Thursday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1955. In the 1940s and 1950s, Rheingold recruited a number of prominent celebrities to do ads for them, all using the tagline: “My beer is Rheingold — the Dry beer!” In this 1948 ad, English stage and film actor Cedric Hardwicke, explains that the most unpredictable part of any performance is the audience, but contrasts that with the consistent positive reaction he gets when after a show he orders a round of Rheingold Extra Dry.
Wednesday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1945 and 1948. In the 1940s and 1950s, Rheingold recruited a number of prominent celebrities to do ads for them, all using the tagline: “My beer is Rheingold — the Dry beer!” In this 1948 ad, American singer on Broadway, radio and television Jane Pickens, explains that she’s a perfectionist that practices hours every day to perfect her music, and that carries over to her selection of beer, too, which for her is Rheingold Extra Dry.
“She was the musical leader of the Pickens Sisters, a trio born on a Georgia plantation that reached national stardom in the 1930s with its own radio show, concert tours and records.” In this ad, from 1945, she talks about how sometimes she gets tired out from all the singing she does, and when that happens she likes to relax with a tasty Rheingold Extra Dry.
Today is the birthday of Meg Gill, founder and owner, along with Tony Yanow, of Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles. Meg is also the former national sales manager for Speakeasy Ales & Lagers in San Francisco. When I first met Meg she was working for Oskar Blues, and later she organized the Opening Gala for SF Beer Week in years two and three, a Herculean undertaking. Golden Road made some waves a few years ago when they were acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev, and I haven’t seen her since she went over to the “winning team,” and alienated us losers. Although she did try to pretend it didn’t happen when Golden Road announced they were building a taproom in the Temescal area of Oakland and were met with some opposition. Ultimately, it was approved and they should be building a brewpub in the near future. Still, join me in wishing Meg a very happy birthday.
Justin Crossley, from the Brewing Network, with Meg at the 22nd Celebrator Anniversary Party in 2010.
Speakeasy owner Forest Gray, Brian Lenzo, from Blue Palms in L.A., and Meg at a Speakeasy Anniversary event several years ago.
Faction’s (then Triple Rock’s) Rodger Davis, struggling to keep the sun out of his eyes, with Meg at the Sour Fest.
Meg and me at SF Beer Week’s Opening Gala a few years ago. (Photo by Mike Condie.)
An older photo of Meg and Dave Hopwood, from Stone Brewing. (Photo purloined from Facebook.)
Tuesday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1956. In the 1940s and 1950s, Rheingold recruited a number of prominent celebrities to do ads for them, all using the tagline: “My beer is Rheingold — the Dry beer!” In this ad, American stage and screen actor David Wayne, explains that in acting, “the suit must fit the character,” just as your beer should fir the tavern you drink in, which in New York means Rheingold Extra Dry.
Today is the birthday of Henry James Pye, who “was an English poet, and Poet Laureate from 1790 until his death” in 1813. In one of his works, entitled “The sportsman’s dictionary: or, The gentleman’s companion: for town and country.” and his version was based on an earlier anthology work which he “Improved and Enlarged” and published in 1807. Under the entry for “Glanders” — an infectious disease primarily in horses — something was prescribed called “Chalybeate Beer” that included directions for how to make it. From what I can tell, “Chalybeate waters, also known as ferruginous waters, are mineral spring waters containing salts of iron.” They were apparently thought to be good for you and “in the 17th century, chalybeate water was said to have health-giving properties and many people have promoted its qualities.” Water from the springs was bottles and sold as medicine. Chalybeate springs were located throughout Europe, though especially in England, Scotland Wales, and there were at least seventeen prominent springs in the United States.
A chalybeate spring, identifiable because of how the iron turns the color of the water.
Here’s the passage about how to make Chalybeate beer (followed by the original):
A Chalybeate Beer, may be made as follows: Steel filings, sixteen ounces; cinnamon and mace, each two ounces; gentian-root bruised, four ounces, anniseeds bruised, three ounces. Infuse in one gallon, fine, clear, old, strong beer for a month, stopped close, shaking often, then strain. Give half a pint for s dose, in a pint of cold water, once or twice a day, upon an empty stomach, leaving the horse an hour or two to his repose. I have taken this from the Vinum Chalybeatum of Boerhaave, substituting old beer, which I have reason to believe a good menstruum for the steel, instead of Rhenish wine; and adding one of the best bitters. Should cinnamon and mace be thought too expensive, Jamaica pepper, or allspice, would be a cheap and proper substitute. It was the opinion of that great man, that no drug, diet, or regimen, could equal the preparations of iron, for promoting that power in the animal body by which blood is made; of course, it must be a powerful specific, in all cases of over-relaxed solids, debilitation and consumption. Would not chalybeate beer be a cheap and efficacious medicine for the poor?
Now doesn’t that sound tasty?
The Sandrock Spring, looking towards Blackgang Chine, located on the Isle of Wight.
For our 133rd Session, our host will be Gareth, who writes about beer in Leeds, England at Barrel Aged Leeds. For his topic, he’s asking us to look just outside our door in out local community for Hometown Glories, by which Gareth “had in mind an imminent visit to the place I spent my formative years and blogging about it’s highlights and wider beer scene.”
But he also has some possible starting points for you to consider:
- Describing the types of bars/pubs you have in your home town, how popular are they? Has craft beer culture made much of a splash?
- Are there any well-known breweries? Is there a particular beer or style that is synonymous with your home town
- History of the town and how that can be reflected in its drinking culture
- Tales of your youth, early drinking stories
- Ruminations on what once was and what is now? Have you moved away and been pleasantly surprised or disappointed on return visits?
My visit [to my hometown] over the next week is going to hopefully inspire me, and it’s a great excuse to visit a few old haunts and new venues. If you’re less enamoured with your hometown, or even if you left and never returned, feel free to respond anyway – maybe you’re an adopted native of somewhere better. My home town is no longer my home, so if you’d like to write about the place you feel most at home in relation to beer, that would be welcomed too.
So by Friday, March 2, or thereabouts, start your trip down memory lane to your hometown, or just open the door if you still live there. Either way, to participate in the March Session, simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there, or tag him on Twitter with your post.
My own hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Monday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1951. In the 1940s and 1950s, Rheingold recruited a number of prominent celebrities to do ads for them, all using the tagline: “My beer is Rheingold — the Dry beer!” In this ad, American actress of stage, television and film, radio host and novelist Ilka Chase, talks about how much she’s a New Yorker, even naming her latest book “New York 22,” and preferring a New York beer, too, like Rheingold Extra Dry.
Sunday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1944. In the 1940s and 1950s, Rheingold recruited a number of prominent celebrities to do ads for them, all using the tagline: “My beer is Rheingold — the Dry beer!” In this ad, American cartoonist George McManus, talks about enjoying cabbage as much as one of his characters from “Bringing Up Father” does, especially if it’s paired with Rheingold Extra Dry.
Saturday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1940 and 1950. In the 1940s and 1950s, Rheingold recruited a number of prominent celebrities to do ads for them, all using the tagline: “My beer is Rheingold — the Dry beer!” In this 1940 ad, actress, expert swimmer and tennis star Jinx Falkenburg, spends a rigorous day modeling and is relieved when the day is finally over and she can enjoy a glass of Rheingold Extra Dry. Falkenburg was also the first Miss Rheingold, a very successful promotional contest Rheingold ran for twenty-five years in which a new model was chosen each year to me “Miss Rheingold” for the year and then Rheingold’s advertising for the subsequent year featured Miss Rheingold for that year, as well. Jinx Falkenburg was chosen as the first Miss Rheingold by the brewery, while every subsequent year she was picked by consumer voting. In one year as many as 23 million people voted to pick one Miss Rheingold.
Falkenburg also did another ad ten years later, in 1950. In this ad, she appears with her husband Tex McCrary, who “was an American journalist and public relations specialist who popularized the talk show genre for television and radio along with his wife, Jinx Falkenburg, with whom he hosted the first radio talk show, ‘Meet Tex and Jinx’ as well as the radio show “Hi Jinx” and the television talk shows ‘At Home’ and ‘The Swift Home Service Club.'”
Friday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1958. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Rheingold recruited a number of prominent celebrities to do ads for them, all using the tagline: “My beer is Rheingold — the Dry beer!” In this ad, Canadian-American bandleader and violinist Guy Lombardo, explains that the best way to go sailing is to get a good crew to do all the work and stock lots of Rheingold Extra Dry to drink while they sail.
