By WENDY GRAGG

Waco Tribune-Herald



WACO, Texas (AP) — In a building on Waco’s Fifth Street, in a warehouse of a room, are shelves stacked high with antiquities.

“Who would have ever thought there was all this stuff?” said Mary Beth Webster, collections manager at the Dr Pepper Museum.

Since 1885, Dr Pepper and its sister sodas have been marketed in just about every way imaginable. You name it, it’s been done, and more than likely, Waco’s Dr Pepper Museum has at least one of those items in its collection.

“I could work here for the next 50 years and still have plenty to do,” Webster said, looking around at the stacks of nostalgia, including gems such as a “Be a Pepper” bicycle and walls lined with glass soda bottles.

Webster is in charge of all the historical objects on exhibit and in storage at the museum. It might sound like a lot of boxes and crates and labels. But, as Webster has found, working with all things Dr Pepper comes with a little bit of glamour and a heavy dose of fun.

A large part of Webster’s job is working with Dr Pepper’s corporate offices, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and providing pieces that have been requested on loan for one reason or another.

Recently, the museum got a call from corporate requesting that some 1960s Dr Pepper bottles be sent to the set of AMC’s Golden Globe-winning series, “Mad Men.” No problem, Webster said. TV shows “Good Eats” and “Modern Marvels” have requested images, as well.

“Mad Men” is just the latest to take advantage of the museum’s vast collection of vintage Dr Pepper items. The most recent Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, borrowed a mint-green, rust-covered Dr Pepper vending machine along with some diner-type accessories.

“We went to the movie theater as a big group to look for the stuff. I didn’t see it, but we were in the credits,” Webster said.

Hollywood types aren’t the only ones who value the museum’s expertise in Dr Pepper history.

Webster also fields calls from individuals all over about Dr Pepper. People want to know how old their bottle is or know what their memorabilia is worth (something which, as part of a nonprofit organization, she can’t answer).

Her favorite questions, she said, are from people who say their father or grandfather worked in a Dr Pepper plant somewhere and ask if the museum has any information about their relative.

“I actually have some of that information and can help them,” Webster said.

Chris Barnes, spokesman for Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which is separate from the Dr Pepper Museum, remarked on the museum’s collections and vast repository of knowledge concerning Dr Pepper.

“They’re a fantastic partner and a great resource to our consumers,” Barnes said. Dr Pepper Snapple Group has even put its collection of items in the care of the Dr Pepper Museum.

“The great thing about the people at the museum is they really embody the fun personality of the brand,” Barnes said.

Fun is the word Webster also uses when talking about her job. She loves it, she said, and it’s a job she worked hard to get.

After high school and some junior college, Webster enrolled at Baylor University, where she double-majored in museum studies and history. Already a fan of the museum from childhood visits, she decided it would be a great place to work part time.

“I basically called them and bothered them until they created a position for me,” she said. She graduated in December 2006 and then was promoted to collections manager at the museum.

Wilton Lanning Jr., founding president of the museum’s board of directors, calls the museum an asset to Waco and to Dr Pepper and said he has heard it referred to as the Smithsonian Institute of beverages.

The museum may be the pinnacle of Dr Pepper past, but Webster is working hard at keeping it up-to-date. Within the last two years, she has added fan pages, a Twitter account and a blog.

“The video blogs we do get huge responses and huge reactions,” she said. “I just want (the museum) to be accessible to people who can’t come to it.”

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On the Net:

Dr Pepper Museum: http://drpeppermuseum.com/

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