Monday’s ad is Schlitz, from 1946. This ad is from Schlitz’s long-running “Just the kiss of the hops …” campaign. Even though it’s an illustration, I love the idea of the hop cone seen through the glass of beer. I’ll have to try that as a photograph this harvest time.
Sunday’s Father’s Day ad is another trade ad by the United States Brewers Foundation, from 1956. This is #96 in the “Home Life in America” series, part of the Beer Belongs campaign by the USBF. It originally ran in prominent magazines in late June and early July of 1954. The artwork was by Douglass Crockwell, a well-known illustrator of the day, and was entitled “Dad Takes On All Comers.” And Dad’s sport of choice?: croquet. BUt he may have met his match. His daughter, one presumes, is going for the peg, as Mom shushes the crowd so she can concentrate on beating Dad. You have to admit, that’s a pretty impressive back yard. But who puts the barbecue right next to a tree? If I’m not mistaken, trees are what they make firewood out of.
Saturday’s ad is a trade ad by the United States Brewers Foundation, from 1959. Featuring a foursome bowling, the text starts with “What a great feeling to see all the pins go down…” followed by the tagline “Good for you!” “A strike! You did it.” Ah, bowling. But I especially love the end. “A glass of beer adds so much fun to so many occasions. And it really picks you up, too!”
Friday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1939. Set at what the refer to as “Boston’s Swank Copley-Plaza,” which today is part of the Fairmont chain, the ad features a couple dressed to the nines and out for a night on the town. But what really makes this ad a hoot, is how they refer to the beer. “For Keener Refreshment … It’s Lighter … Brighter … Brisk-Bodied, Not Logy!” Whew, well thank goodness it’s not logy. Wait, what the hell is “logy?” Apparently it means “dull and heavy in motion or thought; sluggish.”
For our 89th Session, our host is Bill Kostkas, who is the Pittsburgh Beer Snob. For his topic, he’s chosen Beer in History, and he’s suggesting several paths you can take to participate in the July Session:
I love history. There’s just something about it. It’s fun. It’s interesting. It even gives me goosebumps. So, I only saw it to be fitting that I choose the topic of Beer in History.
Even better is the fact that the summer time is the main period of the calendar year that I absolutely delve into history. We just passed the 70th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy (Many of you know it as D-Day or Operation Overlord). The latter portions of June mark the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign which culminates on July 3. The following date is obviously the Fourth of July here in the states.
At many points in history you can look back and find alcohol intertwined. A lot of times that form of alcohol is beer. Beer is something that connects us with the past, our forefathers as well as some of our ancestors. I want this topic to be a really open-ended one. So, it should be fairly easy to come up with something and participate.
Do you want to write about an important beer event with great historical significance? Famous figures that were brewers? Have you visited an establishment that has some awesome historic value? Maybe a historically-themed brewpub? I wouldn’t be surprised to even see a few posts on Prohibition. It doesn’t really matter when it comes to history!
One of my favorite quotes will be my guide for this month’s Session. “History flows forward in rivers of beer.”
So dive back in your time machine and go back in brewing history to whatever era or event you like. On Friday, July 4, let us know what a long, strange trip it had been, by posting your own link by commenting on his announcement. And tell us: how did you get back to the present, anyway?
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1939. Showing a handy new way to order a Ballantine, make the OK sign by placing your thumb and forefinger in a circle, for a ring, and sticking the remaining three fingers in the air, for the number three. So that’s three rings, and as the ad asks: “Get It?”
Wednesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1938. It’s a very text heavy ad, with a long story about how making a show on Broadway a hit is like goof beer. Yeah, I don’t get it either.
Tuesday’s ad is a pro industry ad by the United Brewers Industrial Foundation from the early 1930s, shortly after the repeal of prohibition. The C.C.C. in question is the Civilian Conservation Corps, which involved 300,000 boys in 3,000 camps who through their efforts improved over three-billion acres of forest, but at a cost to taxpayers of $326 million. The beer industry’s post-prohibition contribution to the American economy is one million dollars per day in taxes. And that was the industry just beginning to rebound after thirteen dry years. But that’s just as true today as it was then, but with even larger numbers and greater intangible contributions from so many smaller community-based breweries.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from the 1930s. Touting their new smaller steinie brown bottles, flanked by an actual stein on either side, I love that the neck label reads “Bottled at the Brewery.” Is that really a selling point customers would care about? Were other breweries bottling their beer elsewhere?
Saturday’s ad is for Ewo Beer, from the 1930s. The Ewo Brewery was founded in Shanghai, China in 1935. Some sources claim this ad is from 1930 and another similar ad for the same beer claims to be from 1920, but that seems impossible, unless there was another brewery by that name earlier. Anyway, all I could think of was that if you added a “K” it would be Ewok. Nerd.
