Ruppert – Piels was facing an influx of national brands such as Schlitz, Pabst, and Budweiser. These brands, backed by massive advertising campaigns, began infiltrating Piels' primary sales territory and slowly overtook the market. This was coupled with a disastrous 81-day brewery strike in 1949 that allowed out-of-town brewers to establish a foothold in New York City and helped to end the Piels dynasty. An August 8, 1988, article in Sports Illustrated on beer and sports suggests the popularity of the Bert and Harry ads actually hurt Piels sales because people liked the ads, tried the beer and found out they did not actually enjoy it. Many of the Bert and Harry signs, trays and coasters with slogans (Harry: "Beer anyone?", Bert: "Piels everyone!") are now collectors' items. Expansion In the 1950s, following the 1949 New York City brewery strike, Piels expanded greatly. In 1951, Piels bought Trommer's beer in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and in December 1953 the company bought the plant of Rubsam and Hormann in Stapleton, Staten Island, plus the R&H label. However, in 1955 as sales slowed down the Trommer plant was closed. In 1963, the R&H plant was also closed down. In 1963, the Piel management decided to sell the company, and it was acquired by Associated Brewing Company of Detroit, Michigan. They operated a chain of regional breweries, namely Jacob Schmidt (St. Paul, Minnesota), Sterling Brewers (Evansville, Indiana), Drewry’s (with plants in Chicago, Illinois and South Bend, Indiana) and Hampden-Harvard Breweries (Willimansett, Massachusetts). Hampden was its own label, named after the county where the brewery was located. By the end of the Willimansett operation, this brewery had prominent "Piels" signage for a time. On September 20, 1973, Piel Bros. plant in East New York was closed down after 90 years of operation. For a short time the Willimansett plant, which brewed Piels for sales in New England, continued to operate, but then it was shut down. In the 1970s, F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company, another Brooklyn based brewer, bought the rights to the Piel Brothers label, and Schaefer continued to brew it at its Brooklyn and Allentown, Pennsylvania, plants. In the late 1980s, Schaefer was subsequently bought out by Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit, Michigan. Under Stroh, Piels' sales stabilized for a time, thanks to new and improved package designs and good point of sale advertising. However, Stroh succumbed to marketing pressure from industry giants