Monday’s ad is another oldie, from 1905. It’s for Weisbrod & Hess, a.k.a. Oriental Brewery of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It’s a complex and beautifully illustrated poster.
PLCB Bad For Business
I haven’t seen much yet from the joint hearing by the Senate Law Committee and House Liquor Control Committee looking into the PLCB that took place April 13, but Jack Curtin posted something from the Scranton Times-Tribune entitled PLCB Bad for Business.
Backlash Brewing In Pennsylvania
After the furor caused by the state police raids on three Philadelphia bars, and a subsequent raid on a beer distributor, there does appear to be a backlash coming. Several people predicted that was one possible outcome — I believe Don and Lew both mentioned it — and now it may indeed be playing out that way. In a new report posted today by Don Russell and Bob Warner, Beer-Raid Flap Coming to a Head, Hearing Ordered, it appears that the state legislature has scheduled a joint hearing (of the House Liquor Control Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee) for April 13 to look into the matter.
From the article:
“We’re scared,” one bar owner told the Daily News. “I’ve instructed my staff to match every beer we get delivered with the PLCB’s list of registered brands. If it’s not on the list, we’re not going to take delivery.”
Sources told the Daily News that several beer distributors in other parts of the state had been visited by State Police in search of unregistered beer.
As I’ve opined before, this is creating a culture of fear among legitimate business people and that’s not something our government should be doing, especially under the economic duress of today. Lew Bryson has even set up a new Facebook page, Abolish the PLCB-Rewrite the Code. After a few short hours there were nearly 3,000 members. Even if you’re not from Pennsylvania, join it and show the world that we’re tired of arcane alcohol laws and they need to be changed.
There’s also a new separate account by Patrick Walters of the Associated Press, Brew-haha Frothing Over Philly Bar Raids.
More On 2nd Raid Of Pennsylvania Distributor
Yesterday on Don Russell’s Beer Radar, he had the basic information on a second raid by the PLCB and Pennsylvania State Troopers. As promised, a fuller account was published today, with additional reporting by Bob Warner, in the Philadelphia Daily News. Here’s the account, entitled In Another Raid, State Police Hit Beer Distributor, Origlio’s, in Far Northeast.
The state continues to confiscate Duvel, Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Red Ale and even Hacker-Pschorr, despite all three brands having been registered and sold for many years. Russian River Brewing’ Supplication was also one of the beers confiscated, but in that case Vinnie Cilurzo admitted he’d simply forgotten the paperwork for the very small number of cases shipped to Pennsylvania. As reported by Russell, Cilurzo stated. “We are a small mom-and-pop brewery and every once in a while something slips through the cracks.”
What continues to be troubling is that this is essentially just paperwork errors and miscommunication and it’s being treated like the crime of the century. Did they really need to go in armed, like storm troopers? Were they expecting trouble or that gunfire might be necessary? It’s not like they were raiding a bootlegger’s den and could expect Tommy guns to be carried by everyone inside the distributorship. It seems absurd to think there might be some justification for that level of power display.
As another remarked. “‘It’s just a clerical problem, but they’re treating this stuff like contraband,’ said one distributor who asked not to be identified.” See what we’ve created? Here’s a legitimate businessman who’s afraid to be identified while criticizing the PLCB and the state police for fear of retaliation, despite the fact that as a citizen he has every right to do so. When we aren’t comfortable exercising basic rights like that because we believe we’ll be targeted by the people we’re criticizing (who, let’s not forget, are there to serve the people), that, to me, is a very scary development indeed. Now that’s a chilling effect. This is just going from bad to worse.
UPDATE: Thanks to James Costa for pointing this out. Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s food writer, Rick Nichols, gives us his take on the PLCB raids in Beer Raid Backfires on Liquor Agents.
PLCB Conducts Second Raid On Distributor
Pennsylvania’s beer scene appears on the brink of martial law, with the state police last night raiding one of the distributors who carries some of the beer confiscated earlier this week, such as Duvel. Don Russell has posted to his Beer Radar blog what is known so far, and promises to have a fuller account of the shenanigans tomorrow in the Daily News, again with reporting by him and Bob Warner. I’ll update this post with a link when it’s up.
From Beer Radar:
What we’re witnessing isn’t just bureaucratic incompetence or the result of outdated laws. This is an act of unrepentant arrogance. As one local restaurant operator remarked of the BLE [Bureau of Liquor Enforcement], “They don’t answer to anybody. They’re running amok.”
Stay tuned, this is only the beginning ….
Philly’s Beer Police State
If this doesn’t make you shudder, you’ve got eisbock running through your veins. It appears the Volstead Act is alive and well in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to an account of Pennsylvania’s Beer Storm Troopers entitled Troopers Raid Popular Bars for Unlicensed Beers, by Don Russell, with Bob Warner, earlier today in the Philadelphia Daily News. What happened was three Philadelphia bars were raided simultaneously, Swat team-style, looking to confiscate — gasp — unlicensed beer brands. The police raid netted a few hundred bottles of beer, much of it lawfully registered. The cops simply couldn’t find many of the beers on their list because the names didn’t match exactly. For example, they took bottles of Duvel because the bottle reads “Duvel Belgian Golden Ale” but the PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board) has it listed as “Duvel Beer.”
Perhaps more unsettling is the raids were prompted by “a citizen complaint,” but authorities are refusing to reveal the complainant. Whatever happened to the right to face one’s accuser as guaranteed by the 6th Amendment? [As Andy Crouch, lawyer by day, points out, the 6th Amendment pertains to criminal proceedings, which this was not.] That aside, what possible motive might someone have? Jealous competitor? Rabid neo-prohibitionist? Annoyed neighbor? I’m perplexed.
From the article:
“No actual investigating was done,” [bar owner Leigh] Maida said in an e-mail to the Daily News. “The police sent a shoddily typed list to the PLCB, some drone fed it into the machine verbatim and returned what came back, without . . . even trying to offer us the benefit of the doubt by double-checking on some of the so-called unregistered beers.”
“My main beef with this whole convoluted situation is that the PLCB is the sole regulator of a set of products that they do not even know the names of,” she said.
The State Police has given the bar owners until this evening to prove the beer was licensed, in effect making them prove their innocence. So in this case they’re presumed guilty unless they can show otherwise. Am I missing something? Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around? Either way, the confiscated beer will be held for 6-8 months. Given that it’s unlikely it will be stored cool, most of it will likely be ruined in that time, anyway.
No matter how you slice this, it sure seems like we’ve stepped into some alternate universe where McCathyism is going strong, only its target is no longer Communism, but beer.
UPDATE: Jack Curtin has some more information on this incident in the form of an e-mail from bar owner Leigh Maida with additional details.
UPDATE #2: Lew Bryson has some great stuff about the incident on his No PLCB Blog.
Beer In Ads #57: Reading Beer’s Reach For Reading Draft
Since today’s my birthday, Wednesday’s ad is from my hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, where the locak beer growing up was Reading Premium Beer. And let me clear up one thing right away — it’s pronounced “red-ing,” not “reed-ing.” We’re the first railroad in Monopoly. The Reading Brewery closed in 1976, but Schmidt’s continued to contract brew it for the local market, at least until 1987, when G. Heileman bought it. Eventually it became part of the Pabst stable of forgotten brands. Recently Legacy Brewing, also in Reading, Pennsylvania, resurrected the brand, but the website is down so I’m not sure what happened, though that’s not exactly a promising sign. It vwas actually harder to find an ad for them then I expected, but I tracked this one down from the Reading Eagle (one of two local papers, until they later merged with rival Reading Times). This ad ran in the August 18, 1964 newspaper.
The ad uses one of favorite ad slogans of all-time, “The Friendly Beer For Modern People.” You just don’t see ad copy like that anymore, which is a shame. Slogans and copy today usually seem so calculated, so shaded with meaning, so safe and scientific. This just sparkles. Here’s the whole text of the ad:
The Friendly Beer for Modern People creates a magic mood of merriment. There’s loads of fun and friendship in brisk, frisky Reading Draft. So next time you’re out on the town, ask your favorite bartender to Reach for Reading Draft … a rollicking, frolicking brew!
And while you can’t see it on the black and white tap handle in the ad, the Reading Beer logo is also very cool, with golden concentric circles around a blue dot in the center, also containing the brand name, as shown in the old beer tray below.
Beer In Ads #41: Schmidt’s Give Your Thirst A Taste Of Life
Wednesday’s ad is a 1960s one for Schmidt’s, a Philadelphia brewery. I love the tagline, “Give Your Thirst a Taste of Life ….” It looks more like they’re taking their beer for a ride on their bikes. How about those kicky Sixties fashions, especially the headband and purple sneakers.
Beer In Ads #33: Rolling Rock’s Great Minds
Since Friday’s ad is number 33, I thought it only appropriate to feature one for Rolling Rock, since they so successfully exploited the mystery surrounding the number “33” being printed on their bottles, though the likeliest story isn’t that mysterious. This humorous ad plays on that theme with some of history’s greatest thinkers contemplating the mystery, which they call “Great Theories of ’33.'” The bottom row is Charles Darwin, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Thomas Edison. The top row is Sigmund Freud, Galileo and William Shakespeare. Also, the painting is called “Great Minds Drink Alike,” which is a pretty great name IMHO.
Beer In Ads #10: Boris Vallejo’s Michelob Man
Today’s ad was painted by one of the most famous science fiction/fantasy artists of all time, Boris Vallejo. If you don’t know who he he is, then you’ve never read the genre, because he’s worked for nearly everybody and has also done a number of album covers. His most famous characters include Conan, Doc Savage and Tarzan.
According to the biography at his home page:
Born in Lima, Peru, Boris attended the National School of Fine Arts in his native country before immigrating to the United States in 1964. He has since done a great volume of work for the Fantasy field, having worked for virtually every major publishing house with a science fiction/fantasy line. Boris has also illustrated for album covers, video box art and motion picture advertising.
You can also see a lot of his art at his official website (along with his wife, artist Julie Bell) and chronologically at the Boris Vallejo Gallery.
If I had to guess, I’d say this may have been for something internal at A-B because notice that the man in the painting, who may or may not be August Busch III, is crushing a can of Heineken, undoubtedly a primary target of Michelob’s marketing efforts. There’s also a strange triangular-shaped object between the two beers that resembles a Toblerone package, but I can’t figure what that might be. Anybody have any ideas?
