Jenny Lind- “The Swedish Nightingale” Inspires Whiskey Makers

THERE IS NOTHING NEW ABOUT CELEBRITY WHISKEYS, folks!

(Sorry to shout with all caps, but if there’s one thing that an #AmericanWhiskeyHistory page should do, it should be to remind readers that American whiskey history is constantly repeating itself. Nothing to see here, folks…)

Let’s talk about whiskeys that were named after a woman whose fame exceeded anyone using their name to sell whiskeys today. Yes, that’s right- more famous than Beyonce, or David Beckham, or Bob Dylan, or Drake, or anyone other modern celebrity using their name to promote alcohol brands these days. Back in 1850, the biggest thing America had ever seen was Jenny Lind. And her celebrity was used to sell every kind of product- including whiskey.

Known as “The Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind was already famous in Europe by the time Phineas Taylor Barnum (better known as P.T. Barnum, the famous American showman/politican/businessman) recruited her talent for an American concert tour. Jenny’s appearances received an insane, Beatles-like enthusiasm from her concert crowds. People paid heaps of money to see her perform! This woman, through the promotion and publicity of the infamous P.T. Barnum , was able to sell tickets for thousands of dollars in today’s money! One story has a ticket to see her selling for over $6,000! Just to be clear…this was 1850! It’s actually kind of cool to see how many businesses used her name and likeness to sell their products- everything from jewelry and clothing to whiskey and cigars…even COAL! And, not to be outdone, the whiskey industry jumped right onto her bandwagon.

Her song, “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” was a vocalized Robert Burns poem. We often associate Robert Burns with scotch whisky, but rye is associated with American whiskey…so it wasn’t a big leap for bottlers to associate Jenny Lind with whiskey sales. The Burns poem was also given an American stamp of approval by being a part of J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”. Salinger’s book was released in 1951- exactly 100 years after Jenny Lind’s American tour in 1851. (I read up on interpretations of Burn’s poem, and it seems that “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” was believed to be about crossing the Rye Water in Scotland, but extra verses written by Burns are clear about “rye” meaning rye grain.)

Jenny Lind’s likeness showed up on whiskey bottles and in whiskey advertising long after her death in 1887. New Jersey’s Fislerville Glass Works famously made several iterations of Jenny Lind whiskey bottles- all of which are very collectible. Ms. Lind has been used to sell whiskey brands more recently, too. The decanter pictured below is from the 1950s, and the Old Crow ad is from the ‘60s! There’s a glass display cabinet full of Jenny Lind memorabilia at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Whether or not you’ve heard of Jenny Lind is immaterial. She was a HUGE celebrity A DECADE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, and her celebrity was used TO SELL WHISKEY. (Sorry, I’m yelling again😊)

Whiskey is and has always been part of American culture. Musicians, actors, comedians, chefs, television personalities, athletes…anyone famous, really…They have used their fame (or their fame has been used) to sell products in America for as long as Americans have envied fame! (So…forever?) To simply brush off a product because it was endorsed by a famous person is…well, it’s silly. It’s also silly to rush out and buy a product because it was endorsed by a celebrity. The endorsement is irrelevant. The question is (and should always be), “Is the product any good?” THAT is the question. Who made it in the first place? What is it worth to you? Did the endorsement come from a person that knows anything about whiskey? Or is the endorsement something that a corporation paying for that endorsement contrived? Are they selling you an inferior product? We may be Americans in love with our celebrities, but (hopefully) we also have some sense of value. We should not lose our grasp on history either. These celebrity whiskeys are nothing new. What IS new is the fact that celebrities are actually profiting from their association with these brands! That, at the very least, should be applauded. Jenny Lind, a woman more famous in the 1850s than the people that endorse these modern whiskey brands, did not financially benefit in the same way that modern celebrities do. Buy it…don’t buy it…it’s up to you as the consumer. Just know what it is that you’re buying. And know, at the very least, that Beyonce is profiting from her association with “SirDavis whiskey”, just as every other modern celebrity is profiting from their own association with their whiskey brand (or tequila or vodka or whatever). It may not seem like much, but historically speaking, it’s a pretty great thing for a celebrity to have some ownership of their own fame. If I see a bottle, I might buy it- if only to form my own opinion. (and, well, let’s be honest, because it’s a rye😊 #Rye4Eva)

For More on Jenny Lind, WATCH THIS.

Eleda Private Stock Whiskey

The article that inspired yesterday’s post about Jenny Lind was an ad for Eleda Private Stock Whiskey. (printed Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pa) January 26, 1914.) The whiskey was released by the Morris Forst & Co. in Pittsburgh. There’s nothing particularly important, historically speaking, about Forst’s liquor firm, but it does serve as a good example of many others at the time.

Morris Forst was an oil man that bought a liquor business in Pittsburgh in 1902. He began operating as a liquor firm bottling and selling sourced rye whiskey in 1903 and became incorporated in 1907. Forst’s sudden investment in liquor was not arbitrary. Pennsylvania passed a law finally allowing for the incorporation of liquor businesses in 1901 so the first decade of the 20^th century became a bit of a free-for-all in western PA for out-of-state companies to begin cashing in on the Monongahela and Pure Rye market. Forst’s company appears to be no different. (I have not done extensive research on Morris Forst, so it is possible that he had older family ties to the liquor business.) You can see from Morris’ very long-winded ad that he was attempting to place value on his product by saying it differed from the way PA rye was traditionally made.

“Distilled and ripened slower than other whiskeys” and “without recourse to the ‘forcing’ processes so prevalent at the present time” is basically saying that his whiskey wasn’t aged in steam heated warehouses. “Such whiskey outrages the stomach and burns the throat.” He, like many others, wanted to coopt the value of PA rye whiskey without the costs associated with steam heating their warehouses. Or, his company was sourcing the whiskey from outside the state and passing it off as PA with its Pittsburgh address. This is not to say that unheated barrel maturation warehouses did not exist in Pennsylvania, they were simply much less common than heated warehouses and were usually used by much smaller, rural distilleries. Forst’s rye whiskey ad also claims that it’s “particularly recommended for women” and as “a stimulant after overwork.” I suppose you can’t argue with that logic…😊

This second ad (above) showing Forst’s Rye Whiskey by mail order is an older ad from 1905. This ad was printed in December 1905 when the idea of mail order whiskey was relatively new. It was decided in the spring of 1905 that whiskey could not be barred from being delivered by mail order (see companion article), so many companies were taking advantage of the trend. By 1911, the Pittsburg Press announced that 20 million gallons of whiskey were being shipped to prohibition states and local option counties each year. That allowance held until 1917, so lots of whiskey was being delivered around the country.