Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #2171: Ben Hogan For Pabst

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Sunday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1951. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Ben Hogan. He “was an American professional golfer, generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game. Born within six months of two other acknowledged golf greats of the 20th century, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson, Hogan is notable for his profound influence on golf swing theory and his legendary ball-striking ability.

His nine career professional major championships tie him with Gary Player for fourth all-time, trailing only Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (14) and Walter Hagen (11). He is one of only five golfers to have won all four major championships currently open to professionals (the Masters Tournament, The Open (despite only playing once), the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship). The other four are Nicklaus, Woods, Player, and Gene Sarazen.”

In the ad, Hogan is in the clubhouse, presumably after playing a round of golf, because he was good, but I’m guessing he still wouldn’t be as good after a few glasses of beer. Although personally, my golf game improves when I’m lubricated.

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Beer In Ads #2170: Johnny Weissmuller For Pabst

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Saturday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1950. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Johnny Weissmuller. He “was a Hungarian-born American competition swimmer and actor, best known for playing Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s and for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. Weissmuller was one of the world’s fastest swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals for swimming and one bronze medal for water polo. He won fifty-two U.S. national championships, set more than fifty world records (spread over both freestyle and backstroke), and was purportedly undefeated in official competition for the entirety of his competitive career. After retiring from competitions, he became the sixth actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs’s ape man, Tarzan, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character’s distinctive Tarzan yell is still often used in films.”

In the ad, Weissmuller is lounging at a pool. He obviously hasn’t been in the water, because his hair is perfect and his towel is dry. And I guess he should wait at least thirty minutes now that he’s drinking a beer.

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Beer In Ads #2169: Pancho Gonzalez For Pabst

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Thursday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1950. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Pancho Gonzalez. He “was an American tennis player. He was the World No. 1 tennis player for an all-time record eight years from 1952 to 1960. He won 17 Major singles titles, including 15 Pro Slams and 2 Grand Slams.

Largely self-taught, Gonzales was a successful amateur player in the late 1940s, twice winning the United States Championships. He is still widely considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game. A 1999 Sports Illustrated article about the magazine’s 20 “favorite athletes” of the 20th century said about Gonzales (their number 15 pick): “If earth was on the line in a tennis match, the man you want serving to save humankind would be Ricardo Alonso Gonzalez.” The American tennis commentator Bud Collins echoed this in an August 2006 article for MSNBC.com: “If I had to choose someone to play for my life, it would be Pancho Gonzales.”

In the ad, Gonzalez has (probably) just come off the court, and is relaxing with a friend, sharing two bottles of beer. It’s one of the only one of this series of ads in which the beer appears to have already been consumed. Usually, the glass is full. Here it’s half empty, or is that half full?

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Beer In Ads #2168: Larry Doby For Pabst

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Thursday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1949. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Mr. and Mrs. Larry Doby. He “was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball’s color barrier. A native of Camden, South Carolina and three-sport all-state athlete while in high school in Paterson, New Jersey, Doby accepted a basketball scholarship from Long Island University. At 17 years of age, he began his professional baseball career with the Newark Eagles as the team’s second baseman. Doby joined the United States Navy during World War II. His military service complete, Doby returned to baseball in 1946, and along with teammate Monte Irvin, helped the Eagles win the Negro League World Series.”

In July 1947, three months after Jackie Robinson, Doby broke the MLB color barrier in the American League when he signed a contract to play with Bill Veeck’s Cleveland Indians. Doby was the first player to go directly to the majors from the Negro leagues. A seven-time All-Star center fielder, Doby and teammate Satchel Paige were the first African-American players to win a World Series championship when the Indians won in 1948. He helped the Indians win a franchise-record 111 games and the AL pennant in 1954, finished second in the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award voting and was the AL’s RBI leader and home run champion. He went on to play for the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Chunichi Dragons before his retirement as a player in 1962.

Doby later served as the second black manager in the majors with the Chicago White Sox, and in 1995 was appointed to a position in the AL’s executive office. He also served as a director with the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 by the Hall’s Veterans Committee and died in 2003 at the age of 79.

In the ad, Doby is in his home, sharing a beer with, presumably, a friend, while holding a baseball trophy in his hands. I feel like at some point he’s going to have to put that down, or he won’t be able to drink an of his beer.

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Beer In Ads #2167: Angier Biddle Duke For Pabst

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Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1949. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Mr. and Mrs. Angier Biddle Duke. He ” was an American soldier, diplomat in the United States Foreign Service and a White House aide. In 1952, at age 36, he became the youngest American ambassador in history when he was appointed to be the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador.” He came from a very well-to-do family. Duke University was named for his family, and especially his grandfather, Benjamin Newton Duke, who was a major benefactor.

Duke became skiing editor for a sports magazine in the late 1930s. In 1940 he enlisted as a private in the United States Army Air Forces, and by discharge in 1945 was a major serving in North Africa and Europe. His uncle Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. was serving as ambassador to most of the governments-in-exile that were occupied by Germany during World War II.

In 1949, Duke joined the United States Foreign Service as an assistant in Buenos Aires and subsequently Madrid. From 1952 to 1953, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador during the Truman administration and was, aged 36, the youngest ever U.S. Ambassador up to that time. With the Democratic Party out of power in 1953–1961, he left the foreign service and returned to private life. During much of this time, he served as President of the International Rescue Commission. Originally a Republican, he later became a Democrat.

In 1960, Duke accepted a call from the Kennedy administration to serve as Chief of Protocol for the U.S. Department of State with the rank of Ambassador, holding this position until 1965. His most visible task during this term was to supervise the protocol for the world leaders who attended the November 25, 1963 funeral of John F. Kennedy.

At end of his term as Chief of Protocol, the Johnson administration asked him to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Spain (1965–1967) and then to Denmark (1968–1969). In 1969 he was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree from Duke University.

With the Democratic Party again out of power, he was again out of the U.S. Foreign Service. The Carter administration brought him back again to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Morocco in 1979–1981.

In the ad, Angier and his second wife (of four), Margaret Screven White, are outside “Duke Farm,” their Southampton, Long Island summer home. They’re sharing a couple of beers, while she’s holding roses, presumably from their garden, while he’s holding small dog, or perhaps it’s a puppy.

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Beer In Ads #2166: Viscountess Furness For Pabst

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Tuesday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1948. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness. She “was a mistress of King Edward VIII while he was still the Prince of Wales; she preceded Wallis Simpson (for whose sake Edward abdicated and became the Duke of Windsor) in his affections.

During most of her relationship with the Prince, she was married to a British nobleman, Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness. That marriage ended the year before her relationship with the Prince ended.

Her first name was pronounced in Spanish fashion as “TEL-ma.” Her identical twin sister was Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt who was married to Reginald Vanderbilt and had a daughter, Gloria Vanderbilt.”

In the ad, Thelma, I mean the Viscountess, is being served in “the Drawing Room of her Beverly Hills Home.” Typical of this series of ads, there’s a silver tray with two bottles of beer and two glasses. Although I think this is the only time the glasses look like they’re made of cut crystal. That can’t be a coincidence.

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Beer In Ads #2165: F. Warren Pershing For Pabst

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Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1949. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Mr. and Mrs. F. Warren Pershing. He was the son of General John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing, and the only one of his children who survived a fire at his home in the Presidio in 1915. “He graduated from Yale University in 1931. On April 22, 1938 he was married to Muriel Bache Richards at St. Thomas Church in New York City. During World War II he enlisted as a Private in the United States Army. He asked for no special privileges and to be treated like any new recruit.” Despite this, he eventually attained the rank of Colonel. He also “served in the Second World War as an advisor to the Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall. After the War he continued with his financial career and founded a stock brokerage firm, Pershing & Company.

In the ad, Pershing and his wife Muriel, or “MuMu,” are in their Narragansett, Rhode Island home with a tray of beers between them. Although I must say she doesn’t look particularly happy to be there.

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Beer In Ads #2164: James Montgomery Flagg For Pabst

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Sunday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1949. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features James Montgomery Flagg. He “was an American artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters.” His most famous poster was the of Uncle Sam pointing a finger at you, with text that read “I Want You For U.S. Army,” painted in 1917. “Flagg used a modified version of his own face for Uncle Sam, and veteran Walter Botts provided the pose.”

In the ad, “Monty,” as he was known to his friends, is in his “New York Studio” working on a new painting as an admirer looks on. Perhaps she’s the “Cover girl for a popular magazine” mentioned in the text, and she’s seeing if she likes how he’s drawn her? And if she does, maybe it’s finally time to drink those beers.

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Beer In Ads #2163: Charles Laughton For Pabst

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Saturday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1949. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Charles Laughton. He “was an English stage and film character actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Laughton was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death; they had no children.

He played a wide range of classical and modern parts, making an impact in Shakespeare at the Old Vic. His film career took him to Broadway and then Hollywood, but he also collaborated with Alexander Korda on notable British films of the era, including The Private Life of Henry VIII. He portrayed everything from monsters and misfits to kings. Among Laughton’s biggest film hits were The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Mutiny on the Bounty, Ruggles of Red Gap, Jamaica Inn, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Big Clock. In his later career, he took up stage directing, notably in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell, in which he also starred. He directed one film, the thriller The Night of the Hunter.

Laughton has been seen by one actor as one of the greatest performers of his generation. Daniel Day-Lewis cited him as one of his inspirations, saying: ‘He was probably the greatest film actor who came from that period of time. He had something quite remarkable. His generosity as an actor, he fed himself into that work. As an actor, you cannot take your eyes off him.'”

In the ad, Laughton’s relaxing, up against a tree, at the Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club. Beer in his hand, he’s in Southern California but still wearing a wool jacket and tie, even though it’s most likely on the warm side. Hopefully the beer will help keep him cool.

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Beer In Ads #2162: Gladys Swarthout

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Friday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1948. In the later 1940s, Pabst embarked on a series of ads with celebrity endorsements, photographing star actors, athletes, musicians and other famous people in their homes, enjoying Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This one features Miss Gladys Swarthout and her husband Mr. Frank Chapman. She “was an American mezzo-soprano opera singer and entertainer.”

In the ad, Swarthout and her husband, also an opera singer, are in their “Connecticut Home,” in what looks like a den or music room. They’re sharing a bottle of beer, although they are two full glasses.

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