During the Pandemic, I came across a Miller Brewing Company advertising sign that caught my attention. I occasionally browse the internet for vintage Miller High Life Girl in the Moon breweriana. The vintage advertisement focus is on one character attending a baseball game. I call this advertisement ‘The Red Miller Man.’ I believe this is another work by Mid-Western commercial artist and relative, Thomas Wallace Holmes. The composition shows a sports fan among a sea of fans heads. I compare him to Thomas Holmes 1926 photograph of his sister-in-law, my grandmother, Ruth Strauss pictured alongside a

 This is the1 1th article by Linda Hoffman crediting Miller High Life Beer's iconic Girl in the Moon artist Thomas Wallace Holmes with his original brewing advertising creations, that he was never recognized for by the Miller Brewing Company.

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In this article Linda tells about a meeting with Richard Bennett, a collector of vintage Ringling Circus advertising items. He was also an actor performing with Jimmy Durante, the Three Stooges, the Lone Ranger and others. She discovered that there were several coincidences is their past. It's a small world indeed.
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In August, I went to look at the Ringling Brothers Circus posters in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Upon entering the main circus museum building, my husband Brian spotted the enormous, framed, wall-size advertisement of the famous high-wire performer Bird Millman with parasol located between the men’s and women’s restrooms in the lobby hallway. (Figure 1) The star-filled night sky encircled in gold reminds me of my great uncle Thomas Holmes Miller High Life ‘Girl in the Moon’ beer tray rim. Bird Millman’s outstretched graceful arm and parasol grasped in the other to provide balance, also remind me of Tom’s previous photographs for illustration work with his wife and sisters-in-law Pearl and Ruth. Tom used a parasol as a prop with ‘Strolling Girl’ 1904, Pearl Strauss with parasol photo appeared on page 30 of the American Breweriana Journal issue #182 in my first article Proof of Ruth and another one with Ruth and Helen in 1906.

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The first full-faced Miller High Life ‘Girl in the Moon’ appeared in 1943. Her looks were updated to fit the current fashion trends depicting healthy, wholesome young women as ‘pin-up girls’. This European female characterization caught on here during World War II.

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Within the Mukwonago Historical Society’s collection are two very old wood and iron signs that by their construction and style would seem to date to the mid-nineteenth century. It is believed that these signs were used to direct weary travelers to establishments in the Mukwonago area to rejuvenate and spend the night. This was a time when stagecoaches ferried people from Milwaukee to points west on plank roads, to Prairieville (now Waukesha), Janesville, East Troy, Mequanigo (Mukwonago), South Port (Kenosha), Whitewater and other destinations. Stagecoaches were the primary source of transportation, save for horseback and by foot for the heartiest souls, until the advent of the railroads starting in the 1850's. One sign directs travelers to the “J.M. Stockman Inn” and the other to “J.Smith’s Inn.”

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I began to research my family’s ties to the iconic Miller ‘Girl in the Moon’ twenty years ago in 1998. She spectacularly appeared as Chicago commercial artist Thomas Holmes prototype pre-World War I era ‘Girl popping like Champagne’ from a Miller High Life bottle in 1905, standing on a beer crate by 1907 and flying to the moon as Prohibition took its place in the United States.

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Thomas Wallace Holmes used the Strauss Girls and their families as models for his Girl in the Moon original creations for Miller High Life brand beer His forerunner, ‘Strolling Girl’ 1904 was modeled after his wife, Carrie Strauss, with the fluid, waving lines of the Art Nouveau period. (Figure 1) Tom reversed the image in 1905 turning Carrie into a human rocket bursting from a bottle of Miller High Life Beer. He incorporated Symbolism in the artworks placing a single stylized rose in the Gibson hairstyle, placing a beer and a whip in her hands, and setting her on the crescent moon in a star-filled sky. (Figure 2) Furthermore, his graphic designs served as the inspiration for current GITM advertising for the Miller Brewing Company.

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Simon Jung was a wholesale liquor dealer in Milwaukee that operated from 1889 until prohibition in 1918. He partnered with his father-in-law Abraham Breslauser for his first year of business. A Breslauer was a large and well-known Milwaukee liquor dealership. Simon later also partnered with M. Wiener for a year. His business was initially located at 425 Chestnut St but later moved several times. From 1908 to 1918 his business was located at 244-246 E Water Street. That building still stands.
S. Jung brands include Mountain King Rye, Homer Club Whiskey, Ole Bull Bourbon and Underhill Whiskey. Some of the advertising items known today include several varieties of shot glasses and backbar bottles. There are probably many other S. Jung advertising items not yet known to collectors.
Jack Sullivan posted an article on his “Those Pre-Pro Whiskey Men!” blog entitled “Simon Jung Gave Milwaukee His Best Shots”. Click here to read the full article.

Country Springs Hotel on February 12th, 2017. Ralph was selling a Girl in the Moon charger in fair condition at the show. (Fig. 1) The pre-Pro stone lithograph charger was displayed on an easel. Ralph’s charger was in fair condition. The night sky was badly faded from midnight blue to a daytime hue. The stars were transformed to smudges. These large chargers remind me of the snow coasters for sledding from childhood . . . Ralph’s asking price “as is” was $2200 Firm. 

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Thomas Wallace Holmes used his nephew, Earl Shopen, the son of Olga Strauss as the model for several 1940’s-1950’s Miller High Life Beer advertisements. Tom’s colorful artworks captured the American spirit for Miller beer designs of two men fishing in a boat, the same two men relaxing on a porch and again at a gentlemen’s barbeque party. (There is no doubt more works) Thomas Holmes, a Chicago artist and illustrator from the turn of the 20th century worked in lithography and photography in the boom of advertising spanning a successful sixty year career. Tom’s wife was Carrie Strauss. He chose Carrie’s family members to model for his illustrations as illustrators were known to do. There were 10 Strauss sisters and their children to choose from. In Thomas Holmes’ spare time and on trips, he painted landscapes including streams and barns in Wisconsin.
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On Saturday, September 17th several members of the club made an excursion to West Bend to view the display of early Wisconsin beer and liquor advertising at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA.) Sid Hatch, Peter Maas, Erik Hecker and Henry Hecker made the trip and enjoyed seeing some of the finest examples of beer, whiskey, and bitters advertising still in existence in the form of trays, signs, posters, labels, calendars and broadsides.

The exhibit includes some of the best examples known of early advertising from Wisconsin breweries. The centerpiece of the exhibit is an astounding Pabst Blue Ribbon print with a turn of the century gaff rigged racing sailboat.  It is made up of 12 panels and stands over 20' tall. MOWA was the perfect venue to display such a massive sign fully assembled and is perhaps the first time this particular sign has been on display.

The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) explores the art and culture of Wisconsin. Founded in 1961, MOWA is one of the top museums of regional art in the United States, with almost 5,000 works of contemporary and historic art by more than 350 artists.

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A rumor exists among the Milwaukee brewery workers to this day:
the outlandishly clad lady sitting on a crescent moon was the inspired work of an unknown artist and the model, and not a relative of the brewer's family as commonly told. Many stories of her origin and mistaken identity prevail in local brewing history books but one relationship did hold true. The ancestors of the beer baron and of the artist’s models hailed from the same region of Germany.
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In my first article, “Proof of Ruth” ABA Journal #182 March/ April from one year ago, I wrote about my family’s history with the iconic Miller High Life ‘standing girl’ and 1933 Miller Christmas Special Beer label which depict my mother Joanne sitting on her father’s lap in a cozy holiday scene with the Girl in the Moon placed in the night sky. My great uncle, Thomas Wallace Holmes designed these images and used his wife Carrie’s family as models. In this article I am going to share the wonderful events that have happened since.

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My sister Sue and I went on a journey from Milwaukee Wisconsin to view Advertising Art of Coshocton County exhibit at the Johnson -Humrickhouse Museum. We took Highway 16 for the last 15 miles of our trip to Coshocton, Ohio and exited the freeway at 541. We stopped for lunch at Bob Evans, an Ohio chain. Sue had pot roast with biscuits and I ate chicken salad. We then proceeded to the show located at 300 N. Whitewoman St. in the Roscoe Village of Coshocton, Ohio. (Note-my childhood home address in Oconomowoc Wisconsin was 540 West Wisconsin Avenue, AKA Highway 16). Click on the photo to read the full article.

The flagship product for the Zien brothers Co. was their Berliner Magen Bitters brand which was marketed mainly in the Midwest.   They bottled the product in amber square bottles embossed BERLINER MAGAN BITTERS on one panel.  They also promoted the brand with advertising shot glasses with at least 9 varieties known.  There is an advertising meerschaum pipe with a detailed image of the bottle which is a very unusual advertising item.  They are quite rare and another Milwaukee whiskey bottler, Joseph Dudenhoefer also used this type of advertising pipe.

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This is the story of how an antique bottle from the Fred Miller Brewing Company became the centerpiece of a national advertising campaign in 2007. When club member Sid Hatch showed all of his Miller blob beer bottles to the marketing group they selected one bottle because of the similarity of the embossing to the modern branding. It just happened to be a very rare mold variety.

 

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