Monday’s ad is entitled World Series U.S.A., and the illustration was done in 1953 by John Falter. It’s #86 in a series entitled “Home Life in America,” also known as the Beer Belongs series of ads that the United States Brewers Foundation ran from 1945 to 1956. In this ad, a group of people have brought their television set out on the front porch to drink beer and eat hot dogs and watch the World Series. Notice that the table it’s sitting on has wheels, suggesting moving it around was a common occurrence. I don’t think we ever moved our television. And was watching outside a thing people did? I remember in one of my favorite films, “Frequency” (a kind of time travelish thriller), they also watched the 1969 World Series on their front porch, and that would have been 16 years after the ad ran. Still, it looks like they’re having fun.
One recurring theme of these ads is that there was a severe chair shortage back in the day. The number of adults sitting on the floor so far has been amazing.
I’m loving these ads. Hopefully they will go into reruns whenever we reach the end.
Not to mention how OVERDRESSED they are – but I grew up in CA, where casual’s ruled forever – we taught the world! The other oddity is that there aren’t any people smoking (in the days when more than half the adult population did).