Saturday’s ad is another one for Ballantine Ale, also from 1962. In an ad series somewhat similar to the Blatz series, the “Ale Man” in the ad is a famous person, although more marginally famous tending more toward the manly fame. In this one, the ad features Elliot Burch, who trains horses, making him “a man with a thirst for a manlier brew.”
I wonder how many national ale brands encompassed all” in 1962. Defining “national” as those made in the USA, I can think of these others that were /could have been extant then: Rainier (aka “Green Death”), Gennesee Cream Ale, & Carling Red Cap are for sure; the regionals/locals like Little Kings; Henry Weinhard’s, & others I never heard of because I never lived in/visited the areas in which they were made are for the serious beer historians amongst us to clue me in on.regarding existence times.
Only Red Cap had anything close to national distribution, & it may have been imported down from Canada – I know Carling is of Canadian origin, but I don’t know when they opened breweries (or bought out small ones) in the US.
Ironic sidebar – there once was a CA-made brew called “Regal Pale” – but it was a 3rd-tier lager a la Lucky Lager & Burgermeister.
I think you are right (commenter above) that there would have been few ale brands, probably just two or three, that had national scope. There was Black Horse Ale as well, made by Champale in NJ, and Fred Koch made one too for a time in Dunkirk, NY. Schmidt in Philadelphia made a Tiger Head Ale. These surely were regional though, as was Rainier’s Ale. Carling Red Cap would qualify, certainly.
It’s funny how ale became regarded as more flavorful than lager: inherently there is nothing to show that (a true helles has plenty of taste), but I guess ale changed marginally less than American light lager did from the later 1800’s until the 60’s.
Gary