From the late 1800s through the 1950s, Americans gathered at drug store soda fountains to gossip, flirt, chat, and drink elaborate new concoctions of sugary syrup, ice cream, and carbonated water. In an era when drinking alcohol was being criticized more and more, the clean, ornate soda fountains provided a socially acceptable alternative to bars and saloons, and the frothy new "soda pop" they dispensed was thought to be the height of health and modernity. The invention of home refrigeration and bottled sodas, along with a population spread out in suburbs (see entry under 1950s—The Way We Lived in volume 3) instead of gathered in town centers, helped end the golden age of the soda fountain. However, soda fountains still have a place in American culture, readily visible in films and television, from the 1919 film True Heart Susie, starring Lillian Gish (1883–1993; see entry under 1910s—Film...