Did you know? In order to remain afloat during Prohibition, the Blatz Brewing Co. — then one of the Big Four Milwaukee breweries, along with Miller, Pabst, and Schlitz — marketed juice, near beer and even chewing gum. The gum, sold under the brand name “Val,” was grape-flavored.
Blatz was also the first Milwaukee brewery to distribute its beer nationwide.
Also, it was on this day in 1959 that Raymond Chandler, the greatest of of all hardboiled mystery writers and creator of the immortal shamus Philip Marlowe, died at age 71.