Keep your eyes peeled during the hit movie, Spider-Man, and you'll catch a brief appearance by a famous Kentuckian.

        In the scene, Willem Dafoe, who plays Spidy's nemesis, the Green Goblin, relaxes at home with a tumbler of whiskey. Then you see it, that squatty bottle with the red wax dripping down the neck: It's Maker's Mark bourbon, born and distilled in Kentucky.

        The camera stays on the bottle two seconds at the most, but that quick cameo is no doubt worth thousands of dollars of advertising. Not that Maker's Mark really needs help from super-villains or super heroes. The company's president, Bill Samuels Jr., is not joking when he says his company is selling all the whiskey it can make.

        On a Friday afternoon at Hyde Park Country Club, he pauses while autographing what looks to be several hundred bottles of Maker's Mark. The gangly man with the slightly moppy haircut is a little rushed because, in a couple of hours he's supposed to meet and talk to more than a hundred or so fans.

        Yes, fans. More than any other bourbon, maybe more than any other distilled spirit except for Jack Daniel's, Maker's Mark has fans — people intensely loyal to that familiar bottle with the signature red wax seal. Even without guest appearances in movies, Maker's Mark is the most famous bourbon on the shelf. It is a cult whiskey, or as they spell it on the bottle: whisky.

        Being a self-deprecating, lawyer (in a Kentucky kind of way), almost-aerospace engineer who decided to return to the family business, Mr. Samuels gives most of the credit for his company's success to his father, Bill Sr. He was the distiller who had the vision of creating a “small batch” premium bourbon long before anyone thought of such a thing.

        “My dad just decided he was going to will city people to learn to enjoy fine bourbon,” Mr. Samuels says. “That was a new concept then.”

        But most in the industry would agree Maker's Mark might never have made it without the creative sales and marketing tactics — antics — of Bill Jr.

        A sixth-generation distiller, Bill Sr., began making his whiskey in 1953 near Loretto, outside Bardstown. His plan was to make a softer, easy-drinking bourbon. His wife, Nancy,, came up with the clever trademark red wax seal after experimenting with wax and a deep-fat fryer in the basement.

        Their bright son, Bill Jr., wasn't interested in making whiskey. He dabbled in aerospace engineering at University of California at Berkeley and finished law school at Vanderbilt University before returning to the family business in 1967. But he never learned to distill bourbon.

        “The last thing my father wanted was me down there (in Loretto) messing with his whiskey,” he says.

        Bill Jr., was based at the company's Louisville office. From there, he hit the road, selling Maker's Mark in much of the South. And the younger Mr. Samuels did well. Although the company was at one time $1.5 million in debt, it soon became a favorite at bars and restaurants in Kentucky and much of the region. The whiskey never caught on in the big cities, though — even in Greater Cincinnati — or in the Northeast. And the little company had no advertising budget.

        Then, in 1980, Bill Jr., had an idea. A reporter from the Wall Street Journal — a friend of an old college chum — was in Louisville. He convinced the reporter to go out to see the distillery with him early one morning.

        “The reporter had to catch a 2 p.m. flight, but I knew I had to make him miss that airplane,” Mr. Samuels says. “And I knew I could do that if I could get him to talk to Dad face-to-face.”

        That wasn't easy because his father was notoriously shy. So Bill Jr., didn't tell him he was bringing a reporter to the distillery that day. The men met, took an instant liking to each other, and the reporter missed his flight, spending more than two days at the distillery with Bill Sr. The reporter wrote a glowing front page, “David vs. Goliath” story about little Maker's Mark holding its own against the giant distilleries. And things haven't been the same in Loretto since.

        By the time others introduced their versions of small-batch and single-barrel bourbon in the early 1990s, Maker's Mark had been selling it for 30 years. Bill Sr. died in 1992, but his son says he would be pleased to see that people have come to appreciate his style of bourbon.

        “He believed that if we could stay patient, the mountain would come to Mohammed,” he says. “That's what all craftsman think.”

        Bill Jr., is not a patient craftsman, he is a creative marketer (check out the special red, white and blue wax Maker's Mark bottles for July 4), famous for clever advertising campaigns and wacky billboards. Last year in Lexington near the University of Kentucky campus, he put up billboards praising Rick Pitino's arrival as the new University of Louisville basketball coach. (“Rick, we always looked good in red.”) This caused a ruckus because Louisville is UK's archrival, and Mr. Pitino is the former UK coach. But once again, people were talking about Maker's Mark.

        That night at Hyde Park Country Club, he was able to laugh about the story and others with his fans, who were, admittedly, a little lubricated from sipping Maker's Mark. Bill Jr., may not have inherited his father's ability to make bourbon. But he sure can weave intoxicating stories.

Maker's Mark Grilled Steak

        2 steaks, such as porterhouse, T-bone or New York strip
        1 tablespoon olive oil
        1 teaspoon dried sage
        1 teaspoon lemon juice
        1 tablespoon Maker's Mark
        1 teaspoon garlic powder

        Place steaks in deep dish and rub with olive oil and sage. Sprinkle with lemon juice and bourbon. Dust on both sides with garlic powder. Cover and marinate for at least 3 hours in refrigerator.
        Grill steaks to preferred doneness and top with bourbon butter.
        — My Autobiography (Saber; $29.95)

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