2 Winter 2004 Bottles and Extras

GOLDENROD BEER Fig. 2 Katzenjammer Kids “COMICAPS” by Cecil Munsey Fig. 3 Copyright © 2003

Bottle caps are among America’s At the end of the day I showed the caps favorite collectibles. Ah yes, just go to to my wife. Of course, she asked how www.ebay.com on the Internet and much they had cost me. I was going to indicate you want to see bottle caps for lie about the price but decided quickly to Kids Comicaps are one of the rarest sets sale. Today, as an example, there are 852 tell her the truth. She winced, as I would [of bottle caps] in the world. They were lots (groupings), of bottle caps for sale. have had the circumstances been reversed, produced for Goldenrod’s Beer and Ale Since they are crown caps they are mostly but said nothing. She’s good that way. I products during the years 1935 and 1936. from soft drink and beer bottles. Go have learned to treat her indulgences at There are a total of 8 crowns in the set: figure… Neiman Marcus with the same courtesy. Hans, Fritz, Mamma, the Captain, As most bottle collectors do know, the I think that has taught each of us the self- Boggles, the Prince, the Inspector, and the first Crown Cap was invented by William control necessary to carry on a marriage Director” – (Figure 1). Painter of Baltimore, Maryland in 1892 between a collector and a shopper. But I and was a metal enclosure with a cork digress… The Comic Strip lining. As most bottle collectors do not The bottle caps are not just bottle caps. know, the initial caps were purchased and They are caps featuring most of the The creator of the Katzenjammer Kids used by the American Brewing Co. of famous comic strip characters from was Rudolph Dirks (Figure 2) who was Baltimore, Maryland. Several hundred “The Katzenjammer Kids” drawn by born in 1877 in Heinde, Germany. His cases of American Brewing Co. beer were Rudolph Dirks. From close examination family came to America in 1884 settling used as ballast in a ship bound for London of the bottle caps I quickly learned they in Chicago. His cartoons appeared in and when the ship returned the bottles were copyrighted in 1935 and were part Judge magazine as early as 1894, and were still full with their Crown Caps of a series used on bottles of Goldenrod Life magazine shortly thereafter. In 1897 intact. Again, go figure… Beer and Goldenrod (Over the next 10-20 years, after 1892, Ale of Brooklyn, nearly all beer and soda bottles had a New York. crown cap. The cork liner remained in To me the caps place until the mid- to late-1960s when it were so fascinating was replaced by a plastic or vinyl lining. I spent over a year Today the aluminum screw top and plastic tracking down the screw top have replaced many of the history of them and traditional crowns.) the brewery (see chronology at end of Katzenjammer Kids “COMICAPS” article) that selected them for its beer. While attending one of the annual It has been a great bottle and collectibles shows in Las Vegas, trip and one that I found six full-color bottle caps that I fell readers might find in love with. But I felt they were greatly interesting. For me, overpriced at $15 apiece. I laughed to just collecting isn’t myself and walked away. But having enough. I am learned the lesson many years ago about joyously compelled to not buying something I really wanted and research and write then regretting the decision for months about the things I and sometimes years later, I decided not collect. Dessert is to put myself through the inevitable sharing the results. misery. I went back to the dealer. We According to the dickered a bit and he let me acquire the Crown Cap Museum: bottle caps for the “bargain” price of all http:www.geocities.com/ six for $80. I hugged my conscience with crowncapmuseum/ the rationalization that I had “saved” $10 katzenja.htm “… in the deal. the Katzenjammer Bottles and Extras Winter 2004 3 he found his way to Hearst’s Journal American where John Dirks. he was asked by editor Rudolph Block to create a Rudolph Dirks is recognized as the most strip that would compete with the Yellow Kid at important of the founding comic artists in Joseph Pulitzer’s The World. the world because of his pioneering use of a Dirks suggested his version of Germany’s Max panelized continuity and in-panel dialogue. He und Moritz, a very successful comic strip in died in New York on April 20, 1968 at Germany. The Katzenjammer Kids first 91 years of age. appeared in the Sunday comics’ section of newspapers on December 12, 1897. The The Brewery main characters were Mamma Katzenjammer, her twin sons, Hans The Goldenrod Brewery, (Figure 3) and Fritz, and eventually, Inc., that was the only beer the long-suffering target of their manufacturer to ever use the mischief, The Captain. The Katzenjammer Kids on bottle Strip is an “ethnic” one. All caps (1935), history reveals was of the characters speak with a 75-year old brewery at the time. a German accent. “Just” A German immigrant, Otto becomes “chust,” “we” Huber, Sr., who had worked for becomes “ve,” and the other breweries in Brooklyn, Captain is, “Der Captain.” established his own plant in the late In the early decades of the 1860s. He purchased the Hoerger strip’s existence, the Katzenjammer Brewery in 1866 and built the new Fig. 1 family engaged in adventures all over the plant into what became one of the world. Ultimately, they settled on a tropical largest and most productive breweries in island [easier to draw maybe?]. The continuing Brooklyn. After his death in 1889, his and repeated theme centered around the ability sons (Otto, Jr., Joseph, Charles, and Max) of Hans and Fritz to pull creative pranks, get into trouble as a managed the company and it remained a family enterprise until result, and end up being hunted down and spanked over 1920 (during Prohibition) when it was sold to Edward Hittleman, somebody’s knee in the last panel. who While the strip began in 1897 (see above),”Der Captain” re-named the brewery after himself. Hittleman produced near was not a member of the cast for the first five years. He first beer until repeal of Prohibition, and in 1934 he changed the appeared on August 31, 1902. Nor was he ever married to name of the company to Hittleman-Goldenrod Brewery. Mrs. Katzenjammer. Rather, the old sea dog was a boarder or, Goldenrod was a traditional brand name dating to the Huber if you will, a live-in companion. Brewery. The comic bottle caps were a part of the program to The other major cast member, “Der Inspector,” first appeared regain the beer market lost during Prohibition. on January 15, 1905. He was not an inspector in the ordinary After being re-named Edlebrau after a popular beer, it was sense of the word, but, rather, an officer of the school system. changed to Edlebrew in 1946. Not long after Hittleman’s death (Unfortunately I was not able to obtain a bottle cap featuring in 1951 at age 68, the brewery closed. “Der Inspector” and “Der Director.”) 1860 – 1951 BREWERY CHRONOLOGY A Lawsuit 242 Maserole Street & Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, After drawing a weekly Katzenjammer Kids comic strip for New York 15 years or so, Rudolph Dirks wanted to take a break. His boss at the Hearst newspaper syndicate didn’t agree. Dirks left 1860-1889 Otto Huber anyway and his duties drawing the strip were assigned to other 1889-1920 Otto Huber Brewery artists. 1920-1934 E. B. Hittleman Brewery, Inc. Dirks felt that he owned the right to his characters and a 1934-1937 Goldenrod Brewery, Inc. lawsuit followed. The popular strip dropped out of the Sunday 1937-1946 Edelbrau Brewery, Inc. funnies for more than a year. Ultimately, artist Harold H. Knerr 1946-1951 Edelbrew Brewery, Inc. continued the Katzenjammer Kids for the Hearst papers. The court awarded Dirks the right to continue drawing his characters, so long as they were not entitled “The Katzenjammer Kids.” Dirks went to the rival Pulitzer newspaper The World, and the end result was that two separate, but very similar strips Cecil Munsey appeared weekly. “The (original) Katzenjammer Kids,” drawn 13541 Willow Run Road by Knerr) and “The Captain and the Kids,” drawn by Dirks, Poway, CA 92064-1733 ran in competing Sunday papers for more than half a century. (858) 487-7036 Dirks drew his characters until 1958, after which having drawn [email protected] the strip for 61 years, he handed it over to his son