Friday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1949. The ad is 100 years from something, though it’s unclear what. In addition to the gold rush in California, I guess there was a lot of “pioneering” still going on 100 years before this ad ran, but Schlitz itself didn’t start brewing for another 25 years, in 1874. Still, this Oregon Trail-like painting is pretty cool, even if it has little to do with the beer.
Schlitz traced its history back to the brewery founded by August Krug in 1849. When Krug died in 1856, the bookkeeper, Joseph Schlitz, took over running the brewery and married Krug’s widow. But, as you note, they didn’t get around to changing the name of the brewery to the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. until 1874 —- which might have been bad luck since Joseph Schlitz drowned the next year in a shipwreck.