From Modern Drunkard:
From 1935 to 1943, FDR's Work Projects Administration (WPA) pressed hundreds of unemployed artists into service creating silk-screen posters designed to inform and encourage average Americans during the Great Depression and World War II.Many of the artists—as they tend to be— were enthusiastic drinkers, and this enthusiasm sometimes spilled over into their work in the form of posters designed to inform and encourage drinkers.
Sadly, their apparently humorless bureaucratic masters did not see the value of these posters and either rejected them outright or had them reworked to lend advice on more politically-correct subjects, such as personal hygiene and venereal disease....MORE
We Need It to Clean Our Brushes, and This Turpentine Tastes Like Shit
1943— Glenn Pearce
Upon entering the war, the distilling of "recreational" alcohol was swiftly shut down in favor of industrial alcohol production, which caused a spike in the price of whatever liquor was still available.
At least one Philly-based WPA artist plainly felt his paltry government paycheck insufficient in covering his monthly booze bills, and sought to appeal to the generosity of the patriotic public who might just have a bottle or two just lying around, taking up space.......MANY MORE
