Carling Black Label Ads – November & December 1955

Yesterday I noted that Johnny Risko had Carling Black Label Beer on tap in his Sheffield Lake tavern in 1940.

Well, seventy years ago this month, Carling rolled out a major marketing Schlitz, er blitz for Black Label Beer. Its popular "Hey Mabel – Black Label" campaign (featuring the lovely Jeanne Goodspeed as Mabel the waitress) was pushing sales of the beer to new heights. Consequently, a series of newspaper ads appeared in the pages of the Lorain Journal during November and December 1955 as part of the campaign.

Here are a few of them. All of them play up the catchy and fun "Hey Mabel" tagline.

Nov. 17, 1955

Dec. 1, 1955

Dec. 8, 1955

The last ad notes, "In 1949, Carling was 62nd in sales among the nation's brewers. Today it is in the top ten! And the enormous and ever growing popularity of Carling Black Label Beer tells you why."

The charming Mabel campaign – which worked well on radio but even better on TV – no doubt attracted new customers. But the taste and price must have been just right for sales to explode.

Of course these days tastes have changed. I always chuckle at how the arrival of Great Lakes Christmas Ale is a big event, with lines of people waiting. To each his own, I guess.

As for me, I'll stick with Mabel and the Hamms Bear.

In my fridge right now, purchased at the Brownhelm Store

Cleveland Browns vs Packers Ad – 1954

The Cleveland Browns open their 2024 regular season this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. The team has already met the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks in preseason games.

Seventy years ago (!) the Browns also met the Packers in the first preseason game. Above you see the ad that appeared in the Lorain Journal on August 20, 1954 promoting the game.

It's interesting seeing that the game was going to be broadcast on WGAR. It seems that the Browns games were on 1100 WWWE for so many years that I thought it was always their home. But the radio home changed many times over the decades. Even now, I seem to forget that the games are on 850 The Fan.

Radio announcers for the 1954 season were Bill McColgan (who called Browns games from 1954 - 1960) and play-by-play man Ken Coleman (father of Emmy Award-winning sports anchor Casey Coleman).

Note the sponsor of the games: Carling's Black Label Beer, a favorite topic on this blog and – when I can find it – a favorite beer in my fridge.

Carling's Black Label Ad – Feb. 26, 1950

Yesterday the blog paid a visit to Stone's Grill in Downtown Lorain circa 1950. Well, here's an ad for something that might have been served there: Carling's Black Label.

This particular ad took up 3/4 of a page of the February 26, 1950 edition of the Lorain Journal – 70 years ago today.

Black Label Beer has been a favorite topic on this blog for quite a while.

The ad is interesting to me because it's from the time period before the brand adopted its iconic label design (shown below) circa 1955.

Seventy years later, the label design seems to be in flux. The art on the can available locally is still designed with a nod toward the beer's Canadian heritage.

But it looks like the latest bottle design in the U. S. (that is, if the internet is to be trusted) looks quite nice, a refreshed version of the classic label.

The Canadian products supposedly look like this (below). I looked for some the last time I was in Windsor but was unable to scare up any. (And I was afraid to ask the clerk lest I look like some kind of hoser.)

Over in England, the brand goes simply by a shortened name: Carling. And here's what it looks like there. I’ll bet it goes great with fish and chips.

Black Label Beer Ad - Nov. 22, 1955

I guess I have a strange fascination with vintage beer ads, since I feature so many of them on a blog that’s supposedly about Lorain County.

The two brands I’ve written about – Old Dutch and Carling’s Black Label – both had strong ties to the area since they were brewed in Northern Ohio. As a result, they seemed to run a lot of ads in the Lorain Journal in the 1950s.

The Black Label ad above ran in the Lorain Journal on November 22, 1955, two days before Thanksgiving. It features a great bottle illustration and of course, the lovely Mabel herself. It was part of a campaign that month that included the similar ad at left.

Carling’s Black Label is particularly interesting to me because of how it became so popular so quickly. The “Hey, Mabel – Black Label” tagline was brilliant in its simplicity, and the sense of fun and goodwill it generated. And even after Jeanne Goodspeed – the original Mabel in the TV commercials and ads – retired from modeling to start a family, the brand continued to cruise along successfully, using clips from her earlier commercials and even an animated Mabel in new ads. The beer's great taste and the memorable musical theme helped as well.

Anyway, I’ve taken a lot of abuse at work due to my lowbrow tastes in beer. Even recently, after I confessed that I had some Black Label in my fridge right now, a co-worker looked me straight in the eye and sternly stated, “Dan, it’s a bad beer.”

If I’m not careful, I’m going to find myself in the middle of a beer intervention.

Hey Mabel! Black Label ad – Nov. 1955

The ad above – from the pages of the Lorain Journal in November 1955 – caught my eye because of the great illustration of the classic Carling Black Label Beer bottle. Mabel's not bad either.

I've mentioned Black Label Beer a few times in this blog (here and here).

Hey, I still have some Black Label Beer in my "beer fridge" right now – I may have to open up a can or two on Thanksgiving! (The rest of my guests will have to choke down some Leinenkugel's Snowdrift Vanilla Porter.)

And before I forget, here's a commercial featuring the pretty Mabel shown in the above print ad.

According to this website, her name was Jeanne Goodspeed, and she enjoyed a 15-year run as Mabel in the commercials and print ads.

Hey Mabel! Black Label, eh?

A few weeks ago I happened to blog about an old Carling's Black Label advertisement and I got to wondering: do they still make this beer?

It turns out they do! A great website that I mentioned earlier, heymabelblacklabel.com included the contact info for a marketing executive at Pabst, who was able to locate a store that carries it a few miles from my work.

Of course, I had to go out and buy some. And that's what the current can looks like (above). Why the Canadian branding? The gentleman with the heymabelblacklabel.com website explained to me that it is strictly a marketing gimmick to signify that Carling's Black Label originated in Canada.

Maybe Pabst (who owns the U.S. rights) thinks it is more appealing as a "Canadian" brand even though it is made in the U.S. I disagree. I think that it should play more on its Cleveland roots - and for that matter, they should bring back Mabel too!

1968 Cleveland Indians Scorecard Part 2

Here's another ad from the 1968 Cleveland Indians scorecard that is a bit of Cleveland history: Carling's Black Label beer.

According to the book Cleveland Food Memories, the Carling Brewing Company started out in 1933 in Cleveland as the Brewing Corporation of America. As the popularity of its Black Label Beer and Red Cap Ale grew, the brewery expanded beyond its original northern Ohio market to become a national powerhouse.

The memorable "Hey Mabel" campaign, created by the Cleveland advertising agency Lang, Fisher & Stashower, greatly contributed to the Black Label brand's popularity and ran for almost twenty years. (I only remember the jingle from the radio.)

Unfortunately, the Cleveland plant was closed in 1971, just a few years after this ad ran in the scorecard. The local plant was sold and became part of C. Schmidt & Sons Brewing Company.

Click here to visit a website that is a nice tribute to this great brand of beer. ("Mabel' image at right courtesy of www.tvacres.com.)