When the 80th annual All-Star Game rolls into Busch July 14, it will mark the first time the national spectacle has graced the city in more than 40 years. A look back at the four previous occasions reveals there was plenty more in Post-Dispatch headlines than Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and Bob Gibson.
July 9, 1940
Falstaff Beer Ad
A black-and-white cartoon with a bespectacled professor holding a bag of Falstaff reads, “I’m one absent minded professor who never forgets the really important things.” The punch line: He’s not wearing any pants.
[Secretary] Buys Drinking Fountain for Zoo With Money She Saved for Auto
Forum Cafeteria Ad
“Don’t let the kitchen blight your bride. Keep her happy at home by taking her out to dinner twice a week—to the Forum!”
July 13, 1948
G.O.P. Woman Squirts Hose on Democrat At His Radio
County Road Workers on the Spot To Be Fired if They Pay G.O.P. Lug
All-Star Ticket Sales Boomerang; 5 Are Arrested
“Today’s All-Star baseball game at Sportsman’s Park was a sellout but six grandstand seats and seven in the pavilion were not occupied. The tickets for those seats are being held by police as evidence against five suspects arrested in the drive against scalping.”
July 9, 1957
Bill To Limit Speeds Signed…
“A controversial speed limit bill that gives Missouri fixed speed limits for the first time has been signed by Gov. James T. Blair, it was announced today.”
25 Window Fans Stolen, Second Such Theft in Week
July 12, 1966
Prisoner Stabs City Jail Guard With a Spoon
200,000 Lose Power in New Cutoffs
“At least 15 deaths have been caused by the heat in the St. Louis area since Sunday…”
Then, on the same page… 50,000 in 103-Degree Heat See Humphrey Toss Out Ball
3 All-Star Years: A War in Europe, Truman, Sirloin
“Where were you about this time in 1940…or 1948...or 1957? When the All-Star baseball game paid its first visit to St. Louis 26 years ago, spunky Britain just had claimed the upper hand over the Nazis in air raids over Germany….”
