In 1936, the United Drug Company, owner of the Rexall drugstore chain, promoted its products and services and recruited local druggists by sending a 12-car trade show on wheels back and forth across the U.S. and Canada. The campaign was the brainchild of United Drug founder Louis Liggett.
Acknowledging the wearying grind of the Depression, Liggett decided that, rather than ask cash-strapped Rexall druggists to come to a national convention, he would take a convention to them. The company leased a dozen air-conditioned Pullman cars and had their interiors reconfigured to stage product exhibits, professional lectures, and support services — including a three-chef dining car and staff sleeping cars. The assemblage rolled behind a locomotive leased from the New York Central and restyled to the streamliner look.
The Rexall Train left Boston on March 29, 1936, scheduled for 109 much-publicized stops around the nation. Local Rexall outlets distributed free tickets to customers, who came in droves. The four exhibit cars sometimes handled 2,500 visitors per hour, and when the conventioneering day was done, the train’s four-piece band played dance music.
Bringing up the rear was Louis Liggett in his private observation car. Rexall druggists along the route but not included in the original manifest importuned the company to add their towns, and Liggett sometimes did, especially if a local drugstore owner was thinking of signing on to the Rexall program.
In midsummer, the train paused in Chicago for a three-week refurbishing before returning to the rails, finishing its epic journey at Atlanta on Nov. 24, 1936. On its 29,000-mile run, the Rexall Train stopped in every state except Nevada, entertaining and educating thousands of Rexall druggists and 2.3 million visitors.