Old Lifty. Oldy Lifty. Old Lifty
Documenting the remaining vintage beer signs from Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Style, Blatz, and other similar brands from the 1960s and 1970s that remain hanging outside of taverns throughout Wisconsin and nearby states. Spoiler, there are hundreds of them!
Having been raised in Wisconsin tavern culture, I feel that a perfect symbol for my upbringing is probably the large Pabst Blue Ribbon or Old Style name signs that every single bar in the region had displayed outside of their establishment.
After I decided I wanted to photograph as many of these signs along with the urban landscapes around them, I started prowling on Google maps looking for their locations and began building a map of where these bar signs might still exist. Many of the signs I have found tend to exist outside of densely populated areas. Rural towns and regions that the Google street view team hasn't seemed to have passed through since 2008. I soon came to realize that these signs seem to be dying off at a pretty rapid rate. The very first time I drove out to where I found a cluster of signs, the entire block of buildings at the location had been razed. Every outing I have done since has led me to one or more places where the sign no longers exists that was there the last time the Google Street View car had driven past. Suddenly this whole quirky collection of photographs feels like a race against time.
For the first six years of this project I solely focused on those square white signs depicting common beer brands that we all know and love. But the entire time working on the project I've always wondered "What is the next generation?"
Many places take these signs down and put up their own unique signs. Do I want to start shooting those as well?
Nah. To me, the meme is the endless repetition of the same few signs in every single photo. But while the PBR/Old Style signs are as easy to find as floss picks on the ground and everyone knows exactly what I’m talking about if I mention them, I've started to identify another.
After perusing thousands of bars on Google Street View, I’ve started to notice that there does exist a design that is … something special. In the no man’s land between not wanting a classic PBR sign, and not wanting to replace it with a full-on custom design there lives something amazing.
The Three Dot Sudsy Mug of Beer!
A curious piece of clipart depicting a foaming mug of beer with three dots in the foam to indicate that it is foam I guess. A deep-cut meme with enough repetition that I can see it as an extension of the original project. Yet rare enough that I suspect no one will have a clue if I ever mention it in casual conversations. Uncommon enough that I'll probably lock my brakes up stopping if I ever see one in the wild.
After recognizing this sign across many locations in street view, something happened that left me SHOOK. I was looking at the film strips from when I started the bar sign project back in 2017 to see what I never got around to scanning, and when I threw a page of slides onto the light table... there it was.
OMG. This felt like that scene in horror movies when the person being haunted looks at an old photo from their childhood and notices the ghost in the background of the picture for the first time. It has always been there in their life.
Three Dot Sudsy has been with me since the very first month.
Not one. Not two. Not three. But twelve Three-dot sudsies! Surely a world record.
Interesting Old Style sign which has lost its red stripe.
I'm assuming this used to say Black Granite at some point, and the B has since fallen off. I couldn't seem to track down any info about there actually being a bar running out of this location today.
St. Mary's Hospital demolition serves as the backdrop. That's the building where Bob Dylan was born. Also sad to realize that around August 2025 the building with the giant PBR mural had been torn down as well.
Possibly not actually The Settlement at the time I took this photo as the bar had been sold a few months earlier. I haven't been able to find any press on if it is receiving a new name, or even remaining a bar at all, so The Settlement it is!
Update: It has reopened and is still called The Settlement.
In a very first for this project, the sign on the side of The Dirty D bar was not present in any of the Google Street Views available at the time. I just found it while driving by and was stunned! I had scouted this area before travelling through and was sure there were no signs to be photographed.
I didn't realize this when I was taking the exposure, but I caught a second Old Style sign on a building way in the background.
Both a Pabst Blue Ribbon and an Old Style sign on the same building. And a bonus Old Style sign in the distance! What a treat!
