Posted 2 days ago
dav2no1
(833 items)
1930s Salem Beer Bottle Opener
A relative donated a bunch of stuff to us for our etsy shop. Of course I snagged this bottle lid opener for my collection. It was covered in rust so I cleaned it up.
The first thing i noticed...I was thinking that "it's the beer" was reminiscent of Olympia beer "it's the water". Sure enough the history of the company goes back to 1892. They were part of Olympia until 1933 when these openers came out. I found a good website with history and there's even a picture of one. It's quite an interesting story, I'll add the link in the comments.
Sorry Kera, it looks like the hole is covering part of the patent numbers..I know you love them patents! From what my quick search revealed..it appears that (if I'm reading it correctly) starts with 201xxxxx..that would be 1935 patent?
Here's the link to Salem Beer history..
https://www.brewerygems.com/salem.htm
dav2no1, Cool. :-)
The patent number is indeed harshed by the hole, but that "VAUGHAN CHIGAGO" is a major clue.
About Vaughan Novelty Manufacturing company (it doesn't show any patents as high as starting with "201"):
https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/vaughan-novelty/
However, I think I found it:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2018083A/en
So, yeah, applied for in 1934, and published in 1935. :-)
Kera - Cool! So I guess my googly skills were decent. Thanks for the research and links!
dav2no1, Your googly skills are, as usual, a lot more than decent. };-)
Good catch on the resemblance of the "It's the beer"/"It's the water" slogans.
My own favorite Ranier Beer commercial is the motorcycle one:
Rainier Beer- Motorcycle Commercial Restored
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Vab5kkjH0
Aww yes...a classic commercial. Great commercials, terrible beer.
Yeah, Ranier is like a lot of USA big brewer beer, which is to say it's weak-tasting to my taste buds (which never really cared for beer before they experienced German beer). The microbrewery revolution saved American beer, IMO.
Does Olympia still make a light version of their basic beer called something like Olympic Gold Light? Um...y'all don't need to put out a light beer when your basic product is already pretty light.