A bit of St. Louis Beer History and various 1940s Advertisements

This first advertisement, for Kieffer Cleaners in Webster Groves, is one of the most interesting WWII-era ads from this 1943 Municipal Opera Program. “Garment replacement, because of war economics, has largely given way to using what you have. To entrust your needs to Kieffer’s is again to enjoy the freshness of newness with every style detail properly distinctive.” Cleaning prices were listed: “Plain Dresses and Men’s Suits, 75 cents” and “Sweaters, 50 cents”

Page 15 has an ad for University Drug Co (in the University Club Building on Grand Blvd), Syfo Soda Water, the Synopsis of Scenes for “The Great Waltz”, and Super Thiron Bread. Both Super Thiron Bread and University Drug Co.’s ads had the angle of keeping your health for victory.

Hyde Park Beer had a full page advertisement with a woman looking dreamily at the glass of beer being poured.

The Hyde Park Brewery operated from 1878 to 1948, with a hiatus during the prohibition era. It was one of the few local breweries to reopen after the repeal of the Volstead Act in 1933.

After that, the plant was acquired by independent operators, who sold it in 1948 to the Griesedieck-Western Brewery Company of Belleville, Illinois. That firm became a unit of the Carling Company in 1953, who produced Hyde Park beer at the North Florissant plant until 1958. (Previous info paraphrased from this blog, this one, and this one).

The last of these scanned MUNY program pages, page 17, is the Program for Act 1 of “The Great Waltz” sandwiched between an unremarkable advertisement for TUMS antacid (10 cents), Syfo Soda Water, and a totally cute advertisement for Coca Cola Bottling Company of St. Louis.