Pepsi is one of the most popular drinks in the nation, but how did it come to be all that it is today? Who would have thought that a graduate of the University of North Carolina and a med school graduate of the University of Maryland by the name of Caleb Bradham would end up inventing something like this? He had worked so hard to buy a pharmacy (almost entirely on credit).

Like many other pharmacists at the time his store had a soda fountain. One of the drinks was one of his own originally nicknamed “Brad’s Drink”. He, however, did not like that name and changed it to Pepsi-Cola. It possibly contained a combination of phosphate and pepsin plus it was very similar to the soda Coca-Cola. The pepsin made the drink very helpful to digestion. By 1923, the drink no longer contained pepsin.

By the year 1907 the average amount of Pepsi sold per year was up to one million gallons. The war soon crushed Pepsi’s success. The company went bankrupt. Bradham tried to save his company loosing all his assets (even his beloved drugstore). Bradham did not live to see much of the fall of his company because he died in 1934 at the age of 67.

Megargel jumped in after the death of Bradham and tried to revive the company and find some new investors. The stock market crash made it even harder to find investors. Megargel kept putting his own money in until he was no longer able to. This ultimately led to the second bankruptcy of the Pepsi Company.

This is where Pepsi’s superhero came to the rescue. Charles G. Guth had lost almost everything in the crash. He made a deal with Megargel to lend him money from Loft so they could buy it when it got sold after the bankruptcy. Long story made short he put a lot of effort into this company and helped make it all that it is today.