Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Have you seen this tiger?

I guess it is appropriate that the first quiz I post in the Year of the Tiger should be related to this magnificent animal. Thanks to Russ Wickson I am able to do that. I received this photo from him in the email yesterday. Unfortunately, he himself cannot recall when or where this photo was taken. He wrote;

“Where it came from I can no longer remember, but it has been there since 1967 when I was posted home. I actually sent it to the Asia Pacific Brewery (Tiger Brewery) some years ago but have never had a response, but no big deal, who am I in the larger wheels of motion?

I wonder if the vehicle still exists, unlikely, but said in the nicest possible way, who knows in Singapore? If you have a few minutes please publish it on your site, see what response one can get.”

So does anyone know where and when this photo was taken? This technically, is not a quiz because I myself do not know the answer.


16 comments:

Icemoon said...

I'm wondering if the bottle is made of glass. I think F&N and Malayan Breweries can help narrow down the period.

R. Burnett Baker said...

I found another photo of this truck on the Tiger website linked below. It is under the Media/advertising tab, and I assume it was a post card. Perhaps that would be a resource for learning more about it.

During my decade of living in Singapore, Tiger Beer was my favorite! I was 19th place in the 1984 Tiger Boot Drinking Contest, Oct 13, 1984, and have a poster to prove it!! Drank my tiger in 12.08 seconds! LOL! I was representing the old La Piazza Coffee House at Plaza Singapura.

The winner drank his in 5.15 seconds. Our mothers were proud!!

Enjoy reading your blog!

Rick

http://www.tigerbeer.com.au/advertising

Anonymous said...

Looking at the vehicle, and the dressing of the bystanders and comparing with similar pictures of the period, I would guesstimate that this picture was taken around 1939 to 1941, just before the wall.

yg said...

period - more like in the 50s or early 60s. place - serangoon road area. the place looked familiar, like some place i have seen during my childhood days.

Peter Stubbs said...

The period is likely to be from 1932-1952. The bottle label gives the clue. Take a look at http://www.tigerbeer.com.au/history and scroll right to the bottles of 1953 and 1932, then compare the labels to the photo. The photo may, of course, be from a later advertising campaign.

I've also requested information from the brewery, but without success. I have a couple of old Tiger Beer tankards I'd like dating. I believe that they are 1950s. The same tankard can be seen in the 'Time for a Tiger' advert in http://www.tigerbeer.com.au/advertising. Strange Hobby collecting Tiger glasses!

Tom said...

Tiger and Anchor lager beers are still my favorites the two are about strenth and taste, I wonder if Anchor was made in the same Brewery, I know Anchor beer just about went of the market in 1990, I was looking at the Tiger beer web site It said Tiger beer was fist caned in 1964, I think some one has put down the wrong date, I was drinking Tiger out of a can in in Singapore and in Malaya in 1961, the colour of the the can was blue with a white lable, I still have a photograph with my self and some of my old pals holding the cans in our hands taken in the Jungle in Malaya at the Jungle war fare school in Jahore , I will send the photo on to Peter and he can show it to chun See.

Tom said...

sorry guys I did it again spelt Johor wrong I must have been thinking of Lahore in Pakistan .Da.
must be old age creeping in

Lam Chun See said...

There used to an Achor Brewery at the junction of Jalan Bukit Merah and Alexandra Rd. I think John Harper mentioned about it when he wrote about going to school at Gillman Barracks. I remember the smell whenever I passed that part of Queensway. Today it is replaced by a shopping centre and condominium called the Anchorage.

Russ Wickson said...

Could there have actually been more than one of these vehicles or did the same vehicle have another advertising paint job done before or after this photograph?
The reasons ... having looked at the photograph of the one mentioned by R Burnett Baker, the wording painted on the body of that vehicle, although all appear to be the same characters, are rearranged in a different order.
One other thing, the rear underside of the vehicle, in this photograph, seems to have a wiring loop and a rear light of some sort hanging down, whereas the other photograph does not, or are my eyes deceiving me?
This vehicle is so novel I bet it was photographed a few times in its history!

Edward said...

In Singapore I drank Tiger and Anchor beer. I cannot remember which one was my favourite. When I arrived in Sydney about 35 years ago I bought their local beer and thought it tasted awful. I can still recall the comment I made to my colleague – that the Aussie beer tasted like drain water! It didn’t take long for me to get used to it. Over the years I enjoyed Australian beer and an occasional wine. Even the beer in the US cannot compare with Aussie beer. Several years ago I bought two bottles of Tiger beer from David Jones, at our local shopping centre. I couldn’t believe my reaction to it – it tasted awful! This goes to show how our taste buds can change with time. It’s the same with drinking beer from cans and stubbies (small bottles). In the early days I drank from cans. Years later I switched to stubbies and immediately noticed the difference. If I were to drink from a can now I could almost taste the aluminium in the beer. Nothing beats the clean taste of beer from a stubby or bottle.

Dogcom said...

I have vague memories of buildings like those in the picture. It reminds me of Koek Road and Koek Lane famed for their hawker stalls night dining that operates after sunset. The well known goreng pisang and fried Hokkien mee stalls at the Orchard Road "CarPark" night hawkers were originally from there. The shops in the picture looks like the row of shops on the right side of Koek Road (entering from Orcahrd Road) where the Hokkien Mee stall operated right at the end of that row.

Edward said...

Dogcom, ahhh the mention of Koek Lane reminds me of the stall which sold the hottest kolo mee (chilli noodles) I ever had. As in all hawker stalls the chilli sauce was home-made by the old lady who ran the stall. And Car Park also brings back delicious memories. I especially enjoyed the “or luat” (fried oysters in batter) there. You can also get turtle soup which was supposed to be good for health.

General Viagra said...

What a great name for a beer. It is pity that this name isn't quite popular. Who doesn't want to drink a beer with that name. I hope that this beverage you can get it in this time. But it doesn't look like.

Tom said...

Tiger beer is now brewed & bottled by Scotish & Newcastle Ltd at Broadway Park in Edinburgh , it must be cheaper to brew it here rather than import it into the country,S&N use the same lable on the bottles, I still say Tiger beer is one of the best you can buy.

Unknown said...

As a child I lived in Pasir Panjang. I used to wonder into the nearby kampongs for sweet potatoes and tapioca. There was a huge drain near a brewery which discharged warm liquids smelling of yeasted barley. I seem to register the location as the current PSA Building vicinity, just across Labrador and opposite Gillman Barracks. Somehow, I remembered it as Tiger Brewery but I am not so sure now as some episodes are completely wiped out of my mind, and I also lived in Queen's Crescent which was across the now Anchorage which housed Anchor Brewery, I believe.
But it may be good to track Tiger Brewery using the railway as a reference as this makes good sense for transportation.

I seem to think the picture is in the 1950s era or earlier. Hope you find out soon the exact location of the picture.

Unknown said...

I looked up the Tiger Brewery site and this bottle label is used between 1932 and 1952 and in 1953, a new label was introduced.