View the Classic Hamms Scenorama Beer Sign:

My childhood is filled with memories of sitting in a bar up on the chain of lakes near Eagle River Wisconsin. Sure! they let kids sit in the bar and drink frozen cans of soda while Ma & Pa had a few cocktails. One thing I’ll never forget was the animated Hamm’s beer sign that rippled and slowly scrolls along a lake, river, waterfall, and the classic campground and fly fisherman’s red canoe. It was so real! (for 1969), you almost felt like you were there!  That was a pretty cool beer sign and left a lasting impression. At the time it was like watching some high-tech marvel.  Ah, so much for simpler times.

A Lost Treasure Found:

Many, many years later I decided to hunt down one of these signs and found several on eBay each bidding at several thousand dollars. After losing about 20 auctions, I picked up a decent full-sized Hamms Scenerama Beer Sign for around $1000. It shipped by crate out of Sacramento and looked pretty rough on arrival. After a complete teardown, cleaning, and parts replacement it looked much better and worked like new. That was nearly a decade ago.

hamms scenerama

the classic Hamm’s Scenorama Beer Sign

Travel Back in Time:

Here is a photo of the sign, imagine the rippling water and smoke slowly rising from the glowing campfire. This was pretty much the original wide-screen “TV-like” display, and mesmerizing.

To modernize this vintage beer sign and share it with all of you, we have a video version that you can download from within the membership site.  This way we can keep a classic sign alive! Just play it through a PC, mobile device, or media player to your high-definition bar TV.

It’ll be just like old times again!

Free download video below – Join the site to download the stand-alone mp3 video file.


FREE UPDATE:

You no longer have to join the site to enjoy the classic Hamm’s Beer Scene-o-rama sign. Here is a copy for your viewing enjoyment.

Hamms Scenorama Video High(er) Def Version:

The following recording of my Hamms Scenorama beer sign was made with a Sony HDD camera. It is the last time mine was working. It currently needs a new drive motor, and a soft white LED upgrade, which removes the stock fluorescent lighting and power wasting transformers and ballasts.

The Four-Letter Finale:

As an interesting sideline, a friend who owns a bar sign store recently told me that the Hamm’s Secenorama (or Scenerama) has a hidden message from the artist to the executive at Hamm’s who ordered the artwork for the moving water and campground scene.

Allegedly the first draft was rejected and a new version was demanded with no compensation for the first. The artist argued his case, but in the end wound up producing a revised version along with two bills, one for the original work and one for the revised.

Apparently, this did not sit well with Hamm’s executive, and an argument and lawsuit resulted.

In the end, Hamm’s got their artwork but if you look closely by the birch tree near the seam, hidden cleverly in the bushes you’ll find the artist’s last words: F*%@ Off! – I own this sign, but haven’t verified this story yet.

Share your Hamms Scenorama Beer Sign:

I’m trying to track down as many of these rare gems as possible. If you spot one in a bar one day, please post its general location and condition in the comments section below. If yours is broken, we can help you find replacement parts. Thanks!

 

 

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