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.
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.
Thursday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1946. 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, American tennis champion Don Budge, compares the consistency of a tennis player to that of Rheingold Extra Dry.
Wednesday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1953. 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, English actor Edmund Gwenn, best known for playing “Kris Kringle” in “Miracle on 34th Street,” muses that fancy packages don’t necessarily make things better “but they do add an extra touch” just like Rheingold Extra Dry.
Tuesday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1946. 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, American burlesque/vaudeville dancer in the first half of the 20th century who performed with his wife as “The Dancing De Marcos” Tony and Sally DeMarco, talks about how he and his wife, the Dancing DeMarcos, spend hours and hours working on their dancing, but still out dancing during their leisure time, although then they also drink Rheingold Extra Dry.
Monday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1953. 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, American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the Big Band era Tommy Dorsey, talks about how he spends hours and hous working on new music and arranging, which makes him very thirsty for Rheingold Extra Dry.
