Tacoma — It all started, really, in the only place it could — a spot locals simply call “the Rainier Room.”
The “room” is actually more of a booth, in a corner, tucked toward the back of Justin and Robby Peterson’s 1111, the beloved Hilltop bar known for its sandwiches and no-frills Tacoma vibe. It’s adorned with enough Rainier beer swag to qualify it as a small museum, collected by the Peterson brothers over a lifetime of adoration for one of the Pacific Northwest’s most iconic brands.
Roughly two years ago, it’s also where the idea for the Peterson brothers and local filmmaker Isaac Olsen’s latest creative endeavor was hatched.
At the time, it seemed like a long shot — about as likely as seeing a herd of wild Rainiers in the distance.
“We were sitting at 1111, and we used to have all the really crappy versions of the old Rainier commercials on loop,” Justin Peterson said Tuesday, explaining that the nonstop commercials that once ran in the bar were bootleg versions uploaded to YouTube. “Of course, they’re enjoyable still, but I believe Isaac posed the question: ‘Where’s the original film for this? We should have a way better copy.’”
For newcomers and the young, an explanation is probably warranted. Starting in the mid-1970s and throughout much of the ‘80s, Rainier beer ads wormed their way into the brains and imaginations of a generation of locals. Off-beat and, in the words of Olsen, “ironically self-aware,” they were young and fresh, the sort of thing that might seem commonplace today in a world of viral marketing campaigns. At the time they were one of a kind.
Best of all? As it turned out, the film of those famous ads — and all the material that was shot in the process of making them — was right here in Tacoma the whole time. The original reels — including footage from the famous raaaaay neeeeeer beeeeer motorcycle ad and the classic Mickey Rooney spots — had been safely stored deep in the Washington State History Society’s collection for more than 20 years, collecting dust and waiting to be found.
As Olsen told me this week, the commercials and everything else they’ve discovered provide the basis for “Rainier: A Beer Odyssey,” a documentary that he and the Peterson brothers have been working on ever since finding the footage. The team recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help with the funding and began getting the word out, including an interview with KING 5’s Saint Bryan.
“I had no intention of pursuing this project unless we could find original motion picture film,” Olsen said, describing how he stumbled on the material, by chance, while volunteering at the Washington State History Society. “I was just completely flabbergasted, stunned. But mainly, I was compelled to action, because I thought, ‘This is how it works. I will never have such a serendipitous, accidental fortune ever again.’”
According to Olsen, the goal is to have a full documentary — focusing on the ads and, more specifically, the characters who made them — finished and ready for audiences by 2024. While the money raised through the Kickstarter campaign will help with the cost of production, he said the project will be completed whether the effort reaches its goal or not.
In the process of making the film, Olsen said, they’ve also agreed to restore and digitize all of the footage, transforming the commercials into a crisper and clearer version than has ever been seen before.
The Washington State History Society plans to make the footage available to the public, according to spokesperson Julianna Verboort.
“The Washington State Historical Society is always pleased when historical resources can be used by the public to learn more, and the documentary that Isaac Olsen and his team are making is a creative example of that,” Verboort said via email. “We have preserved various types of Rainier advertising including content in our moving images collection, and we had always hoped to digitize the films. This documentary project is moving that forward, it’s a win-win.”
Olsen and Peterson describe the documentary as a labor of love that’s taken on a life of its own. Two years ago they were fascinated by a long-running ad campaign that everyone seemed to remember. Today, they’re equally captivated by how the commercials were made, and the moment in Pacific Northwest history they capture.
“Rainier is the centerpiece of this, but so much more was documented in the process. All the Seattle and Northwest stuff that was happening back then gets in on the fringes,” Olsen said. “You do all this work, and your immediate reward in the short term is you get a movie. But the work is far from over, and it continues to benefit a lot of people in the future.”
According to Peterson, some of the most rewarding moments have been the small discoveries, whether they’ve come while cataloging the hours and hours of footage or conducting interviews with the people who made the commercials. In particular, one story sticks out, Peterson said: The filmmakers were able to confirm the local legend that Mickey Rooney, by then well into his decades-long career, was paid $500 and a Ford station wagon for his first Rainier spot.
In hindsight, perhaps most remarkable part of the story, Peterson said, was the larger vision of Terry Heckler, Gordon Bowker and the advertising team at Heckler & Associates, the local agency behind the iconic commercials. Also responsible for well-known campaigns from the era, like Ivar’s Dancing Clams, Peterson said Heckler and his team changed advertising forever in the ‘70s and ‘80s, right here from the Pacific Northwest, using off-kilter humor and youthful sensibilities — while also redefining the power of a local brand.
In total Heckler & Associates produced more than 120 TV commercials for Rainier, perhaps none of them remembered as fondly or as frequently as that old Rainier motorcycle cruising down the road, Peterson said.
Today, Peterson’s bar shows the newly restored ads in the Rainier Room, and he’s hoping the forthcoming documentary and the digitization project help the iconic ads live on for years to come.
“Since we grew up with this stuff and it was so ingrained in Northwest culture, we’re hoping that everyone who experienced those commercials and everyone who worked on them appreciates what we do with them,” Peterson said.
“Having them restored forever, and the ability for people to use them, I think is really cool.”
