Liquor Ads From the New York Times April 28, 1959 Part III.5

A quick update to my post on Martin's V.V.O. Scotch Whisky. As I had stated in that post, I really couldn't find much information on this particular brand past an image on the bottle and the age statement. Very often we hear about the negative impact social media. But sometimes social media really does work in a positive way, especially when it comes to information.

Since I couldn't find any information on the Martin's V.V.O., I decided to put my post on a number of different whisky pages. And I got the following information for Martin's V.V.O. from Billy on the #Whiskyfabric Facebook group. Billy was kind enough to send me two screenshots from the Schweppes Guide to Scotch by Philip Morrice.

For those of you who hadn't heard of the Schweppes Guide to Scotch by Philip

Morrice, this book was printed in 1983 and according to the Whisky Exchange website:

The Schweppes Guide to Scotch was a 1983 publication written by Phillip Morrice. Detailing the industry at that time, it contains details of the companies operating at the time and their brands. History and production information is included too. A book that was considered to have been well ahead of its time.

Billy recommended that I should get one since they are relative easy to find second hand. I did just that. I ordered one from Amazon and paid less than $8.00 for it including shipping. So not only did I get needed information on the Martin's V.V.O. Scotch whisky, but I also got a heads up on what I believe will be a valuable resource in my research. Thanks Billy for all your help.

Can't wait for the book to arrive.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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Liquor Ads From the New York Times April 28, 1959 Part III April 29, 2018

Welcome back peeps to another installment of Liquor Ads from the April 28, 1959 edition of the New York Times. This post has to do with a particular scotch whisky that I have to say I have never heard about nor can I find any real information on it on the internet.

The ad is for Martin's V.V.O Scotch Whisky and is dubbed "The Happiest Scotch." There's a dapper Scotsman rocking a nice big Kool-Aid smile while undoubtedly holding a tall glass of Martin's V.V.O on the rocks or a scotch and soda with the aforementioned Martin's V.V.O.

A basic search online tells me that Martin's V.V.O. was an 8-year old Blended Scotch Whisky and was 86 proof. Searching on the NYPL What's on the Menu website, results in 11 hits with the oldest being from a Cotton Club menu from 1938. And that's about it.

So here is my query for you faithful scotch drinkers and aficionados online. Can anyone shed any light on this particular scotch for your humble narrator? Any info would be appreciated in order to quench my curiosity.

Here is an image of the bottle from around the early 1960's:

I await your answers with baited breath.


Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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Liquor Ads From the New York Times April 28, 1959 Part II

Hey welcome back folks. I'm back at the old school ads from the April 28, 1959 edition of the New York Times courtesy of the TimesMachine. Today I wanted to focus on an ad from Justerini & Brooks.

The ad makes the following claim:

Charles Dickens was an eminent patron of Justerini & Brooks who have been purveyors of fine wines and spirits for over two centuries. Today this celebrated house is famous for a standard of quality that has brought good cheer and good fellowship to every corner of the world. Try the famous J & B Rare Scotch, of flavor unsurpassed. 

I was like "Whoa. Charles Dickens drank J&B????" (I can just hear my friend Melvin yell out J-B in Spanish.) Well that's not quite how it was. J&B Rare Scotch Whisky was created in 1932, while Charles Dickens lived until 1870. So he didn't drink the J&B Rare Scotch. In my mind, was this just an example of hyperbole for the sake of advertising? I had originally profiled J&B Rare Scotch Whisky in the post Crimson: The Color of Blood (1973) and I guess I missed the Dickens connection. What I found out was that he was a customer and bought wine and other spirits from the Justerini & Brooks Company. I decided to look a bit closely into the Justerini & Brooks Company.

Justerini & Brooks can trace their history back to 1749 and according to the Justerini & Brooks history website they awarded the Royal Warrant by every consecutive British monarch since King George III (1761). Since 1858, they started to export wine and spirits to overseas private collectors. And here I thought that the initials J&B represented a scotch whisky that my dad drank back in the 1970s. But back to Charles Dickens.

On the same history website for the Justerini & Brooks, they have images of an invoice to Charles Dickens for services rendered, as well as two signed checks by Dickens to Justerini & Brooks. Here they go for your viewing pleasure:

I guess the ad mentioning Dickens wasn't hyperbole after all. Here are a couple of other J&B Rare Scotch Whisky ads featuring Charles Dickens from the early 1960's:

It just like I say: You should always learn something new everyday. Today I definitely did. I'll be back with some more movie and old school ads post in the days to come.

Until Then Happy Drinking,

SiscoVanilla

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Liquor Ads From the New York Times April 28, 1959 Part I

For those of you who have followed this blog for some time now know that I like to look through old issues of the New York Times using their TimesMachine website. The website allows me (as a subscriber) to access Volume 1, Issue 1 from 1859 up to 2002. That's amazing. So aside from using it for my Historical research, I use to look for old school liquor ads.

The website gave me the date of April 26, 1959 at random. It was the Sunday edition on that day and it was hundreds of pages deep. Way too much searching. So I went to days ahead to April 28, 1959 and I hit the motherlode of liquor ads.

A total of 18 different liquor ads graced the pages of the New York Times that day and only 2 of them weren't a scotch, whiskey or a bourbon. For today's post I am going to focus on one of the two non scotch, whiskey or bourbon ads: the "Ancient Bottle Distilled Dry Gin" Seagrams Golden Gin.

According to the Seagrams Gin website, Seagrams with Samuel Bronfman at the head of the company debuted its flagship Seagram's Gin, dubbed the "Ancient Bottle,” in 1939. The gin was advertised as being 94 proof which makes for a pretty potent gin.

Now I'm not sure if Seagrams discontinued the Golden Gin when they debuted the Seagrams Extra Dry Gin in the 1950's or repackaged it as the Extra Dry Gin since the Extra Dry is advertised as being a lower 80 proof. Regardless if its different or one in the same, the ads that came out for the Ancient Bottle were in my opinion pretty awesome. I especially like the imagery evoked by the following ad:

Makes me want to sit on the beach sipping G&T's. And here's this collection of four ads:

Being a gin that is distilled in the United States, the ad of the 49er with his rifle evokes that feeling of 'Murica!!!! LOL. For those of you who might be curious as to how much a cocktail with the Seagrams Golden Gin would have cost you in 1960, look no further to the menu of Sweets Restaurant that was located at 2 and 4 Fulton Street, NYC.

The menu, which can be found at the New York Public Library's Whats on the Menu website, is dated November 22, 1960 and the price for a straight up shot of the Seagrams Golden Gin was only 0.75.

When converted to today's dollars, it would cost you roughly $6.00 for the same shot. its actually quite economical. No? Sweets Restaurant, which as per their menu was established in 1845, was founded by Abraham M. Sweet. It was billed as New York City's oldest seafood restaurant and survived until 1992 when it was destroyed by the December Nor'easter known as the Great Nor’easter of December 1992. So there's a little bonus NYC history for you gals and guys.

Maybe I'll dip to my local liquor store and pick up a small bottle of the Extra Dry and see if I can recreate that feeling of being on a beach drinking G&T's. Or maybe not. LOL.

I have quite a few more ads to profile in the next few weeks. 

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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