Come Makes Eyes With Me Under the Anheuser Busch

I'm totally loving this photograph of two men on a park bench. While their identities are lost to history, the sign on the ground points us back to 1904. It seems the Anheuser Busch company commissioned a song, Under the Anheuser Bush, to advertise their beer.

One can't help but wonder what these two young men were doing embracing under the bush. Friends, most likely, who enjoyed a few beers and posed for a picture in a time when men had significantly more latitude in expressing intimacy within their friendships.

Come, come, come and make eyes with me
Under the Anheuser bush
Come, come dring some Budweis with me
Under the Anheuser bush.

Here the old German band
Just let me hold your hand - ja-a!
Do, do come and have a stein or two
Under the Anheuser bush.

For more images of vintage men and their relationships (some gay, some straight) visit: Vintage Men: Innocence Lost | The Photography of William Gedney; It's Only a Paper Moon;Vintage Gay America: Crawford Barton; These Men Are Not Gay | This Is Not A Farmer | Disfarmer; Desire and Difference: Hidden in Plain Sight, Come Make Eyes With Me Under the Anheuser Bush, Hugh Mangum: Itinerant Photographer, Two men, Two Poses; Photos are Not Always What They Seem, Vintage Sailors: An Awkward Realization, Three Men on a Horse, Welkom Bar: Vintage Same Sex Marriage, Pretty in Pink: Two Vintage Chinese Men, Memorial Day Surprise: Vintage Sailor Love, Memorial Day: Vintage Dancing Sailors, The Curious Case of Two Men Embracing, They'll Never Know How Close We Were, Vintage Love: Roger Miller Pegram,Manly Affections: Robert Gant, Homo Bride and Groom Restored to Dignity, The Men in the Trees, The Girl in the Outhouse, Tommy and Buzz: All My Love,Men in Photo Booths, and Invisible: Philadelphia Gay Wedding c. 1957. You can also follow me on Tumblr.