Olde Frothingslosh

While at the North Museum in Lancaster this weekend with my daughter, I came across a peculiar looking can in the black-light room. It was a can of Olde Frothingslosh beer from Pittsburgh Brewing Company. The brightly-glowing label looked like this:

Having never heard of “Olde Frothingslosh” before I decided to do a little investigating.

It turns out, Olde Frothingslosh Pale Stale Ale, started out as joke on a radio morning show called “Cordic & Co.” on KDKA in Pittsburgh. Rege Cordic ran series of phony commercials on his show for fake products invented by the show’s staff. This fictional beer which was "so light the foam is on the bottom” was one of the more popular sketches on Cordic’s show.

In 1954 the president of Pittsburgh Brewing Company, S. E. Cowelt, approached Cordic about using the Frothingslosh name for a joke of his own. Cowelt’s plan was to package his regular beer under the Frothingslosh label to be given away as Christmas holiday gifts. About 500 cases were made and handed out. The response was overwhelmingly positive and in 1955 Pitt brewing produced more “Olde Frothingslosh” made it available for sale to the public.

In Rege Cordic’s words:

It came about this way. A certain Mr. S. E. Cowelt was a regular listener to our show. This imaginative gentleman also happened to be president of one of Pittsburgh’s largest breweries. He suggested that we actually put the product on the market. Until he explained his scheme, I thought the poor man was suffering from an attack of “The Vapors.” The plan, however, was a clean strike of salesmanship: for the Christmas Holidays he would package his regular brand of beer under the Olde Frothing-slosh label as a special party item. The sales success of that product in the Pittsburgh area is a tribute to his wisdom.

This beer's lighthearted beginnings paved the way for numerous comedic gimmicks in its packaging and marketing. The can that I saw in the museum was adorned with day-glo ink and touted Olde Frothingslosh as "the only brew you can find in the dark."

A later packaging campaign featured a large woman in a bathing suit named “Fatima Yechbergh” who was the made-up winner of a phony beauty contest.

Victor J Tremblay in his book The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis, tells us that Olde Frothingslosh was packaged and sold by Pitt Brewing through the 1970s.

For further history and pictures check out:

http://www.rustycans.com/oldfroth.html

http://cordic-and-co.com/oldefrothingdex.htm

On an interesting side note, Pittsburgh Brewing Co. is making another go at glowing packaging with their aluminum-bottled Augustiner lager. The contoured aluminum bottles are printed with an ink that glows under UV lights like those often found in bars and clubs.

Read more about the new Pitt bottles here.