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October 1938. North Platte, Nebraska. "Manager of the Alamo bar, and Mildred Irwin, entertainer." The saloon singer last seen here. Medium format negative by John Vachon for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
I spotted some of the bottles and labels shown.
One of the nicest:
Old Taylor of "The American Medicinal Spirits Company".
Reminds me of my visit to Indonesia, where I could buy some arak (a spirit drink), on the label it said: "medicinal drink: take one sup three times a day".
I challenge the Shorpiists: find the originals!
Old Grandad, Old Drum, Old Crow, Old Jim Dandy, Old Taylor, Old Mr. Boston and Old Overholt.
And there are the Juicy Fruit, Chiclets, Doublemint and Spearmint gums, and Van Dyck and Y-B nickel cigars. Reminds me of the humidor room in my late grandfather's old tobacco-jobber business. Add a box each of Roi-Tans, King Edwards, and Swisher Sweets and you'd have the lot.
Looks like at this bar you could buy your booze by the glass or else pick up a bottle to take home. The shelves are heavy on pints and half-pints, with relatively few full-size 'fifths.' The name brands seem to run between roughly $2 and $3 a bottle for the fifths. Factored for inflation that's almost $35 - $50. Pretty pricey, but probably less than drinking at the bar.
My dad, a scotch drinker, always said that if the bourbon had "old" in it, it was a good bourbon. Don't drink anything without "old" in it.
What would he know, he drank scotch!
The location looks more like a take out liquor store than a bar. .State laws always vary but here in Ct it can't be both.
I see several brands that I remember seeing on old Dallas Transit System bus advertisements, growing up in Dallas in the 1960s: Old Taylor, Old Grand-Dad, Old Crow, Calvert, Seagram's, and Ronrico.
No Chivas Regal, Crown Royal, or W.L. Weller in evidence here - strictly the blue collar stuff.
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