Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1944. This World War 2 ad features a colonial minuteman standing vigilantly in a field behind a team of oxen as a young boy points to where the trouble is. The ad claims that “The Minuteman is Still the Man of the Hour,” comparing them to the soldiers of the day fighting in World War 2. Sure, why not.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This World War 2 ad features a smiling boy holding a sandwich with the headline “You call it Bread … but your ancestors would have called it Cake.” Luckily during war we had an abundance of our daily bread, a.k.a. “the staff of life.” But look at the four illustrations behind the boy. The two on the left make sense. First, there’s a farmer harvesting wheat, which is used to make bread. Then there’s a woman in uniform holding a tray of bread. So far so good. On the right, there’s a shirtless man wearing white gloves and goggles holding a long metal rod. There’s also a giant vat behind him, the kind you see in steel mills. So why the hell is he shirtless? That makes no sense. Then there’s a man sitting but wearing what looks like an early hazmat suit with a diving bell helmet. What do either of those have to do with bread?
Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. This World War 2 ad features a giant house made of candy, and then comparing that to how corn syrup is a necessary ingredient in candy. And thanks to A-B’s research into corn and all the vitamins that are part of the brewing process, they’re helping a child’s dream come true.
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. This World War 2 ad features an ancient warrior protecting us, and then comparing that to how vitamins also protect your well-being. And thanks to A-B’s research into all the vitamins that are part of the brewing process, they’re guarding your well-being, too.
Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. This World War 2 ad features ghostly horses riding the sky above Navy warships to illustrate the power of diesel engines which, according to A-B, were first built for use in their breweries. Hmm.
Sunday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This World War 2 ad features a scene aboard a warship that’s firing its guns, contrasting the modern ship to the sailors firing cannons from a colonial wooden ship, with the tagline “The Ammunition is being passed.”
Today is the birthday of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., one of my favorite authors. I wrote about him when he passed away in 2007 in a post entitled So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut’s Beer Heritage and detailed his relationship with John Hickelooper’s father and a beer Wynkoop later made based on Vonnegut’s grandfather’s recipe. There were essentially two different beer stories involving the Wynkoop Brewing and Vonnegut, and I’ve learned a little more about them over the past decade.
The first one was in the mid-1990s, when the Denver Public Library held a special event around 1996 (sources vary between 1995-97) called Denver Public Libation to commemorate the opening of the new library. The library partnered with Wynkoop, who invited several well-known authors to write mini-stories to be printed on the labels. Some of the writers included Clive Cussler, Allen Ginsberg, and Hunter Thompson, among others. Vonnegut also wrote something for the event. His piece was 160 words and entitled “Merlin,” and tells the story of “the unfortunate events that ensue when the master wizard casts a spell that equips the Knights of the Round Table with Thompson submachine guns.” Despite its short length, I cannot find a copy of it anywhere, and it doesn’t appear to have been reprinted anywhere else. It’s listed in his bibliography as having only been “Serialized on bottles of Denver Public Libation Ale, made by Wynkoop Brewing Company.”
John Hickenlooper wrote about the story in “The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics:”
The second instance was around the same time, when Wynkoop created a beer with Vonnegut based on his grandfather’s recipe. It was called Wynkoop Mile High Malt.
Vonnegut himself detailed the experience in his 1997 semi-autobiographical novel “Timequake.”
The label artwork was based on a self-portrait by Vonnegut, who was also an artist.
And in the book “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut,” by Kurt Vonnegut and William Richard Allen, he explains more about his grandfather’s beer.
On November 11, 2007, Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver, reintroduced Kurt’s Mile High Malt to celebrate the late author’s birthday. The beer was originally created by Vonnegut’s grandfather, Albert Lieber, of the Indianapolis Brewery, using coffee as the secret ingredient. Kurt’s Mile High Malt was first brewed in 1996 thanks to Wynkoop Founder and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a friend of Vonnegut’s. At Vonnegut’s request, coffee was added to the Mile High Malt, making it a close recreation of his grandfather’s original.
Then, in 2014, they released it again for the brewery’s 25th anniversary. It was part of their “Even-Smaller Batch Series” and was even canned.
Saturday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1941. This just prior to World War 2 ad features a frontiersman chopping down wood to contrast how open America was compared to “Today, [when] “you can’t find a place to park.”
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1940. This just prior to World War 2 ad features English writer Samuel Johnson and his position on the importance of friendships.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This World War 2 ad features the animals marching down a hill, maybe to the slaughter, since it’s their meat that is the subject here. Even during the war, Americans are very well nourished, apparently in part due to Anheuser-Busch’s yeast being used to fortify animal feed. Hmm, seems like a bit of a stretch, but it is making me hungry.
