Folsom Street Fair

Sunday at the Folsom Street Fair...

This fair bears little resemblance to county or state fairs. Unlike the Wisconsin State Fair, this one wasn't about cream puffs and agricultural exhibits and blue ribbon animals and family fun.

It was a celebration of S&M and porn.

Nevetheless, there is one thing that the Folsom Street Fair and the Wisconsin State Fair have in common. It's beer, Miller beer.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Thousands of people had thronged the Folsom Street Fair by noon today, and organizers expected to more as the afternoon progressed.

Venders were selling sex-related paraphernalia, from flogs and ropes to masks and porn.

Chaps and a bare chest was the predominant costume, though there were a lot of casually dressed spectators, from babies in strollers to senior citizens.

BABIES IN STROLLERS?

Did someone contact child services?

In spite of pressure from religious groups and consumers, Miller didn't back down from sponsoring the event.

Look at the page of sponsors.

Miller logos may have been removed from the fair's promotional poster mixing S&M with The Last Supper, but the company logos are prominently displayed on the Folsom Street Fair website.


Note the other sponsors.

I don't see Coke or Pepsi or Sara Lee.

Besides Miller, I see adult movies and publications as presenting sponsors -- NAKEDSWORD.COM (hardcore video on demand), TITANMEN.COM, and Gloss Magazine.

Now really, is that the image that Miller is interested in selling?

Even Milwaukee's Miller Park seems tainted.

A picture speaks a thousand words.

Here are some pictures from the day at the 2007 Folsom Street Fair.

This entire episode -- the bigoted poster, the nature of the event, the lack of response to concerned consumers -- reflects so poorly on the Miller Brewing Company.

Can this be the same company that established a professional theater in Milwaukee?

For 51 years, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater has been dedicated to providing the highest level of professional theater to Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Its legacy began in 1954, when Milwaukee native Mary Widrig John forged a plan to create a professional theater for the city. The result was the Fred Miller Theater on Oakland Avenue, so named after the head of Miller Brewing Company and chair of the theater's fund-raising campaign who died in a plane crash before the project was completed. The Fred Miller Theater produced a standard repertoire of Broadway's current hits. To draw initial audiences, the company espoused the star system and featured well known performers in lead roles. In the early 1960's, the company reorganized to create a resident acting company and expand its repertoire to include classics and premieres of new works. The name Milwaukee Repertory Theater was chosen in 1963 to reflect this new philosophy. The Fred Miller Theater facility, now called the Miramar Theater, is still used by many smaller theater companies in Milwaukee.

What would Fred Miller do?