Celebrating the Beginning of the Budweiser Clydesdales!
I love the Anheuser-Busch Budweiser Clydesdale horses and commercials and I know many of you do as well. What you may not know is the very first appearance of the Clydesdales came about as a result of the end of Prohibition of beer and the Cullen-Harrison Act which took effect on April 7, 1933, now known and celebrated as National Beer Day. (The repeal of the Volstead Act, banning sale and use of all alcoholic beverages, would follow in December of that same year.)
On that day in April of 1933, August A. Busch, Jr. and Adolphus Busch III surprised their father, August A. Busch, Sr., with the gift of a six-horse Clydesdale hitch (later increased to the present eight horse hitch) to commemorate the repeal of Prohibition of beer.
Busch Sr. then arranged to have a second six-horse Clydesdale hitch sent to New York on April 7 to mark the event. The Clydesdales drew a crowd of thousands on their way to the Empire State Building. After a small ceremony, a case of Budweiser was presented to former Governor Alfred E. Smith in appreciation of his years of service in the fight against Prohibition.
This original team then continued a tour across New England and the mid-Atlantic, ending in a final stop in Washington DC with a reenactment of the delivery of the first post-Prohibition case of beer to President Franklin Roosevelt.
This 2012 Super Bowl ad is a tribute to the end of Prohibition and that first appearance of the beloved Clydesdale Horses. (They took a little liberty with the addition of the Dalmatian, these canine mascots were not added to official teams until March of 1950.)
New Beers Eve is April 6th, National Beer Day is April 7th, National Beer Lovers Day is September 7th, National Drink Beer Day is September 28th, American Beer Day is October 27th and International Beer Day is the first Friday in August.
