BOOKS

Under-the-Toble Literature

BOOKS

THE BEER BOOK Will Anderson (Pyne Press)

ARDENT SPIRITS John Kobler (Putnam)

SODA POP Lawrence Dietz (Simon & Schuster)

Raise your glasses high — here’s a trio of books for the thirsty reader of any persuasion. While Will Anderson making you lust for a brew, Kobler is documenting America’s fight against it and Dietz is reminding us of the past and present glories of the Real Thing — Coke.

Actually, Dietz is doing a lot more than Coke in his book, subtitled “The History, Advertising, Art, and Memorabilia of Soft Drinks in America,” although, as he points out early on, almost any history of soft drinks is a history of the Secret Brew of Atlanta and the many attempts to copy or outsell it. He documents its rise from the days when its syrup was just one of the many (Globe of Flower Cough Syrup and Extract of Styllinger were others) dispensed by an Atlanta pharmacist named John S. Pemberton, who mixed the syrup with soda water, came up with a soft drink, and in May, 1886, began dispensing it at an Atlanta drugstore. A couple of years later, Pemberton’s health started failing, and he sold out to one Asa Candler for around $1700.

The rest is history. First advertised as a medicine (it contained caffeine and a trace — such a small one that you’d have to drink 5)6 quarts to start feeling it — of cocaine, which was taken out of the formula in 1905, as soon as Candler found out it was there), it didn’t really take off until it was bottled. Even then, they played down the pleasure aspect and emphasized its ability to relieve fatigue and promote clear thinking. By the 20s — and, not so incidentally, Prohibition — the race was on, the competition started getting fierce, and more and more money was being plowed into advertising.

The advertising is what makes Soda

Pop such a fine book ^ page after page of ad aft at its best, reproduced in fine color, along with plenty of black and white. The emphasis is on Coca-Cola, since Dietz collects it, but there are examples of many others from Bevo (The Beverage) to Moxie (in this writer’s opinion, the only undrinkable soft drink). If Soda Pop has a fault, it is an overabundance of details at the expense of the pictures, but a guide to Coca-Cola collectibles is already available at a much higher price than Soda Pop’s already steep $14.95, and Dietz’ style is lively enough to make up for it.

John Kobler, on the other hand, is hardly a fascinating writer, but his book, the first full-length history of Prohibition that I’ve seen, is eminently readable. He starts his account in 1609

and takes note of the hypocricy of marijuana prohibition in the book’s last sentence. In between we find Carrie Nation and her hatchet, Texas Guinan and her speakeasy, Izzy and Moe, Prohibition agents supreme, and Andrew Volstead and his (unnatural) Act. The first half of Ardent Spirits is a bit dry, you should pardon the pun, since it deals largely with the organization and internal squabbling of the Prohibition Party and such spinoffs..as the Women’s ^Christian Temperance Union. Once Kobler gets to the Volstead Act the tempo really picks up.

Prohibition was every bit as dirty as the dope scene today, it appears — bad stuff being sold-by unscrupulous dealers, Federal agents using any ruse possible to make a bust (Izzy and Moe were masters of disguise and went after their calling with all the zeal of actors. Their tale makes amusing reading until you realize that they really Were sending people up the river for serving them beers.), and selective non-enforcement here and there (New York Mayor. Fiorello LaGuatdia is shown mixing malt extract, alcohol, and near beer at a soda fountain). There is an especially chilling chapter'dealing with the morons and social misfits who became Prohibiton agents, trigger-happy mugs who would’ve been more use to A4 Capone than Uncle Sam. Another chapter details the tricks used by Charles Berns and John Carl “Baron” Kriendler, who eventually, opened New York’s primo speakeasy, the 21 Club. There is also a rundown of A1 Capone’s iron rule over the Chicago area (cribbed in part from Kobler’s earlier best-seller, Capone) and other famous criminals ranging from the La Montaigne brothers,, who specialized in high-quality French wines and Cognacs to the sinister Doctor Remus of Cincinnati, who kept America in Jack Daniels for several years. If your parents or grandparents never told you about this fascinating period of American history, here’s your chance to find out. I do have one complaint, however — I read this whole book and scrutinized the index carefullyyand cannot find one reference to Joseph P. Kennedy in the book’s 357 pages — is Kobler hiding something?

After reading Ardent Spirits, I’d recommend a trip to the refrigerator before tackling The Beer Book Will Anderson’s monumental compendium of what he calls “breweriana,” or. beerrelated stuff. The cover says it all — an old tray showing a lissome lass toasting you with a glass of Seipp’s in a moonlit lakeside beergarden, with the caption “The Pure Food — Beer.” Take that, Adele Davis! Inside, we find not only a definitive collection of beer cans, bottles, advertising signs, bottle openers, caps, tap tops, labels, trays, glasses, mats, calendars and brewery pictures, but a veritable encyclopedia of American adversiting art of the late 19th and 20th centuries. The Beer Book's 32 color pages fairly glow with the colorful byproducts of the brewer’s art — even the beercans he shows lined up one after another are beautiful.

Even though the book is loaded with pictures, it also has a wonderfully informative text. Hints on finding collectibles (tap knobs^ were often used as gearshift knobs, and may be hunted down at vouj local junkyard), discussions of marketing schemes that failed (like the gallon — yes, gallon — can), and short histories of America’s major brewing cities and breweries make the book valuable for anyone whose appreciation of beer goes beyond mere slurp-

ing and burping. In fact, reading The Beer Book can be rather depressing for somebody who loves beer, since Anderson notes with some displeasure the passing of the small, independent brewery in, America. From all I can gather, the day when you have your choice of Falstaff or Coors is n6t long in coming unless something is done (and just what can you do?). Certainly, if a giant like Lone Star is afraid of being squeezed to death by price-war tactics, its tiny competitor, Shiner is in trouble. And what of Yuengling’s of Pottsville, Pa., which is one of the few breweries left making that1 delectable brew, porter? What if the current trend towards sweet, light beers continues? What happens to those of us who like heavy, bitter beers? Who will defend minority tastes?

Anderson, bless him, doesn’t even begin to answer these weighty questions, but you certainly emerge from The Beer Book with a feeling for the many beers which have passed on, as well as the ones which remain (a pretty current listing of breweries is included in an appendix). My only quibble with The Beer Book is the unconscionable omission, in the “Caps A to Z” section, of Boy Howdy Beer — an omission which J hope the editors of this magazine remedy quickly by supplying Mr. Anderson with a case. He deserves it for writing this book.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m thirsty.

Ed Ward

OFF THE WALL

RUBY RED by William Fox Price (BanTarn):: There is trash, and then there is great trash; Lord knows the country music mileu provides plenty of fuel for either, but this one is definitely closer to the latter. It ranks right up there with High Lonesome Sound, Babs Deal’s fictionalized biography of Hank Williams. Ruby Red is the story of a moderately talented young singer who works in a female duet act called the Honky Tonk Angels. She leaves behind her small Southern hometown and her moonshining boyfriend Spider to seek stardom in Nashville under the management of a has-been Hollywood hustler who’s albino and usually impotent, but who has a few decent connections in the music biz. Right up to the last chapter you’re convinced that Ruby’s going to get loaded on Rebel Yell and pills and driVe her car off a cliff at 90 mph whilst in the 27th Kama Sutra position with Porter Wagoner’s steel player, but that isn’t what happens at all! Nope, after she gets it on, in one way or another, with just about every man in Nashville all the pieces fall into place for Ruby and, presto, she’s cracking the big time. (The moral of the story is.,.)

John Morthland