Saturday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1943. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. Miss Rheingold 1943 was Sonia Gover. She was born in 1921 in Chicago, and married Joseph Gover in 1941, when she was 19. She worked as a model in the New York area and passed away in 1989. In this ad, she’s wearing a work jumpsuit and is taking her lunch break in what must be a nod to Rosie the Riveter. SHe’s also sitting on a case of Rheingold, with a lunchbox on the ground and a sandwich in one hand, and a glass of beer in the other.
