November 16, 2004

From the land of sky blue wa-a-aters...

Jen just pointed me to this obituary: bq. Writer of Hamm's beer jingle dies It is a bit ironic that Ernie Garven, who died last week at his Florida home, wrote the unforgettable Hamm's beer advertising jingle, "From the land of sky blue wa-a-aters... " bq. Garven, who was 90, didn't drink beer. bq. "He didn't drink any alcohol," said his daughter, Renee Garven. bq. It is hard to estimate the impact of the 1952 jingle, but some credit it with boosting sales of Hamm's beer enough to make its small local brewery in St. Paul into a near-national brand. The beer still survives as property of the Miller Brewing Co.
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On a side note, the first "jingle" was written by a delightful character, Nicholas Slonimsky. His entry in Baker's contains this nugget: bq. A priority must be conceded to him for writing the earliest singing commercials to authentic texts from the Saturday Evening Post advertisements, among them Make This A Day of Pepsodent, No More Shiny Nose, and Children Cry for Castoria, (1925). Posted by DaveH at November 16, 2004 5:20 PM