Miller’s history

In 1855 Miller bought the Plank Road Brewery from Charles Lorenz Best and his father.

Miller used these until 1906 when, due to the company's expansion and the availability of more modern technology, refrigerator facilities were built.

Ernest Miller died in 1922 and was succeeded as president by his brother, Frederick A. Miller.

With the money he earned he attended the University of Michigan (B.A., 1938), where he began to write plays.

In 1940, Farmer and Housewife were the top reported jobs for men and women in the USA named Miller.

My uncle started it in 1941 and my dad, Russell Miller, made it what it is.

The expansion program initiated in 1947 was continued by Norman Klug, who became president following Miller's death.

He is best known for Death of a Salesman (1949).

An appearance in All About Eve (1950) won her another contract from Fox and much recognition.

Miller based The Crucible (1953) on the witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692–93, a series of persecutions that he considered an echo of the McCarthyism of his day, when investigations of alleged subversive activities were widespread.

In 1956, when Miller was himself called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he refused to name people he had seen 10 years earlier at an alleged communist writers’ meeting.

She overcame her early image as a dumb and seductive blonde, winning critical acclaim as a serious actress for Some Like It Hot (1959).

Under Klug's management, Miller purchased the A. Gettelman Company in 1961, and four years later bought the General Brewing Corporation of Azusa, California.

In 1962 Monroe began filming the comedy Something’s Got to Give.

Incident at Vichy, which began a brief run at the end of 1964, is set in Vichy France and examines Jewish identity.

The Price (1968) continued Miller’s exploration of the theme of guilt and responsibility to oneself and to others by examining the strained relationship between two brothers.

Because of its cash reserves and growing importance within the industry, Miller was a prime acquisition target; in 1969 management at Grace decided to sell its interest in Miller to PepsiCo for $120 million.

Philip Morris purchased the remaining shares of Miller's stock from the De Rance Foundation of Milwaukee in 1970.

In 1971 Miller extended its production activities in Fort Worth, obtained a tract of land in Delaware as a possible site for a new brewery, and also acquired Formosa Springs, a Canadian brewery.

Miller's Pub continued to flourish and by 1972 the brothers owned three restaurants on the Adams/Wabash block with Miller's as the focal point of the family business.

The American Clock, a series of dramatic vignettes based on Studs Terkel’s Hard Times (about the Great Depression), was produced at the 1980 American Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.

By 1985 reduced calorie beers accounted for 20.5 percent of all beer sales.

In 1986 the tagline emphasized the beer's uniqueness: "There's only one Lite beer.

In 1987, combined sales of Anheuser's Budweiser and Bud Light grew 23 percent while sales of all Miller products grew only 1 percent.

The decline was offset by Miller Lite and also by the introduction of Milwaukee's Best and Meister Brau, two lower-priced beers that grew to represent 16.9 percent of the company's output by 1988.

In 1989, when the building they were renting was renovated to seat cars rather than people, Miller's Pub moved into one of their other restaurants, Vannie's, at 134 S. Wabash and continued their business without batting an eye.

Miller’s later plays included The Ride Down Mount Morgan (1991), Mr.

With the exception of Genuine Draft, sales of all Miller beers fell in 1992 and income dropped 13.6 percent to $260 million.

Coors and Anheuser both cut their workforce in early 1993; by December Miller had followed suit, eliminating 13 percent of its workforce through closing a manufacturing plant in Fulton, New York, and trimming 300 white collar jobs from its headquarter operations.

Although the domestic beer market remained static, the company continued to see its sales increase through the first half of 1994, fueled by the introduction of Ice House ice-brewed beer, and Lite Ice.

In 2001 Miller received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for theatre/film.

American playwright Arthur Miller died on February 10, 2005, in Roxbury, Connecticut.