Bevo
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Bevo was a non-alcoholic malt beverage, or near beer, brewed in the United States by Anheuser-Busch. It enjoyed its greatest success during prohibition, when beer was illegal.
The Anheuser-Busch company started brewing Bevo when alcoholic beverages were prohibited in 1916 [1] by the United States armed forces. Production rose greatly with national prohibition in 1919, and Bevo was by far the most popular of the many "cereal beverages" or "near beers" of the time. At the peak of its popularity in the early 1920s, more than five million cases of Bevo were sold annually.
Labels on the bottles billed it as "Bevo the Beverage". The name "Bevo" was coined from the word "beverage" and the Slavic languages word for beer "pivo", and was pronounced "Bee-vo".
Some Bevo advertising featured the character "Renard the Fox" (based on the protagonist of a medieval French folk-tale), and promotional mugs with this character were manufactured. In 1930 Anheuser-Busch built a series of boat-bodied cars in its St. Louis shops called the "Bevo Boats" which were used for promotion. Seven are believed to have been built on Pierce-Arrow 8-cylinder chassis while one surviving example was based upon 1930 Cadillac 353 V8.
A contemporary advertisement read "Cooling and invigorating, Bevo the Beverage. Order by the case from your grocer, druggist, or dealer." The paper label on the back of the bottle read "The All-Year-Round Soft Drink. Appetizing - Healthful - Nutritious - Refreshing. Milk or water may contain bacteria. BEVO never does."
Bevo became part of the popular culture of the time, and is mentioned in various popular songs and Vaudeville skits of the era. This led to secondary slang uses of the word; for example, in American military slang a young and inexperienced officer was called a "Bevo".
Irving Berlin included a paean to the drink, "You Can't Stay Up on Bevo", in his 1917 army revue, Yip Yip Yaphank.
In the late 1920s smuggled bootleg beer and liquor as well as "homebrew", cut into Bevo's marketshare. With sales flattening to 100,000 cases by 1929, Anheuser-Busch stopped production.
The Bevo building, with the Renard character prominently displayed at the corners, still operates as a bottling facility at their main brewery in St. Louis, Missouri. The landmark Bevo Mill, constructed by Augustus Busch in 1917, remains a popular restaurant.
Decades later, Bevo was mentioned in the song "Trouble" in the musical The Music Man as a reference to the culture of the earlier generation.
