BEER v01n01, June 1932 / Worth Carnahan Pt. 2

A round for all my friends! Get the full high resolution scan here.

Or you can view it and download in alternate formats from the Internet Archive here.

It's been awhile since I blogged here at Darwination Scans, too long (nine some years!). My drift from blogging and scanning happened slowly at first but then suddenly. At some point my lovely kids' activities overtook my own, and I stepped away. Looking at an empty nest now, I have the time and vigor to resume my "work" in the research and celebration of American periodicals. Recently renewed investigations and correspondence on many topics in vintage magazines has once again sparked the fire, and scanning is part of my method. Returning to some of my old haunts and avenues of inquiry has been electric to say the least. 

Sadly, much of my little digital museum on Blogger has fallen into disrepair in terms of dead images and dead links. I will try to repair some of the more important exhibits, but I'm more focused on forging ahead. And what better place to start than where I left off, eh? Getting back in the swing of scanner technique and graphics processing has been easy, like muscle memory. I fear the HTML aspect not to mention the writing won't come back so quickly, but let's find out. 

Since my last post on Carnahan, David Torre has published "From Girlie Pulps to Trout Stamps", an excellent series on Carnahan, at Waterfowl Stamps and More. David explores the full span of Carnahan's career and has reached out to Worth's family, discovering much that I did not know about Worth's exploits in Tennessee after WWII. David approaches Carnahan from the lens of a stamp collector, and his investigation of Carnahan's classic stamp design is most excellent. Torre also investigates WBC's career in the comics (focusing mostly on the stamp pages he created for golden age titles). I may get into his comic work a bit in later posts  here on Darwin Scans, but I mostly want to focus on Carnahan's pulp art and self-published enterprises. I've been busy preparing some posts on his early covers for Harry Donenfeld, but, today, we are all about BEER. 

On the eve of the repeal of Prohibition, this is a self-published magazine almost completely executed by Worth himself and ostensibly at the behest of the We Want Beer Association, apparently headquartered in the the same building as Carnahan's publishing venture. It's a little mag, five inches wide, with one whiter wrap after the cover followed by a pulpier but still slick stock for the rest of the issue. Riding on the popularity of the WE WANT BEER movent, I don't doubt this publication sold well (also indicated by the five to ten copies I've seen on eBay over the years). 

From Fine Art America (my first post back isn't the place to rant about the jackassery of watermarks, so I'll abstain)

Carnahan is shouting it, too.

There's a good article on a hugely successful parade in New York held on May 14, 1932, which may have influenced Worth to publish this magazine as fast as possible at Jay Brooks' Brookston Beer Bulletin with many pictures which you can read here. 

Also, there's a reprinted article on the movement by Carl Miller at BeerHistory.com you can read here. 

Carnahan notes that politicians of all stripe were ready to ride this bandwagon, surprise, surprise.

Here, Worth (once again under the guise of editor Warren B. Cody as in the Spice O Life from my last post) recounts the bad beer in France during his time in World War I.  The man went into the meatgrinder in Europe and at least deserves some good beer!

A key argument against Prohibition is what it did for the mob.

A sudsy crossword.

And a number of Worth's smaller graphics from the publication, really a strong suit for him. The "doodles" in the magazines of this era are often brilliant. The masthead, on the magazine's one whiter leaf.

Cheers, scanlovers. More posts to come on Carnahan in the near future featuring the also self-published Wild Cherries and early covers for Donnenfeld's first entries into the girlie pulp market. I'm researching in at least a few areas right now, so I don't know in what order the drinks will be served, but stay tuned at Darwination Scans and find out. 

Two for the road - a couple of other beers to chase it down - stop me now, bartender! An Enoch Bolles cover from Judge in September of 1922, early in prohibition via Jack Raglin's Bolles Blog, a shiny mug of early protest

Jack's thoughts on the cover here. 

A grubbier image from Judge ten years later and very close in the timeline to BEER, signed CH who I'd recently guessed as an alternate signature for Charles Hargens but I'm growing doubtful. Hit me up in comments if you know, as it will help me with a future post and identifications.