Bitters Family

Before he went to Hollywood in 1925, Frank Morgan had been on the stage for a decade. He gave up reporting for the Boston Traveller and ranching in New Mexico to play one-night vaudeville stands in 1914. A quavering voice, a well-groomed mustache, a debonnaire manner brought him leading comedy parts in cinema, where many remember him best as the doctor-husband in Reunion in Vienna. Last week Actor Morgan put on his nattiest suit, gave his mustache an extra twist and became a businessman. In Manhattan he was elected vice president of a company distributing a famed concoction whose secret formula he will never know. The company: Angostura-Wuppermann. The brew: Angostura-bitters.

Actor Morgan's real name is Francis Phillip Wuppermann. Josephine Wuppermann, his mother, is, at 82, president and treasurer of Angostura-Wuppermann, sole agents for Angostura bitters in the U. S., Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Only three persons know what Angostura is made of, and a Wuppermann is not one of them. Mr. Alfredo Galo Siegert of Trinidad, grandson of the first man ever to brew Angostura, shares his secret only with a brother and a brother-in-law. Lest something happen to ail three at once, a copy of the formula is locked in a bank vault in Trinidad, another in a vault in London.

Once a year Mr. Siegert sails up from Trinidad with packages of drugs and herbs, goes to a factory in Jersey City. There, behind a mouse-colored door, he mysteriously mixes his pungent brew. When he leaves at night he locks the door so no one can guess his secret. After three or four months he cleans up all trace of his work, locks the door and sails back to Trinidad. The Wuppermanns get the brew, but the doctor takes the formula with him. Neither he nor the other two who possess it can pass the secret on unless the company approves. All the company knows is that, like many another brand of bitters, Angostura contains gentian and rum. Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, an army surgeon under Bliicher at Waterloo, brewed the first bottle at Angostura, Venezuela, whither he went after the Wars. He intended it as a medicine for northerners who lost their appetite in the tropics. Ship captains soon carried it to the U. S. and Europe where it was used for anemia, colds, colic, fever, malaria, seasickness, pelvic disorders. After Dr. Johann's death his son fled to Trinidad to escape heavy taxes, set up his business in an abandoned monastery. In the factory today is a tablet commemorating the flight and a bar where visitors get drinks free, flavored with Angostura. The peak year for Angostura sales in the U. S. was also the peak year of the gin-#bitters era--1926--when 32,000 cases were consumed.* In 1932 the Wuppermanns sold 14,000 cases in the U. S., one-third of the world's supply, at an average profit of $2.92 per case. They have handled Angostura sales ever since 1878. In the late 1860's a sea captain named Hancox visited Venezuela, taking his daughter Josephine. There Josephine met and married George Wuppermann, a young merchant employed by the Siegerts. Legend has it that the Siegerts gave the Wuppermanns the distributing contract as a wedding gift. They moved to New York in 1878 and when Mr. Wuppermann died in 1915, his wife managed the business and a family of eight children. With her family she owns at least 75% of the stock, and her eldest son Edward is general manager. Despite her age, Mrs. Wuppermann never misses a stockholders' meeting. Son Frank, the newly-elected vice president, will not abandon the cinema, plans to help run the company from Hollywood.

Last week Actor Morgan took his seat beside his mother at a stockholders' meeting and remarked: "Sheer type casting."

*Angostura bitters were imported and openly sold during Prohibition under the Volstead Act which permitted sale of alcoholic medicines and flavoring extracts provided they were "unfit for beverage uses."

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