Penguins have long been used in advertisements for cocktails and other drinks and this fine fellow hung around the bar of the Hotel Philadelphian in the 1940s.

With his top hat and cane and carrying a cocktail in his flipper, this penguin was the front cover of the wine list for the Mirror Bar and restaurant in the 600-room hotel.

This was obviously a serious hotel for drinking. Its motto was Every Hour…Cocktail hour. But this menu cover also tried to lure customers away from cocktails towards wine.

 ‘The drinking of wine … is a most enjoyable custom. wine is the most healthful and hygienic of beverages,’ the menu says.

At the time, of course, wine was more expensive for the ordinary man and woman than spirits and beer.

The Hotel Philadelphian was located at 39^th and Chestnut Street in the lovely city of Philadelphia. It was formerly known as the Hotel Pennsylvania and was built in Renaissance style, opening in 1922.

It became the Hotel Philadelphian in the 1940s and went to become other named hotels in the following decades.

It is now Chestnut Hall, next to the Wharton School of Business and the Institute of Contemporary Art.

It provides apartment homes for students who attend Drexel University or University of Pennsylvania.

We like to think pf the friendly ghost of this former penguin ‘resident’ waddling and hopping around the hallways.

Courtesy Private Collection.