Golden – Paul Reeves has called Arizona home for the last half-century but his roots run deep in Colorado, particularly in Golden.
It was in 1941 in this small west-metro town that Reeves was hired as Coors’ first ad man, and drew the country’s first label for an aluminum beer can in 1948.
“Adolph Coors Sr. came to me one afternoon at 5 p.m. and said he wanted a label by 9 a.m. the next day,” Reeves recalled. “I went home in a big sweat and worked on it until midnight.”
What Reeves came up with was the classic waterfall label – inspired by Boulder Falls – with the slogan “Brewed With Rocky Mountain Spring Water” that endured for years and years.
Adolph Coors Sr. never commented on the design, but the label soon showed up on cans.
Reeves also designed the welcome arch that spans Washington Avenue, once raced in a rubber-wheeled wooden beer keg with no brakes at 40 mph down that same street, and convinced the Coors family to emblazon the brewery with a huge Coors sign that can be seen from the top of Lookout Mountain.
That was all after Reeves graduated from the University of Colorado, where he scrimmaged regularly against Byron “Whizzer” White – who became a U.S. Supreme Court justice after being named an All-American – on the football team that went to the Cotton Bowl in 1938.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Reeves, who came back to Golden to celebrate his 91st birthday with a passel of city leaders and a pack of pals that includes former grade-school chum Bill Coors.
People like Reeves and Coors “are the pioneers of this community,” said Reeves’ daughter, Holly Taylor. “And when they’re gone, they’re gone.”
A gathering was held at the Old Capitol Grill right after Saturday’s Buffalo Bill Days parade.
Reeves’ grandfather, Bill Collins, rode in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show when he was 18 under the name “Amarillo Bill.”
On Saturday, Reeves was to be riding too: on a purple firetruck in the parade. “I don’t know why,” he said.
The firetruck will roll under the arch that proclaims: “Howdy Folks! Welcome to Golden – Where the West Lives.”
Reeves came up with arch’s slogan – although it once read “Where the West Remains” – in 1950 to boost civic pride. While the neon lights have been gone for years, the sign still spans the 1100 block of Washington Avenue.
Retired in 1984 from teaching art, Reeves draws every day although arthritis has crept into his prolific right hand.
Around Scottsdale, where he lives, Reeves said he’s still called “The Coors man.” And to prove them right, to toast this town that he loves and to quench his thirst, Reeves has a Coors Light at 3 p.m. sharp every day.
Reeves said, smiling, “I call it a Clear Creek Cola.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
