Over the years we have been up and down just about every highway from coast to coast across this great country of ours attending almost every type of show out there. And even with all the shows we have been to, there are still thousands we hear about that make us want to pile the camera gear in our classic cruiser and head there, both near and far. We have been to massive shows where you couldn’t possibly see all the cars within the weekend.
Then there are some that are smaller in size, but huge in personality. We would never say one is better than others because every one of them has something special that draws people in. Either way, location is always key, whether it’s for the space available or for the back drop and ambiance.
Recently we attended the Blue Ribbon Beer Run, which was held in the heart of the historic district of downtown Milwaukee. This gathering has to be one of the coolest backdrops yet. From the name of the show alone you can probably guess what historic Milwaukee brewery we spent a weekend hanging out at and talking cars.
In order to really “feel” the whole experience you almost have to imagine falling back in time to decades ago. The history of Pabst and how this beer became so popular in itself is a sudsy romantic legend. In the mid-1860s Maria Best was boarding the sidewheeler steamboat Comet. She lost her balance and almost fell into the cold waters of Lake Michigan. Thankfully Captain Fredrick Pabst was there to grab her hand and save her. From that point on both knew it was literally ‘love at first sight’ and the romance began.
At that time, Maria’s father was Phillip Best who owned the Phillip Best Brewing Company. After two years, the Captain and Maria decided to marry and shortly after, Mr. Best made an offer to Captain Pabst to purchase half the brewery for a price of just over $21,000. Well of course he obviously said yes and in 1889 the name was officially changed to Pabst Brewing Company.
During the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer had become as much of a household name as Chevy, Ford or Dodge. If you were to walk into any hot rodders garage there would be a good chance you would find a fridge full of some ice cold Pabst.
However, in 1996 the Pabst Brewery was shut down by a company who thought it would be better to build condos rather than make an American iconic beer. The offices, lockers and cabinets were left to rot until 2001 when a visionary by the name of Jim Haertel obtained the old Admin offices, Blue Ribbon Hall, and the Beer Garden and started bringing it back to life.
Enough about all that beer history stuff, it’s time to fast forward to 2012 when some guys from the Wisco Maniacs Car Club started thinking they wanted to organize a show in their hometown of Milwaukee. As they were scouting the city for the right location, the club learned the new owner of Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery was looking for different and unique ways to bring traffic to the historically renovated building. After a few meetings with Cary Maleu from the Wisco Maniacs, the deal was struck and everyone got to work planning and promoting the Blue Ribbon Beer Run.
As things began moving very fast towards the July show date Cary tells us, “I learned that the original brewhouse building was being renovated into a boutique hotel called the Brewhouse Inn & Suites. The place still has the massive original copper kettles in the atrium and a very cool restaurant named Jackson’s Blue Ribbon Pub that would also be completed by show time. All this, combined with the Best House, gave us everything we needed to make this the coolest venue for our show.”
After two years, the Captain and Maria decided to marry and shortly after, Mr. Best made an offer to Captain Pabst to purchase half the brewery for a price of just over $21,000.
The feedback through social media sites and face to face conversations at other car shows was unbelievable. The pre-registrations were coming in almost as fast as the word got out. Once in a while, due to the name of the show, the club would have to answer some out of the ordinary questions. Mostly from the locals such as, “So how far is the run going to be, 10k or 15k.” They Maniacs would just chuckle and say, “No this is a car show.” They figured the only way to combat these questions was to hit up the local media. The Milwaukee television stations were running stories and radio shows like the Wisconsin HotRod Radio Show to help get the buzz out.
As we rolled into Milwaukee the night before the show we hit up the old brewery to check out some of the pre-show festivities. It was one of the most incredible “old world” German brick buildings situated on the crossings of downtown Milwaukee. The crossroads had been blocked and the streets were already filled with pre-1964 hot rods, lead sleds, and a bunch of greasers with their cute pinup kittens having a great time. It was as if we stepped back into the fifties and this was just an ordinary night in downtown Milwaukee.
The next day we headed down early to find cars rolling in from every entrance. One of the attention getters had to be the newly re-customized Voodoo Kreeper. This is a 1953 Chevy 150 Sedan that has been drastically slammed, smoothed, chopped as well as having just about every inch of this car customized in every crazy way imaginable. It is yet another radicalized custom coming from the very talented builder, Voodoo Larry.
Even though Larry’s car was an incredible piece of rolling artwork, that’s not to say there weren’t plenty of other just as cool and radically customized cars lining the streets in front of the massive beer buildings.
There were plenty of what could be best described as “1940’s gangster rides” with their long hoods and curvaceous fenders. We didn’t find any tommy guns in the front seats – however, there was something much more deadly hanging around all the cars in attendance; sexy pinup ladies everywhere you looked.
The focal point of the show was in front of the Best Place where throughout the day great rockabilly and 1950’s surf tunes were being played at the grandstand from groups such as; The Western Starlanders, The Rust Belt Boys and Lil Red and the Howlin’ Wolves.
After stopping inside one of the old pubs to grab an ice cold PBR it was nice to hang out and watch the fantastic pinup contest which attracted over 20 beauties to the stage. Girls from all over the Midwest were here dressed in their very best ’50’s sexy sailor outfits to Marilyn styles, all of them hoping to be crowned Miss Blue Ribbon.
With the background of the Revomatics playing, each girl would come out to answer a few questions and strut their stuff around the stage in front of several thousand people. The competition was fierce, however, there could be only one to take home the coveted title and be able to say she won the first ever Blue Ribbon Beer Run pinup. The judges knew they were in for a hard time narrowing it down to the top three.
In the end the voluptuous Kellie May became Miss Bombshell, while Miss Beer Run was given to the sultry Rebecca Hasse. For the top crown and being able to say she was the first ever Miss Blue Ribbon was the incredibly beautiful and curvaceous Vanessa Stowell or better known as Valvza Floatin’. Vanessa had the class, style as well as the stop your heart looks that the judges just couldn’t say no to. “I have only been doing pinup for two years now. There were so many great girls in this competition that I didn’t expect to be the winner,” Vanessa told us.
Back up the hill surrounded by open engine coupes with their zoomies hangin’ way out, the crowd was becoming thick. The estimates were over 3,000 people walked through to admire this collection of historic iron with the old brewery overlooking the whole thing.
If you have ever owned one of these old hot rods you know how fickle they can be at times. Lucky for these guys there was even a priest on hand from the Basilica of Saint Josaphat, to give his blessing to the cars for safe travels. You know sometimes it takes everything you can find to get these cars down the road.
One of the incredible aspects of this show is they made a big push to raise money for a couple of incredible charities, such as the MS Society of Milwaukee and the Wounded Warrior Project.
We were able to speak with Tim and Kevin from the Irish American Patriots who were there to help with the fundraising for Wounded Warriors. “We as a group sit down and decide which charity we would like to help and we want to make sure the money goes to directly help the people in need,” Tim said. Kevin expanded by telling us, “We feel if we can make a difference in one person’s life, it was a successful show.”
We have been around the hot rodding community most of our lives in one way or another and one thing we have always known is whether you are a musclecar fanatic or a traditional lead sled enthusiast – we always come together to help each other. This is probably why you see so many shows around the country who give some, most, or all of their proceeds to charity. And the people here at this show were no exception, they were definitely willing to help as they ran around having a great time.
Scott Smith, who works for the Haertel’s, told us people were having a great time and shared our sentiment that this couldn’t had been a better marriage of location, cars, music, bands, and beer. “I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to drink and I get to share all this history with others,” Scott said.
And by the way things looked we can understand why PBR is searched online 10 times more than any other beer. The hot rodders are not only keeping the old classics on the road, but they are bringing back a classic American Beer.
As Cary Maleu said, “We pull these old cars out of barns and restore them; that’s exactly what they are doing to this old brewery.” This show definitely had a unique vibe. Was it the cool summer day? The very cool people we were able to meet and hang out with? Or was it the combination of the cars and this location that both shared so much history?
We’re not quite sure, but the melding of all those things and more made for one killer weekend. As the sun started to go down and the massive neon “Pabst” sign lit up and the flame throwers ignited, we knew this is one place we will definitely need to come back to next year. Hopefully, we’ll see you there!
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