A Question Of Balance: The Return Of Ruthie

The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed a decision to deny intervention into the reopening of the estate of a deceased but notable citizen

Ruth Bisignano—“Ruthie,” as she was professionally known—owned and operated a popular bar in Des Moines throughout the 1950s and ’60s called “Ruthie’s Lounge.” She was famously (or, to some, scandalously) known for her ability to serve beer by balancing two pint glasses on her chest in a bar trick she referred to as the “well-balanced glass of beer.” The trick earned her both attention in newspapers across the country and a premium price on drinks— reportedly charging about three times as much as other bars in town. It also earned her some legal trouble, although perhaps of the no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity variety. Ruth was criminally charged several times for performing her serving trick with allegations that included “indecent dress and behavior” and “indecent behavior and running her lounge in a loud, boisterous manner with the juke box blaring.” And in 1955, the IRS came after Ruth for unpaid taxes totaling $44,694, alleging that her beer-balancing trick qualified as entertainment and made her bar subject to the tax on “cabarets.” In 1971, she sold her bar and closed the door on her bartending and tavern-operating days.

Her legacy revived (and the basis for reopening the estate on allegations of misappropriation)

In 2012, Exile Brewing Company (Exile), taking Ruth and her contributions to the beer and restaurant industry as an inspiration, named one of its craft beers “Ruthie” and used Ruth’s image performing her serving trick on bottles, cans, beer taps, and other paraphernalia. Today Ruthie is the best-selling Iowa-made beer in the state. Before it began selling the Ruthie beer, Exile searched for trademarks and products sold under the name “Ruthie,” searched for pictures of Ruth, and searched for children, an estate, or a trust for her. Exile alleges that the search came up empty, so it began selling the beer using the name “Ruthie” and Ruth’s likeness. Exile applied for a federal trademark for “RUTHIE” in 2019, which was granted in 2021.

Ruthie passed in 1993; her husband Frank followed in 1996

Fred Huntsman is Frank Bisignano’s nephew and the son of Frank’s deceased sister Barbara Hamand. In March 2020, Huntsman filed a petition to reopen Frank’s estate, alleging that he “hired an attorney to investigate and pursue potential claims against a corporation” that, if successful, would benefit Frank’s estate.

Exile’s efforts to intervene and close the estate fell on deaf beers 

Because we affirm the district court’s judgment on the threshold issue denying Exile’s attempt to intervene in the matter and striking Exile’s motion to vacate, dismiss, and close the estates, we need not address the merits of the other issues raised in that motion.

Merits

Our holding in this appeal rests exclusively on the probate court’s decision to reject Exile’s attempt to intervene and to strike Exile’s motion to vacate, dismiss, and close. We advance no views and take no position on the existence or inheritability of Ruth’s name, image, and likeness rights. Exile’s only connection to the probate proceedings is as a potential debtor to the estates. We will not turn the probate court’s simple reopening of the estates into a second litigation over whether or to whom the potential debt is owed where Exile has no other connection to the estates. Exile has the opportunity to raise its defenses in the civil lawsuit to determine whether it is in fact a debtor. 

From the Des Moines Register

The late Ruthie Bisignano was a national sensation in the 1950s for her unusual bar-keeping skills. She could balance a beer glass on each of her 48DD breasts, fill the glasses and deliver them to wide-eyed customers without spilling a drop.

“Well,” remembered 102-year-old Louis Frederick, “she was pretty well-endowed in the chest area. She had on a garment that enhanced that. She would lean back until she made a platform out of that chest and she carried those beers around like a million bucks!”

The Register reported that the memories of Ruthie flowed like beer on tap

Ruthie Bisignano had a few other last names. She was said to have been married 15 times to eight men — once to three men at the same time — before settling on Frank Bisignano for the final 32 years before her death in 1993.

She opened Ruthie’s Lounge in Des Moines in 1950 at 1311 Locust St., moving to various locations over 21 years before it closed.

But the Locust Street location was best known and was where famous movie director Cecil D. DeMille once showed up to see her exploits. He convinced her to raise her prices from the standard 17 cents a glass of most taverns of the time to 50 cents because of her special talents.

“We always gave her a tip, good ones too,” said Frederick.

Ruthie once told former Des Moines Register columnist George Mills that she made as much as $250 on weeknights when a lot of traveling salesman were in town.

Somehow The Music Man missed this story. 

Notably

Her feats earned her space in numerous national magazines, a pair of mountains named after her by Korean War soldiers (“The Ruthies”), a photograph session with President Eisenhower at the Iowa State Fair and a visit by the Des Moines cops, as chronicled in Bill Bryson’s book “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.”

The Iowa Capital Dispatch has extensive coverage of related (and contentious) federal court litigation. (Mike Frisch)