"Whistle Up a Party": The Historic Jax Beer Commercial

The Jax Brewing Company was a regional brewing company based in Jacksonville, Florida. It was historic as the very last brewery to open before Prohibition. They are also believed to be the first brewery to sell beer in six packs around 1945 or 1946. This would not be the last time the Jax Brewing Company would make history. It was in 1948 that the company produced the television commercial "Whistle Up a Party," one of the first, if not the first, television commercial to feature African Americans in non-stereotypical roles.

What might surprise many is that "Whistle Up a Party" aired fairly early in the history of American broadcast television. It first aired in 1948. The commercial itself is fairly simple, with a group of African Americans gathered around a piano and singing a song about Jax Beer. Regardless, it was a rarity for the time, when Black people did not appear in television commercials and, when they did, were portrayed as stereotypes.

This would not be the only time the Jax Brewing Company tried to appeal to African Americans. In the Fifties they employed movie star Dorothy Dandridge in print ads and on signs. Like "Whistle Up a Party," these ads for Jax Beer also broke with stereotypes. Dorothy Dandridge is as glamorous as ever, dressed in an evening gown and posing with a radio microphone.

While Jax Brewing Company was revolutionary, it ultimately would not save the company. The 1950s saw the larger brewing companies move to aluminium cans, and the cost of modernizing their equipment simply proved too expensive for Jax Brewing Company. In 1956 Jax Brewing Company sold out to the Jackson Brewing Company of New Orleans. The Jackson Brewing Company would continue to make Jax Beer until 1974. Since that time it has largely been forgotten, but in its time Jax Brewing Company made history.

Below is the historic Jax Beer commercial, "Whistle Up a Party."