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Miles Labs
NARRATOR: This Indiana Bicentennial minute is made possible by the Indiana Historical Society and the law firm of Krieg DeVault.
PAULEY: In 1884, if you needed to cure a headache, calm your nerves or get some sleep, Nervine from Dr. Miles was the medicine you wanted and that’s how Dr. Franklin Miles of Elkhart started Miles Labs.
Advertisements are shown of various medicines like Nervine were shown. A picture of Dr. Franklin Miles is then shown.
PAULEY: The company would introduce products like One-a-day vitamins, Bactine, and in 1931, Alka-Seltzer which still is one of the world’s top selling products. Aided by clever marketing featuring an animated speedy Alka-Seltzer and jingles like, “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz.” Miles Lab would employ over 2,000 people in Elkhart.
Videos of the Alka-Seltzer advertisement and then images of the factory workers in the Miles lab are shown.
PAULEY: The company was sold to Germany’s Bayer in 1978 and eventually moved out of Indiana causing not only headaches but heartaches for Elkhart, Indiana’s 15th largest city.
NARRATOR: This Indiana Bicentennial minute is made possible by the Indiana Historical Society and the law firm of Krieg DeVault.
Indiana Bicentennial Minute
- Gas Boom
- Miles Labs
- The Harrisons
- Native Americans
- Elwood Haynes
- Morgan’s Raid
- Red Skelton
- Indiana Astronauts
- John Dillinger
- Gov. Oliver Morton
- Indiana State Parks
- Cole Porter
- Auto Indiana
- Evansville, Refrigeration Capitol of the World
- Knute Rockne
- Gennett Records
- Indiana Agriculture
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Carole Lombard
- State Capitol History
- Saint Theodora Guerin
- Hoagy Carmichael
- French Lick and West Baden Springs
- Eugene V. Debs
- Indiana’s First Railroad
- Eli Lilly
- Gary, Indiana, and Michael Jackson
- John Wooden
- Cummins Engine
- General Lew Wallace
- Back Home Again in Indiana
- Indiana Avenue
- Indiana Statehood
- Steamboat Era
- James Whitcomb Riley
- Super Bowl XLVI
- Abraham Lincoln
- Madam Walker
- Crispus Attucks
- Vice Presidents
- Philo Farnsworth
- T.C. Steele
- Milan Miracle
- Levi Coffin
- Robert Kennedy
- Von Tilzer Brothers
- Ernie Pyle
- New Harmony
- Gene Stratton-Porter
- The Shaping of the Crossroads of America
- Soldiers and Sailors Monument
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway
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