A few days ago I wrote a short piece on the Standard Medical Company of Lansford, Pennsylvania, which became quite popular due to their Williams’ Anti-Pain (‘Anti-Pahn’ was used as their patent name, because I’ve come to learn that they weren’t allowed to patent the word ‘pain’; ‘Auntie Payne’ was used in advertisements) salve, which helped to remedy almost any bruise or ache.
After I published the post, I was given a copy of the October 2003 edition of The Valley Gazette. While there are other Valley Gazettes, the one to which I’m referring was a small mom-and-pop publication from the Panther Valley area of Pennsylvania. The newspaper was run by the late Ed Gildea and focused on long-forgotten coal region news, lore, and the daily goings-on of life in the nearby coal towns. The circulation was so small that they literally knew their subscribers and, as my mom put it, they didn’t even have to ask for subscription renewals because they already knew that you would want one.
After I published the post, I was given a copy of the October 2003 edition of The Valley Gazette. While there are other Valley Gazettes, the one to which I’m referring was a small mom-and-pop publication from the Panther Valley area of Pennsylvania. The newspaper was run by the late Ed Gildea and focused on long-forgotten coal region news, lore, and the daily goings-on of life in the nearby coal towns. The circulation was so small that they literally knew their subscribers and, as my mom put it, they didn’t even have to ask for subscription renewals because they already knew that you would want one.
In the October 2003 edition of The Valley Gazette was a story about the Standard Medical Company and how Williams’ Anti-Pahn ointment came to be. I’m hoping that I don’t get into any problems for republishing the articles from this issue, but I doubt that I will. One thing that I’ve learned from growing up in the coal region of Pennsylvania is that a big facet of life is that of passing along stories about which you don’t want people to forget.
The first part is a description of how the ointment was made.
The first part is a description of how the ointment was made.
The Anti-Pahn workers started at 7 AM, first getting the petrolatum out of a 55-gallon drum into a big heavy metal pot and started heating Vaseline. Next, the menthol and camphor crystals were put in a pre-marked container with the methyl saliclate to dissolve.
About 8:30 AM was coffee break across the street to Mrs. Vadyak’s home with fresh rolls delivered by Kovaliskies bakery truck of Summit Hill. Mailman Roy Heffelfinger brought orders (mail was delivered twice a day in the early forties).
Back to work cleaning every jar to be filled with ointment that day. About 11 AM, pour the hot Vaseline with the other ingredients in a special unit with two small faucets on the bottom. Start filling jars while hot in liquid form. In the afternoon, after the jars cooled, they were capped and sent to the labeler for the black and green labels…then on the conveyor belt to be boxed, packaged and shipped. The filled cartons slid down a wide board from the upper level to the first floor.
The menthol crystals came from China and in 1942 were stored in a bank vault in Lansford until the new synthetics were available. Menthol cigarettes were made by putting an open pack in the menthol can.
[Employee Joe] Vadyak welcomed the job at the Standard Medical Company because he was just fired from Bright’s Department Store by Dick Edwards, store manager, because Joe wanted a pay raise from $13.70 a week that included 9 AM to 9 PM hours during the holiday season. Edwards told him he could get someone to do the job for $11 a week. Joe told him to get him and the next day he was let go from working with Jack Lannon in the display and advertising department. Lannon taught Joe the art of sign painting at the age of 17.
After Vadyak completed art school study in New York City, he was associated with advertising agencies and while doing freelance for American Lithocraft, he designed with Paul Kershner a new advertising piece with new artwork for Anti-Pahn. Paul ordered one hundred thousand to be printed.
While Vadyak was planning to study in New York, he took Harry Canter of New York, who was married to Mary Sverchek, into the Anti-Pahn operation. Canter changed the process, eliminating glass jar labeling and packaging. His wife Mary and her sister Ann continued the manufacturing process for years on West Abbott Street, Lansford.
The following is part of a letter sent to Ed Gildea from the late Gretchen Kellow in reference to the ointment:
Dear Ed,
I’m sorry I’m so tardy in responding to your letter but I haven’t felt up-to-snuff lately and each task becomes an effort.
Enough of that! Anti Payne was compounded by Willie Davis, a brother of Nan McCready’s. Willie Davis owned and operated a drug store at the southeast corner of Ridge and Tunnel Streets. When I left Lansford in 1979, it was owned by Nesbitt Company.
Nan McCready was a school teacher in the Lansford High School for many years [and] had a daughter Jean McCready who married a heavy guy who drove the Lansford ambulance for a long time and was once a member of the Merchant Marines. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten his name.
After Willie Davis, a pharmacist, concocted the Anti Payne formula in the cellar of his drug store, a group of Lansford businessmen bought stock in the company. It never went public but continued to be owned by a group of Lansford businessmen, namely Paul Kershner, who married Dora Davis (a sister of Willie Davis) and Ben Arthur, a Lansford lumberman and leading leader of many civic groups in Lansford, my father, Stan Druckenmiller, the physician, and I believe Charlie Walton (my maternal grandmother’s brother), who lived in the house at the corner of Tunnel and Bertsch, where when I left Lansford in 1979, Emil Demyanovich lived. Many people tried to go public with Anti Payne and introduce it on TV, newspapers, etc., but the controlling interests in the stock ownership would never sell it. George M.D. Richards was a heavy stockholder in the company. Eventually Lib and Bob Lewis began to be the “agents” for Anti Payne when I believe a man named Canter used to make it and dispense it out of a warehouse on West Water Street. Lib Lewis was the secretary more or less and took care of the business end of the business. Lib is still living at 28 W. Bertsch St. in Lansford, as far as I know.
I have taken the liberty of writing to her and asking her to call you and tell you what she knows about Anti Payne. I don’t know whether she has done this or not yet. Our family loved Anti Payne and so did everyone who ever used the product. It burns your skin so badly that it drove away the pain that was hurting you. But it was really great stuff. Many Lansfordians sent for her by mail after they no longer lived where they could get it in Lansford. I hope this is of some help in your coming article on this product but call Lib Lewis and ask her if she can fill you in on any of the details of the company.
To my knowledge, The Valley Gazette is now gone with the passing of Mr. Gildea a few years ago, but I figured it would be a shame to not pass along these two tidbits for those who might be researching either the Standard Medical Company or Williams’ Anti-Pahn ointment.
