Our Lady Of Greenwich Village by Dermot McEvoy Page B

O’Rourke for salvation. Pepoon, always the astute businessman, split the business in two: half ad agency and half political consulting, which was under O’Rourke’s wing. O’Rourke only did Democrats and referred Republicans back to Pepoon. They began to make money hand over fist.
    The reputation of the firm continued to grow when they saved the Dannemora Brewing Company from bankruptcy. Charles Hodding’s family had owned Dannemora Brewing for nearly 100 years. Pepoon had been their account executive going back to the 1960s. He had come up with the immortal tagline that was heard on radios all over upstate New York:“Things Go Better with Dannemora,” sung to the tune “How Are Things in Glockamora?” from Finian’s Rainbow. When O’Rourke heard it for the first time he told Pepoon, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
    â€œI thought it was rather good,” said Pepoon.
    â€œYou would,” replied O’Rourke.
    Now the Brewery was in sad shape. It was being squeezed by Anheuser-Busch and also by several Canadian breweries to the north. Their market was dwindling. Fifteen hundred jobs were at stake.
    â€œI don’t want to sell out,” Hodding told Pepoon. “If I sell out to Budweiser, they’ll shut the brewery down. I’m the biggest employer in Dannemora, along with the prison. I have to do something.” Pepoon called O’Rourke in.
    â€œWhat’s the problem?” said O’Rourke.
    â€œI have a shrinking market,” said Hodding.
    â€œFind a new market,” said O’Rourke.
    â€œNot so easy,” said Hodding and Pepoon almost together.
    Then the light bulb went on. “Queer Beer,” O’Rourke said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThe faggots,” said O’Rourke.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œWho has more money to piss away on themselves than anyone? Fags, of course. I see them in those bars on Christopher Street drinking Bud from the can until they’re absolutely polluted. Who’s vainer than fags? Nobody! They’d love to have their own brew.”
    Hodding was that desperate. Within six weeks, the first Queer Beers rolled out of the Dannemora Brewing Company. O’Rourke pulled Juanita, the Puerto Rican transsexual from Pepoon’s mailroom, to be the first Queer Beer sales-whatever in New York. Within weeks, every homosexual on Christopher was standing outside their favorite joint with a Queer Beer in his fist. O’Rourke packed Juanita off to San Francisco where the response was also overwhelming. Hodding couldn’t brew Queer Beer fast enough. Within a year Hodding had beaten off Budweiser. To rub salt in Anheuser-Busch’s wounds O’Rourke was now referring to Queer Beer as “The Queen of Beers” in his ads. Hodding had even acquired one of the Canadian breweries that had been trying to acquire him. He couldn’t thank Pepoon and O’Rourke enough.
    â€œWhere can I go from here?” he asked.
    â€œDyke Lite,” replied Wolfe Tone O’Rourke.

7.
    T one O’Rourke, being the creature of habit he was, always arrived at Northern Dispensary Associates at precisely 6:30 a.m. For the next hour he read the four New York newspapers, the Washington Post , the previous day’s Irish Times , and immersed himself in the politics of the day.
    â€œHow’d it go this weekend?” asked Winthrop Pepoon, another early riser, as he stuck his head into O’Rourke’s pocket office.
    â€œLovely. Hardly remember it at all. How’d you like that stuff with the Virgin Mary and Congressman Swift?”
    â€œVirgin Mary?” said Pepoon. “What are you talking about?”
    â€œDon’t you get the papers?”
    â€œNothing about it in the Times .”
    â€œFigures. Big news in the tabloids. Cyclops Reilly broke the story.”
    â€œI didn’t think Cyclops was ever sober long enough to break a