The Hamm’s Bear Deserves Better
Jul.01, 2009 in
-cat
This monument to the Hamm’s Bear stands outside the Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul.
What irks me about this is why didn’t the Hamm’s Bear earn a ful-fledged statue? The guy’s an institution! Mary Tyler Moore had a shorter run and spent less time on TV than this famous local character.
While I doubt we’ll ever see it, a Snoopy-style Hamm’s Bear statues around town deal would be an awesome tribute to our hard working bear.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:28 am
Not only that, but the damn thing looks like a tombstone. RIP Hamm’s Bear.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:54 am
Back story … A Hamm’s collectors club (yes, there is such a thing) made this monument and wanted to install it in Como Park, near Hamm’s Falls (a feature made possible by a Hamm’s family donation). The City Council said first of all, you can’t say ‘beer’ on it. Then the council said ‘No’ to the proposed Como location. Finally, council member Dave Thune persuaded his colleagues to OK putting the monument on the pedestrian mall in downtown St. Paul. I know this trivia because it used to be my job as a reporter at the Pioneer Press to write about such things. … Blurbs from the PiPress archives (you’d have to pay to get full text) …
St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) – December 9, 2004 – B1 Local
ST. PAUL HAMM’S BEAR GETS A HOME
Rejected a year ago as inappropriate for Como Park, a Hamm’s Bear monument will be installed instead on the Seventh Place mall in downtown St. Paul. The City Council formally accepted the granite monument Wednesday as a gift from the Hamm’s Club, a Minneapolis-based group of collectors. The club offered the monument to the city last fall as a way to commemorate the famous advertising icon. But an initial plan to put the marker in Como Park…
Saint Paul Pioneer Press – September 4, 2003 – B1 LOCAL
COUNCIL COMES LOADED FOR BEAR HAMM’S BEER MONUMENT IS REJECTED FOR COMO PARK.
The St. Paul City Council said thanks, but no thanks, on Wednesday to a club that wanted to erect a monument to the Hamm’s Bear in Como Park. Council members left open the possibility of installing the 6-foot-tall granite etching of the famed Hamm’s Beer advertising symbol somewhere else, perhaps near the shuttered Hamm’s Brewery on the East Side. But the president of the Hamm’s Club, a Minneapolis group of collectors of brewery…
Saint Paul Pioneer Press – September 3, 2003 – B1 Local
‘HAMMS, THE ____ REFRESHING’ ICON PLANNED FOR PARK, BUT IT WON’T SAY ‘BEER’
Coming soon to the Land of Sky Blue Waters: a monument to the Hamm’s Bear, an advertising icon whose cartoon exploits helped burnish Minnesota’s image as an unspoiled natural paradise. The Hamm’s Club, a Minneapolis-based group that unabashedly celebrates the bear and his beer, plans to donate a 6-foot-tall granite monument to the city of St. Paul, where the Theo. Hamm Brewing Co. started making its namesake product in 1865. City officials…
July 1st, 2009 at 11:49 am
… or even a little color!
July 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
What about a flume ride modeled on the old cartoon?
I fondly recall the bear riding a log over a falls. If Disney can play “It’s A small world” on an endless loop, why not a flume with: “From the land of sky blue waters (WATERS), comes the beer refreshing, comes the beer refreshing….HAMS.”
July 1st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Totally came here to say the same as Jeremy Q, so I will just go ahead and second him. RIP indeed!
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:56 am
My only experience with the Hamm’s bear comes from seeing my father’s bar memorabilia. I had no idea he was such an institution in the Twin Cities (or is it just St. Paul…I honestly have no clue)…
August 19th, 2009 at 8:03 am
[...] I’ve written previously about the marginal tribute to the Hamm’s Bear in downtown St. Paul, so imagine my surprise when I encountered this piece of Hamm’s awesomeness tucked away in the corner of the Good Ol’ Days Bar in Tower, MN: [...]
May 5th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I THINK THE BEAR SHOULD HAVE A STATUE, HE WAS A BETTER ENTERTAINER THAN MARY TYLER MOORE. VIRGIL