Pearl Brewing Company - Marketing

Marketing

During the early 20th century, Pearl used advertisement campaigns that featured Judge Roy Bean - one of the more colorful and popular law enforcement personalities of the wild, wild West. In Langtry, Texas, Judge Roy Bean declared himself the "Law West of the Pecos" and ran his court in the town's tiny U.S. Post Office and bar called the Jersey Lilly Saloon. Judge Roy Bean was as famous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as many of the motion picture stars are today. Judge Bean's favorite (and rumored only) beer in his saloon was Pearl. Seeing this as an opportunity, San Antonio Brewing Association for decades used the connection to Judge Bean and the Jersey Lilly as advertisement focal points. Later, in the 1950s, the brewery's old horse stables were converted into a hospitality room and given a Roy Bean feel to them in honor of Judge Roy Bean and his saloon. The old stables were renovated again in the 1970s with the main hall renamed the Lily Langtry Room and the whole building named the Jersey Lilly. In addition, and exactly replica of Bean's saloon was built and placed on the brewery ground for use in Pearl's "Wild West Shows" and as a gift shop. The ties to Bean's larger-than-life legacy lasted almost a century, weathering the waning popularity of Wild West caused by NASA's 1960s space programs, and remained predominately visible in the brewery until its closing in 2001.