Herewith are some grainy, black-and-white liquor ads from 1939, taken from the depthless well of the newspaper microfiche. Before we go on, a question: you may think American, but do you drink American?

To judge from these ads, there wasn’t much choice. There aren’t any wines for sale. No furrin cordials like Benedictine or Campari. There wasn’t even any vodka. If there were ads for gin, I missed them.

It’s whiskey, brother, and plenty of it.

Waterfall and Frazier? Sure, make it a double! Wait a minute - what is that stuff?

Well, it’s whiskey with a pedigree, if you believe the ad. Famous since 1810 and at least four whole long years old. (Compared to some of the johnny-distilled-latelys you’ll meet, that’s practically ancient.)

If the brand doesn’t mean anything today, well, that’s the point of this site. You’ve no idea how many brands have vanished. Let's revisit a few.