Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #4674: Vote Here For Miss Rheingold 1963

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Thursday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this promotional piece, from August 1962, it’s a cardboard cut-out showing the same photo of the six finalists from yesterday’s ad, with the tagline asking “Who Will Be Miss Rheingold 1963.” These would have been given out to bars and stores selling Rheingold where people could cast their vote.

Who Will Be Miss Rheingold 1963
The six finalists posing with the group photo.

Beer In Ads #4673: Who Will Be Miss Rheingold 1963

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Wednesday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this double truck ad, from August 1962, it’s asking “Who will be Miss Rheingold 1963.” The finalists are, from the top row, left to right: Prue Walt, Eileen O’Neil, and Beverly Owen. And bottom row, left to right: Loretta Rissell, Carol Merrill, and Chris Noel. And on the right, from the same photo shoot, they’re standing in manicured garden somewhere with bouquets of flowers.

Beer In Ads #4672: The Six Finalists For Miss Rheingold 1963

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Tuesday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this newspaper ad, from August 1962, it’s asking “Who will be Miss Rheingold 1963.” The finalists are, from the top row, left to right: Prue Walt, Eileen O’Neil, and Beverly Owen. And bottom row, left to right: Loretta Rissell, Carol Merrill, and Chris Noel.

Beer In Ads #4671: Which Will You Vote For To Be Miss Rheingold 1963

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Monday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In these newspaper items, from August 1962, voting for the Next Miss Rheingold is open and so these show the six finalists and reminding you to vote before the end of the month. The finalists are, from the bottom row, left to right: Carol Merrill, Chris Noel, Prue Walt, and Eileen O’Neil. ANd standing behind, left to right: Beverly Owen and Loretta Ann Rissell.

And this one, using the same photo, was published August 8, 1962:

And this one, using the same photo, was published August 2, 1962:

And finally, this is an original scan of the photo used in these articles:

Beer In Ads #4670: New Yorker Cartoon Satirizes Contest For Miss Rheingold 1963

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Sunday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this New Yorker magazine cartoon, from August 4, 1962, artist Dana Fradon pokes a little fun at the contest for Miss Rheingold 1963, by then a New York institution.

Beer In Ads #4669: Six Heads Vie For Beer Crown Of Miss Rheingold 1963

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Saturday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this newspaper item, from August 3, 1962, there’s a photo of the six finalists hoping to become Miss Rheingold 1963, with the headline “Six Heads Vie for Beer Crown.” They are; seated, left to right: Beverly Owen and Chris Noel. And standing behind, also left to right: EileenO’Neill, Prue Walt, Carol Merrill, and Loretta Ann Rissell.

Beer In Ads #4668: Which Witch Is Which For Miss Rheingold 1963

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Friday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this newspaper item, from August 1, 1962, there’s a photo giving us our first look at the six finalists to become Miss Rheingold 1963, with the headline “Which Witch Is Which?” They are; first row, left to right: Carol Merrill, Chris Noel and EileenO’Neill. Back row, left to right: Beverly Owen, Prue Walt, and Loretta Rissell.

Pub January Is A Better Idea Than Dry January

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My colleague and friend Jeff Alworth recently proposed a novel alternative to Dry January he’s calling Pub January. I’ve never been a fan of Dry January. Taking an arbitrary month off from something that’s very enjoyable and brings me pleasure has always felt a little … well, stupid. I get the idea that after the holidays, when overindulging is common, many people think it’s a good idea to just stop drinking for a period of time, but the issue as I see it is that overindulging the other eleven months of the year is the real problem. Drink responsibly and in moderation all of the time and taking a forced month off becomes completely unnecessary.

In Jeff’s post, entitled In 2024, How About “Pub January?,” he brings up another great reason to ditch the dry month, which is that it inevitably does real damage to the breweries, bars, pubs, and restaurants that count on your business to survive the rest of the year. As Alworth points out, January was one of the worst months for beer sales already, and having large swaths of the drinking public decide to all forgo any alcohol during that same period of time is a terrible idea, especially in light of the recent setbacks due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Most breweries have not yet fully recovered, and probably won’t do so as quickly as anyone might hope. Take away one-twelfth of the income of every alcohol business, and what do you think might be the result?

So where did the idea of a Dry January come from? It’s surprisingly recent, having been cooked up by the British arm of the prohibitionists in 2013. It was launched by Alcohol Change UK as a “public health campaign,” whose primary goal, they claimed, was “to promote a healthier lifestyle by giving participants an opportunity to reassess their relationship with alcohol.” So basically it’s prohibitionist propaganda masquerading as health advice, an all-too familiar tactic of the many prohibitionist organizations who want to tell you how to live your life and demonize anything they don’t like. That so many people fall for this each year makes it very successful propaganda, but that doesn’t make it any better.

With all that as background, Jeff has an idea:

Make this month #PubJanuary. Stop in for a quiet pint, grab dinner out, spend the afternoon playing a board game. It doesn’t really matter what you do—you don’t even have to drink alcohol—but if people kept up their July pace of pub-going, it would make a big difference. We’re not talking the salt mines, either; going out is fun! Consider it a vacation in an evening. In fact, January is typically the deadest time of the year—a perfect opportunity to connect with friends. Enjoying other humans is good for your soul.

I don’t know if we could make this a movement or not, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. There’s certainly never been a better year. So let me exhort you all. If your life circumstances allow it, get out there and support your [local] beer businesses. It’s a win-win for the pub-goer and the pub. January can be a bit bleak. Sitting inside a pub with people you enjoy never is. Heck, you might even consider keeping it up in February.

That’s a idea I can get behind. It’s an idea whose time has come, I’d argue. The pub, despite the many cries of its detractors, has for most of its existence been a place of community, of families, and of fellowship. In modern times, many have turned away from that notion and became mere drinking palaces by prohibiting children, and thus families. But I grew up in the many such bars of my hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, and my stepfather — despite his many other faults — always knew which ones had the best food and atmosphere with diversions aplenty, such as pinball, pool tables, shuffleboard, stacks of games in a corner, and much, much more. A simple shift in our mindset could, I think, easily return us to a time when families were welcome again in most alehouses, bars, beer gardens, inns, lounges, pubs, roadhouse, saloons, taproom, and taverns.

So if you want to cut back or go cold turkey for the month of January, or any other period of time, I won’t try to stop you, even though I personally never would and honestly don’t think much of the idea. But if you really love beer the rest of the year, don’t stay home all month, and definitely don’t avoid your local watering hole. If you lack the willpower to walk into a bar and not order a beer, that’s a whole different problem you should probably be working on all year long. But for the rest of us, there’s quite a lot you can do in a pub that doesn’t involve drinking, not to mention it would allow you to keep hanging out with your friends who did not decide to forgo the pleasure of a beer this month. I can’t really understand why isolating yourself would be good for your mental health during a bleak winter January. You should definitely get out there and see some friends.

What else can you do in a pub while not drinking? Trivia nights are a great way to spend an evening. Gather a group of friends and match trivia-wits with other teams. Enjoy sipping a soda or water with appetizers and trying to win. Before I had kids, I was involved in a weekly trivia night at a local pub in the South Bay where I lived at the time. We had a large team of friends — our team name was “Abbey Something,” a nod to “Young Frankenstein” — that would meet every week to play. Not all of us drank every time we came. So what? It wasn’t the primary reason we all got together each week.

Many pubs keep a collection of games for patrons to play. Why not have your game night on neutral ground? I’m confident the establishment wouldn’t even mind if you brought in your own game. Those that wanted a drink could have one, and everyone else could just say no. And of course, there’s also darts, pool, foosball or the rare bar shuffleboard, a personal favorite of mine.

Seeing live music is yet another great reason to spend an evening in a pub. Or a book club meeting. Or most obvious of all, dropping in for a meal. Beer is usually the reason I go to a pub, but it doesn’t have to be the only reason. There are quite a few more things to do there plus it’s a great place to meet up with friends.

It looks like others are starting to notice that avoiding pubs for an entire month is also bad for business. The UK organization Campaign For Pubs, who cares a lot more about pubs and a healthy economy than Alcohol Change UK, is trying to combat this inanity. Their mission is to “Protect, Support and Protect Our Pubs.” They’ve launched their own rebuttal social media campaign with the tagline “Support your local this January!” And even if, as Alan McLeod points out, it looks like it was generated by AI, it still seems like a good idea. They’re not even trying to change anyone’s mind about taking the month off from alcohol, but just trying to point out the (hopefully) unintended consequences of further sinking a pub’s revenue and the effect it will have on pubs during what’s historically already a very bad business month.

And here’s another one reminding people that pubs and bars carry more than just alcohol.

So even if you choose to stop drinking this month, please spend at least a little time and money supporting your local bar this Pub January. “Don’t be a schlub, go to a pub!”

NOTE: I made the four “Pub January” banners above, and the one below, to fit as a Facebook Cover, but feel free to use them wherever you like to help spread the word. They’re exactly the same except for the type of beer glass so you can pick your favorite.

Beer In Ads #4667: Beauty Contest Judge For Miss Rheingold 1963

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Thursday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this newspaper item, from May 10, 1962, there’s a photo showing several of the preliminary candidates to be Miss Rheingold 1963 along with one of the judges, New York Mets’ coach Casey Stengel, who seems to be enjoying himself.

Beer In Ads #4666: Miss Rheingold 1963, Who’s Got The Glasses?

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Wednesday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1962. 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 and beyond. In this newspaper item, from April 13, 1962, there’s a photo showing several of the more than 1,000 preliminary candidates to be Miss Rheingold 1963 with the headline: “Who’s Got The Glasses?” Over a few days of judging, six finalists will be chosen, one of which will become Miss Rheingold for 1963.