By Joe Sixpack
Posted on April 4, 2008 on Joe Sixpack

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago today, on April 4, 1933, America was in the midst of the Great Depression. A panic had just forced the nation's banks to close for a week. The unemployment rate was 24.9 percent.

But three days later, on April 7th, things started looking up.

Beer was back.

A long-awaited revision to the infamous Volstead Act that had kicked off the Prohibition paved the way. Yes, the brew was just 3.2 percent alcohol, and it would be another 8 months till the 21st Amendment officially ended Prohibition and brought back more potent booze.

But on this day, it was time to party.

New York, Chicago, Philadelphia – the streets were a sudsy celebration. An estimated 1.5 million barrels of beer were drained in the first 24 hours after the modification of the act, according to the Brewers Association.

This week, U.S. brewers are trumpeting the end of beer prohibition with special events and tributes. But it would be hard to top the public relations scheme cooked up by one brewery on that glorious day three-quarters of a century ago.

Not surprisingly, it was Anheuser-Busch that grabbed the headlines. The St. Louis company wasn't the dominant beer maker in America at the time (Schlitz and Pabst were still giving it a run for its money), but there was no one better at attracting attention.

"So much of the story is folklore," said Budweiser brand director Tom Shipley. "But put yourself back into 1933. You've got August A. Busch – his father, Adolphus, started the company in 1852. He's 67 years old, a brewer who couldn't brew beer."

His younger son, Gussie, is 33. "He'd gone through his entire career and had never gotten to brew beer," Shipley said.

A-B's brewers maintained their beer-making chops with Bevo, a near beer that was essentially de-alcoholized Bud. To make ends meet, the company turned to the production of soft drinks and ice cream, and sold off real estate to generate cash. As the nation's economy sank into the Depression, Busch reportedly spent $34 million out of his own pocket to keep the business alive.

With Franklin Roosevelt's election in 1932 on a repeal campaign, it was clear Prohibition's days were numbered. The company spent $7 million to fix up its plant and sent its brewmasters to Germany for a refresher course.

When FDR signed the Cullen-Harrison act that allowed the sale of low-alcohol beer on March 23, 1933, A-B was ready to go.

And not just with barrels of beer.

In their history of Anheuser-Busch, "Under the Influence" (Simon & Schuster, 1991), journalists Peter Hernon and Terry Ganey write that three months before the act was signed, the company's board of directors authorized the expenditure of $15,000 for the purchase of six horses "for advertising purposes."

Gussie actually got 16 of them, then spent another 10 grand on an old-time beer wagon.

According to legend, on the eve of the beer prohibition's end, the brewery scion sprang the surprise on his father, calling him outside his mansion to see his new "car." The old man's eyes, Hernon and Ganey write, "must have filled when he beheld the sight of those solemnly majestic animals waiting in the street with their bright red wagons."

The Budweiser Clydesdales.

The next day, the company sent a team to New York to pull the city's first shipment of Bud down Fifth Avenue to the Empire State Building. They were met by Al Smith, the former governor of New York and a popular supporter of repeal, who accepted the beer in a joyous ceremony.

"Imagine the euphoria," Shipley said. "Beer was back."

The grand scene was an attention-getter, with newspapers around the world running photos of the harnessed team and decorated wagon.

Other brewers – Pabst, Blatz, even Yuengling of Pennsylvania – ran successful marketing campaigns that day 75 years ago. But in one magnificent act of P.R. genius, Budweiser had become the very symbol of the return of beer, and its Clydesdales would evolve into one of the world's most recognizable advertising icons.

"It was really important for Anheuser-Busch to lead that celebration. Let's face it: They were brewers and marketers," said Shipley, "and they were masterful at it."

"Joe Sixpack" by Don Russell appears weekly in Big Fat Friday. For more on the beer scene in Philly and beyond, visit www.joesixpack.net. Send e-mail to joesixpack@phillynews.com.