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Historic Beer Birthday: W.C. Fields

January 29, 2023 By Jay Brooks 2 Comments

wc-fields-logo
Today is the birthday of W.C. Fields (January 29, 1880–December 25, 1946). His full name was William Claude Dukenfield. He “was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer. Fields’ comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs and children.

His career in show business began in vaudeville, where he attained international success as a silent juggler. He gradually incorporated comedy into his act, and was a featured comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies for several years. He became a star in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy (1923), in which he played a colorful small-time con man. His subsequent stage and film roles were often similar scoundrels, or else henpecked everyman characters.

Among his recognizable trademarks were his raspy drawl and grandiloquent vocabulary. The characterization he portrayed in films and on radio was so strong it was generally identified with Fields himself. It was maintained by the publicity departments at Fields’ studios (Paramount and Universal) and was further established by Robert Lewis Taylor’s biography, W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes (1949). Beginning in 1973, with the publication of Fields’ letters, photos, and personal notes in grandson Ronald Fields’ book W.C. Fields by Himself, it was shown that Fields was married (and subsequently estranged from his wife), and financially supported their son and loved his grandchildren.”

w-c-fields-hat

Known as “The Great One,” William Claude Dukenfield was better known to the world by his stage name, W.C. Fields. Born in Darby, Pennsylvania, on January 29, 1880, Fields created a hard-drinking, sarcastic, egocentric persona that was so convincing he became one of the most famous drunk misanthropes who ever lived. He famously said that a man should “never work with animals or children,” and carefully cultivated the perception of a curmudgeon, but in real life he was a devoted father and grandfather.

His entertainment career began in vaudeville, where he made a name for himself as a juggler and comedian, and later took the act on Broadway, before making his first short films in 1915. He eventually made around 45 films, the most of famous of which were “Tillie’s Punctured Romance,” “The Fatal Glass of Beer,” “My Little Chickadee,” “The Bank Dick” and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.” Most of his most memorable quotes come from his films, though they’ve become entwined with his public persona, making it difficult to separate his roles from the man.

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Fields with Mae West.

Fields’ screen character often expressed a fondness for alcohol, a prominent component of the Fields legend. Fields never drank in his early career as a juggler, because he did not want to impair his functions while performing. Eventually, the loneliness of constant travel prompted him to keep liquor in his dressing room as an inducement for fellow performers to socialize with him on the road. Only after he became a Follies star and abandoned juggling did Fields begin drinking regularly.[59] His role in Paramount Pictures’ International House (1933), as an aviator with an unquenchable taste for beer, did much to establish Fields’ popular reputation as a prodigious drinker. Studio publicists promoted this image, as did Fields himself in press interviews.

Fields expressed his fondness for alcohol to Gloria Jean (playing his niece) in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: “I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. That’s the one thing I am indebted to her for.” Equally memorable was a line in the 1940 film My Little Chickadee: “Once, on a trek through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew…and were forced to live on food and water for several days!” The oft-repeated anecdote that Fields refused to drink water “because fish fuck in it” is unsubstantiated.

On movie sets Fields famously shot most of his scenes in varying states of inebriation. During the filming of Tales of Manhattan (1942), he kept a vacuum flask with him at all times and frequently availed himself of its contents. Phil Silvers, who had a minor supporting role in the scene featuring Fields, described in his memoir what happened next:

One day the producers appeared on the set to plead with Fields: “Please don’t drink while we’re shooting — we’re way behind schedule” … Fields merely raised an eyebrow. “Gentlemen, this is only lemonade. For a little acid condition afflicting me.” He leaned on me. “Would you be kind enough to taste this, sir?” I took a careful sip — pure gin. I have always been a friend of the drinking man; I respect him for his courage to withdraw from the world of the thinking man. I answered the producers a little scornfully, “It’s lemonade.” My reward? The scene was snipped out of the picture.

There’s no doubt that regardless of how much Fields drank, he certainly created a reputation and persona around it. And while he seems to have favored whiskey, gin and other spirits, he did love his beer, too. Below are some quotes I’ve collected by Fields, the first group being quotes he said, or were attributed to him, while the second group are quotes from films he appeared in, and thus easier to verify.

WC-Fields-Fatal-Glass-Beer

Personal Quotes

  • “I never drank anything stronger than beer before I was twelve.”
  • “Everybody has to believe in something … I believe I’ll have another beer.”
  • “If I had to live my life over, I’d live over a saloon.”
  • “I never drink water; that is the stuff that rusts pipes.”
  • “I drink therefore I am.”
  • “There are only two real ways to get ahead today — sell liquor or drink it.”
  • “I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.”
  • “I must have a drink of breakfast.”
  • “I never worry about being driven to drink; I just worry about being driven home.”
  • “It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her for it.”
  • “A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.”
  • “Fell in love with a beautiful blonde once. Drove me to drink. And I never had the decency to thank her.”
  • “Now don’t say you can’t swear off drinking; it’s easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.”
  • “Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.”
  • “Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.”
  • “I never drink water. I’m afraid it will become habit-forming.”
  • “What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?”
  • “I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.” [Note: Tug McGraw has a similar quote attributed to him.]

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Film Quotes

  • Ouliotta Delight Hemogloben: “Do you think he drinks?”Mrs. Hemogloben: “He didn’t get that nose from playing ping-pong.”
    — From “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break,” 1941
  • Receptionist: “Some day you’ll drown in a vat of whiskey!”The Great Man: “Drown in a vat of whiskey. Death, where is thy sting?”
    — From “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break,” 1941
  • The Great Man: [Suffering from a hangover] “Somebody put too many olives in my martini last night!”Stewardess: “Should I get you a Bromo?”

    The Great Man: “No, I couldn’t stand the noise!”

    — From “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break,” 1941
  • Egbert Sousé: “Ten cents a share. Telephone sold for five cents a share. How would you like something better for ten cents a share? If five gets ya ten, ten’ll get ya twenty. A beautiful home in the country, upstairs and down. Beer flowing through the estate over your grandmother’s paisley shawl.”Og Oggilby: “Beer?”

    Egbert Sousé: “Beer! Fishing in the stream that runs under the aboreal dell. A man comes up from the bar, dumps $3,500 in your lap for every nickel invested. Says to you, “Sign here on the dotted line.” And then disappears in the waving fields of alfalfa.”

    — From “The Bank Dick,” 1940
  • Egbert Sousé, to his bartender: “Was I in here last night, and did I spend a twenty dollar bill?”Bartender: “Yeah.”

    Egbert Sousé: “Oh, boy. What a load that is off my mind. I thought I’d lost it.”

    — From “The Bank Dick,” 1940
  • Cuthbert J. Twillie: “During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew. Compelled to live on food and water … for several days.”
    — From “My Little Chickadee,” 1940
  • Cuthbert J. Twillie, nursing a hangover: “I feel as though a midget with muddy feet had been walking over my tongue all night.”
    — From “My Little Chickadee,” 1940
  • Whipsnade: “Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.”
    — from “You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man,” 1939
  • S.B. Bellows: “Meet me down in the bar! We’ll drink breakfast together.”
    — From “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” 1938
  • Businessman: “You’re drunk.”Harold: “Yeah, and you’re crazy. But I’ll be sober tomorrow, and you’ll be crazy for the rest of your life.”
    — From “It’s a Gift,” 1934
  • Quail, to a valet: “Hey, garcon. Bring me a drink.”Valet: “Water, sir?”

    Quail: “A little on the side…very little.”

    — From “International House,” 1933

wc-fields-intl-house
W.C. Fields in “International House.”

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Celebrities, Film, History

Beer In Ads #4335: Miss Rheingold 1955 Decorates For Halloween

January 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Saturday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. Nancy Woodruff was elected Miss Rheingold 1955.” She was born in Detroit Michigan in 1933, but was raised in San Leandro, California. Humorously, one newspaper reported she attended “San Leandro high school in San Francisco,” and not in … San Leandro. When she was 18, two years ago, she moved to New York City to pursue a modeling career. She entered the 1952 Miss Rheingold contest and was chosen as a finalist, but lost to Mary Austin that year. But she tried again in 1954, and well, here we are. I’m not sure how her career fared after this year, as there’s not much information I could find. Apparently, she did some early television, but mostly commercial work. She married stock broker Jack Paul Adler of New York in 1956, and they appear to have had two children, before moving to Naples, Florida at some point. She passed away in early 2004. In this ad, from October, she’s getting ready for a Halloween party and decorating a scary-looking jack-o-lantern thing. You can probably guess what beer she’s serving at her party.

Below is the full-page version of the same ad:

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Rheingold

Historic Cider Birthday: H.P. Bulmer

January 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

bulmers
Today is the birthday of Henry Percival “H.P.” Bulmer (January 28, 1867-December 2, 1919). He was born in Credenhill, Herefordshire, England. He founded Bulmer’s Cider in 1887, and his brother Fred joined him in the business a year later. “He is said to have taken his mother’s advice to make a career in food or drink, “because neither ever go out of fashion.” The company’s two principal brands are its own Bulmers cider, which is sold worldwide, and Strongbow, which is sold across Europe, the US, Australasia and the Far East. The company is owned by Heineken International. Today, HP Bulmer makes 65% of the five hundred million litres of cider sold annually in the United Kingdom and the bulk of the UK’s cider exports. The firm’s primary competitor is the Irish C&C Group and its Magners brand (which holds the licence to the Bulmers name within the Republic of Ireland only).”

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Here’s his biography from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

Bulmer, Henry Percival [Percy] (1867–1919), cider maker, was born on 28 January 1867 at the rectory, Credenhill, Herefordshire, the second son of Charles Henry Bulmer (1833–1918), rector of Credenhill, and his wife, Mary Grace Parnel Bulmer (née Cockrem). The rector was the son and grandson of Hereford wine merchants and cider makers, and himself won prizes for his bottled cider and perry. Bulmer, who was usually known as Percy, suffered from asthma as a child, and his interrupted education at Hereford Cathedral school between 1880 and 1886 gave him no chance of going to university. In 1887, at the age of twenty, he began to make cider out of the apples grown in his father’s glebe orchard, borrowing the family pony and a neighbour’s cider-mill for the purpose.

At that time most cider was made by farmers with ancient and primitive equipment out of any apples that came to hand, to be drunk as payment in kind by their thirsty but undiscriminating labourers. Bottled cider, carefully made from selected apples, for sale in hotels, public houses, and off-licences, was a rarity. It was this select market that Bulmer meant to supply. In the autumn of 1887 he moved to Hereford, where in his first full year of business he made forty casks (4000 gallons) of cider, that sold for a mere £157. His elder brother, Edward Frederick Bulmer (1865–1941), cider maker, born on 26 May 1865, at the rectory, Credenhill, lent a hand with the manual labour in the long vacations. Unlike Percy, Fred Bulmer went from Hereford Cathedral school to Shrewsbury School, and thence to King’s College, Cambridge, with an exhibition in classics. On graduation in 1889, he joined his brother in the cider business. The brothers only had one employee at first, but, small though the firm was, it produced cider of excellent quality, winning prizes in Paris in 1888 and at the Royal Agricultural Show in 1889. These successes almost certainly reflected not only the rector’s skill and experience, but also his financial support, as the brothers had little capital. They borrowed from some of Fred’s Cambridge friends and from the local bank; the rector, by pledging his life insurance policy, raised a further £1760. With these funds they bought land, erected some buildings, and invested in equipment typical of the industrial age—a steam engine, hydraulic presses and pumps, and some large vats.

There was an informal division of labour between the two brothers: Percy Bulmer concentrated on production, organizing the factory, reading Pasteur on yeasts, visiting Rheims to learn the techniques of champagne making (transferable to cider), and Germany to study the handling of sugar beet (what was good for beet was good for apples). He also studied bottling at the works where the Apollinaris mineral water was produced. The firm consulted analytical chemists from time to time, and from 1905 had a small laboratory of its own, where important discoveries were made by H. E. Durham. Fred Bulmer undertook purchase and marketing, and was, inter alia, the commercial traveller. Affable and outgoing, he was equal to most situations. Confronted with a blunt Yorkshireman, who asked him who the hell he thought he was staring at, Fred replied ‘The rudest bugger I ever saw’ (Bulmer, Early Days, 10). The riposte won him a good order and a firm friendship. Nevertheless, he was happy to give up touting for orders when in 1896, with output not far short of 200,000 gallons a year, the firm appointed a full-time commercial traveller. The Bulmers owed their success not only to hard work, access to adequate funds, and a little science, but also to a flair for publicity. In an age well aware of the uses of advertising, they were skilful practitioners of the art: in brochures, by poster, and by the choice of such evocative brand names as Pomagne, Woodpecker, and Strongbow. The firm ran its business on advanced paternalist lines, instituting a superannuation scheme in 1898, and family allowances in 1938. It also built some workers’ housing. The housing schemes and charitable trusts continue to benefit the people of Hereford.

Percy Bulmer was chairman and managing director, and also the more single-minded businessman. He was secretary of the short-lived National Association of English Cider Makers, founded in 1894. Fred, as head of the largest firm of cider makers, was the natural choice as chairman when the association was refounded in 1920. Percy had doubted the power of government to effect much social improvement, whereas Fred Bulmer was an ardent ‘new Liberal’, active in local politics. He was a local and a county councillor, and was twice mayor of Hereford. In later years, he moved to the right and in 1931 supported the National Government.

Percy Bulmer married a cousin, Susan Mildred Ball (1870/71–1968), in 1894, and they had four sons, and a daughter who died in infancy. Fred Bulmer married, in 1899, Sophie Rittner (1874–1968), the daughter of a Liverpool merchant of German origin. They had three sons and three daughters.

The brothers ran the business as a partnership until 1918, when H. P. Bulmer & Co. was turned into a private company, as a result of Percy Bulmer’s developing cancer; he died at the early age of fifty-two at his home, Longmeadow, Hereford, on 2 December 1919. His brother succeeded him as chairman. By then the firm was a soundly established concern with 200 employees, and produced some three-quarters of a million gallons of cider a year. When Fred Bulmer retired in 1938, the workforce had quadrupled, output was approaching 4 million gallons, and the firm was by far the largest cider maker in the country. Fred died on 2 September 1941 at his home, Adams Hill, Breinton, Herefordshire, at the age of seventy-six. Of contrasting characters and complementary talents, H. P. and E. F. Bulmer can fairly be regarded as joint creators of the firm that bears the younger brother’s name. It became a public limited company in 1970.

bulmers-factory-1888
The original Bulmers’ cider factory in 1888, on Ryelands Street, Hereford.

And this history of the Bu;mer Cider Co. is from the website of The Cider Museum, Pomona Place, Hereford, on the part of their “Archive of Cider Pomology” entitled Industrialisation 1860s Onwards:

Fred Bulmer describes the beginning of the Bulmers factory, in a charming booklet called ‘Early Days of Cider Making’. He and his brother (H P or Percy Bulmer) were young men, sons of a gentleman vicar. Fred was Cambridge educated but Percy, due to ill health, had ‘no Education at all’ and it was he who began the cider business, joined one year later by Fred. In the first year of their enterprise, 1887, Percy produced 4,000 gallons of cider using traditional methods. The brothers became ‘whole time workers’, working round the clock. There were no cider making machines to speed the process up, so they invented them. With the help of an engineering friend the brothers innovated, they also imported a mill and press from France where production was more advanced, and in 1892 put in hydraulic pumps and two more presses. By 1894 they were selling £7558 of cider a year, 48 times more than the first year of their partnership in 1888. They also had a workforce. Bulmers only produced bottled cider in the early years and in 1898, just 11 years on from their first year, the bottling line employed 37 women.

Bulmers grew and grew. By 1919 there were 2 acres of cellaring below ground and they were selling 80,000 gallons p.a. which made a profit of £9,000. In 1937 as much as 20,000 tons could be pressed during the season September to December.

Between 1948 and 1960 turn over increased from £1,604,000 to £3,008,000. In 1957 a new bottling hall was erected at end of Plough Lane and by 1964 most bottling had been transferred there.

In 1970, in response to a cash flow crises brought on by investment in the company and high death duties on two family members, the decision was made to go public. The Bulmer family retained 65% of the shares.

In 1970 there were nine directors, four of whom were Bulmer’s family. The turnover was nearly £11m and they employed 1,817 people. Nearly 85,000 apple trees were planted in an attempt to keep ahead of demand and the orchards were producing 15,000 tons of apples a year. Output was over 100,000 gallons a day and their modern flagon bottling line could fill 12,000 bottles and hour. They had 60% of the £25m market (£15m). In 1985 the board had been divided into executive and non executive directors, 12 in all, four of whom were Bulmer’s family. By this time 35,000 tons of apples were being pressed a year. The record day was 1982 when the company pressed just over 1,000 tonnes in a day. The group produced several drinks including cider and had overseas operations. The total turnover was £138m and the profit £17m.

In 2003 Bulmers got into financial difficulties due to over investment abroad. The firm was taken over by Scottish and Newcastle. In 2008 Scottish and Newcastle were taken over by Heineken who now run the Bulmer’s cider business. Fruit processing (crushing the apples) has moved from the Bulmers site in Plough Lane, Hereford to Universal Beverages Ltd (UBL), Ledbury, also owned by Heineken. Some fermentation, processing and bottling is also done at this site but the huge majority of production is still carried out at the Plough Lane site in Hereford. The fruit concentrate is taken into the factory here by tanker and processed into their leading brands such as Strongbow and Woodpecker employing around 250 people and producing over 3 million hectolitres a year (68 million gallons), about half UK total output. Bulmers also runs a bouyant Fruit Office employing 30 staff, managing 10,000 acres of orchard, about a quarter of which is company owned, the remaining three quarters is on long term contract to individual growers.

Bulmers-early
An early view of the Bulmers Cider Co.

And this short history is from H.P. Bulmers Wikipedia page:

Using apples from the orchard at his father’s rectory and an old stone press on the farm next door, Percy Bulmer made the first cider, upon which the family fortune would be made.

In 1889, his elder brother Fred (Edward Frederick Bulmer), coming down from King’s College, Cambridge, turned down the offer of a post as tutor to the children of the King of Siam to join Percy in his fledgling cider business.

With a £1,760 loan from their father, the brothers bought an 8 acres (3.2 ha) field just outside the city and built their first cider mill. It was little more than a barn compared to the huge modern stainless-steel computer-controlled cider-making plant that has grown up on a 75 acres (30.4 ha) site nearby.

Cider-making was then an unpredictable activity, the natural fermentation process being achieved by yeast contained within apples; meant that the cider often became sour. It was a college friend of Fred’s, Dr Herbert Durham, who, in the 1890s, isolated a wild yeast to create the first pure cider yeast culture, which would ensure that fermentations were consistent. This was the start of commercial cider-making.

Bulmers was first granted the Royal Warrant in 1911 and continues today as ‘Cider Maker to Her Majesty the Queen.’ It was incorporated as a private company on 27 June 1918. It described its cider as “The White Wine of England”.

Bulmers-early-20th
H.P. Bulmer’s in the early 20th century.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Cider, England, History

Historic Beer Birthday: John Goetz

January 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

christian-moerlein
Today is the birthday of John Goetz, Jr. (January 28, 1855-January 23, 1898), who was married to Christian Moerlein’s daughter Lizzie and worked in his father-in-law’s brewery. He also organized the Brewers Exchange, and was its first president, a trustee in the U.S. Brewers Association, and helped organize the Ohio Brewers Guild.

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Here’s his obituary from the American Brewers’ Review, which provides a summary of his life:

John-Goetz-obit
After Goetz married Lizzie Moerlein, he went to work for his father-in-law at one of Cincinnati’s biggest breweries, Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. In fact, before prohibition, it was one of the nation’s ten largest. But like many breweries, it was closed by prohibition, and wasn’t re-introduced until 1981. In 2004, the brand was purchased by Greg Hardman, a local resident of the Greater Cincinnati area, who also bought several other local beer brands in addition to Moerlein.

Christian-Moerlein-Beer1890

And here’s an additional biography.

john-goetz-bio

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries Tagged With: History, Ohio

Beer In Ads #4334: Miss Rheingold 1955 At The Fox Hunt

January 27, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Friday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. Nancy Woodruff was elected Miss Rheingold 1955.” She was born in Detroit Michigan in 1933, but was raised in San Leandro, California. Humorously, one newspaper reported she attended “San Leandro high school in San Francisco,” and not in … San Leandro. When she was 18, two years ago, she moved to New York City to pursue a modeling career. She entered the 1952 Miss Rheingold contest and was chosen as a finalist, but lost to Mary Austin that year. But she tried again in 1954, and well, here we are. I’m not sure how her career fared after this year, as there’s not much information I could find. Apparently, she did some early television, but mostly commercial work. She married stock broker Jack Paul Adler of New York in 1956, and they appear to have had two children, before moving to Naples, Florida at some point. She passed away in early 2004. In this ad, from September, she’s going on a fox hunt and is getting some water for five hunting dogs.

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Rheingold

Historic Beer Birthday: Henry Hubach

January 27, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

hubach
Today is the birthday of Henry Hubach (January 27, 1843-June 16, 1915). He was born in Germany but moved to the U.S. in 1865. It appears he may have been involved in the Wayne Street Brewery of Fort Wayne, Indiana, at least between 1874-1876. One breweriana reference states that it was actually known as the Henry Hubach Brewery for those two years. Although 100 Years of Brewing mentions that Hubach had been in the U.S. for twelve years before buying the brewery in Ohio, which would mean he emigrated in 1865 at the age of 22. They further state that he had previously worked in breweries in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, not listing Indiana at all. So it’s possible, however unlikely, that there were two different Henry Hubachs.

henry-hubach-1894
At some point, our Henry Hubach moved to Tiffin, Ohio, which is in the northern part of the state. In 1877 he bought the Fred Giege & Jacob Schumucker Brewery, renaming it the City Brewery, though in 1906 it became known as Hubach’s Brewery Co. Some sources indicate City Brewery was its original name when it first opened around 1855, while others claim its original names was the Siegrist Brewery. The brewery operated until 1916, the year after Hubach died, and appears to have not survived his passing.

Gotter-Trank-Old-Fashion-German-Brew-Beer-Labels-Hubachs-Brewery-Co

There’s surprisingly little biographical information about Hubach, although the Brewers Journal in 1915 did publish a brief obituary which sheds some light:

hubach-obit-1
hubach-obit-2
A local pamphlet-size book entitled the “History of Tiffin’s Breweries and Bottling Works,” by Joseph Terry has the most information I could find on Hubach.

hubach-bio-1

henry-hubach-brewery-1960The brewery building six years before it was destroyed by a fire in 1966.

Most accounts seem to say that Hubach bought his Ohio brewery in 1877, but it appears that he may have simply rented it for the first six years, only completing the purchase of it in January of 1883.

hubach-tiffin-history-1
And speaking of the flood, some of the brewery’s best photos I could find are from the flood, known as the Great Flood of 1913.

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hubach-tiffin-flood-1913-2

hubach-tiffin-flood-1913
“The brewery built on Tiffin, Ohio’s Madison Street near the Sandusky River was in operation by 1859. By 1878 the business was owned by Henry Hubach. The building withstood the 1913 flood; it was destroyed by fire in the 1960s.”

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, Ohio

Beer In Ads #4333: Miss Rheingold 1955 Meets A Host Of Thoroughbreds

January 26, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Thursday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. Nancy Woodruff was elected Miss Rheingold 1955.” She was born in Detroit Michigan in 1933, but was raised in San Leandro, California. Humorously, one newspaper reported she attended “San Leandro high school in San Francisco,” and not in … San Leandro. When she was 18, two years ago, she moved to New York City to pursue a modeling career. She entered the 1952 Miss Rheingold contest and was chosen as a finalist, but lost to Mary Austin that year. But she tried again in 1954, and well, here we are. I’m not sure how her career fared after this year, as there’s not much information I could find. Apparently, she did some early television, but mostly commercial work. She married stock broker Jack Paul Adler of New York in 1956, and they appear to have had two children, before moving to Naples, Florida at some point. She passed away in early 2004. In this ad, from September, she’s going on a fox hunt and is getting some water for her “host of thoroughbred” hunting dogs. I’m not sure if this is before or after the hunt,, but after she’s done she’s having a beer.

And below is the full-page version of the same ad:

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Rheingold

Beer Birthday: Bob Uecker

January 26, 2023 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

miller-lite
Today is the 89th birthday of Bob Uecker, who is an “American former Major League Baseball player and current sportscaster, comedian, and actor. Facetiously dubbed ‘Mr. Baseball’ by TV talk show host Johnny Carson, Uecker has served as a play-by-play announcer for Milwaukee Brewers radio broadcasts since 1971. He was honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame with its 2003 Ford C. Frick Award in recognition of his broadcasting career.” But he is best-remembered, beerwise, for his humorous commercials in the 1980s for Miller Lite beer.

Miller-Lite-1982-Uecker

This is his biography, from his Wikipedia page:

Though he has sometimes joked that he was born on an oleo run to Illinois, Uecker was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He grew up watching the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers at Borchert Field. He signed a professional contract with his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1956 and made his Major League Baseball debut as a catcher with the club in 1962. A below-average hitter, he finished with a career batting average of .200. He was generally considered to be a sound defensive player and committed very few errors in his Major League career as a catcher, completing his career with a fielding percentage of .981. However, in 1967, despite playing only 59 games, he led the league in passed balls and is still on the top 10 list for most passed balls in a season. At least a partial explanation is that he spent a good deal of the season catching knuckleballer Phil Niekro. He often joked that the best way to catch a knuckleball was to wait until it stopped rolling and pick it up. Uecker also played for the St. Louis Cardinals (and was a member of the 1964 World Champion club) and Philadelphia Phillies before returning to the Braves, who had by then moved to Atlanta. His six-year Major League career concluded in 1967.

Perhaps the biggest highlight of Uecker’s career was when he hit a home run off future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, after which Uecker joked that he always thought that home run would keep Koufax from getting into the Hall of Fame.

bob-uecker-1965

After retiring as a player, Uecker returned to Milwaukee. In 1971, he began calling play-by-play for the Milwaukee Brewers’ radio broadcasts, a position he holds to this day. During his tenure, he has mentored Pat Hughes, Jim Powell, Cory Provus and Joe Block, all of whom became primary radio announcers for other MLB teams. For several years he also served as a color commentator for network television broadcasts of Major League Baseball, helping call games for ABC in the 1970s and NBC (teaming with Bob Costas and Joe Morgan) in the 1990s. During that time, he was a commentator for several League Championship Series and World Series.

As of 2016, Uecker teams with Jeff Levering to call games on WTMJ in Milwaukee and the Brewers Radio Network throughout Wisconsin, save for some road trips which he skips; for those games Lane Grindle substitutes for Uecker on the radio broadcasts. Uecker is well known for saying his catchphrase “Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!” when a Brewers player hits a home run.

Known for his humor, particularly about his undistinguished playing career, Uecker actually became much better known after he retired from playing. He made some 100 guest appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. During one Tonight Show appearance Carson asked him what the biggest thrill of his professional baseball career was and with his typical dry wit Uecker replied, “Watching a fan fall out of the upper deck in Philadelphia; the crowd booed.” Most of his wisecracks poked fun at himself. He once joked that after he hit a grand slam off pitcher Ron Herbel, “When his manager came out to get him, he was bringing Herbel’s suitcase.” On another occasion, he quipped, “Sporting goods companies would pay me not to endorse their products.” On his later acting career, he commented, “Even when I played baseball, I was acting.”

Uecker also appeared in a number of humorous commercials, most notably for Miller Lite beer, as one of the “Miller Lite All-Stars”

Here’s a selection of some of Uecker’s commercials for Miller Lite:


From 1983:

From 1984:

From 1986:

From 1987:

From 1988:

Another one from 1988, promoting the Olympics:

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Advertising, Baseball, History, Humor, Light Beer

Historic Beer Birthday: Carl Dinkelacker

January 26, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

dinkelacker

Today is the birthday of Carl Dinkelacker (January 26, 1863-September 5, 1934). He was born in Böblingen, Landkreis Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In 1888, he founded the Dinkelacker Brewery in Stuttgart, Germany, and by the end of the 19th century, it was the largest brewery in town. In 1996, it merged with Schwaben Bräu, which is also located in Stuttgart to create Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu, but in 2004 was acquired by InBev. More recently, it again became an independent family-owned company in 2007, called Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu GmbH & Co. KG. Unfortunately, there’s not much biographical information I could find about Carl.

carl-dinkelacker

Here’s a short history of the brewery from Hobby db:

The brewery Dinkelacker is a Swabian brewery. It was founded in 1888 by Carl Dinkelacker in Tübinger Strasse in Stuttgart, where even today a brewery of the company is located. The founding was a challenge as there were already many established breweries in the area at that time. However, the brewery withstood the competitive pressure, so that it was one of the largest breweries in Stuttgart at the end of the 19th century. The annual production in 2013 was approximately 600,000 hectoliters.

In 1994, the actually competing breweries Dinkelacker and Schwaben Bräu opened a joint logistics center under the name Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu Logistik (DSL) . In 1996, Dinkelacker and Schwaben Bräu merged to form Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu AG in order to be able to survive in the increasingly difficult market. In 2003 InBevexpanded to the German market. The company took over the beer division of the Spaten-Franziskaner-BräuGmbH, which was also the majority shareholder of Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu AG. Thus, Dinkelacker operated from October 1, 2004 to December 31, 2006 under the umbrella of InBev. Since 2 January 2007 Dinkelacker together with Schwaben Bräu under the name Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu GmbH & Co. KG is again an independent family-owned company.

dinkelacker-wagon

The brand has been available in the U.S. off and on over the years, including being served at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. While I attended that World’s Fair, I did not sample the being, being only five years old at the time.

dinkelacker-ny-fair-1964

Brewery wagon in the early 20th century.

Dinkelacker-marzen-wagon

The brewery today.

Brauerei_dinkelacker
Dinkelacker-label

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Germany, History

Historic Beer Birthday: Frederick Yuengling

January 26, 2023 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

yuengling-eagle
Today is the birthday of Frederick G. Yuengling (January 26, 1848-January 2, 1899). He was the son of David G. Yuengling, who founded the Eagle Brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, which became known as the D. G. Yuengling & Son brewery.

frederick-g-yuengling

Frederick Yuengling was born to David Yuengling and wife Elizabeth (née Betz) on January 26, 1848. He attended Pennsylvania State College and then the Manhattan Business School in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1871, his father sent him to Europe to learn more about brewing, where he studied in Munich, Stuttgart and Vienna.

Yuengling married his wife, Minna Dohrman of Brooklynn, on April 3, 1873. Minna was from the “uppermost social class” in New York and enjoyed the mannered social scene in Pennsylvania. The newlyweds purchased a townhouse on Mahantongo Street, a street known for its “opulence” at the time. The house had six bedrooms, formal living rooms, formal dining rooms, a music room, tiled entryways, a Spanish crystal chandelier and German stained-glass windows.

On one occasion, Yuengling took a group of friends to Europe on a grand tour and then back to New York City without allowing them “to spend a cent”. On the top floor of the Yuengling brewery there was a famous room where Yuengling entertained his friends on a lavish scale.

Yuengling and his wife had two children. Frank D. Yuengling was born September 27, 1876. Daughter Edith Louise Yuengling followed on March 18, 1878. Louise died on October 6, 1883, at 5 years old. This left son Frank as the sole heir of his parents.

fred-yuengling
In 1873, Yuengling joined his father at the brewery, where the business name was changed from D.G. Yuengling to D.G. Yuengling & Son. Yuengling was also vice president of the Schuylkill Electric Railway Company, which started 1889. “Yuengling also served as the president of the Pottsville Gas Company, a position that his father had held as well. He was also director of the Pottsville Water Company and of the safety deposit box, both positions that had previously belonged to his father.”

yuengling-poster

Immigrant Entrepreneurship, under German-American Business Biographies, has a lengthy one of David Gottlob Yuengling, Frederick’s father, but also touches on his son’s time running the brewery:

Under Frederick Yuengling’s guidance, D.G. Yuengling and Son entered a new commercial environment for brewing in the United States. From the time of the brewery’s beginnings until the founder’s sons entered the family business, the United States underwent dramatic economic and demographic changes. Prior to 1845, immigration had been consistently fewer than 100,000 persons per year, except for one year. Subsequently, this number climbed to 350,000 and reached almost 430,000 immigrants per year by 1854, of which a significant portion was German. American cities and towns expanded. Nevertheless, the overall population continued to be predominantly rural with only sixteen percent of Americans living in cities by 1860. Industrialization in the North and Midwest during and after the Civil War combined with continued immigration led to rapid urbanization in the postwar era and cities like New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Chicago grew dramatically. It must have dawned on Yuengling’s sons that the future of the brewing business did not just lie in the remote anthracite coal towns of Eastern Pennsylvania but also in the metropolitan centers that attracted the new waves of immigrants.

Regardless of David Jr.’s trials and tribulations, the original D.G. Yuengling & Son enterprise in Pottsville under the leadership of Frederick Yuengling and later grandson Frank Yuengling continued to thrive. Yuengling largely maintained its regional focus and benefited from the continuing economic vitality of the anthracite region of Northeast Pennsylvania. The firm distributed beer via the railroad to communities throughout Schuylkill County. However, other breweries with national ambitions such as Anheuser-Busch and Pabst began making inroads in Pennsylvania, though at first primarily in larger cities such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. While it only lay 90 miles from the later city, the anthracite region’s relative remoteness shielded its brewers from direct competition with these increasingly powerful firms. Brewery output reached 100,000 barrels per year in 1918, and the family diversified the firm by acquiring part-ownership in the Roseland Ballroom venues in Philadelphia and New York City, as well as numerous taverns and hotels in or near Pottsville, for all of which Yuengling & Son had the exclusive right to sell their beer.

yuengling-1873
D.G. Yuengling (front and center) with his son Frederick to his left (our right, I think) and the brewery employees in 1873.

And here’s a biography of Frederick G. from the History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, published in 1907.

fred-g-yuengling-bio-1
fred-g-yuengling-bio-2

Yuengling-1855
The oldest known photo of the brewery, from 1855.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, Pennsylvania

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