A hodgepodge, from Life‘s issue of August 30, 1937:
(Another Norman Rockwell ad. I keep meaning to do a specific post on Schenley’s history. Another time.)
(Burnett’s is still around; the brand, today, is owned by Heaven Hill.)
(If you need me to tell you that Myers is still around, you don’t drink enough.)
Both from the August 23, 1937, issue of Life magazine:
CRANK IT.
Wait, what does that say?
“rich, full flavor” Oh, so gin is supposed to be richly flavored. Got it.
But wait!
CRANK IT.
Gin is supposed to blend, to disappear into the drink. You shouldn’t actually taste gin when you have a gin cocktail! (We’ve seen this before, of course.)
From the August 16, 1937, issue of Life:
From the August 9, 1937, issue of Life:
Blow that mother up:
Have a recipe:
Egg white! Ramos Fizz! Can you imagine that running in a mainstream magazine today?
From the July 26, 1937, issue of Life magazine.
Monnet was not quite 100 years old at the time of this ad, having been founded in 1838. The brand still exists.
Compared to some of the advertising posters that Monnet commissioned, this Life ad seems pretty drab.
Oops, I inadvertently missed a week; doubling up today to catch up.
First up, from the July 12, 1937, issue of Life magazine, an ad with a cocktail recipe included:
Zooma zooma!
Next, an ad from the July 19, 1937, issue; this one reflects how much our drinking culture has changed since the 1930s. Few people today drink vermouth on its own, of course, even though more of us should.
Of course, this ad reminds me I keep promising to make Vermouth Cassis for Mrs. Bitters. Oops.
Love this Gordon’s ad. Love love love love. Life mag, July 5, 1937.
First, I love the stem glass, especially the stem, but also the bowl. The other glassware, the ice bucket, the martini pitcher. All lovely, and all items I now covet. I love that the martini has a bit of color to it, perhaps from the vermouth that was used.
Here’s the text, if you want to read it:
But I also really love the bottle. Let’s look at that in fancy giant size.
Check out the detail! The weird cap with the wire-twist enclosure. The juniper berries. The boar’s head. The words NEW JERSEY embossed on the bottle side. And, of course, the proof: 94.4. (If Wikipedia is accurate, bottlings sold in continental Europe are sold at 94.6, or 47.3% abv.)
Some hot stuff here, folks. These are the gems that keep me coming back to this feature.
From the June 28, 1937, issue of Life comes this one rule for staying cool in the hot, hot summer:
Add a sea lion to your bath.
The text on this bizarre ad isn’t interesting, but if you want to read it, click through and read it.
Interesting message in these ads: the gin in a mixed drink shouldn’t taste like gin. First up, one from the June 14, 1937, issue of Life magazine:
Next, a week later, June 21, 1937:
The text in these is tricky to read. Here’s the first:
And the second:
