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Beer In Art #99: Cap Anson and Buck Ewing “E.&J. Burke Ale” Beer Poster

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art-beer
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.

anson-ewing-1889

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.”

Beer In Ads #222: Bob Uecker, Mr. Baseball

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ad-billboard
Friday’s ad is the fourth baseball-themed one, which I’ll be continuing through the World Series. The ad is from 1982 and features baseball personality Bob Uecker, who Johnny Carson dubbed “Mr. Baseball.” This was one his earliest ads for Miller Lite, when they started trying to convince men to drink a low-calorie beer. It features Uecker’s signature self-deprecating humor with the line “Great ballplayers drink Lite beer because it’s less filling. I know. I asked one.”

miller-lite-uecker-1982

Beer In Ads #220: The Goodness of Malt (& Baseball)

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ad-billboard
Wednesday’s ad is the second baseball-themed one, which I’ll be continuing through the World Series. The ad is from 1958 and is by the now defunct trade organization for brewer’s malt, the Barley and Malt Institute. It features a number of men enjoying both beer and baseball. The text is great, too. “The goodness of Malt yours when you say , “Let’s make it beer.” It looks like beer at the ballpark in 1958 may have been $1. The man in the foreground is holding two beers, and the hand on the right appears to have just accepted two dollar bills. That, or it’s even cheaper and he just bought a round for the row.

barley-and-malt-1958-baseball

Hey Mabel, Take Me Out To The Ball Game

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baseball
I confess that I’m not much of a baseball fan. When I was a kid I rooted for the Baltimore Orioles and Brooks Robinson was my favorite player. But since heading west, as a young man, I’ve paid little attention to Major League Baseball. I used to attend Giants’ games at Candlestick with friends, though primarily for the tailgating (and in fact occasionally never even went inside to see the game). But since I have so many friends back in Dutch Wonderland — a.k.a. Eastern Pennsylvania — that I’m now in touch with more regularly, thanks to social media, I find myself cheering for the Phillies. But that’s neither here nor there.

Yesterday, you may recall, I listed my top 10 favorite beer slogans, including Carling Black Label’s “Hey, Mabel” campaign. Last night, while visiting a music website I frequent, I chanced upon an interesting tidbit regarding both “Hey, Mabel” and baseball. Here’s what the website had to say about it in a post that included old records sung by both Dizzy Dean and Don Drysdale:

One connection between the days of old [baseball] and today is the persistence of beer advertising. When I was a young fella, too young to drink the stuff, baseball broadcasts in our local market and some others were sponsored by Carling Black Label Beer. Throughout the 50s and into the 60s, Carling used the slogan “Hey Mabel! Black Label” and an associated jingle to sell the goods. “Hey Mabel!” was sung to the “salt peanuts” figure — apt for a beer, I’d say.

This campaign was concocted by Carling’s ad agency, Lang Fisher & Stashower. Sometime in the early 50s, the agency prepared a 78 of the music, containing two instrumental versions of the Hey Mabel theme and the Carling Black Label jingle. One was a dance band version, which combined the Carling material with Take Me Out to the Ballgame, the other a Dixieland arrangement as played by a number of well-known LA musicians. There are no vocals on the record, so my guess is it was sent to the radio stations carrying the baseball games for use as filler before breaks, as was the practice on radio stations at the time.

Here’s the 78-rpm record (remember those?).

hey-mabel-78

And you can hear the medley below. It’s not exactly a cutting edge big band arrangement, even for the mid-1950s, but there are some interesting elements and I like the “Hey Mabel” bridges between the different treatments of Take Me Out To The Ball Game. Enjoy.

brookston-baseball

And Go Phillies!