With the World Series and baseball ads plus Halloween this weekend, I’m doubling up on ads so I can highlight both baseball and Halloween-themed ones. Today’s baseball ad is from the 1970s for Pabst. The “Cool Blue” Pabst baseball player is running to make the catch … of a mug of beer.
Our 41st Guinness poster by John Gilroy features the largest, most twisted tuba ever made, whose playing is undoubtedly made possible by Guinness. That’s what gave him “Guinness for Strength” to be able to play such a big tuba.
With the World Series and baseball ads plus Halloween this weekend, I’m doubling up on beer ads so I can also highlight a few Halloween-themed ones. The first of these is a Budweiser ad from 1953 featuring a truly scary mask and a witch holding up a glass of beer to toast a jack-o-lantern along with the tagline “When you know your beer … it’s bound to be Bud.
Friday’s beer and baseball ad is the ninth one featured going into the World Series. The ad is from 1951 and is for Schlitz. It features two players — or perhaps managers? — arguing about something while the ump keeps on smiling, as he pours himself a bottle of Schlitz.
Thursday’s beer and baseball ad is the eighth one featured going into the World Series. The ad is from 1968 and is for Narragansett Beer. The spokeswoman is wearing a Boston Red Sox cap and urging customer to “Go For Two!” Just like the San Francisco Giants tonight.
Wednesday’s beer and baseball ad is the seventh one featured going into the World Series. The ad is our second for Falstaff and appropriately mentions the seventh inning stretch. The ad is from 1963 and starts out with “For your Light-hearted moments … This is the One.” I can’t tell if the ad is photographed or a hyper-realistic illustration. The pair just look so perfect that it’s hard to tell. The veins in his arms, the impish smirk, the perfect hair. Then there’s the woman behind him, throwing off her catcher’s mitt with tousled hair and a perfect come hither smile. The guy actually looks a little bit like a very young Ed O’Neil, the Dad on “Married with Children” and now on “Modern Family.” The text at the bottom begins “Seventh inning! Stretch for a Falstaff!”
Tuesday we feature the sixth baseball-themed add, which will continue through the World Series. The ad is for Falstaff and the Chicago White Sox. It’s most likely from 1971-75, because as far as I can tell those are the only years that the Sox used red and white in the way its shown in the ad. The theme of the ad is “Double Play …” with the twin pleasures of beer and baseball.
Monday we feature the fifth baseball-themed add, which will continue through the World Series. The ad is for Baltimore’s National Bohemian and specifically National Premium Beer. It’s hard to tell when the ad is from, because it shows a lot of old baseball memorabilia for the Baltimore Orioles. It’s at least after my childhood favorite player, Brooks Robinson, started playing — and that was 1955. Though it seems more likely it was after he became a legendary player, and I can’t say exactly when that happened. The tagline for the ad reads. “National Premium Beer. Our Name Says It. Our Taste Proves It.” After that, it’s all about the Orioles, which was my favorite baseball team growing up.
And I just pulled out the box of baseball cards that my mother didn’t manage to throw away and found my Brooks Robinson baseball card from the 1970 season, forty years ago.
Today’s art is a beautiful lithograph from 1889 featuring both beer and baseball, our recent topic during the MLB Playoffs and World Series. Although the lithograph is essentially an advertisement, its age, historic nature, value and artistic beauty make it artistic enough to be featured here, at least in my opinion. Known as the Cap Anson and Buck Ewing “Burke Ale” Beer Poster, it is the first known time that a baseball player was paid for his endorsement for advertising. The two baseball players were Cap Anson, of the Chicago White Stockings (the team that eventually became the Cubs, the modern White Sox took their name from the Cubs’ abandoned nickname in 1900), and Buck Ewing, of the New York Giants (now, of course, the San Francisco Giants, on their way to the World Series). The beer being advertised is essentially from Guinness, their Finest Pale Ale and Extra Foreign Stout, both of which were sold under the label “E. & J. Burke,” which was for Edward and John Burke who, had a liquor importing company and was licensed by Guinness to sell their products under that name, beginning in either 1849 or 1880 (accounts disagree) and continuing through the start of Prohibition.
Here’s the description from Robert Edwards Auctions, who auctioned one of only three known posters in 2008:
Both Anson and Ewing are pictured in their respective uniforms as they take a break from a game to enjoy a refreshing glass of beer. Anson is seen enjoying a glass of Finest Pale Ale, while Ewing opts for a glass of Extra Foreign Stout. The timeless appeal of this piece, aside from the colorful graphics and high-quality production values, lies in the artistry of the scene as a whole. In what was then a nostalgic homage to the game’s early history, Anson and Ewing are pictured relaxing outside a large retiring tent. Such tents, which were holdovers from the game of cricket, were a common site at ball games during the 1850s and early 1860s, but were no longer in vogue at the time. A large banner displayed above the tent reads “Champions,” which most likely refers to the many championships won by each player’s respective teams in the preceding years, to which they now toast. Pictured in the background is a game-in-progress scene (presumably between the White Stockings and Giants), with the field bordered by a filled-to-capacity grandstand. The foreground image further promotes the company’s products, as Anson is sitting on a keg of Finest Pale Ale and Ewing is resting his arm on a barrel of Extra Foreign Stout. Boxes of “Burke’s Old Irish Whiskey” and “Garm Kirk Scotch Whiskey” are also visible among the barrels. Perhaps the most amusing detail are the numerous empty bottles of each respective beverage that are strewn all along the ground at their feet, along with various pieces of baseball equipment (base, ball and box, and bat). Also in the foreground, lying next to a beer barrel, is letter of endorsement from the brewery that bears an “Arthur Guinness Son & Co.” seal. The name of the lithography company, “Wagner & Co. Lith – 75 Murray St. N.Y.,” is printed in the lower right corner of the poster.
The Robert Edwards Auctions also has a lot more information about the poster. According to Collectors Corner, the poster “sold for an astonishing $188,000, setting a record for a baseball-related advertising poster and a record for any American advertising poster featuring a product of any kind.”
Our 40th Guinness poster by John Gilroy shows a man lifting up a manhole cover — and also lifting the steamroller resting on the cover — in order to rescue his pint of Guinness. Naturally, the tagline is “Guinness for strength.”
