Friday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1959. Showing a winter scene, with a giant glass of Ballantine Light Lager Beer showing some exquisite lace. And I guess it must be pretty cold, too.
Beer In Ads #1094: The Old Tyme Train
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1946. Part of a series of historical ads Ballantine did in the forties. This one shows an early iron horse stopping by the tavern as the barkeep brings a few tankards of beer to the thirsty travelers.
Beer In Film #37: Food Tech — Hot Dogs & Beer
Today’s beer video is an episode of Food Tech, which used to be aired on the History Channel, focusing on Ballpark food and beverages, specially beer. This was the last episode of ten total shows, and although it was called “Ball park,” it featured segments about “Kegs, Hops, Beer, Hot dogs, Casings (sausage), Mustard, Cracker Jack and Drumsticks,” the ice cream. Who’s hungry now?
Beer In Ads #1093: What Was Schlitz Doing With Teddy In Africa?
Wednesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1965. The Teddy in the title “What Was Schlitz Doing With Teddy In Africa?” is Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president. According to the ad, shortly after he left office, he went on a hunting expedition to Arica, and took along with him quite a lot of bottles of Schlitz.
Beer In Ads #1092: Home … And All That It Means
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1945, the final year of World War 2. Showing a returning ship coming into New York harbor as it’s bringing the troops “Home … and all that it Means.”
Beer In Ads #1091: Norman Rockwell’s Man With A Beer & Sandwich
Monday’s ad is by famed artist and illustrator Norman Rockwell, who was born today, February 3, in 1894. Rockwell was most famous for his magazine covers for the Saturday Evening Post and Boys’ Life, the official Boy Scouts’ publication. But he also did some commercial illustration, including this painting of a “Man with Sandwich and Glass of Beer,” for an unspecified beer ad, which was created between 1947 and 1950. I don’t think it was ever used, as I’ve been unable to turn up the illustration in any actual advertisement.
Beer In Film #34: Refreshingest Hamm’s
Today’s beer video is an animated commercial for Hamm’s featuring the Hamm’s bear along with Bambi-like forest creatures. But most impressing; look how clear the color of the beer os it, you can see through it. It must have an SRM of zero.
History’s First Photo Of People Drinking Beer
Twitter lit up last night with tweets of an old photograph taken in 1844. It was Boak & Bailey who I saw tweet it, so h/t to them, although it appears to have been bouncing around the interwebs since at least July of 2012. Although neither the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where one of the originals is located, the National Portrait Gallery, where there’s another, or on Wikipedia, confirms or denies it, many sources posting it have indicated that it’s the first photograph taken depicting people drinking beer, in this case Edinburgh Ale. According to the museum, the photographers were David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. The people in the photo are identified as James Ballantine, Dr. George Bell, and D.O. Hill. It was printed on salted paper from a paper negative. I like the idea that it is the first photographic record of people enjoying a beer, but I’d prefer to see more proof. It seems likely, of course, since according to one account it was taken just six years after the very first photograph of a human. But I suppose until someone shows me one that’s earlier, I’m going to take their word for it.
This is the photograph from the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Whereas the photo that’s at the National Portrait Gallery is more grey than brown, and is identified as an Calotype print.
It also includes the following caption.
The skills involved in producing calotypes were not only of a technical nature. Hill’s sociability, humour and his capacity to gauge the sitters’ characters all played a crucial part in his photography. He is shown here on the right, apparently sharing a drink and a joke with James Ballantine and Dr George Bell. Bell, in the middle, was one of the commissioners of the Poor Law of 1845, which reformed poor relief in Scotland. Ballantine was a writer and stained-glass artist, and the son of an Edinburgh brewer. On the table are three glasses of ale. According to a contemporary account, Edinburgh ale was “a potent fluid, which almost glued the lips of the drinker together”.
“Glued the lips of the drinker together,” that’s one of the oddest descriptions of how a beer tastes I’ve ever read. It makes me want to try an Edinburgh Ale. I’ve get to working on that time machine.
Beer In Ads #1090: The Colt 45 Super Bowl
Sunday’s ad — kind of a Super Bowl ad — is for Colt 45, from 1968, when in Super Bowl II my Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders 33-14. It’s a funny idea, and if the beer they poured into the crystal bowl had been a better-tasting beer it might truly have been a super bowl.
Beer In Ads #1089: When You’re Out Of Schlitz, Punt.
Saturday’s ad, to get your ready for tomorrow’s Super Bowl, is for Schlitz, from 1969. It’s a funny one. Showing an upside down can of Schlitz held up by a finger, ready for the kick … wait a minute. What’s wrong with this picture? How did this get published? Figure it out yet? Somebody at the ad agency must have known something about football, or maybe not. Check the headline again. “When You’re Out Of Schlitz, Punt.” Whoops. Hilarious.
