- [Narrator] For more than a century, Rhode Island has built a collection of beloved icons.
While many have faded away, their spirit lives on in sepia tone memories.
For the ones that have survived, they have transcended memory to become legend.
This is the story of one of those legends.
This is the story of the Narragansett brewing company.
(upbeat rock music) Rhode Island was a hive of activity by the end of the 19th century.
Factories hummed along, riding the momentum brought on by innovation, determination, and steam.
And almost a century after English immigrant, Samuel Slater sparked the American industrial revolution, six German American businessmen were preparing to start a brewing revolution of their own.
Motivated by a collective experience in the beverage industry and a growing popularity in local brewing, this original six as they were called, began forming the Narragansett brewing company in 1888.
- Probably one of the most recognizable names in Rhode Island, most likely named for the Bay, and the Narragansett tribe of Indians.
What's interesting is that they were all German Americans when they started doing this.
It was not named after anything specifically German.
- [Narrator] Startup money came from an expanding dairy business run by three of the original six, which would soon become known as the Oakdale manufacturing company.
With this cash infusion in 1889 construction of the brewery began.
- Now initially before prohibition, the brewery always went by the location of Providence Rhode Island.
It never was technically in Providence, it was always the Arlington section of Cranston, which is just over the Providence line.
- [Narrator] The location was chosen for its convenient rail line access, as well as for close proximity to water from Tongue pond and several artisan Wells, which weren't just necessary for brewing beer.
- Part of the brewery's existence in the initial years was actually manufacturing artificial ice.
- [Narrator] And it would be the artificial ice business that would help carry the company through to the start of beer production.
Construction of the brewery was completed by the fall of 1890.
And by December, under the supervision of the first brewmaster, George Wilhelm of Bavaria, brewing began.
Initial offerings included Bavarian lager, Porter, Bock and Gansett Pilsner, with half stock banquet ale and select stock lager serving as the breweries flagship brands.
- It was really a state of the art manufacturing company at the time.
A lot of the profits that were coming in from the sale of beer went directly into improving the buildings as well as expanding the size of the brewery itself.
- [Narrator] While the horse and wagon handled local delivery to package stores and bars, a fleet of refrigerated rail cars shipped products throughout New England and into Canada.
The brewery also took advantage of the nearby port of Providence, exporting products as far away as Turkey.
- Well, very commonly during the 19th century and early 20th century, many breweries as well as soda companies did not have their own bottling plant.
So they relied on independent bottlers.
- [Narrator] Although Narragansett did have the ability to bottle beer as early as 1897, it lacked the capacity to produce it at scale, relying on independent bottlers to meet growing demand.
But by 1912, Narragansett became the largest brewery in New England with the completion of its state of the art bottling plant, providing the capacity to fill and pasteurize 55,000 bottles every 10 hours.
On the streets, technology replaced tradition as trucks started taking over local delivery from the horse and wagon.
Narragansett was on a roll and it seemed as though nothing could stop its growth.
- [Reporter] And while these men do the dirty work, other agents found a truck loaded with beer ready for delivery.
The same truck captured- - It wasn't something that caught them by surprise.
They knew that prohibition was coming.
They started looking at various options, producing Sodas and producing malt extract, still operating their artificial ice factory.
So they knew that they had somewhat of a chance to survive prohibition.
- [Narrator] Part of the brewery had also been modified to produce beet sugar for a time, to stem the financial bleeding.
But despite the pivot in production, Narragansett was still brewing beer.
As breweries were able to produce and sell a very low alcoholic beverage known as near beer.
- When prohibition was enacted, it was legal to sell beer that was one half of 1%.
They had a product prior to prohibition called Gansett.
And what they basically did is take that name, turn it into a near beer, which was a very low alcohol beer and coin the phrase, the new brewer with the old name.
- [Narrator] As prohibition forced smaller breweries to close their doors for good, Narragansett soldiered on through the roaring 1920s with hope of a brighter future.
But even with a diverse product portfolio, a brewery that couldn't brew real beer remained a challenge to keep afloat.
(lively folk music) By the early 1930s, Narragansett was still in operation, but a lack of investment was beginning to show.
- By about 1931, they needed to really modernize the facility.
They needed to bring it up to snuff if it was gonna survive after prohibition ended.
- [Narrator] To make that happen, Narragansett management sought out help from Rudolph Haffenreffer Jr. A veteran within the New England brewing industry.
- Rudolph Haffenreffer II, Rudolph Haffenreffer Jr., wound up with I think, five or six separate breweries, that he owned, most of which were in Fall River, Massachusetts.
He also was an investor and entrepreneur, a capitalist in every sense of the word, who was acquiring tin, zinc and silver mines out west.
He owned the rights to collect all of the tolls off of the Mount Hope bridge.
He seems to have been somebody who was able to turn almost anything he touched into money.
- [Narrator] Rudolph Jr. agreed to the proposal, assuming full control of the company as president and chairman of the board.
- He provided the smarts, the knowhow, as well as the financial backing in order to get the brewery up to speed so that when prohibition ended, the brewery was able to go full force in the highly competitive market of producing legal beer in Rhode Island.
- [Narrator] On December 5th, 1933, the 21st amendment was ratified ushering in a new era for American alcohol production.
Earlier that same year with repeal on the horizon, Narragansett proactively converted its main water supply from the artisan Wells to the newly constructed Scituate reservoir.
- When you pull water from a pond or natural source, that water quality along with the quantity fluctuates quite a bit throughout the seasons and throughout the year.
The water now at the Scituate reservoir is very steady in terms of all those parameters, color, pH, alkalinity, bacteria, nutrients.
So from a manufacturing point of view, having that consistency is very important.
- [Narrator] Access to the reservoir, along with needed facility upgrades helped to drastically increase production.
By the summer of 1934, the brewery was producing more than 7.5 million bottles of beer a month.
A few years later, the campus expanded again with the purchase of the trolley barn on Cranston street, which would be used as a warehouse.
The thirties was also the start of Narragansett's greatest marketing era led by the newly hired Jack Haley.
- He used to say about ads, he say, and I think of this every time I see an ad on television, "The best ads are ones that you remember what the ad is about."
He then, was it advertising for a small company in Stonington, Connecticut, and then went with another company.
And then in 1933, went with Narragansett and became their advertising manager, they called him.
- [Narrator] By the mid 1940s, Haley introduced the brand's legendary call to action inspired by a daily routine.
- My parents had a little cottage down in Tuesit, and his next door neighbor, they would go out and get their newspaper at the same time.
And they would say, hi neighbor to each other.
So he decided to incorporate that in his ad.
So it became, hi neighbor, have a Gansett.
(lively folk music) ♪ Hi neighbor, have a Gansett ♪ ♪ Give this man a beer ♪ - [Narrator] In addition to Haley's talents, the Haffenreffer's briefly employed a Dartmouth college classmate of Rudolph Junior's son, an eager young artist named Theodore Geisel, who later in life would adopt the Penn name, Dr. Seuss.
Geisel was tasked with creating a new take on an old brand image.
- They actually use the native American motif in some of their advertising, both before prohibition, depicts a illustration of the chief of the Narragansett tribe, as well as after prohibition with a motif known as chief Gansett.
- [Narrator] Although the culturally insensitive character and misguided campaign was short lived, it seems to have stemmed from Rudolph Jr's original fascination with native American culture and history.
- As the son of immigrants who came from central Europe, he seems to have come to the Americas with that sort of romanticized vision of native communities as people in nature, as opposed to on top of it.
And also of course he was living in a time when all of the native tribes of New England had been declared extinct and had been officially legally detribalized.
- [Narrator] In the early 1900s, Rudolph bought a parcel of land in Bristol, Rhode Island, originally part of the domain of King Philip, otherwise known as Metacom, sachem of the native Wampanoag people with the financial means and physical space, he set about building a private museum to explore his anthropological interests.
- He started off as a collector and eventually became a fairly important member of a series of groups that were working with native community elders and leaders to rebuild the records that they needed to regain their federal and state tribal status.
But it seems as though through his life, there was an interesting trajectory from being a romantic who was interested in these, in their terms, disappearing peoples, to someone who by the end of his life became at least in part of champion for their place on the land here.
That was not just something in the past but was continuing.
- [Narrator] Though the 1930s saw a surge in demand for bottled beer, by the middle of the decade, the introduction of an industry innovation would soon add even more packaging flexibility for breweries across the country.
- A new invention came along called the beer can.
Many breweries began to can their beer, the first brewing company to do so was the Krueger brewing company out of Newark, New Jersey.
Narragansett came in slightly later, canning their select stock lager, their banquet ale, as well as a very, very limited run of banquet beer, which is an extremely rare can to find today.
(bomb banging) - [Narrator] The post prohibition demand for alcohol was temporarily slowed by the start of the second world war.
- Narragansett stopped canning their beer as well as other breweries during this time period.
But it did can olive drab cans that were sent overseas for consumption of servicemen during the war itself.
- [Narrator] As the war came to an end, Narragansett turned its attention to America's pastime and set a new marketing precedent, becoming the first alcohol related company to sponsor a north American team broadcast.
- Well, Boston was a two team town for many years.
The Red Sox started as the Boston Americans in 1901.
The brave started as the red stockings, interestingly enough, in another league in 1871.
So basically we had baseball every day in Boston for a period of 52 years.
- [Narrator] Starting in 1940, they shared a broadcast network for home games and used the talents of sportscaster, Jim Britt, known as the voice of baseball in Boston.
- Jim Britt was rather professorial, perfect diction, had a trademark slogan that he used, "If you can't play a sport, at least be one, can't you?"
- [Narrator] The relationship with sports radio would also create the opportunity for Narragansett to be a part of something remarkable.
In 1947, Boston Dr. Sidney Farber was on the verge of a medical breakthrough.
- He had just come up with his first temporary remissions of childhood leukemia in a group of about 12 patients.
There was one 12 year old boy from Maine, Einar Gustafson who was doing pretty well.
- [Narrator] To fund the promising research, Farber partnered with the variety club of New England to create a national radio fundraising campaign based around Einer who would be given an alias to protect his identity.
- [Ralph] Hi, Jimmy, this is Ralph Edwards of the Truth or Consequences radio program.
Well, I heard you like baseball, is that right?
- [Jimmy] Yes, that's my favorite sport.
- [Ralph] Who do you think is going to win the pennant this year?
- [Jimmy] The Boston Braves, I hope.
- And so they came up with this great idea where they would have the members of the Braves visit this 12 year old boy in his hospital room.
- [Ralph] You ever met Phil Macy?
- [Jimmy] No.
- [Phil] Hi Jimmy, my name is Phil Macy.
- [Ralph] Who's that Jimmy?
- [Jimmy] Phil Macy.
- [Ralph] Where is he?
- [Jimmy] In my room?
- [Ralph] Well, what do you know, right there in your room?
- And then one by one, members of the Boston race baseball team come into his room and say hello and give him autograph balls.
They give him a real wool uniform tailored to his size, and then they roll in a piano and they sing, "Take me out to the ballgame."
♪ Take me out to the ballgame.
♪ - [Ralph] Jimmy was in there - - As soon as the radio show went off the air, people were pulling over their cars after hearing the show, and walking up the stairs into children's hospital in Boston and handing over money to the front desk people.
They bailed money overnight.
- [Narrator] Among the many who were listening and inspired by the broadcast was Narragansett, advertising manager, Jack Haley.
The day following Jimmy's broadcast, Narragansett was sponsoring airtime between a Braves double header.
Realizing the opportunity, Haley got in touch with Jim Britt to discuss ways to keep the appeal going.
It was decided that Britt would promote the appeal while calling the games.
Braves owner, Lou Perini was also persuaded to come on the air saying, "send funds for Jimmy and all the Jimmys of the world."
- Thus was born, the world's greatest sports related charity, the Jimmy fund.
In years to come, that would be passed on to the Red Sox, following the Braves departure in March of 1953.
- Lou Perini went to the owner of the Red Sox, Tom Yawkey, and he said, "Would you please make it your charity as it was our charity."
- [Narrator] Yawkey said yes.
And starting in 1953, the Jimmy fund became the official charity of the Boston Red Sox.
- [Tom] We would really like to take Jimmy out to the game tomorrow and let him be our guest in seat right back of home play."
- [Narrator] By the early 1950s, Braves and Red Sox games would begin broadcasting both home and away, which required a signing a sportscaster to each team.
While Jim Britt broadcast the Braves games, the Red Sox were assigned a rising star.
(bright folk music) - In 1951, Curt Gowdy arrived in Boston.
Gowdy became known as the voice of Narragansett, as well as the Red Sox.
- [Curt] Clyde in 1951 struck so many key blows that we call him Dutch the clutch.
And he does just that.
You can get a new ball out, Mr. Umpire, no need to worry about that one anymore.
- Truly one of the great voices in American broadcasting, not just sports, but just one of the great voices in American history was that which conveyed the Red Sox action, as well as the glories of Narragansett beer and Hi neighbor, have a Gansett, became as recognizable in advertising slogan as any in the country.
- [Curt] Oh, look at this lucky guy.
He's got the best seat in the house.
And he's also got that cooling, thirst quenching, Narragansett lager beer.
As we often tell you, Hi neighbor, have a Gansett.
- Pure of a certain age in New England, that was just part of the landscape of your life, it was part of the soundtrack of your life.
- [Narrator] Back in Cranston, the 1950s was becoming a decade of growth.
In 1952, Narragansett bought out a struggling competitor, the Boston based Croft brewing company.
Two years later, a facility upgrade was completed, including a new bottling plant, power plant and three new floors of the stack house.
Outside, the recently installed statue of the mythical king Gambrinus, the unofficial patron Saint of beers, toasted the company's success and welcomed guests.
With the expansion came the need for a larger workforce, but this was Rhode Island.
And so for most to get a union job at the brewery, you had to know a guy.
- You have to know somebody, usually.
My father knew somebody at the shop Stewart.
(Bob giggles) - Walking down the street and I've seen the representative, Hey Johnny, what are you doing?
I said, I just get outta the service.
He said, "Oh, how would you like to work for the brewery?
I go, work for the brewery?
That's like, dang, I ain't going to heaven.
(John laughs) And you gotta be kicked.
- The first job I had, I worked on the drop.
That's where the bottles come out into the cases.
It was a little bit dangerous there.
A lot of people bottles would explode and they always had in there full time.
- They said they would gimme 10 cents an hour more, if I could drive a forklift.
I said, oh yeah, I could drive one.
(John laughs) I never drove one before.
- I was a kid that would make more money than I ever thought I'd make at the brewery.
They were about to pay a job around.
(piano instrumental music) - [Narrator] In the fall of 1954, a momentary shadow was cast over the brewery with the passing of Rudolph Jr.
The man who led Narragansett out of prohibition and oversaw the greatest expansion in the company's history.
Along with his family and successful business ventures, Rudolph Jr., left behind an enduring academic legacy.
- Rudolph had built a collection of about 60,000 objects and photographs, and he had a private museum here at Mount Hope, which he called the King Phillips museum.
When he died, the family wasn't all that interested.
And they took about a year to think about what to do with it.
They decided in 1955 to give the museum half of the property, and most of his collection to Brown University.
- [Narrator] The donation made it possible for Brown to create its now renowned anthropology program, which over the next 65 years would grow to educate and inspire those looking for greater cultural understanding.
With Rudolph Junior gone, his son Rudolph Haffenreffer III took control of the company and began an aggressive push to dominate the New England market.
- The brewery also took over the enterprise brewing company towards the end of the 1950s, that was operating in Fall River, Massachusetts.
This was part of the Haffenreffer family of beers, prior to prohibition.
The brewery also took over the James Hanley brewing company in 1957, when that brewery went out of business.
- [Narrator] Upon the completion of the Hanley acquisition, Narragansett became the last remaining brewery in Rhode Island.
And to capitalize on this market dominance Jack Haley and his team decided to add a female touch to their advertising.
- [Saul] The Gansett girls were also used for promotional purposes.
There really wasn't one specific Gansett girl.
Different areas in New England would sponsor different promotional shows to promote Narragansett products, say in Hartford or in Boston or in Providence.
- [Narrator] But glamor was only part of the marketing strategy.
- The nickels and may ads that were done in the early 1960s are really sort of a demarcation point where if you talk with anyone of a certain age that watched the Red Sox in those days, they could almost recite the words for the Parakeet Bar ad.
- Yes, is this the Parakeet Bar?
- Yes, it is.
You can tell from the parakeet.
Would you like to hear a parakeet saying?
- Why not?
- It's a dime extra.
- Oh, well, nevermind, that's alright.
- Just a dime really or whatever you think it's worth.
(parakeet sings) Well, is that worth a dime or isn't it?
- Here's your dime, I just don't wanna discuss it.
- That they were so clever.
I love the one where the cowboy comes in the bar with his horse and his horse is thirsty- - Oh, I thought that was a horse.
You'll have to get that horse out of here.
- I just wanna bottle of Gansett for him.
- No, no, I'm sorry.
We don't allow horses in here in the first place, and we don't serve beer horses in the second place.
And just get your horse out please.
- And they can't buy a Gansett for their horse, and of course they're always prefaced by that fresh from the barrel flavor.
- Just get your horse out of here.
- I'm awful sorry, Simar.
- Oh, nevermind, Hank, I'm driving anyway.
- [Narrator] By 1961, it seemed as though the stars had aligned, Narragansett had acquired the Krueger brewing company and celebrated a capacity milestone with 1 million barrels sold in a year.
To show appreciation for the achievement, each employee was presented with a gold plated bottle.
It was a fitting end to a golden era.
As the tide would soon be turning on the ocean state's beloved brewery.
Sadly, Jack Haley wouldn't be there to help guide the company through this new decade.
In July of 1963, he died of a stroke during a medical conference hosted at the brewery.
- He had retired and he had been put on, some board I guess.
So he was back at the brewery, giving a speech to a group of doctors.
And he just collapsed.
I dunno how true it is, but the word was that, someone threw a glass of beer in his face and said, "If that didn't revive Jack Haley, nothing would."
- [Narrator] Like Rudolph Junior, Haley left behind a fascinating legacy of his own, serving as the Rhode Island state historian and host of Rhode Island's longest sponsored radio program, The Rhode Island historian.
A year earlier, another brewery upgrade had been completed, a distinctive new brewhouse sported a silver top and large red emblem in blazed by a Pilsner glass, inside new high speed bottling and canning equipment was added to keep up with the increasing demand.
The campus now consumed nearly 40 acres.
To connect many of the buildings, a network of tunnels had been constructed with one even going under Cranston street, connecting the bottle shop to the warehouse.
(jazz music) - By the 1960s, there's been a huge influx of a different market share of beer.
Taste has changed over time.
Beers were getting a lot lighter during the 1950s and 1960s.
So your Budweisers and your Millers were starting to take a huge effect on local breweries, such as the Narragansett brewing company.
- [Narrator] Even still, Narragansett was commanding over 65% of the Rhode Island market and nearly a quarter of the New England market.
Though recent upgrades had increased some production efficiencies, remaining competitive with national brands would take an even greater influx of cash and experience.
So rather than take on the giants, in 1965, the Haffenreffers decided to sell to one.
- My grandfather, Elen Griesedieck he decided that, the worst thing for beer is age, movement and light.
So it was his thought to get closer to the customer and to do that rather than shipping large quantities of beer from the St Louis brewery, to start to look at buying other regional breweries.
- [Narrator] But even as competitors began betting big with large investments in state-of-the-art facilities, Falstaff doubled down on its riskier strategy, buying aging breweries across the country.
- Well, I think in the case of a lot of the earlier acquisitions, the brands were very small regional brands and we wanted the brewing facility.
And so there was no incentive to keep the brands on.
In the case of Narragansett it was very different.
- Mr. Griesedieck, now that Falstaff has brought Narragansett brewing company here in Cranston, Rhode Island, do you still plan to keep the name Narragansett in the forefront?
- Jim, we definitely do.
We are coming in here, we hope to be a good neighbor in New England and continue the fine policies of the Haffenreffer family and the Narragansett brewing company.
And definitely intend to keep the name Narragansett in the forefront.
And contrary to any rumors that people may have circulated, we do not intend to phase out any of the Narragansett brands, we intend to aggressively merchandise them, and they're doing an excellent job, and we hope to continue to expand that.
(lively folk music) - [Narrator] With the sale finalized, Narragansett was officially under new ownership.
But just days before the official deal was signed, the department of justice filed an antitrust suit.
- Which is ironic because at that time we were already feeling the impacts of the change in strategy that Anheuser Busch and Schlitz and others had followed with the large mega plants, and so I don't think we really were a threat to anybody.
- [Narrator] Despite the suit, Falstaff continued on course, and by 1972 had acquired New Jersey based brewing company, Balantine.
It was an event that restored a sense of confidence in Narragansett's future, which would now be responsible for brewing a large portion of Balantine's portfolio.
But just to the north in New Hampshire, construction of a modern Anheuser Busch mega brewery had recently been completed, posing a direct threat to Falstaff's acquisition gamble.
- Over time, the employers in the state, they had what was known as kind of a low wage approach to production.
They continuously hired cheap labor and they actually were very competitive for a long time with that, but at the end of the rainbow, they weren't gonna win.
- [Narrator] Narragansett had now reached maximum production capacity.
To keep up with the demand, the aging brewery now required a workforce of over 800 employees working three shifts per day.
But even by now, getting a job there still came down to who you knew.
- I started working the brewery almost instantly after I got out of the Navy in 1972.
I got the job because my wife's uncle worked there and my wife's grandfather worked there.
- I got a call from my father-in-law, who had worked at the brewery for 37 years and just retired.
And he asked me if I wanted a job at the brewery.
So I jumped at the chance.
And he brought me in, we took a tour, had a few beers here and there, and I thought, this is a great place to work.
And I took the job.
(jazz music) Well, everything was done by seniority.
I got hired the same time with four other guys.
So our seniority went by our last name.
So every Monday morning you would all kind of gather around.
They called 'em first men, they weren't four men, they were first men.
He would say, "All right, who wants this job?"
And then the senior men would say, "I'll take that, I'll take this."
- They liked to teach us the hard jobs so that we would take the hard jobs, and that would free up the better jobs for them.
It was a typical workplace, the United States or America in the 1970s.
- [Narrator] What wasn't typical though, was an industry specific perk.
(lively music) - You could drink all the beer you want.
- They had it on tap in the loading job.
They had it on tap in the cafeteria.
They had the little plastic cups, you could go get the cup, fill it up (indistinct murmuring).
I was driving a forklift, I had a little cup holder.
- And you just put your beer right in there, and that was it.
You driving your forklift, drink your beer, (laughs) put the stack up, the other things, three high, four high on the pallets.
- We had a place and we used to call it the Steinway.
And it was between the wash house and the racking room.
And there would be a tap system there with a stainless steel sink and beer in three taps, and then the fourth tap would be water.
Now the three taps you could always use, you could never get a glass of water because it was never used, it was rusted.
- You could ask the guy for two and he would grab two off the line before the tops went on.
- So a few of those guys went out stumbling.
(John laughs) - For the first couple of weeks, you're like a kid in a candy store because it's like, they're paying me, and I'm doing this.
After that it wears off a little bit.
You can't keep that up.
- Most people never took advantage of it.
If a guy got inebriated there, he got in big trouble.
- It was a great job.
- [Narrator] While the workforce continued to test product in Cranston, across the country, Joe Griesedieck, was working on creative solutions to keep Falstaff's California division afloat.
- I was sort of the head of the west coast at that point in time.
It was the first time I'd gotten out of the marketing sales area, and actually had to run a plant.
And I realized that it was not so much about marketing as it was about finding a way to run three shifts a day.
And we didn't have enough sales to support that.
So I went out and started calling on the supermarkets to see if we could get their private label brands and produce those.
And I was successful in not all cases, but in many cases in doing that.
- [Narrator] Despite some small successes, almost a decade of legal wrangling, and a flawed acquisition strategy, especially the purchase of Balantine, had put the company in a tough position.
- Anheuser Busch and Schlitz, particularly in Miller, who had not kept up with the growth of Falstaff at that time, built these mega plants.
And Falstaff obviously, had invested its capital in existing, smaller, older breweries, and so the theory that they would succeed by being closer to the customer, actually backfired on them because it had a lot of debt that had taken on to upgrade the breweries, and the debt was held mainly by insurance companies.
And they were starting to press for payment, and Falstaff couldn't make the payments and so they were threatening to foreclose, to liquidate the breweries.
And then it was about that time that Paul Kalmanovitz entered the scene, which changed everything.
(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Having immigrated to the US in the 1920s, Paul Kalmanovitz was the embodiment of the American dream.
A business magnet who by the early 1970s had acquired iconic West Coast brands, Maier and Lucky.
- This is a guy that could look at a balance sheet and he could tell you to the week when that company was probably gonna go out of business.
He had a bit of an inferiority complex about it because he was competing with obviously Falstaff and the Anheuser Busch and Schitz, and all the big brewers.
And he made it his passion to find a way to beat them.
- [Narrator] In 1975, with Falstaff on the brink of implosion, Kalmanovitz seized the opportunity to buy the controlling interest in his old nemesis.
- He was kind of a white Knight, ironically.
He came in and actually saved the company.
Paul, he was very shrewd.
First thing he did is he went back to St. Louis to the headquarters and he fired all of the management, including my father, anybody in the family, he fired.
He came to me and he said, "I'm gonna keep you because you almost put me out of business when you took my private label business.
So if you're that smart, I want you on my team."
I sat down and I was really torn.
And my father said, "Look, this guy's gonna give you a chance, why don't you see what you can do?
And who knows where it'll turn that."
- [Narrator] Griesedieck was named president and chief operating officer of Falstaff, and began observing the master at work.
- It was during winter, and I remember him going up, and he'd never been up there before, so I went with him.
He went up to encourage the troops.
He said, "We have to cut some costs.
You work hard, I don't want you to suffer, but we also have to make a profit."
Obviously you had union protection in some ways, but you didn't have that with sales and marketing, and he didn't see a lot of value in sales and marketing.
He was generous, but at the same time, he could be a real bastard, pardon me, but he could.
And he wouldn't hesitate to shut the place down.
And I don't think you had that same leverage when it was the Griesediecks or the Haffenreffers.
- One of the major issues in this strike was the age and deteriorating physical condition of a Narragansett plant here in Cranston.
- Well, we could see that the place was going down and it wasn't like before.
They didn't care as much, all they wanted to do was make their profit.
- The brewery became very profitable at that point in time, anything he saw as overhead, he just got rid of.
- Narragansett was producing, Falstaff was producing, Balantine ale and beer, Krueger ale and beer, Dresden, Boston light, Hanley, Hanley Pilsner, Croft.
It's kind of hard to imagine that it was producing a different beer for each one of these brewers.
- Yeah, I remember that.
We didn't change anything.
We just put a different can on the line and ran it.
When Naragansett was brewing Hanley, they weren't switching the tanks and moving the beer around, it was all the same.
I'm absolutely convinced it was, I don't know that for a fact, but I do know what we did in San Jose with a private label beer.
- So we're brewing basically the same brew and just tweaking it by putting coloring in it and adding water to it or taking water away from it.
- The beer was the same, never changed.
- [Narrator] But putting the brewery back in the black, still didn't address the change in consumer taste or faded brand image.
- Narragansett started to take on a reputation of a much more inferior beer at that point in time.
Some called it nasty Gansett, it's not to say that it's, they started making a more inferior product, but the run of the mill Naragansett beer, just wasn't suiting the taste of the younger generation of beer drinkers.
- I used to take a lot of flack because I was drinking Naragansett.
So the younger guys used to say, "Can't drink Narragansett, I'm in the bathroom all the time."
I said, no.
I said, that's because it's a real beer.
It's got body to it.
I said, you guys are drinking Miller lite and the Bock light and all that stuff, that's near bear.
- [Narrator] Naragansett was an old dog, and with Kalmanovitz convinced that advertising doesn't sell beer, it wasn't about to learn any new marketing tricks.
(lively folk music) ♪ No matter where I'm going ♪ ♪ I remember where I've been ♪ - Brand images were extremely important.
And if your image started to go downhill, it was like wild horses trying to bring it back, it was really hard to do.
(lively folk music) - [Narrator] Adding insult to injury, 1975 marked the end of Narragansett's historic sponsorship with the Boston Red Sox.
- The pressures on teams were enormous because salaries had increased exponentially.
And having a sponsorship with a local brewery, I'm sure didn't make as much sense in terms of going national and getting more money.
- [Narrator] Immortalized that summer in jaws to be crushed by the hand of captain Quint, seemed to sum up the brand's fate.
- Narragansett's beer in jaws is a modern manifestation of nostalgia.
Having lived through the jaws period myself, I can honestly say that, I don't think it did one thing for the brewery.
(upbeat music) - [Narrator] As the 1970s drew to a close, Kalmanovitz had expanded his empire to include brands such as Pearl in Pabst.
But for Griesedieck it was time to move on.
- If I didn't wanna be in this industry in the first place, I did it out of necessity and spent 14 great years, and it was a real learning experience, but I wanted to do something different.
Some years later, when I got into the executive search business, he wanted me to recruit a president for Pabst, and I said, I'm not gonna do it, because I can't in good faith, Paul, ask somebody to come in and be president of a company that you're gonna run.
- [Narrator] The country entered the 1980s with optimism.
For Narragansett though, it was a different story.
- In the last year or so, it got really, really bad, they couldn't order parts.
They had their own machine shop so some of the equipment were so old, they had to make their own, but it was getting to the point where if something broke you could hardly fix it.
- I seen things deteriorating a little bit.
I see jobs not being replaced.
And we used to brew all day and all night.
And I see that starting to go down and they were limiting how many brews a day they would do.
So I knew it was only a matter of time.
- [Narrator] Rhode Island market share had plunged from its high of 66% in 1959 to just 14% in 1979 with the writing on the wall, the state of Rhode Island and the city of Cranston reduced costs for the brewery in tax exemptions.
But this didn't address the biggest issue of them mall.
Over the previous two decades, the brewery had gone through several upgrades, but much of the equipment still dated back to the early part of the century.
While modern breweries were the epitome of efficiency, Narragansett was still brewing beer by hand.
What was once a charming asset had now become a massive liability.
- One of the biggest problems is that their energy efficiency at that point in time was really in decline.
They were really working on oil burners.
The burners were getting very, very inefficient.
- And it was a full-time job, just keeping those boilers going like that.
The burners had to be cleaned and the oil had to be pumped from outside into what they called a day tank.
So there was a lot involved just in the day to day.
- They were actually working on some gas at the period of time, but they weren't able to get the gas company to go along with the proposal that they had in mind.
- We could only run gas in summertime because they needed the gas fort to heat houses in the winter time.
- [Narrator] With high energy and employment costs, the sad truth soon became abundantly clear.
- The relationship between the employees and the owners and management of the brewery was not the best.
And it went from fair to bad to worse.
- The very end in the eighties, they had come out with a commercial of that's my beer.
♪ That's my beer ♪ ♪ That's my beer ♪ ♪ That's my beer.
♪ ♪ That's my beer.
♪ It was their way of, here locally, trying to see if they can revive the brand and show life, so that come the end of it, would keep the brewery open.
♪ That's my beer ♪ ♪ That's my beer ♪ ♪ Right here ♪ ♪ Here in New England ♪ ♪ Narragansett, that's my beer ♪ Didn't work.
- [Narrator] On July 31st, 1981, the unsurprising but devastating news was delivered.
- The cost of the breweries were expensive and that they were determining which brewery they were gonna shut down.
Were they gonna shut down the Cranston Rhode Island brewery or were they gonna shut down the Fort Wayne Indiana brewery?
And part of the decision making was the union contracts were up.
And I believe they made concessions, but they were kind of concessions that maybe weren't as great as what the Falstaff brewery in Fort Wayne Indiana was making.
- And the employees said, "Hey, wait a minute.
Cost of living is rising, we need more money."
And evidently Mr. Kalmanovitz and his top management team didn't see it the same way.
- They started pumping all the beer out.
They shut down the steam plant.
Once they shut the steam plant down, that was pretty much it.
We were out right after that.
- [Narrator] Governor Garet Hee, a former Narragansett salesman himself, made several appeals to Falstaff to reconsider, but it was not to be.
- Production was switched over to Falstaff brewing company out in Indiana, but it really didn't fool anybody.
- [Narrator] Without the high quality water from scituate reservoir, many loyal Gansett drinkers noticed the difference in taste immediately and left the brand behind.
In January of 1983, it was announced that Narragansett brewery would reopen to brew small batches of keg beer, creating a sense of hope in what was looking like a hopeless situation.
- They called me back for a while, and I worked there part-time.
A lot of guys had left and they needed people to be there, to operate the equipment that they still had running.
- [Narrator] But by April, the plan was scrapped, and the brewery doors closed for what would be the last time.
- I was sad.
I always thought that brewery would be there forever.
- [Narrator] Narragansett wasn't the only brewery to meet its demise during this time.
1983 would mark the darkest year for breweries in the 20th century, as only 80 remained in operation with 92% of them owned and operated by the top six producers.
- By that time so many companies had already started the Exodus out of Rhode Island, out of New England.
They left an awful lot of unemployed people with a lot of skills.
The problem was it was no longer a demand for those skills where 20, 40, 50 years earlier, hey, they were in high demand.
For a lot of them, quite frankly, it was the end of the line.
- [Narrator] While it would never brew beer again, by the late 1980s, the brewery campus had begun to generate exciting ideas for ambitious developers.
- The Narragansett brewery had stopped brewing our own New England beer back in 1981, the property was left unused.
On this day new hope for revitalization of the property, a hotel, retail, performing arts center, but the plan fell through, so did a subsequent plan to relocate the Providence campus of URI here and another subsequent plan for a biotechnology center.
And even more recent plans to set up a medical and business research facility on the property, well, those plans fell through too.
- [Narrator] By the Dawn of the 1990s, development plans were still as uncertain as before, inside a brewery frozen in time.
(piano music) - I managed to sneak in there once.
I wanted to get a souvenir.
And I did manage to get one of the plaques off of one of the boilers.
Just to walk into the boiler room, and it was dead silent and mostly dark.
And it was kind of surreal.
- [Narrator] By the end of the 1990s, any hope for redevelopment was dead.
Nearly two decades of neglect, fire and vandalism, had taken its toll on the historic structures.
- Tuesday's demolition won't involve the entire property.
It's being done in groups, beginning here with the building that house the bottling plant, shipping and receiving and administration.
(piano music) (tractor revving) - [Narrator] By the mid 2000s, commercial construction of the Cranston parkade, a retail shopping center was completed in the undeveloped area on the south end of the property.
And in this specific area where the brewery once stood, saw the construction of a training school, restaurant and the Cranston police headquarters.
All that remained of the brewery was the trolley barn on Cranston street, which was being considered for development, but a fire in 2005 created enough damage to have it demolished as well.
- When it was there, you never thought too much about it, but now that it's gone every time you drive by it, you kind of wax nostalgic for what was there.
And it's a little sad, not much exists anymore of the original brewery.
- [Narrator] One of the few things that managed to survive was the sign that once proudly hung on the side of the bottle shop.
Removed before demolition, it was restored and integrated into the main rotary of the Rhode Island town that shares its name.
The original lager continued to be brewed out of state.
A far cry from the quality product it was in decades past.
But even so, by the start of the new millennium, this ghost of a legend would soon find new life in the hands of an unsuspecting drinker.
- I'd been with Nantucket Nectars for close to a decade, and I was looking really for the next chapter of my life.
And I was in a bar one night with a buddy, and keep in mind, this is 2002 or so, and we didn't have all the great options that we have today.
I said, Hey, do you have any other beers available here?
And also had some older guy down at the end of the bar said, "Give the kid a Gansett."
(upbeat music) The next thing you know, the whole bar is talking about Narragansett beer, and history and stories and family, and who used to work there.
And I was like, I didn't even know they still made it.
And next thing you know, we're sitting here drinking it, and there was just this great passion for it.
(upbeat music) God, I wonder if we could like bring this back.
This is our beer, we gotta like do this.
So Pabst owned it when I started researching it.
And they were making it in Wisconsin, and said, you know what, I'm gonna just call him, and see what's up.
And Brian Kovalchuk was the CEO, and I finally got through him.
I said, Hey, I wanna buy Narragansett beer.
He said, "Do you know how many calls I get like this a week from guys like you who think they can bring back some beer?
Like what makes you different?"
And I said, I love beer, I'm from Rhode Island, and I used to run Nantucket Nectars, so I know a little bit about distribution and all that.
He's like, really?
He said, "My kids love Nantucket Nectars, why don't you hop on a plane, come down to San Antonio, and we'll talk."
- [Narrator] In 2005, after two years of negotiations, the deal was completed.
Narragansett was coming back home, but the company now faced a sobering reality.
- It wasn't like you just buy this company and there are employees and there's a building and there's the history.
All this stuff had been lost, forgotten, or just kind of resided in people's memories and basements and canned collections and all that.
- [Narrator] Although the journey back to relevance would be challenging, the Narragansett brand still had one last marketing ACE in the hole, nostalgia.
- The brand kind of on its own started immediately resonating with the younger set.
Some of that was by design and some things that we did, but I think there's certainly something to retro being cool.
I think generally speaking, if it was something your dad did, it's probably not that cool, but if it was something your granddad did, then it becomes cool.
And Gansett was certainly grandpa's beer for a lot of people around the Northeast.
- [Narrator] But even with a strong brand appeal, the quality of the existing Midwest brew was still an issue.
With a bit of luck, a critical connection to the past was made with Bill Anderson, the last brew master from the old brewery.
- So he had the old recipe kicking around in his head and Bill was a great craftsman.
Bill talked about beer like it was his lifelong pursuit.
He created that real direct link to the past.
So here's this 75 year old retired guy, about as wide as he was tall, from many, many decades of slinging back some Gansetts, and some other brewers, I'm sure.
He could not have been more excited.
Just the gleam in his eye to be a part of, kind of bringing back the glory days, Gansett.
- [Narrator] Capacity limitations still meant the Lager based brews had to be produced out of state, but now closer to home in New York.
For their are many craft beers, however, Narragansett set out contract brewing within Rhode Island, which after several years began to shed light on an obvious absence.
- We haven't had our own sort of home base that we could point to and be like, Hey, that's where the Narragansett beer is coming from.
But more importantly, a place where people can gather and sort of absorb some of the brand's culture and just that crazy 130 year history that we've got.
- [Narrator] The new brewery overlooks India point park at the confluence of the Seekonk and Providence rivers.
Now, unlike when it was originally founded, Narragansett brewing company can officially say it's located in Providence.
And while the smaller batches of craft beer are made in the new brewery, production of the traditional Lager beers continues to be brewed out of state for now.
- That won't fit in this building.
So phase one, let's get this done, let's get it right, and let's have some fun here.
In our next dream, build something like that out in Smithfield or down in South county.
It's a nice, big brewery, that'd be fun.
Yeah.
- [Narrator] Narragansett has embraced its past, but it is the future in which it looks to foster its lasting legacy.
- I have a lot of freedom to just experiment with modern, awesome creative styles and go back to old world styles, like old world loggers from German recipes and British hales like the one I'm brewing now.
Every day is a different beer, and I don't think Narragansett has seen that breadth of variety within the brand ever before.
(upbeat music) - [Narrator] In a New England state where directions are often given with references of where something used to be, Rhode Island has a strong affinity for nostalgia.
And though it may look back a bit more often than it should, it's in the past, that it finds a narrative of hope in the future.
- I think people just love the story, you know what I mean?
It become less about New England, I think, and more just about the relationship that people have with this brand.
Memories just sort of travels along with those stories and people take it with them.
(lively music) (upbeat music)
