Chicago-Based Solo Cup Company Turns 75

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Oct 15, 2011 6:00PM

In 1936, a man named Leo J. Hulseman created the Paper Container Manufacturing Company on the South Side of Chicago to sell his conical wax paper cups. They renamed it the Solo Cup Company in the 1940s, and in the 1970s they released that red plastic cup we all know so well.

Now Solo is headquartered in Lake Forest and has manufacturing facilities in Chicago and Urbana, as well as a distribution center in University Park. It's one of those companies that you patronize more often you think. The Sun-Times writes:

The company’s products, [Solo CEO Robert Korzenski] pointed out, touch the lives of nearly every consumer who may use as many as 15 of them everyday — from cups of various kinds to cupholders to plates and other tableware — because they simplify their life. Starbucks, for instance, uses Solo cups. An overwhelming majority of the company products are made in America, said Korzenski.

We're not sure if he did this specifically to commemorate the company, but country star Toby Keith has released a song celebrating the partying possibilities that a red Solo cup brings to the table. It's probably the dumbest song we've ever heard since Rebecca Black. But it is kind of catchy, and this music video did make us miss those keg-in-the-bathtub college parties, even if we were rolling our eyes at lines like "Now, I've seen you in blue and I've seen you in yellow / But only you, red, will do for this fellow."