Samuel Bronfman

Samuel  “Sam the Whiskey Man” Bronfman

Samuel Bronfman was born on February 27th, 1889 onboard a ship arriving in Canada from the Russian Empire.  His parents fled religious persecution in Russia in search of a more welcoming culture in Canada. His father worked in the tobacco industry in Moldova but not finding steady work in Saskatchewan, deciding instead to borrow money to purchase his first hotel in 1903 in neighboring Manitoba.  Samuel eventually was able to purchase his own hotel, The Bell of Manitoba from his father’s fortune in the hotel business.  The Bell’s alcohol sales were considerable and this encouraged Bronfman set up his own company for liquor distribution. 

Once Winnipeg went into prohibition in 1916, Samuel and his brother set up storage warehouses (“Boozeariums”) on the provincial borders of Saskatchewan to distribute alcohol to neighbouring provinces.  The wealth created by this endeavor helped Bronfman to create the Distillers Corporation in Montreal in 1924 which specialized in the production of cheap whiskey. During the American prohibition, the Distillers Corp. funneled their cheap whiskey to Chicago and New York city through Montreal providing Bronfman a cut along the way.

It was during the time of US prohibition that Samuel would have his own family.  He married Saidye Rosner on June 21st, 1922 and had four children.

In 1928 Distillers Corporation purchased the Seagram’s and Sons of Waterloo, Ontario and used the brands popularized by Seagram’s  (Seven Crowns, Dewars, Black and White, Haig, and Vat 69) to sell their products to more a more sophisticated consumer.  Bronfman renamed the company Seagram Co. Ltd. and became a larger international alcoholic beverage distribution company. As time passed Samuel Bronfman purchased 13 more distilleries across America, his first was the Rossville Union Plant, now known as MGP.

As Bronfman’s fame increased, he felt guilty for taking advantage of the prohibition era to accumulate his wealth. His shame pushed him to an obsessive focus on standardizing the quality of the many product lines he acquired. He worked diligently to develop strict protocols to maintain product consistency, describing it as follows: “When a man goes into a store for a bottle of Coca-Cola, he expects it to be the same today as it will be tomorrow. The great products don’t change. Well, our products are not going to change either”. In 1936 Bronfman took Seagram’s to Scotland, but was forced to develop his product slowly due to insufficient supplies to be able to meet demand. Seagram’s nonetheless achieved success with Royal Salute.

Although Bronfman pioneered a number of successful products, none would achieve the international recognition of Crown Royal. Bronfman personally developed the blend for Crown Royal for the first Canadian visit by King George VI in 1939. Ironically, while the King’s train pulled a cart of Crown Royal across the country, there is no evidence he ever actually tasted it.

Seagram’s expanded into additional spirits including vodka, gin and rum ultimately owning 39 distilleries worldwide. In 1950 The Seagram Building in Manhattan became Seagram's headquarters.  Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company in 1963 was purchased and added to the portfolio but later sold by his heirs making the family a multi-billion dollar company.

Samuel Bronfman died in 1971 and his heirs continued to control the company until they sold it to French company Vivendi. Seagram’s liquor operations were sold to Pernod Ricard in 2000.

Contributed by: Nick Singer, Lantz, Nova Scotia

with support from Katrina Bevington, Canadian Whisky Section Editor, Ottawa, Ontario