When someone tells you about the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar, or how taking a shot daily does miracles for digestive and immune health, they usually refer to the same brand. When wellness blogs or healthy eating sites discuss the values of Apple Cider Vinegar, they usually specify the right brand you’ll want to buy because there’s an implied idea that all other ACV brands are knockoffs or may not contain “The Mother” culture. Fire Cider (ACV with garlic and herbs) is a popular DIY remedy for a seasonal cold. By now, you probably know what it is. The homespun, classic Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar label. Bragg’s daughter, Patricia, inherited the company and grew the ACV brand from the 1980s through the 2000s, and today she is 93.
The bottle looks like a Mormon hippy had too many apples on hand and, out of kindness, decided to make this silver bullet health-vinegar that celebrities swear by. It feels like an underplayed version of Birkenstocks. One fair representation of the brand is that it does have longevity compared to most health products. Paul C. Bragg founded his first health store in 1912, just like the label says.
Celebrity advocates of Bragg’s products have included Tom Selleck, Gloria Swanson, The Beach Boys, and Clint Eastwood. Today Katy Perry is a part-owner of the brand and is reportedly close friends with Patricia Bragg.
Like many health gurus, the legacy of Bragg is more complicated than its nostalgic, wholesome label. It’s not unusual for wellness-personalities to be exalted and followed, not much unlike a religious adherence. It is a challenge even today to find details about his life. When Paul Bragg began, he was selling many different supplements and regimens, often in big Baptist-Tent style gatherings. His type of salesmanship looks like where the expression “snake oil salesman” comes from. Purportedly, he would take a pot on stage, pour into it chemicals found in white bread and other foods, stir it all together, and ask the audience who was ready to eat it. Gloria Swanson is reported to have come on stage as an endorsement, but details are murky at best.
It’s a challenge to put together Paul Bragg’s life, because there’s a lot of confusion about his age, background, and most personal details. It appears his father was a reporter and that he mostly grew up in the Washington DC area, yet Bragg told people his father was a farmer and that he oldest of 16 children. Birth records show he had two brothers. He lied about his age by a decade and frequently changed it, a practice that seems normal for health gurus. Claiming that they are a decade or two older than they are sells the “fountain of youth” regimen and the products they sell. (Joseph Pilates is another who lied about his age).
In 1934, an 18-year-old church musician sued Bragg, alleging that he had attacked her two years prior. The conclusion of the lawsuit is unknown, although it’s notable, especially for the era. In 1952 Paul Bragg’s son, Robert E. Bragg, married Patricia Pendleton in Phoenix, AZ. Patricia Pendleton is the daughter of Harry and Nettie Pendleton. It’s known that she attended UC Berkely for two years before her marriage, but in 201,1 she told Santa Barbara Times that she earned a BA in biochemistry. The Bragg website timeline shows Patricia taking an interest in helping run the Bragg store and getting involved in the business as “Paul Bragg’s adopted daughter in the late ‘50s”.
Patricia Pendleton and Robert E Bragg’s marriage ended in 1957 following “Robert’s allegations linking his father to his wife”. Even today, Patricia never misses a chance to talk about her adopted father, who she claims formally adopted her. The Bragg website uses the terminology “adopted daughter”.
If you take a closer look at the Bragg label, there’s a photo of a happy, older, couple. That is Paul C Bragg and his “adopted daughter” in her iconic pink hat. She is never seen without the hat because one time Tom Selleck told her something along the lines of, “You’re five feet tall, but with a hat you’re six feet tall.”
Knowing the obvious age difference between Paul and Patricia, it’s a guess that the photo on the label is photoshopped with a picture of Paul from the ’70s with Patricia from the 2000’s to make them look similar in age.
Patricia has always held that there was a formal adoption, while the few bloggers looking into this have no record of it. She has a tendency to ramble during interviews, answering most questions about herself by name-dropping celebrities. We do have Paul C Bragg’s death certificate. Some who were close to Paul C Bragg say that he met his end by being attacked by a shark while he was surfing at the age of 96. Patricia doesn’t acknowledge his death and says things like, “as far as I’m concerned, he’s not dead. He’s alive.” The certificate shows that he died from a heart attack in Florida at the age of 81.
