My fascination with 33

As a fan of Larry Bird, I am a bit fanatical about the number 33 and always celebrate Larry's birthday on December 7th ... Steve Bergen
p.s. click here for a picture from April 2008 of the clean' and pristine Larry Bird doll which stays with Colleen Powers from the Boston Home in Dorchester MA ... click here for the double $33 discount (now expired) to Summercore alums 5/5/08 ... click here for the Larry Bird doll's reaction to the Boston Celtics winning their 17th championship on June 17th, 2008

Several trivia questions from my game of "deal or no deal" (some answers are on this Web page) to be published in the year of 2033

  1. Where was Larry Bird born?
  2. What 2 things did Larry have in common with the world of computers?
  3. When was he born and was that related to his having one of the best 3 point bombs in the NBA?
  4. What beer has the #33 on it?
  5. What is his mother's first name?
  6. Put these 3 events into order (he fathers a child in college, his own father commits suicide, he starts working for the town of French Lick as part of their maintenance department and begins his job collecting garbage for the town?
  7. How many championships did he help the Boston Celtics win and what were the 3 years?
  8. What chemical element is #33 on the Periodic Table and how is that related to Larry Bird?
  9. What are the names of Larry's 4 children (3 living with him and 1 who was born in the 1970's?
  10. What does Eric Pettaway from NYC have in common with Larry Bird?
  11. Who did Magic Johnson describe as "the only person I ever feared" in Larry's book called Drive?
  12. What is the birthday of Les who owns the hardware store on 90th Street in NYC? (hint: day after LB day which we also celebrate on 90th Street)

Numerous pictures and links (reverse chronological order)

Why is there a "33" on Rolling Rock beer labels?
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Dear Cecil:

The other day my friends and I were sitting around knocking back a few
beers when we came upon a question we realized only you can answer:
why does it say "33" on the back of the labels of Rolling Rock beer?

We all know it's brewed from pure artesian well water in the
glass-lined tanks of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, hometown of Arnold Palmer
and all that. But what does the number mean?

I remember seeing it on the pony bottles ("a little nip") I drank in
the Philadelphia of my college youth, and it's also on cans and the
long-neck returnables. One of the assembled good ol' persons pointed
out there's a French (formerly Vietnamese, he claims) beer called
"33," which may have something to do with it. --Stephanie F.,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Stephanie:

I would venture to say there are still one or two people in this
country who don't know about Rolling Rock beer. Too bad. It is a brave
little brew with many shining qualities to recommend it. Among them:

(1) It's got a taste with some gravel to it, at least on occasion--the
flavor is notoriously variable.

(2) They print the ingredients on the label, unlike most brewers.
(They use water, malt, rice, corn, hops, and brewer's yeast, in case
you're interested.) But most important of all:

(3) It's got an undeniable mystique, which derives mainly from the
enigmatic 33.

The official explanation for the number, which is not entirely
coterminous with the REAL explanation, is that 33 signifies two
things: the year Prohibition was repealed (1933), and the number of
words in the legend printed above the number on cans and returnable
bottles. I quote:

"Rolling Rock from glass lined tanks in the Laurel Highlands. We
tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good
taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you."

Now, this is a touching sentiment, and there is no question it has 33
words in it. But from the standpoint of intellectual satisfaction, it
sucks.

Therefore, I hunted up James L. Tito, who at one time was chief
executive officer of Latrobe Brewing, the maker of Rolling Rock beer.

Mr. Tito's family owned Latrobe from the end of Prohibition until the
company was sold to an outfit in Connecticut in 1985. After some
prompting, he told me the sordid truth.

Based on some old notes and discussions with family members now dead,
Mr. Tito believes that putting the 33 on the label was nothing more or
less than a horrible accident. It happened like this:

When the Titos decided to introduce the Rolling Rock brand around
1939, they couldn't agree on a slogan for the back of the bottle. Some
favored a long one, some a short one. At length somebody came up with
the 33-word beauty quoted above, and to indicate its modest length,
scribbled a big "33" on it.

More argument ensued, until finally somebody said, dadgummit, boys,
let's just use this one and be done with it, and sent the 33-word
version off to the bottle maker.

Unfortunately, no one realized that the big 33 wasn't supposed to be
part of the design until 50 jillion returnable bottles had been made
up with the errant label painted permanently on their backsides. (I
suppose this bespeaks a certain inattentiveness on the part of the
Tito family, but I am telling you this story just as it was told to
me.)

This being the Depression and all, the Titos were in no position to
throw out a lot of perfectly good bottles. So they decided to make the
best of things by concocting a yarn about how the 33 stood for the
year Prohibition was repealed.

In retrospect, this was a stroke of marketing genius. Next to cereal
boxes, beer labels are probably the most thoroughly scrutinized
artifacts in all of civilization, owing to the propensity of beer
drinkers to stare morosely at themat three o'clock in the morning.

The Rolling Rock "33" has baffled beer lovers for generations, and
accordingly has become the stuff of barroom legend. I have letters
claiming that the number has something to do with a satanic ritual,
that it was the age of Christ when he died, even that it signifies the
number of glass-lined tanks in the Latrobe plant.

Tres bizarre, but if M. Tito is to be believed, not quite as bizarre
as the truth.

--CECIL ADAMS