Hilda Clark (1872 – May 5, 1932) was an American model and actress, known as the basis for the character depicted in the early-20th-century Coca-Cola advertisement Drink Coca-Cola 5¢.

Hilda Clark
An 1890s advertisement showing model Hilda Clark in formal 19th century attire. The ad is entitled Drink Coca-Cola 5¢.
Born1872
Leavenworth, Kansas
DiedMay 5, 1932 (aged 59–60)
Miami Beach, Florida
Occupation(s)Stage actress, model

Early life

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Hilda Clark was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, to Lydia and Milton Edward Clark.[citation needed]

Career

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Hilda Clark, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes, ca. 1890, Metropolitan Museum of Art

As a young adult Clark moved east to Boston to become a popular music hall singer and actress. However, Clark became famous as a model in 1895 when she became the first woman to be featured on a tin Coca-Cola tray. Hilda Clark remained the advertising "face" of Coca-Cola until February 1903 when she married Frederick Stanton Flower in New York, taking the name Hilda Clark Flower.[citation needed]

Flower was a nephew of New York Governor Roswell P. Flower. Clark had been an active socialite in Boston but retired from the stage when she married. Frederick Flower was a millionaire, involved in banking concerns and director of several railroads. Flower died in December 1930.

Death

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Hilda Clark died on May 5, 1932, in Miami Beach, Florida.[citation needed] She was buried at Brookside Cemetery, Watertown, New York.

Bibliography

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  • Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country & Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It. New York: Basic Books, 2000. ISBN 0-465-05468-4
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