Kinsey Worker wrote:...Here is a picture of the Publicker Commercial Alcohol Cmpany's 1930 Christmas Party held at the Belevue Straford Hotel in Phila. on the far right back side sitting next to a lady at the table on her right is Harry Publicker
Cool.
But what I want to know is, What happened to the folks at the table on the left? Did they get into a fight? Did they all go the bathroom together just before the photo was taken? Inquiring minds wan... well, actually maybe we DON'T want to know
Heh-heh, and Old J. G. sure dressed pretty dapper for a good ol' country distiller-boy! For those of us who are too new at this hobby to remember, in those days blended whiskey didn't carry the "cheap, rotgut" stigma by which we think of it today. In fact, in the forty-seven states that
weren't Kentucky, it was BOURBON that was considered America's "blue-collar, working-class hillbilly stuff", the sort of thing Fast Eddie the Hustler would drink, while "gentlemen of position" enjoyed "more sophisticated" blended whiskey! Of course, what the sort of men shown in the picture would REALLY be drinking was Scotch, but even THAT would have been blended scotch. Single malt was virtually unheard of in America before the early '70s.
Again, thanks so much, Dave, for posting these wonderful pieces of Kinsey/Continental/Publicker history. So little knowledge is available to us about America's important non-Kentucky whiskeys, and your obsession (a word which I bestow with great honor) with the company you worked for is a vivid tribute to all the others as well. Perhaps that fellow in the top hat and ascot isn't just the honorable Mr. Kinsey -- maybe he's the Ghost of Whiskey Merchants Past, who proudly offered their tastefully-blended products in those simpler days before the qualities of uncut barrel strength and strong character replaced those of subtlety and genteel refinement.