A SHORT HISTORY

(How the girls got onto the cans)

The first beer can appeared in 1935, when an American firm, the Gottifried Krueger Brewing Company sold the first "cone top" can to the public, this was the culmination of  long years of preparation with the first can prototype in 1933 . Within months, the first trials with this new beverage container were ready to be tried out in the British Isles. A small brewery in Wales, the Felinfoel Brewery was actually the first to get cans on sale to the general public in December of 1935. Within a few years there were more than 20 different British Brewers producing canned beers. It wasn't long until the start of world war two, a shortage of steel plate saw the production of beer cans fall for the duration. After the end of the war the brewer's started production again with a renewed vigour, making a noticeable impact on the much preferred bottled beers.  

The breweries started to experiment with different types of containers to try to speed up the production process. Mass production was becoming more of a factor with millions of cans being produce at a time. Tennent's introduced the 16oz flat top can in 1955 and this soon proved to be a very popular size as it closely matched the pint measure available in the pubs. The size of the sheet sheet that the can labels were printed onto allowed 20 images. Initially they were all the same but a novel advertising ploy saw the first pictures appear on Tennent's cans in 1959. Pictures of Scotland's famous landmarks and scenery adorned three series of cans, the picture resource available to the production department became stretched so the produced on series of famous English scenes. By this time a total of 80 separate scenes had been produced over a five year period. The next promotion idea to appear in 1965 were the "Housewives' Choice" cans that had pictures of 20 different ladies each with a beer related recipe on the can.

One of the many varied markets for the canned beer was the armed forces, cans were an ideal type of container for the specific needs of the world wide bases. After Ann appeared in the English series, she became a "forces pinup girl". Due to the great demand that the brewery were receiving about her, the brewery decided to give her a series all of her own. As they say what happened next became a part of can history. The cans proved to be such a success that Ann appeared on to more series of cans which were a bit more 'risqué' than the previous set, again they became an instant hit with the drinkers. It was at this time the brewery decided to diversify and set about looking for other girls to grace their now famous cans. It was also at this time they coined the "Lager Lovelies" name that is universally applied to all of the Tennent's girls cans. Over the years ? different girls have adorned the cans and they have become the prized possessions of many beer can collectors the world over. In the last few years with the introduction of online auction services like "eBay", the value of cans has gone through the roof with early Tennent's cans selling for in excess of $1,000.

Like all good things the Lager Lovelies succumbed to the changing attitudes and political correctness that swept in. By the start of the 1990's an executive decision was take at Tennent's to kill off the girls. It fell to a chap called Mark Hunter (Ya-Boo-Hiss), who after much soul searching recommended to the board that the brewery should change the now famous packaging. About the same time it became common place for the brewers to put "special offers" onto their cans which is a practice that is still going strong today and which fills the void left by the girls, in the shelves of the dedicated collector. Many other breweries around the world have put girls on their cans over the years, but never with the impact or success of the Tennent's variety. All we can hope for in the future is another change in heart and a nostalgia drive that might once again see the likes of Ann, Linda, Mary and Violet to name but a few, grace the famous red-T cans.