Saturday’s ad is entitled Between Innings, and the illustration was done in 1955 by Pruett Carter. It’s #112 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 well-dressed couple — I know I like to put on a suit and tie when I watch baseball on television — takes time out in between innings to pour themselves some more beer. I hope they do that between every inning.
Maybe they were going out afterwards to a fancy restaurant for dinner/to a cocktail party & dinner. For sure they’re uber-dressed for watching a game @ home. 1955/6, the only baseball telecast nationwide was CBS’ Game of the Week (NBC started theirs in 1958 or ’59; CBS had a Sunday game for a couple years, also), plus the World Series. Regula season games were blacked out in the teams’ metro areas to the range of a TV signal – the totally specious reason for which was that it might hurt attendance! 8 of the 13 metro areas (NY had 3 teams; Chicago 2 & DC-Baltimore corridor had 2) had populations well over 1M (KC, St Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, & Pittsburgh didn’t). My dad used to rail about that stupidity.
Those who lived in/near one of the 13 MLB metro areas may have seen a few of their teams’ games. When Giants & Dodgers moved west after the 1957 season, their home games never made national TV, which was catering to the East & Midwest. Start time ran btwn 10 & 11 Pacific time. Only games ever televised in SF & LA were road games when Giants were in LA or Dodgers here.
For sure, that ad’s LYAO for this longtime baseball junkie.