LUDIC LOG

It's our second-ever Foto Friday here at the Ludic Log, in which I present pictures I took of things that cannot possibly be of interest to anyone other than myself. This week, I plunge you, cruelly and head-first, into my inexplicable love for collecting old beer and liquor memorabilia. If it can get you drunk and they don't make it anymore, I'll shell out half my rent on a piece of flimsy tin with its logo. Click on the thumbnail for the larger image, and enjoy!

This is a tip tray from Chicago's famous Berghoff, the oldest restaurant in the city. They make their own beer, which you can buy at the restaurant. This is from their 100th anniversary in 1990.

Erlanger was a beer manufactured by Michelob. Or, at least it was in the 1970s, which is when this sign was made. It was originally a small brewery in 1893, but by this time it had been bought out and was a sort of seventies version of a microbrew.

This light-up Falstaff sign is from the mid-'60s. The beer mugs are supposed to tilt back and forth like they're being hoisted, but the rocker motor doesn't work. The lights still work, though, so you get to see the drunken fishermen.

One of my favorites, this metal sign from the late '40s advertises Pittsburgh's Fort Pitt beer. It's also, as you can see, a baseball scoreboard, although since it's made of metal, I'm not sure how you're supposed to mark it. Magnets, maybe.

Leinenkugel is one of Wisconsin's few remaining independent breweries. They've branched out into a bunch of really good seasonal concoctions, but this is back when they just made one kind. I'm not sure when this tin sign was made; late '60s is my guess.

All right, this is hardly an antique, and Miller Lite is not old, obscure, discontinued or good. But I found it in an alley, and hey! Free chalkboard. Note my crappy handwriting. Stupid left-handed chalk.

A tin sign, I think from the mid-'70s, for Texas' own Lone Star Beer. I always loved Lone Star's design, advertising and style, which is why it's such a disappointment that the actual beer sucks.

A bar mirror, almost certainly a reproduction from the 1990s, featuring the Canadian mint liqueur called McGillicuddy's. The same company also makes a vanilla schnapps, which, when mixed with cranberry juice and cream, is kick-ass good.

Before Pabst Blue Ribbon was the preferred brewski of trucker-hatted hipsters, it was just a really shitty, watered-down beer from Milwaukee. I think this tip tray (featuring the dubious claim that PBR is made with 33 different blends of beer) is from the '60s.

Rainier beer is made in Washington, and surprisingly for a regional beer, it's pretty decent. This faux-neon sign, although it works only sporadically, is still nifty. This one's from the 1980s, when fake neon was all the rage.

I'm pretty sure that Gold Crown beer isn't around anymore, although Rheingold may be. This tip tray dates back to the 1950s, when both brands were quite popular. "Both beers union made by United States Brewing Company".

Special Export is still popular in Chicago, though it's no longer the national best-seller it was in decades past. This light-up sign (I think from the late '70s or early '80s) is one of my favorite pieces; the ship-in-the-bottle looks better in person than in this photo.

This is a light-up Stroh's sign from the early 1990s. It's not a particularly impressive sign, and I don't really care for Stroh's, but man! It glows in this freaky vampire blood-red. Unnerving!

One of the few bar mirrors I own that isn't a repro, this one (for Teacher's Highland Cream Scotch) probably dates from the late 1960s. It's pretty spiffy, though it definitely needs a new frame.