Ernie Garven, 90, Penned Hamm’s Beer Jingle
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Ernie Garven, who penned that catchy Hamm’s beer jingle about the “land of sky-blue waters” even though he didn’t drink beer, died last week at his home in Rotonda West, Fla. He was 90.
Some credit the 1952 jingle with boosting sales of Hamm’s beer enough to turn it from a small St. Paul brewery into a minor national brand. Hamm’s still survives as property of Miller Brewing Co.
Garven also wrote advertisements for Dairy Queen, Mars candies and Malt-o-Meal. But the most famous by far was the Hamm’s beer campaign, which was first featured on radio. The later television version featured a cartoon bear and forest critters frolicking in the north woods.
Garven earned only $350 for the tune and words. He wrote its familiar tom-tom beat after hearing American Indian drummers while vacationing in Wisconsin.
The tune is so well known that in 1998, when Kirk Schnitke was doing research to launch the Hamm’s Collectors Club, three Minneapolis librarians got together and serenaded him with the jingle:
From the land of sky blue waters
From the land of pines, lofty balsams,
Comes the beer refreshing,
Hamm’s, the beer refreshing.
