Los Angeles Soap Company was founded by John A. Forthmann. + Chronology Charles Brode was a director of the Los Angeles Soap Company."Death of Pioneer Charles Brode," Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1901, page 12"Twenty-Fifth Anniversary: The Turnverein Society Honors Its Charter Members," Los Angeles Times, June 21, 1896, page 27
History In 1860, John A. Forthmann, a German-born 17-year-old, arrived at the pueblo of Los Angeles, later buying a small soap business in a shack at 2nd and Spring streets. By 1874, the soap plant had moved to a wooden building near the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, from which Forthmann shipped soap around the West. Its oldest building dated back to 1858. The Los Angeles Soap Company Plant, at 617 E. 1st Street, spread over and with around 600 employees, produced more than 75 brands of soap.http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2011/03/los_angeles_in_the_1930s.php
In 1897, the company, headed by John A. Forthmann and William D. Bergin, filed incorporation papers. After World War I, White King D, the nation's first granulated laundry detergent, began production.
In 1922, the White King Soapsters joined the Greater Southern California Baseball Association.
The Los Angeles Soap Company sponsored Chandu the Magician, a radio series, and Queen for a Day, which began on radio in 1945, moved to television in 1956, and remained there until 1964.
In 1967, a factory it opened on the East Coast of the US closed within a year. On June 17, 1988, the Los Angeles plant was closed, about 128 years after the company began.
Products Los Angeles Soap did private-label packing for Vons, Ralphs, Luckys and Thrifty Drug, contract packing for companies such as Shaklee and Avon, and manufactured tiny bars of soap favored by hotels.
Mission Bell, soaphttps://digital-collections.csun.edu/digital/collection/Gridiron/id/104 White King Soap, soap White King Soap, laundry soap White King D, laundry detergent White King Water Softener Cocoa Naptha
See also Charles Brode Forthmann Carriage House Timeline of Los Angeles West Adams, Los Angeles Chandu the Magician, an American radio series
Further reading
References
External links Finding aid for the Forthmann family photographs - USC Libraries Special Collections via: Online Archive of California Carroll and Lorrin Morrison Photographic Collection - Loyola Marymount University, Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library via: Online Archive of California Los Angeles Soap Company - The old White King D Detergent factory - flickr Exterior view of the Los Angeles Soap Company, ca. 1920 - calisphere Los Angeles Soap Company factory - flickr Early Los Angeles Historical Buildings (1800s) - Water and Power Associates