Friday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1958. 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 1958 was Madelyn Darrow, who came from a prominent Hollywood family. Her father was motion picture landscape artist and her mother had been a silent screen actress. She was the youngest of three daughters, and her sister Barbara Darrow was a B-Movie star, mostly with RKO. After graduating from Hollywood High, she became a cover model and landed a small part in the film “Guys and Dolls” in 1955 and the following year in “The Ten Commandments.” But her career as an actress was slowing, so she moved to New York for modeling work, and was elected Miss Rheingold shortly thereafter. After her Rheingold year, she married tennis star Pancho Gonzales and they had there daughters together, divorcing in 1968, remarrying in 1970, but divorcing again the following year. She remained in California for the remainder of her life, staying out of the public eye, until she passed away in 2015. This ad, from May, shows the first Miss Rheingold from 1940, Jinx Falkenburg, with the headline “My maiden name was RHEINGOLD!”
Archives for May 26, 2023
Beer Birthday: Masaharu Morimoto
Today is the 66th birthday of Masaharu Morimoto, who “is a Japanese chef, best known as an Iron Chef on the Japanese TV cooking show Iron Chef and its spinoff Iron Chef America.”
He’s also collaborated with Rogue Ales to create a line of beers known as “The Signature Series.” They were launched in the Spring of 2003.
The Pan Asian restaurant is also celebrating Spring by featuring a Morimoto Sakura beer, $9 that is a cherry blossom Kolsch exclusively brewed at Winter Garden-based Crooked Can Brewery and available for a limited time. The brewers at Crooked Can used imported Sakura (cherry blossoms) to dry hop their award-winning Kolsch to create this specialty brew.
This is his biography from the Food Network:
Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto trained in a sushi restaurant before moving to the U.S. in 1985 at the age of 30. After working in several restaurants, he joined the highly acclaimed Nobu restaurant in New York City.
Morimoto polished his craft in New York’s melting pot and became a state-of-the-art world chef. His cutting-edge cuisine attracted the attention of Iron Chef producers, who invited him to become a Japanese Iron Chef. His skill, which outshines the trademark diamond stud in his left ear, has been recognized all around the world. While his cooking has Japanese roots, it’s actually “global cooking” for the 21st century. His unique fusion cuisine takes advantage of Japanese color combinations and aromas and uses Chinese spices and simple Italian ingredients, while maintaining a refined French style of presentation.
“Cooking is entertainment,” proclaims the revolutionary. Morimoto’s attitude is evident in his dishes, which retain a sense of fun and a bit of spice.
Morimoto opened his own restaurant, Morimoto, in Philadelphia in 2002 and a second one in New York City in 2006.
Historic Beer Birthday: Nicholas Kessler
Today is the birthday of Nicholas Kessler (May 26, 1833-December 11, 1902). Kessler was born in Luxembourg, but came to the U.S. in 1854, eventually settling in Montana, where he bought into a brewery there, which was eventually known as the Kessler Brewery.
From “A Luxembourg Pioneer in Montana,” by Fausto Gardini:
Nic(h)olas Kessler, originally the name was spelled Kesseler, is born, the youngest of a family of six children. He arrives in New York on January 10, 1854, continues on to Sandusky, Ohio and settles for a while at Detroit, Michigan. Later, he removes to Chicago, Illinois and is active in the feed business. Like many other immigrants, he succumbs to the gold fever and heads west prospecting in Colorado before heading to Montana in August of 1863. In Virginia City, Nick starts a bakery, restaurant and liquor business. In 1864, Nick travels back to Luxembourg to visit with family and friends. When returning to America, according to a contemporary, he had learned that back in Luxembourg men had to relax and when they relaxed many of them found solace and entertainment with friends over a stein of brew. So rather than continuing panning for gold in 1865 he acquires a brewery at Helena, Montana. Over the years, he grows the Kessler Brewery into one of the most prosperous breweries far and wide. His Lorelei beer is a favorite for many decades. Nicholas Kessler, dies on December 11, 1902, in Helena, Montana.
Fausto has more about Kessler, the Montana Pioneer from Luxembourg, and there’s a lot of great information at Helena As She Was.
Their most popular beer was called Lorelei Beer.
And this account is from the “History of Montana,” by Joaquin Miller, 1894:
Nicholas Kessler, one of the prominent and enterprising businessmen of Helena Montana, is a native of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Germany, born May 26, 1833. His youth and early manhood were spent in Germany and in 1854 he emigrated to America, landing there in January of that year and locating in Sandusky Ohio. In 1856 he removed from Sandusky to Chicago, where he was engaged in the commission business until the winter of 1859-60, then starting for Pikes Peak, Colorado. He arrived in Colorado in time to aid in the elections of the first Recorder of California Gulch, where Leadville is now located. During the summer and fall of 1860 he was engaged in mining there, then mined in Montgomery, Colorado until 1862 and from that time until August 1863 he landed in Virginia City Montana and for one year was engaged in the liquor business at that place. In 1864 he made a visit to his old friends in Germany but returned to America the following year, and gain took up his abode in Montana, this time in Helena. Since April 1865 he has been identified with the interests of this city.
Mr. Kessler built and is the proprietor of the largest brewing establishment in Montana. He owns and operates the
brickyards which have furnished nearly all the brick that have been used in the buildings in Helena. He is also largely interested in Helena real estate and lands in Lewis and Clarke and Cascade counties and has extensive stock interests besides. With the various commercial and fraternal organizations of the city he is prominently connected.Mr. Kessler was married in New York, April 2, 1873 to Louisa Ebert, who died December 18, 1880 leaving three children, two sons and one daughter. Both sons are now efficient help to their father in the management of his extensive business while the other children are attending school.
An etching of the Kessler Brewery around 1892.
And here’s Kessler’s obituary from the Anaconda Standard: