Risque Whiskey III: From Suggestive to Explicit

From the number of hits that each post has received,  my previous two expositions of racy whiskey ads and illustrations from the pre-Prohibition past have been crowd pleasers.  Having collected a substantial numbers of images since my last similar post in July 2012, I am herein providing a new installment.   These whiskey advertisements range from the merely suggestive to being, well, downright explicit in their content.

Starting with the most innocent, but by current standards no way politically correct, is a trade card touting Gold Grain Whiskey from the Buffalo Distilling Company.  It shows an African-American gentlemen,  presumably blind, ogling a damsel who is lifting her voluminous skirt to fix her stocking.   In one image this ad manages to give offense to African-Americans,  the sight impaired,  feminists, and for good measure, the Prohibitionist crowd.  But at the time the Buffalo Distilling Company thought the illustration was a good way to sell whiskey. Times change.  This firm first shows up in Buffalo,  New York,  directories in 1895.  Likely blenders of other distillers’ product, it featured a blizzard of brand names.  Prohibition killed this Buffalo liquor business in 1918.

The saloon sign that follows dramatized a somewhat different story.  A young man has found his way into a house of ill repute and is romancing one of the ladies of the establishment, both drinking whiskey.  He has been discovered by his top-hatted father or guardian who is pulling Romeo’s ear and tearing him away from a highly amused doxie.   If we could read the label on the whiskey bottle and the crate on the floor,  we would find that the liquor being advertised is “Blue Star Monogram Whiskey,”  the product of Solomon Bloch of Cleveland, Ohio.  Members of the Bloch family were involved in the liquor business in Cleveland from 1869 until about 1902.

We are still inside that bawdy house in the next saloon sign.  Two women in scanty gowns are partaking in shot glasses of Wilson Whiskey.  They clearly are waiting for the customers of the evening and imbibing, as the legend says, “A Nightcap of Wilson.”  A large bottle of whiskey resides on a table,  clearly ready for the party to begin.   Although a discreet depiction of the erotic, it is nonetheless surprising because this sign was the product of two Baltimore blue bloods,  both known for their lofty positions in business and social circles.  They were Charles Goldsborough and his son,  Charles Goldsborough Jr.  The pair also ran the High Spire Distillery in Pennsylvania.

From suggestive we move to the frequent attempt by whiskey men to project images with bare breasted women.   As we will see, these come in many varieties but a favorite one was the Indian maiden.  On this saloon sign we see her paddling her canoe, apparently wary of some men standing on the far shore.  The sign advertises Tippencanoe Kentucky Whiskey,  the product of the Union Distilling Company of Cincinnati.  Although this firm, founded in 1884, called itself a distiller, it likely was a “rectifier” or blender of whiskey.

Although a saloon sign could feature a bare bosom because women were not allowed in most drinking establishments, the label on the bottle of Tippecanoe was available to be seen by the general public.  The result is shown here.  Now this same Indian lass is well covered and the men on the far shore have disappeared.   The Union Distilling Company in this case was bottling its whiskey for a Cincinnati whiskey retailer.   Recorded as getting its product from the Latonia Distillery in Milldale, Kentucky,  Union Distilling went out of business after Ohio voted statewide Prohibition in 1916.

Ads for whiskey that contain nudity appear to follow a certain pattern. Just as it was okay to show an Indian maiden in a state of undress, harem girls,  Greek goddesses and legendary temptresses were fair game.   An example is the label of  Zulieka Whiskey, showing a semi-nude woman lounging on a couch.   Zulieka was a figure out of Jewish legend who also shows up in Muslim texts.  Jewish and Christian scriptural commentators have regarded Zuleika as a sinner and villainess.  Thus she was fair game for John Casper to use on a suggestive label.  Casper, one of the greatest whiskey pitchmen who ever lived, began his liquor operations in North Carolina; when that state went dry, he headed to Virginia.  When Virginia followed the Temperance trail in 1916, he opened a liquor business in Florida.  Casper disappeared with National Prohibition but is said to have died in Mexico.  He probably went there to get a drink.

The ancient temptress theme is continued with a celluloid pocket mirror advertising “XXXX Baker Rye.”  Here we have the lady, having shed her gown, posing casually in a vernal setting, apparently dreaming of a “Prince Charming.”  Apparently copied from a work of art, the Garrett-Williams Company of Baltimore would send customers a duplicate of the pocket mirror for just the cost of a postage stamp.

The H. F. Corbin Company of Cincinnati provided an example of Grecian types at play,  an activity that almost always required that they fling aside their scanty garments.  This saloon sign is very subtle in that it appears to carry no advertising on the front.  Only at the back does Corbin announce itself.  This firm,  dating from 1895 to 1918, featured a number of liquor brands, including "Buckeye Rye,” "Frank Gibson's Old Rye,", "H F C & Co.,", "H. F. Corbin's Old Windsor,”, "Hoffman House,” "King Rex,”"Lenox Club,” "Old Windsor Club,” "Palisade Club,” and "Robin Hood."

Note that in the prior illustrations,  all the female figures have a piece of cloth modestly covering their nether regions.  Full frontal nudity is almost never on view.  But there are exceptions.  The saloon sign shown here  advertising Fenwick whiskey depicts a female figure in all its glory, an individual who has thrown her wispy wrap to the winds.  She was given wings by a Detroit outfit,  Fecheimer & Hart,  as a merchandising gimmick to sell their Kenwick Sour Mash Whiskey.   The idea may not have worked:  the company listing in Detroit business directories was for only one year, 1890.

Individual retail liquor stores and bars seemed to be able to take a more racy approach in their advertising than distillers or wholesale houses.   At first glance this trade card from Archie’s Package Store in Fort Worth, Texas, appears to show an intellectual looking gent with  "pince nez” glasses who is smoking a cigar.  A closer look reveals something more.  Those are not just his eyebrows or his forehead.  The caption below is revelatory:  “It’s all in his head.”  Yes, indeed.

But the crowning “full frontal” is on a pocket mirror issued by the Falstaff Bar, C. H. Reilly, Proprietor,  in, believe or not,  Salt Lake City, Utah, home of the Mormon Church.  It shows four, count ‘em, four nubile, nude young women of whom three may be considered completely exposed.   There seems to be an effort to make them seem like Grecian serving girls.  One bears a statue in her hand;  another has what appears to be a serving cup.  An amphora sticks out from the right.  Dating from around 1900,  this gem recently sold at auction for $500, plus a $97.50 buyer’s commission.

There they are, the most recent installment of risque whiskey advertising, illustrating the progression from the merely teasing to the famous cry of the burlesque house:  “Take it off!  Take it all off!”

Risque Whiskey II: Clothed and Not So

In January 2011,  this bog featured a post dedicated to the various risque advertising and merchandising artifacts that the distilleries, rectifiers (blenders), wholesalers, liquor stores and saloon of the pre-Prohibition era issued to promote themselves and their brands.  In ensuing months I have collected a number of other images from that period that reflect the same “sex sells” attitude.

One thing always to keep in mind about America before 1920 is that women were not allowed in saloons.   That enabled publicans to feature over their bars and at other points within their drinking establishments,  pictures of unclothed or otherwise suggestive images of females, knowing there would be no outrage among their patrons.  For those selling whiskey, therefore, providing a steamy sign that advertised their liquor was a natural.

Five such are shown here.  The first, for Gilt Edge Whiskey, was the flagship brand of Wichman, Lutgen of San Francisco.  The lady, legs akimbo, lies on a red coverlet with a bottle of whiskey next to her.  She seems to be waiting for someone.  Either she or the whiskey is declared “A Treat that Can’t be Beat.”  Perhaps “Guilt Edge” might have been a better name for the booze.  Wichman, Lutgen, founded in 1877,  saw their building destroyed in the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and rebuilt, but could not survive Prohibition.

The following bar sign is typical of many in which a demure young lass with flowing hair is shown draped loosely in a blank or shawl of some type with a bit, just a tantalizing bit of a breast showing. It was issued specifically for bars by Auge’s for its G and H brand whiskey. So far my research has not been able to uncover either the brand or the outfit that issued it. 

The sign advertising White Seal Whiskey points up another frequent scheme for showing female nudity:   Place the ladies in a mythical or Oriental scene.  Here a pair of young lovers -- she bare breasted -- are being escorted down their river of love on a flower garlanded boat by no fewer than five totally nude river nereids.  This was a very popular bar sign from the Hulman and Beggs Company of Terre Haute, Indiana.  Herman Hulman, progenitor of the famous Hulman motor racing family,  was in the liquor business for many years but his alliance with John Beggs apparently lasted only from 1894 to 1896.

The fairy atop the Old Maid Whiskey sign clearly has a kinship with Hulman’s sea nymphs  and even more generously proportioned and clearly delineated.  When Orene Parker, a Covington KY rectifier,  took Old Maid as his flagship brand, he initially advertised and labeled the whiskey with a sour faced old maid.   The owner of a vaudeville theater and showman,  it apparently did not take Orene long to decide that a more appealing image might sell better.


Gustav Fleischmann,  part of the well-known Fleischmann yeast and distilling family,  did not take long to decide that a saucy sign might help sell his principal label,  Gold Grain Whiskey.  Gustav, an immigrant from Germany, apparently liked his ladies with amplitude.  Thus the woman on his saloon sign has a particularly robust backside.   Partners in a Buffalo wholesale liquor firm from about 1882, Fleischmann bought out his partner about 1893 and changed its name to the Buffalo Distilling Company.  It survived until 1918.

Another format for risque images were paper items like calendars and trade cards.  These would be given out to customers of all stripes to remind them of the proprietor and his wares.  The first here shows a quintet of comely maidens each dressed from head to toe and hardly scandalous in appearance except for the five cats peeking from their bloomers.  With a calendar attached, this image could be referred to on a daily basis for a year.

The trade cards that follow are from a single whiskey man whose name was Simon Hirsch.
A German immigrant who settled first in Leadville, Colorado, serving whiskey to silver miners, Hirsch moved on to Kansas City where he founded a very successful whiskey business. There his flagship brand was Quaker Maid rye.  Initially his label and advertising showed a modestly clad damsel.  But the racy images of the boomtown obviously prevailed and his ads featured women in various stages of nudity, but,  just as interesting, a male presence to ogle them.  Hirsch founded his business in 1877 and continued selling whiskey until 1918 when he switched to selling an alcohol-laced patent medicine.

Still a third format for using risque images in merchandising liquor was the use of the tip tray.   These were liberally provided to saloons and restaurants for use on the bar or by servers to present a bill, hold the payment, bring the change, and, presumably, find their tip.   The Edwin Schiele Distilling Co. put a bare breasted goddess on their tray advertising Autocrat Whiskey, their flagship label.  She seems to be emerging from a shimmer of silk or maybe soapsuds, but clearly thirsty for a shot of the good stuff.  The company was founded by Edwin Schiele about 1900 and lasted until Missouri went dry in 1918.


Thomas Moore, who billed his whiskey as coming from Possum Hollow, Pennsylvania, similarly found an outdoor setting for his tip tray nude,  reminiscent of the Manet painting “Luncheon on the Grass,”  but a whiskey bottle where a wine bottle would be.  Moore, who was forced by poverty to suspend his schooling at 14,  became very rich working in both the distilling and mining industries.   He died in 1898 but his firm continued until Prohibition.

Our final example is, to my mind the most sensuous of the lot.  It appears on a tip tray issued by the I. (for Isadore) Trager Company of Cincinnati, whose principal brand was “Cream of Kentucky.”  The image is of a red haired, bare-breasted woman with a come-hither look in her eyes.  The tray identifies her as the “Cream of Kentucky”  but clearly not the kind of girl one takes home to Mother.  Trager founded his firm in 1886 and met with financial success until Ohio voted “dry” in 1916.