Old Log Cabin Fever

Vintage ad from 1949

Well, we've had a steady string of chilly days lately, the kind of weather that makes you cringe at the idea of taking out the trash (and believe me, mine is piling up). If you've got a cold, or worse (like me), you've probably been staying indoors a lot.

You might even be getting a little antsy being somewhat confined to the insides of your domicile. In the old days, we called this 'cabin fever.'  

The cure for cabin fever? Embrace it! After getting comfortable in your best fez and smoking jacket, grab your pipe, a snifter of brandy and the latest Morocco-bound literary volume by Don Hilton and curl up in front of a crackling fire. (Make sure you have a fireplace first.) If you're Mrs. Don Hilton, you might even curl up with Don Hilton himself.

But what if you've got "Old Log Cabin Fever?" 

Well, for that, the best thing is to pour yourself some genuine Old Log Cabin Whiskey. The current owners of the brand had been tinkering with the label design last year. I'm happy to say it's received the most wonderful makeover, that honors its heritage and is a thing of beauty. 

Here's a modern era, pre-design bottle for comparison. Not bad, but the redesign is better.

Your humble blogger, of course, takes full credit as I'm arguably the brand's biggest cheerleader. Google "Old Log Cabin Whiskey" and all of the vintage 1940s & 50s ads from my blog pop up. Some weaselly entrepreneurs have even made 'new' vintage metal signs for sale using the ad artwork that I meticulously cleaned up in PhotoShop!

But even if you don't have any Old Log Cabin Whiskey on hand, you can still get into the spirit of things. For those of you that are interested in increasing your vocabulary, this is for you: a set of ads from that campaign dating from the fall of 1953 into the spring of 1954. I've posted a few before but I think this is all of them.

9-18-1953

10-2-1953

10-23-1953

10-30-1953

11-20-1953

12-18-1953

3-9-1954

3-23-1954

And to think my interest in this brand is all because of its regular appearances in ads in the Lorain Journal in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. A lot of people around here must have liked it enough to justify the expense of the various long-running campaigns.

Anyway, I have a good buddy in Seattle that I've been threatening to visit one of these years. When I do, I'll have to see if I can make a boozy side trip to where they make this stuff and have a scallywampus time.

****

UPDATE (Jan. 3, 2026)

The ad campaign with the zany word definitions had apparently run its course by 1955. Here's an ad that appeared in the Lorain Journal on Dec. 9, 1955.

Old Log Cabin Whiskey Ads – Sept. & Oct. 1953

Regular readers of this blog know that Old Log Cabin Whiskey ads that appeared in the Lorain Journal in the 1950s are interesting to me. 

Why? Maybe the brand appeals to me because of my secret wish to live in a log cabin. Or perhaps I just played with Lincoln Logs too much as a kid.

On earlier posts, I featured several ads from an early 1950s campaign with the theme, "There's Bourbon Enjoyment Inside!" Each ad consisted of a picturesque log cabin in the background, with someone pointing at it. The ones doing the pointing included a hunter cradling a rifle, a pipe-smoking rustic type with a Stormy Kromer-style cap; a flannel-clad chap with an armful of wood, and even a friendly squirrel.

Eventually that series of ads ran their course, and it was time for a new approach. But rather than focusing on the log cabin (and the alcoholic pleasures within), this new campaign staggered off in a different direction. 

Here's the result – an ad that ran in the Journal on Sept. 18, 1953. It featured a frontiersman practicing the pioneer equivalent of drinking while driving, and a vocabulary lesson.

A similar ad appeared in the Journal a few weeks later on October 2, 1953. This time the frontiersman is referred to in the ad as a '49er.

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying the coonskin-cap-wearing character as a California gold miner – his attire is all wrong. I'm not convinced he would be using such high-falutin' words either.

I'm just not a fan of these ads, which lack the charm of the previous campaign.

But you gotta admit, they were ahead of their time. They appeared a full year before the Davy Crockett fad began with the airing of the five-part series about the famous frontiersman on Walt Disney's Disneyland series in December 1954.

****

UPDATE (October 12, 2023)

Here's another ad from the campaign. It ran in the Journal on October 30, 1953. 

I just Googled 'bunkumsquint.' Yep, it's a real word!

Old Log Cabin Whiskey Ad – Feb. 6, 1952

Earlier this week, my first post about the Wilson-Baldauf house noted that Ebenezer Wilson built a log cabin for his wife and and three children upon their arrival in what was then Black River Township, to serve as a home until he could build a permanent home.

Well, today’s post is about another log cabin – namely, the one featured in Old Log Cabin Whiskey ads, a favorite topic on this blog. National Distillers Products Corporation ran a lot of ads for Old Log Cabin in the pages of the Lorain Journal beginning in the late 1940s and continuing right into the late 1960s.

I’ve featured several ads in the late 1940s/early1950s series that had the clever theme: “There’s bourbon enjoyment inside.” Well, here’s another ad – a “lanky” – with a new theme: "Follow the Trail to Old Log Cabin.” It ran in the Lorain Journal back on February 6, 1952 – 70 years ago.

I like the dog sled graphic, which reinforces that whole, rugged “North Woods” appeal. It’s in sharp contrast with Kentucky Bourbon advertisements, which often had Kentucky Colonels, horses, etc. as their theme.

Modern advertisements lack the charm of these vintage ones, which required the consumers to use their imaginations.

This colorful cardboard sign (currently on eBay) provides a closer look at the Old Log Cabin label.

Old Log Cabin Whiskey Ads – Feb. 1950

Gee, this is turning out to be a pretty boozy week here on the blog. Oh well, (hic!) let’s get to it.

Back in February 1950, the Lorain Journal was still a drinking man’s newspaper. I’ve mentioned before how the paper back then was full of ads for hard liquor every day.

The brand whose advertising appealed to me the most was Old Log Cabin Whiskey. (I wrote about it before, back here, as well as here.)

The ads were both charming and manly. Here’s one that ran in the Journal on February 3, 1950.

I love the typography, as well as the imagery. The log cabin in the ad is a great symbol, depicting a cozy, comfortable refuge from the cold.

The same feeling is being evoked in this ad (below), which ran in the paper four days later on February 7, 1950. A slightly different layout, but the message is the same.

Seventy years later, today’s whiskey drinkers seem to have gone soft – or elitist. You can buy whiskeys flavored with exotic flavors such as cinnamon, apple, honey, peach and even peanut butter (yuck). (The honey flavor sounds good, though.)

But Old Log Cabin is still around for those flannel-shirt wearing men who smoke pipes, chop their own wood and prefer to drink alone in their woodland refuge.

Courtesy Batch 206 Distillery

Here’s the link to the website for Batch 206 Distillery, the current makers of Old Log Cabin.

More Old Log Cabin Whiskey Ad Fun

While I try to decide if I should post some additional Whiskeyville history, I'll keep the theme going with a second shot of vintage whiskey ads from the pages of the Lorain Journal.

It wasn’t too difficult to rustle up more of these rustic-themed ads. By George, back in the late 1940s and early 50s, a boozy parade of ads for hard liquor and beer staggered across the pages of the Journal almost every day, usually in the sports section.

You might remember I posted this October 24, 1949 ad for Old Log Cabin back in late October.

This ad – featuring a hunter (hopefully not a squirrel hunter) appeared just two weeks later on November 7, 1949.

The campaign with the theme “There’s Bourbon Enjoyment Inside” was still running two years later. These ads featured photos of a variety of real people, young and old. The ad below ran in the Journal on August 8, 1951.

By 1955, the ads were a little more “hard sell.” This ad ran on January 19th of that year.

This ad below ran on November 9, 1956 and boasted that Old Log Cabin was Ohio’s largest-selling straight bourbon.

Unfortunately, ten years later – gone were the illustrations of squirrels, checker-shirted hunters and the iconic log cabin. The “Mad Men” era of advertising was well underway, and a smoother approach was called for. Thus the ad below ran in the Journal on November 4, 1966.

Note that the bottler was now Old Log Cabin Company of Cincinnati. Apparently the new owner felt that there was still life in the brand, which had been around since the 1800s.

I’m not sure when the original Old Log Cabin brand was “boarded up” and closed. But it’s nice that the iconic brand was revived by Batch 206 Distillery of Seattle in 2015.

Courtesy Batch 206

Old Log Cabin Whiskey Ad – October 24, 1949

From Whiskeyville to whiskey…

One thing that I’ve noticed when scanning countless rolls of newspaper microfilm at the library is the preponderance of national liquor ads in the Lorain Journal in the 40s and 50s. I’m sure the Journal enjoyed the advertising sales.

I don’t know if people drank more at home back then or not. Maybe it’s high time I had a highball when I get home from work.

The ad above, which ran in the paper on October 24, 1949, is for a bourbon whiskey brand that I’d never heard of before: Old Log Cabin. It features a cute little squirrel.

Hey, there was a squirrel ad in this nutty campaign for PM Blended Whiskey that same year (which I wrote about here).

Anyway, I couldn’t find another Old Log Cabin whiskey ad online, making the Journal one a rarity. I did find some for Old Crow, Old Stagg, Old Quaker, Old Taylor, Old Cabin Still and Old Fitzgerald, though.

While I couldn’t find any old ads, I noticed that there are plenty of empty Old Log Cabin bottles for sale. Amazingly, the Old Log Cabin brand is still around today (but without any animal mascots). You can visit its website here.