Monday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from December 1942. 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. This ad from December of 1942 is announcing the winner of the Miss Rheingold contest for that year. 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.
She even made the cover of Life Magazine in November of 1942, a few weeks after being chosen as the new Miss Rheingold for 1943.
