Schlitz FAMO Sign, 1920s
notes: label: Description
content: This metal sign advertises Schlitz FAMO, a non-alcoholic drink produced by the Joseph Schlitz Beverage Company of Milwaukee during Prohibition (1920-1933). The sign touts FAMO as “a pure non-intoxicating beverage” that was both healthful and refreshing, a claim that addressed the Temperance Movement’s concerns about the ill-effects of alcohol. The sign also bears the Prohibition-era slogan, “The Famous Soft Drink [that] Made Milwaukee Famous,” an inelegant adaptation of the brewer’s popular slogan since 1893: “The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous.” At Repeal the company resurrected its original slogan and changed its name back to its founding enterprise, the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company.
label: Description
content: In the period leading up to Prohibition, innovative brewers and inventors developed methods of producing non-intoxicating fermented beverages to meet growing concerns about alcohol consumption. While the exact formula for Schlitz’s FAMO is difficult to ascertain, it was likely similar to a process patented in 1917 by Carl A. Nowak of St. Louis, Missouri. The patent (No. 1,243,440) involves a process of producing a “hopped and carbonated non-intoxicating fermented beverage . . . which can be simply, rapidly and inexpensively prepared without requiring the long period of fermentation and storage commonly employed in the preparation of beer and so-called ‘temperance beer.’” Beverages like FAMO never gained a wide following as many beer drinkers turned to home brewing during the dry years of Prohibition.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
label: See more items in
content: Food
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dixie Cheek
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2013.0019.01
label: accession number
content: 2013.0019
label: catalog number
content: 2013.0019.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sign
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: green (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in x 27 1/2 in x 1/2 in; 33.02 cm x 69.85 cm x 1.27 cm