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Fire-King - a bit of history (excerpt)
From: Fire-King An Information & Price Guide by Joe Keller and David Ross
Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation was created in 1937 by the merger of Anchor Cap and Closure Corporation and the Hocking Glass Company. This brought together mass production and colored glassware. The word "Fire-King" first appears on glassware in the early 1940's. Intended as a group of oven-proof lines, "Fire-King" became the most successful of Anchor Hocking's products.

The earliest Fire-King was the Philbe dinnerware line, introduced in 1940. In 1942, this was transformed into the Sapphire Blue oven-ware, which, along with Jadite, became the signature items of the Fire-King line. The oven-ware was attractive, durable, and inexpensive. The dinnerware was bold, attractive, and multi-purpose. Items were multi-function. A casserole was used to bake, serve, and then store leftovers in the refrigerator. Many pieces were produced that did not have a specific function - like utility trays, bakers, and covered loaf pans. These pieces were marketed in various ways, with the goal being to see each piece as multi-functional.

The History of Anchor Hocking
The Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation came into existence on December 31, 1937, when the Anchor Cap and Closure Corporation and its subsidiaries and the Hocking Glass Company merged. The Anchor Cap and Closure Corporation had closure plants in Long Island City, New York and Toronto, Canada, and glass container plants in Connelsville, Pennsylvania and Salem, New Jersey. By this time, total employment had reached 6,000 employees and the company produced a wide range of glass tableware, glass containers, closures and sealing machinery.
In 1940 Anchor spanned the continent by establishing the Pacific Coast Closure Division in Southgate, California.

In 1941 a subsidiary company, Gas Transport, Inc., was founded. This company maintained gas pipelines to provide natural gas to several of the plants. It was also in this year that the closure plant in Long Island City, New York, was moved to Connelsville, Pennsylvania.

West Coast expansion was continued with the purchase of Maywood Glass in 1942. Another new market was penetrated in 1944 when the company entered the toiletries and cosmetic container field with the acquisition of the Baltimore, Maryland based Carr-Lowrey Glass Company.

Growth continued during the decade of the 1950's as the first unit of the Research and Development Center, the Package Research Laboratory, was established in Lancaster. In 1954 the expansion continued into a new geographical area with the addition of the Tropical Glass and Box Company of Jacksonville, Florida.
Anchor Hocking built its first new glass container manufacturing facility in San Leandro, California in 1959, thus providing the company with additional geographical distribution of glass container manufacturing facilities in the Northern California area.

For more History of Anchor Hocking visit: www.anchorhocking.com