Mountain Dew as we know it today had its beginnings with Hartman Beverages in Knoxville , Tennessee , Tri-City Beverages in Johnson City , Tennessee, and the Tip Corporation of America in Marion , Virginia . Its flavor and ownership changed before Pepsi acquired it in 1965 making it one of their major brands.

     Charlie Gordon was told by Barney Hartman of Hartman Beverages on a train trip back from the Tennessee Bottlers' Convention in Nashville about a product he made at his lake cabin and used locally. Barney and his brother Ally were known connoisseurs of the mixed drink and even kept an open bar in their Knoxville , Tennessee bottling plant. It seemed that the brothers had concocted their own private "chaser", a special East Tennessee "Zero Proof" soft drink for mixing with Jack Daniels, that they jokingly called "Mountain Dew". 

     Gordon, still new to the bottling business, had hoped to pick up some new drinks for Tri-City at the convention and became very interested when Barney asked him to come to Knoxville and meet with him and Emery Frambach, from Owens Illinois and look over the design of a bottle. Emery and Gordon did some restructuring of the label and came up with putting names on the bottle. 

     Around 1949 Barney passed away, and Gordon had not made a decision on whether or not Tri-City Beverage would be the first commercial bottler of Mountain Dew. It was not until Emery got the interest recreated and Gordon made the plunge and bought the bottles and tried to market the product. 
     By 1954, Gordon had been working with Ally to spruce up the white logo for Mountain Dew with a splash of red, and helped Ally.

     Part of the allure of early Mountain Dew was for each bottle to bear the 'signature' of its maker. And there can be many bottles found with the names of their makers, I even have one that has "Tom and Jerry". The Tri-Cities bottle bolted the signature of Jim and Bill and or Charlie. For Charlie Gordon, Jim Archer and Bill Kibler. Their were two original bottles, an 8 3/4 oz returnable which sold for 5 cents and a 28 oz green glass, non-returnable bottle 15 cents.