Monday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1962, features the Spouter Tavern located in Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut, or here it’s called “Schaefer’s Spouter Tavern.” The tavern is still open today as a tourist attraction.
Sunday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1949, features a bottle of beer high up in the air, with shadows of bottles below, as if it’s been thrown into the sky like the bone in the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It also kind of resembles a Magritte painting, at least with the clouds. Not sure about “Pale Dry,” though.
Saturday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1947, features a bar with three glasses of beer and a bowl of pretzels. The pretzels I understand, but what;’s the deal with the dog?
Friday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1947, features Austrian-born American film actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr (which after Blazing Saddles reminds of Harvey Korman’s character repeating correct people with “that’s Hedley Lamarr”). Anyway, she’s holding an almost finished glass of beer and staring back at us with the tagline “Finest Beer I Ever Tasted.”
Thursday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1947, features actress Carole Landis saying Schaefer was the “Finest Beer I Ever Tasted.” “Her breakthrough role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C., with United Artists. Landis was known as ‘The Ping Girl’ and ‘The Chest’ because of her curvy figure.” If you’ve never heard of her, it’s probably because she “committed suicide on July 5, 1948, at the age of 29.”
Wednesday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1947, features an illustrated party platter and another magic beer bottle, showing a full glass but an only half-empty bottle. And what’s the deal with the dog?
Tuesday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1938, features a scene poolside or at the beach, with a woman surrounded by two men in tank tops serving her Schaefer beer, with smiles all around.
For our 139th Session, our host will be William Vanderburgh, who writes Craft Beer in San Diego. For his topic, he’s chosen Beer and the Good Life, which he sums up. “Beer ads famously sell us “the good life” — fit, scantily clad friends imbibing on boats and beaches in the summer sun. But that’s advertising, not real life (not often anyway). So how does beer fit into a well-lived life? What does beer mean to being a good person, or having a good life?”
His topic is fairly broad and open-ended, so interpret it in any way that makes sense to you. Bill also has a few suggestions of ways you could approach the topic to get your thinking juices flowing.
- What role does beer play in your life? Does it help or hurt, on balance?
- What does enjoying beer mean to you?
- Creating a life full of pleasure (including the enjoyment of good food and drink) is a moral responsibility one owes to oneself and there is no better way to live.
- Good beer, good food, good books, good friends–these are the things that make a good life.
- How much beer is good? How much beer is bad?
- Is getting drunk/wasted an appropriate part of a life well lived? Is an occasional blow-out a good way to “release” (or however you think of it)?
- You could do other things with your time/money: Is it wrong to spend it on beer instead of something else? How do you balance your personal desires with your other responsibilities?
- Beer and Community: Is the point of beer to help humans connect?
- Beer and Justice: How can we justify enjoying a pint when so many things are wrong in the world, and in the beer world itself? There are many recent hot topics that would fit well here: Beer and gender, identity, race, class, etc.
- How does blogging about beer, or talking about beer with friends, enhance your life?
- Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Is the unexamined beer not worth drinking?
I confess that whenever I hear the phrase “the good life,” what I think of is the mid-1970s BBC television series starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith, and Paul Eddington, although if you’re American and it’s not ringing any bells, that may be because when it aired on PBS in the U.S., it was renamed “Good Neighbors.” I loved that show, and had such a crush on Felicity Kendal. I recently spent an enjoyable evening n Belgium discussing “The Good Life” with Roger Protz, who also loved the show.
To participate in the September Session, simply post a link to your session post by commenting at the original announcement, or email Bill on or before Friday, September 7.
Monday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1945, features a woman dressed to the nines relaxing with a beer. Apparently her “ensemble” was “stylized by John Frederick,” whoever that is.
Sunday’s ad is for Schaefer Beer, “first produced in New York City during 1842 by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.” This ad, from 1946, features a woman gardener (as evidenced by the hoe she’s holding) who has a glass of beer held up to her lips. She looks like she stopped as she was about to take a sip and gave a side glance to someone watching her. Her smile seems to say. “Yeah, I’m going to drink it. You got a problem with that?”
