TweetCressy spent his early years on the farm of his grandfather, General Lucas Pond. The house was built between 1823 and 1825, was enlarged over many years later. It contained twenty rooms and five fireplaces. Virgil Pond, Cressy’s Uncle, in 1900 donated the house to the King’s Daughters and Sons of Norfolk County. The house […]
Read MoreTweetAs I drove south from Boston on Interstate 95 that fall morning, I thought how remote this section of southern Massachusetts appears. It is not far from the Rhode Island line. My goal was the small southeast town of Wrentham, Massachusetts. On the main road of Wrentham all I could see was how rural this […]
Read MoreTweetA few weeks ago another writer recommended I read Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts. The book centers on a Chicago family whose father is sent to Germany as the US Ambassador in the early 1930s, just as the menace of Nazism is emerging. I just started reading the book yesterday. Larson uses historical […]
Read MoreTweetWhen A. Cressy Morrison arrived in Milwaukee in the year 1889 for his job at Pabst, the brewery’s name had changed from the Best Brewery to the Pabst Brewery. Fred Pabst, who had married Best’s daughter, was now running the Company. The office of Fred Pabst was on the second floor of the brick building […]
Read MoreTweetI remember a couple of summers ago visiting Pabst Brewery on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee. Thought empty, the old buildings were still there. The tour of the old main office building was the highlight. We walked up the steps into the office of Captain Pabst and then into the section where the advertising office, with […]
Read MoreTweetFor the past several months I have been following my outline to write the nine chapters of the book. A week ago I wrapped up Chapter 9. Now it is time for me here to reflect on what I think is the condition of the manuscript in its current form. Though I have been careful […]
Read MoreTweetWhat amazed me as I read the advertising material from Pabst about its Tonic is that the beverage was referred to as ‘food’. In an 1890 page in the Secret booklet called “Still More Secrets” we read: “Malt Extracts are prescribed by physicians to promote sleep, to strengthen nerves, to build up the system as […]
Read MoreTweetMy book centers on A. Cressy Morrison, the advertising manager at the Pabst Brewery from 1887 until 1897. He came to take the job at Pabst when he was in his mid-twenties. With both his writing skills and his passion for chemistry, he was able to write persuasive material at the Brewery to promote the […]
Read MoreTweetAs I research his life and work, what I admire about the Pabst advertising manager A. Cressy Morrison is that he liked to express himself in writing. For Pabst that meant writing ad copy, including the Secret booklets along with ads that appeared in national magazines. In his book The Pabst Brewing Company historian Thomas […]
Read MoreTweetChange for any business demands new ways of doing something. Late nineteenth century advertising underwent a revolution when in 1893 Frank Munsey (1854-1925) decided to sell his magazine Munsey’s Magazine for ten cents a copy and three dollars for a year’s subscription. The circulation increased, and so did the advertising rate. Though advertising became increasingly important, […]
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