Old Bourbon Catalogue

My brother is a garage sale junkie and trolls the local sales for good finds. He sees lots of intersting stuff and recently brought me a liquor store catalogue from an LA liquor store, probably long gone, that looks to me from the 1950s or early '60s. It's full color with lots of great ads and drink recipes. I thought people migh be interested in the Bourbon offerings and prices. The prices are for fifths. Quarts are also listed, but I haven't reproduced them here. The Bourbon list is split into Bondeds and Straights. There is also a list of Blendeds which I didn't reproduce here. A few familiar names, but also a number I've never heard of:


Bonded Bourbon

Beam 6 year old $6.60
County Fair $4.69
JW Dant 5.99
Hiram Walker Private Cellar 4.98
IW Harper 6.73
James E. Pepper 6.15
Old Fitzgerald 6.70
Old Forester 6.70
Old Grand-Dad 6.70
Old Heaven Hill 4.75
Old Hickory 5.99
Old Kentucky Tavern 6.73
Old Taylor 6.70
Schenley Bourbon 6.73


Straight Bourbon

Antique Four Roses $4.89
Ancient Age 4.99
Bellows Club 4.77
Canada Dry 4.99
Early Times 5.27
IW Harper 86 5.87
Jack Daniels Black [sic] 6.98
Jim Beam 4.89
JW Dant 86 5.29
JW Dant Charcoal 5.75
Kentucky Bred 4.69
Kentucky Gentleman 4.77
Old Crow 4.99
Old Forester 5.99
Old Grand-Dad 5.99
Old Hickory Trophy 10 years 5.75
Old Taylor 5.75
Park & Tilford Priv. Stock 5.75
Schenley Champion 5.75
Virginia Gentleman 6.86 per liter (not available in a fifith)
Walker's Deluxe 5.65
Wild Turkey 8 years 9.55

There's also a Scotch list, all of it blended.

Thanks for posting this! I'd love to find these prices nowadays...

Nice find. I think it is really funny how there seems to be little price difference between most of those listed.
Out of all the alcohols listed what is the most expensive bottle you could buy at the time?

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Originally Posted by independant

Nice find. I think it is really funny how there seems to be little price difference between most of those listed.
Out of all the alcohols listed what is the most expensive bottle you could buy at the time?

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Great question. There are only a few items listed for over $10 for a fifth, and all of the most expensive are Cognacs. The Remy Martin Louis XIII is the most expensive item in the catalogue at $37.55 for a fifth. For Scotch, the most expensive is Ballantine 17 year old for $12.25.

I wish I had a color scanner as there are great pictures in here. There is a Bourbon ad by the Bourbon Institute, founded by Schenley Industries in New York, NY. I've never heard of Schenley. Is anyone familiar with them? Anyway, the ad has a list of 7 Bourbon cocktails.


Another little ad booklet that my brother picked up is a Brown-Forman book which seems to be from the same era. It advertises Old Forester (Bonded), King blended whiskey ("Looks Lighter-Tastes Lighter!" 86 proof/62.5% neutral spirits), Early Times Bourbon ("Every ounce a man's whisky"; 86, 90 or 100 proof), Kentucky Dew Bourbon (86 or 100 proof) and L&G Bourbon (86 or 93 proof). No prices in that one though.

And I just noticed a date on the liquor store catalogue: 1960.

If I read the chart correctly, the consumer price index has gone up some 720% since 1/60.

I stumbled across a similar thing recently, a liquor price list/industry publication from NY from 1968. I'll try to scan some pages over the next couple weeks.

I think were lucky that you can still buy a bottle for $10 or less. Not too bad to have only 100% inflation in nearly 50 years. i picked up a bottle of Ten High last week for $7.

The Bourbon Institute was founded by Schenley in the late 1950's as an effort to promote bourbon. Among other things, they had September named as bourbon heritage month. The Bourbon Institute is one of the organizations that merged to form DISCUS.

Mike Veach