Yeah, ‘Good to the last drop’ was better.
Percolators didn’t technically *need *filters because the coffee grounds were coarse enough to mostly stay in the basket, but enough got out that if you didn’t want crunchy coffee, you used paper filters.
One reason the coffee in percolators was so terrible is that you had to start out with an insufficient amount of ground coffee to make up for how long it was going to boil. So it had the acidity of strong coffee, but a weak coffee flavor that couldn’t stand up to the acidity. Not to mention that it was made with Folgers or Maxwell House or some other substandard Robusta bean canned coffee. Compared to fresh ground Arabica beans, they really have an inferior taste.
Corning Ware made a drip pot too in the 60’s. boil water in a kettle and then pour it through. Made very good coffee.
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/6671/corning.jpg
Bought one on Ebay and used it for a few years until I broke the glass drip thing. Amazing how easy it is to knock it off the counter. 