sku Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 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 BourbonBeam 6 year old $6.60County Fair $4.69JW Dant 5.99Hiram Walker Private Cellar 4.98IW Harper 6.73James E. Pepper 6.15Old Fitzgerald 6.70Old Forester 6.70Old Grand-Dad 6.70Old Heaven Hill 4.75Old Hickory 5.99Old Kentucky Tavern 6.73Old Taylor 6.70Schenley Bourbon 6.73Straight BourbonAntique Four Roses $4.89Ancient Age 4.99Bellows Club 4.77Canada Dry 4.99Early Times 5.27IW Harper 86 5.87Jack Daniels Black [sic] 6.98Jim Beam 4.89JW Dant 86 5.29JW Dant Charcoal 5.75Kentucky Bred 4.69Kentucky Gentleman 4.77Old Crow 4.99Old Forester 5.99Old Grand-Dad 5.99Old Hickory Trophy 10 years 5.75Old Taylor 5.75Park & Tilford Priv. Stock 5.75Schenley Champion 5.75Virginia Gentleman 6.86 per liter (not available in a fifith)Walker's Deluxe 5.65Wild Turkey 8 years 9.55There's also a Scotch list, all of it blended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klepackage Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 Thanks for posting this! I'd love to find these prices nowadays... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
independant Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku Posted May 5, 2009 Author Share Posted May 5, 2009 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?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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku Posted May 5, 2009 Author Share Posted May 5, 2009 And I just noticed a date on the liquor store catalogue: 1960. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jburlowski Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 If I read the chart correctly, the consumer price index has gone up some 720% since 1/60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted May 6, 2009 Share Posted May 6, 2009 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy38 Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bourbonv Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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