Friday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1945. This was the year before the “Beer Belongs” series began. These were similar, and used the “Beer Belongs” tagline, but were unnumbered stand-alones. They each featured a painting by a well-known artist or illustrator of the day, along with many of the elements that would later appear in the “Home Life in America” series. In this ad, the painting is called “Harvest Time,” by artist Doris Lee.
Perhaps it is seeing so many of these ads (their publication is much appreciated), but the theme of tolerance and good humor can pall after a while. While not from the left of the political spectrum (au contraire), it is well-known that even at the tail end of the war as many of these ads were, the forces were largely segregated. Jim Crow existed in the south. Race riots had occurred in some cities in this mid-40’s. Some white ethnic groups were still experiencing prejudice and exclusion in the form of quotas at universities or in other ways. And so the sylvan scenes depicted in the ads were a generalization, an ideal the country was far from attaining. Perhaps they were similar to the famous Rockwell cover art that adorned Look magazine for so long. As for all social phenomena, we can learn from them but there are numerous lessons to be drawn, not always those that draw a chuckle and sign of contentment.
Gary
Gary- you make hella sense; this “old fart honky” (age 65) has another observation that your post triggered:
There’s a dearth of minorities in the craft brew (& beer geek/judge/server) world, for whatever reasons I don’t know – craft/home brewers generally are far more liberal & open-minded than the general populace. Garrett Anderson’s the only African-American I know of who’s made a name for himself; there are scattered Latino-heritage brewers in the mix in CA & the Southwest. I’m unaware of Asian-Americans in the business, but I know a few in SF Bay Area who are big into homebrewing/judging/geekdom.
Maybe Jay can shed some light on this. .