of those old ads to compare, but would be interesting.

  73. Does anyone know who designed the Old Dutch logo? There are at least 4 suggestions that I have found, including Georgia O’Keeffe when she worked for an agency in Chicago.

  74. Dear Sirs:

    I am President of Langley-Pacific Resources, LLC.

    We own the Old Dutch Cleanser Mine in California. Your articles are very interesting.

    Keep it up!

    Marshall Pettit

  75. Mr. Tickner is correct. I am the Sales Director at Fitzpatrick Bros. We continue to produce Old Dutch, Bab-O and the “original scouring powder,” Kitchen Klenzer.

    Kitchen Klenzer was first introduced in 1894 followed the next year by Old Dutch. And while Kitchen Klenzer is not as widely recognized, Old Dutch’s little old Dutch lady chasing dirt away is still a familiar icon to many.

    We produce Bab-O and Old Dutch under license for the retail market from Dial Corp, while Disco Corp. has the license to market the product to the janitorial/sanitation (industrial) sector.

    Both labels were successful in the 40’s where they advertised heavily on daily serial radio programs, which we now call “soap operas.”

    While new cleaning products seem to come out regularly, you still cannot beat the cleaning power of these powder cleansers with bleach.

    1. I used to buy this at Big Lots. They no longer carry it. How can I buy it from you. Love that Old Dutch Cleanser. Please help me out.

  76. Old Dutch is still readily available around my area (Destin, FL) in most of the dollar stores and Big Lots. It is made by Fitzpatrick Brothers of Chicago. They also make Bab-O Cleanser of a similar vintage. Both these trademarks were licensed to them by Dial who received them with their purchase of Purex. At some point a couple of years back, the license notice disappeared from the cans and only the Fitzpatrick name appears. At one time, Purex (and predecessor companies) produced other Old Dutch cleaning products.

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