Trying to get back into the swing of this. I recently came across a blog called Vintage Booze that’s doing the same thing I am, although they’re mostly covering ads from the 1960s onward. I’m interested in tracing brands that have survived to today and those that haven’t, while looking at the way alcohol branding has changed over the decades since Repeal, so I’m taking a deeper view. Besides, a good idea’s a good idea, and it doesn’t bother me that someone else had the same good idea.
Speaking of dead brands, here’s one that really interests me: Pilgrim Rum.
South Boston, Mass. That makes it a 20th-century example of a New England rum. That’s interesting enough by itself. The Felton family apparently started distilling in 1819. Writing in Rum: A Social and Sociable History, Ian Williams notes:
At the end of Prohibition, several companies tried to revive the centuries-old tradition of New England rum. One valiant effort was Pilgrim rum, whose efforts to evoke Yankee history did not work out in the marketplace…. By the modern age, only Felton was left of the New England rums. In 1983, the plant was sold and mothballed, and so ended the tradition.
The building still exists. Renamed The Distillery, it’s now an artists community. There’s a great and thorough history of the building on their website.
Here’s another great example of a defunct brand that I’d really love to try sometime, just because I’m so curious about how it tasted.
(Ads are from 1936-1937 issues of Life magazine.)
From the December 21, 1936, issue of Life:
From the January 18, 1937, issue of Life:
G&W stands for Good Whiskey (and many other things, as you’ll see in future ads), but it legally stands (or stood) for Gooderham & Worts, Ltd., a Canadian firm that manufactured spirits in Toronto for nearly 170 years, before the distillery closed down in 1990. In its time, it was the largest distillery in Canada, but it appears to have fallen victim to acquisition and consolidation. In the early 20th century, it was bought out by Harry C. Hatch, who just a few years later bought Hiram Walker.
[The image above is the largest version I have, but click through to see larger versions of the two that follow.]
The Normandie has a great story. Built as a passenger-carrying ocean liner, it traveled from La Havre, France, to New York City. Upon commission, it was the largest ocean liner in the world but held that distinction only for one year, when Cunard’s RMS Queen Mary debuted. In its time, the Normandie carried Hemingway, Noël Coward, Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire, Walt Disney, and Jimmy Stewart.
The Normandie just happened to be docked in New York shortly after France fell to Germany, and the United States seized the ship and conversion work began to turn it into a troop-transport vessel. During that work, however, the ship caught fire and was eventually scrapped.
I find this ad, from the November 30, 1936, issue of Life magazine, very evocative. I can imagine myself surrounded by swells, my belly up to the bar, and ordering a cocktail.
One thing I love about many of the vintage ads I’ve found is how many of them include cocktail recipes–something you simply don’t see anymore. Here’s an example:
Manhattan a la Normandie
- 1/2 jigger Two Star, Five Star or Seven Star Blended Whiskey
- 1/4 jigger French Vermouth
- 1/4 jigger Italian Vermouth
Stir well with cracked ice, pour down your own hatch, and your pleased palate will echo the lookout’s cry — “All’s well.”
DandyID
Amazon
Facebook
Flickr
FourSquare
Twitter
Facebook Pages
