Who knew the story of Joseph Schlitz was so interesting:
I can't say much about the beer--it being a bit below my standards--or their business sense--running the #1 beer in America out of business--but the fellas at Schlitz (who were eventually bought by their Michigan competition, Stroh's, and now owned by bitter cross-town rival Pabst) know a thing or two about hilarious/sexist advertising, eh?In Milwaukee, Schlitz was hired as a bookkeeper in a tavern brewery owned by August Krug. In 1856, he took over management of the brewery following the death of Krug. Two years after Schlitz married Krug's widow, he changed the name of the brewery to the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.
The company began to succeed after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, when Schlitz donated thousands of barrels of beer to that city, which had lost most of its breweries. He quickly opened a distribution point there, beginning a national expansion. Schlitz built dozens of tied houses in Chicago, most with a concrete relief of the company logo embedded in the brickwork; several of these buildings survive today, including Schuba's Tavern at the corner of Belmont and Southport.
Schlitz died May 7, 1875, when on a return visit to Germany; his ship hit a rock near Land's End, Cornwall, and sank. Control of the corporation passed into the hands of the Uihlein brothers, nephews of founder August Krug. When Anna Maria Krug Schlitz died in 1887, the Uihleins acquired complete ownership of the firm.
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1 comment:
SANDWICHES were left out of the Classic 1960's Formula? I uess they're probably too classic, like the cotton gin, running and sunlight.
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