Thursday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1944. 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 1944 was Jane House, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out much about her apart from she was signed to Columbia pictures, so she at least had aspirations to be an actress. There is a Jane House listed on the iMDb, but doesn’t begin until she was on a television show in 1956, so I’m not sure if it’s the same person. In this ad, from April, she’s out in the garden holding a hoe, saying. “We must Grow More in ’44 and after working extra hours in the Victory Garden, we’ll be glad of a chance to relax….” And naturally, in the second panel to relax there’s beer.
