A Hamm-Fisted Beer Drinker

Although I’m not much of a drinker in my dotage, beer has been a favorite topic on this blog since the beginning. There have been many (some of you might think too many) posts devoted to a few favorites, including Old Dutch, and Carling’s Black Label. I’ve also written about P.O.C. and Barbarossa.

But I still like a beer once in a while. And right now, Hamm’s is the retro beer of choice in my fridge. (I still have a few cans of Black Label in there too).

Hamm’s, as many of you probably remember, is the beer from the Land of Sky Blue Waters and was originally brewed in St. Paul, Minnesota. Especially essential to the beer’s appeal was its popular advertising mascot, the Hamm’s Beer bear. He has been featured in TV commercials and ads since the 1950s, cavorting with other forest creatures in a Northern woods setting.

Here’s a great, almost full-page ad for a contest sponsored by Hamm’s Beer that ran in the Star Tribune, the largest newspaper in Minnesota, back on May 10, 1959.

Here’s a closeup of one of the great bear illustrations from the ad.

And here are some advertising clip sheets of the Hamm’s bear that I found online.

Vintage Hamm’s Beer advertising items (such as signs, ashtrays, banks, calendars, clocks, etc.) are highly collectible, especially anything with the bear on it. There’s even a club devoted to collecting only Hamm’s items. (Visit its website here.)