The Sosman & Landis studio was scrambling after losing a foreman carpenter and lead scenic artist during the month of February in 1911. On top of the loss, Joseph S. Sosman took another family vacation. Unfortunately for the studio staff, work kept pouring in that year. One of the largest projects handled by the studio that spring included a series of exhibits for the Brewer’s Show. Chicago hosted an International Brewers’ Congress during October 1911 that was devoted to showing visitors various beer exhibits.
In 1911 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Early in April I started on the designs for the Brewers’ Show, in which they wanted to demonstrate that beer is a food and not a beverage.” What a great marketing ploy, proposing that beer was a meal. Advertisements in “Western and Daheim,” a German-language Chicago newspaper, included articles pertaining to the International Brewers’ Congress that year, characterizing various beer and malt products as “The Family Beer,” “The Source of Energy,” and “Malt-Marrow: A Perfect Score in Health” (“Geschichte des Chicagoer Brauwesens,” Westen and Daheim, October 15, 1911).
For the opening, the “Chicago Tribune” interviewed Henry E. O. Heinemann, the secretary of the exposition. Heinemann reported, “Thousands of dollars have been spent for the foundations alone, so tons of brewing machinery must be properly set. An army of painters, decorators, scene builders, and machinists was busy all day and far into the night getting everything ready for the opening” (12 October 1911, page 7). Of the event, the article commented, “Every brewer in the exposition is an ardent missionary, eager to convert America to the ways of Germany, of Belgium, of France…Beer, they asserted during the day, is not an ‘alcoholic’ drink. Continental Europeans do not regard it as such. Americans would not, they argues, if it were not for their habit of standing at bars and drinking in a hurry.”
As the project commenced, Moses wrote, “We started Brewer’s work at the 20th Street studio, with an extra number of men.” Of the event, Moses wrote, “The Brewer’s Show opened October 12th with enormous crowds. Had a lot of trouble getting our work into the building….Sosman was well pleased, as there was a good profit in the work. Some of the brewers thought I had overcharged them.” In the end, the Brewery Show of 1911 was a success. By October 23, over 94,000 patrons attended the exposition and consumed over 500,000 glasses of beer (Statesman Journal, 24 Oct, 1911, page 9).
Of course, there were many groups opposed to the event too, including the Anti-liquor force headed by the Chicago Christian Endeavor union who were rallying for a mass meeting to protest against the brewers’ exposition (Dixon Evening Telegraph, 16 Oct, 1911, page 5). Local headlines also reported, “Brewer’s Show Drinking is On Increase. Consumption of Beverage is Three Times Greater Than the Growth of Population” (Star-Gazette, Elmira, New York, 21 Oct, 1911, page 3). The “Star-Gazette” noticed that “The volume of beer business has reached its highest point in the history of the trade.”
Moses also added, “Mr. Sosman would have nothing to do with it, and told me to go after it and get $10,000.00 out of it if possible.” There was $25,350.00 in contracts before all was finished for the event. Today’s equivalent purchasing power of $25,350 in 1911 is $683,361.28 – a sizable amount of work.
The studio’s first contract for the event was for $1,150.00. Moses recorded that the Schoenhoffen Brewing Company exhibit featured the “celebrated ‘Edelweiss.’” Edelweiss was the Schoenhoffen Brewing Company’s flagship brand. Advertisements from the time included “Delicious Satisfaction is an Edelweiss Attraction,” “Phone Before Eleven – Delivered before Seven,” “Here’s the Case, You be the Judge,” and “Phone for a Case to be Sent to Your Place.”
Founded in 1860 by Prussian immigrant Peter Schoenhofen (1827-1893), the brewery was located 18th and Canalport by 1862. During the 1860s, the made approximately 600 barrels of lager beer each year. Production continued to increase throughout the nineteenth century. By 1868, the annual output was 10,000 barrels. By 1890, Chicago was the nation’s sixth largest beer producer, with thirty-four breweries manufacturing over 1,000,000 dollars worth of beer annually. By 1900, the annual capacity of Schoenhoffen Brewing Company was 1,200,000 barrels – big business. The Schoenhofen brewery eventually housed fifteen buildings over seven acres, two miles south of downtown Chicago. The last expansion to the brewery’s complex at this location occurred during 1912, the year after the Brewer’s Show.
As an interesting aside, www.forgottenchicago.com reports that members of the Schoenhofen family used the Brewery’s tower to broadcast radio messages to German agents during World War I, prompting federal agents to seize the brewery. This claim, however, remains unsubstantiated.
The Schoenhoffen Brewing Company was acquired by the National Brewery Company in 1928. Operations ceased during the Prohibition Era, but reopened in 1933 after the national ban on alcohol production was lifted. The Schoenhofen-Edelweiss Co. was eventually purchased by the Atlas Brewing Co. in the late 1940s, then became part of Dewery’s Ltd. of South Bend, Indiana, in 1951. Dewery’s even reintroduced the famous Edelweiss brand in 1972.
To be continued…
