Pops drank "Brew 102" (Maier Brewing Co.) and "Lucky".
Paul Kalmanovitz, owner of Maier, specialized in
leveraged buy-outs, which take over businesses to sell off their parts for profit, closing plants and laying off employees. After a takeover in St. Louis, brewery employees flew the American flag at half-staff and upside down.
In 1975, after Kalmanovitz gained control of Falstaff, most of its 175 corporate office employees were laid off. Some of the employee's severance checks bounced. “Kalmanovitz thought nothing of throwing hundreds of brewery workers out onto the streets, cutting off their pension and health benefits … ” according to one historian. Forbes magazine wrote that “Kalmanovitz went through Falstaff like Grant through Richmond. ... He took no prisoners.”
In a 1979 court case, Bloor v. Falstaff, Kalmanovitz's brewery was fined $1.3 million. The judges described his management style as "Profit Uber Alles".
Personally, he has been described as mean-spirited, controlling and eccentric. He banned telephones from his office and every time he would catch his employees installing a line, he would rip it out.
After his death, a former legal secretary said, his associates toasted him with
Jack Daniel's, saying, "Ding dong the king is dead
I was wrong!:rolllaugh:
