Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2012 February 10 • Friday

Here's a magazine I bought just for the cover.

It's from 1933 and I thought it was great to see all those old beer labels. Of course prohibition was still going then. It wouldn't be repealed until December 1933 and this is the June 1933 issue.

The reason the magazine is announcing Happy Days is that President Roosevelt had, in March, 1933, signed into law the Cullen-Harrison Act, which made it legal to sell beer (and wine) that wasn't stronger than 3.2% alcohol by weight.

Ballyhoo was a humor magazine, sort of a precursor to National Lampoon or The Onion, and with a style of somedy that anticipates Bob & Ray to a certain extent. This issue prints an angry letter to President Roosevelt, blasting him for legalizing such low-alcohol beverages when all Americans have, thanks to Prohibition, become champion drinkers of hard liquor.

There are lots of cartoons about drinking, including this one about the recently signed Cullen-Harrison Act.

"It's so nice of you to come to our 3.2 party!"

There's a beer centerfold.

And a beer ad.

I'm not sure if that's a real ad but Peter Doelger was a real beer.

Here's one of their fake ads. Lazy Slob-X is undoubtedly a joke on La-Z-Boy, a relatively new product that had hit the market in 1929 or so. Note that the Lazy Slob Model has "beer on draught" and television!