Forman, Louis, 1908-2002.

Louis Forman was born in Camden, N.J., on December 25, 1908. He entered business as a small-scale liquor broker in Philadelphia after the repeal of Prohibition as Louis Forman & Company, Inc., and also did business as the Philadelphia Brokerage Company. The latter business was incorporated in Pennsylvania on July 17, 1941. While making a survey of licensed American distilleries in 1937, he happened upon a small distillery in Schaefferstown, Lebanon County, Pa., which dated back to the mid-eighteenth century.

This distillery had been established by John Shenk, a Swiss Mennonite farmer, in 1753. The distillery eventually passed to Shenk's son-in-law John Kratzer. It remained in the Kratzer family until 1861 when Abraham Bomberger purchased it. Bomberger had ties to the Shenk family, having married John Shenk's great-granddaughter Elizabeth. The Bomberger family owned the distillery until it was bought by Ephraim Sechrist in 1920. The distillery ceased operations in 1919 due to Prohibition and it remained closed until Sechrist sold the distillery to Louis Forman in 1942.

Forman was drafted into the military in August 1942, and uncertain whether he would survive the war, he sold the distillery. Subsequently, it became the property of the Logansport Distilling Company, which in turn became a subsidiary of the big Schenley Distillers Corporation in the late 1940s.

By then, Forman had returned from the war and began to expand his liquor brokerage. In 1947, he formed the Distillers Warehouse Company and purchased a bonded liquor warehouse at Cheswick, Allegheny County, in the section of western Pennsylvania long known for its distilleries. Forman transferred the assets of the Philadelphia Brokerage Company to the Distillers Warehouse Company in April 1950, and the former company was renamed the Highspire Distillery Corporation on June 13, 1951, and The Holiday Company on November 16, 1953. Forman started marketing his own "Holiday" brand of whiskey in 1952.

In the meantime, Forman had regained control of the old Bomberger distillery in the spring of 1950. While renovating the property, he discovered some of Bomberger's old records in the attic of the old house that had been the original distillery. Consulting his master distiller C. Everett Beam, of the famous Kentucky family that produced "Jim Beam," Forman decided to cultivate a premium niche market by making old-fashioned pot-still mash whiskey. This traditional method could not be adapted to mass production. Forman would market the whiskey under the name "Michter's", which sounded vaguely Pennsylvania Dutch but was actually formed by combining the names of his sons Michael and Peter. He packaged it in old-fashioned white china crocks, and only when customers seemed more interested in them as one-time collectibles did he add a line of conventional glass bottles. Although the new operation had no other connections to the Bombergers beyond the recipe and site, Forman made much of its association with the Colonial past, the Pennsylvania Germans, Washington at Valley Forge, and the Liberty Bell in his advertising. The Schaefferstown distillery was the smallest commercial distiller in the U.S. and the first distillery to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Unfortunately, Forman began his first batch of Michter's in 1951, and by the time it had aged the requisite six years, the country was in recession, and the whiskey market was glutted. Forman lost full control of the distillery to Pennco Distillers, Inc., but kept the formula and stock. Pennco did contract distilling for large liquor companies, but Forman was able to distribute Michter's as a specialty item. Through his brokerage business he also distributed other liquors, tried to import French wines, and was an early importer of Japan's "Suntory" whiskey.

Forman organized Michter's Distillery, Inc., in 1975 with the backing of some Lebanon County businessmen and was able to purchase the Schaefferstown facility at the foreclosure sale of Pennco Distillers. Michter's closed in the early 1990s, and Louis Forman died on January 23, 2002.

From the description of Business papers, 1784-1989 (bulk, 1940-1970). (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122385099