BusTalk Forum Index BusTalk
A Community Discussing Buses and Bus Operations Worldwide!
 
 BusTalk MainBusTalk Main FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups BusTalk GalleriesBusTalk Galleries   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

'RHEINGOLD BEER'S FAMOUS WHITE 3000'S'

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    BusTalk Forum Index -> General Transportation - All Other Modes
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Mr. Linsky
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 5071
Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2012 3:21 am    Post subject: 'RHEINGOLD BEER'S FAMOUS WHITE 3000'S' Reply with quote

New Yorkers over the age of fifty will probably remember the brand name Rheingold Beer and the company's brilliant publicity stunt in which a bevy of attractive young ladies competed annually for the privilege of being elected that year's Miss Rheingold and appearing in ads on billboards and on subways and buses throughout the New York area (we used to cast our votes at ballot boxes in some of the finer steak houses and pubs around the city).

Also to be remembered is Rheingold's fleet of White Motor Company COE Model 3000's which were certainly among the Cleveland manufacturer's most famous and best selling chassis of all time.

Pictured in a publicity shot in 1951 that included one of the many lovely Miss Rheingold winners is fleet number 1065 - a 1950 White 3000 featuring its patented 'power tilt' cab which raised in 30 seconds to provide easy engine access.

A little Rheingold history;

Samuel Liebmann founded this famous and long-lived New York brewery in 1855. Born in 1799, he left Wurtemberg, Germany for the United States in 1854, partially for political reasons and, along with his sons, Joseph, Henry, and Charles, built a large brewery at 36 Forrest Street in what was then the City of Brooklyn.

The sons carried on the business after Samuel died in 1872, but changed the corporate name to S. Liebmann's Sons and, 1905, on the fiftieth anniversary of the company, the three sons retired and their six sons took over the business.

Photo courtesy of 4509bus and is up for bid on eBay as item # 370613525273.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Mr. Linsky
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 5071
Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Sun May 27, 2012 1:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, you want to know more about faces made famous, briefly, by New York's Rheingold Beer;

Excerpted from an article by James Barron of The New York Times - June 26th. 2012.

Here is a question that no one asks of a Miss Subways: Does a Miss Rheingold miss Rheingold?

And here is a question that no one asks of you, the reader: Do we have to explain Miss Rheingold ? the cultural significance, and all that? The contest, the glamour, the year of stardom, the unassailable, unforgettable niche in the consciousness of New York, once upon a time?

Well, some readers might not remember, but there was indeed a time decades ago when the competition was an eagerly anticipated event and attracted future stars and millions of voters.

So now let's consider famous Miss Rheingolds. And that first question.

?I didn?t even like beer,? said Anne Newman Bacal, who was a Miss Rheingold finalist in 1960. ?I was drinking Scotch.?

Not in Rheingold advertisements or commercials, though. When the flashbulbs were popping and the cameras were rolling and the crowds were swarming, she could not even raise a glass.

?We could hold the glass,? she said. ?We could serve it to other people. But drink the beer that made them famous? Not in public. And that was not a problem, said Robbin Bain Gaudieri, who was Miss Rheingold 1959. ?A lot of us really didn?t drink at all!?

If there were not Miss Rheingolds from sea to shining sea ? Rheingold was a New York brand, and its expansion to California in the 1960s doomed a brewing company that once had roughly 35 percent of the market ? there were Miss Rheingolds from World?s Fair to World?s Fair. The first Miss Rheingold stepped into the spotlight at the 1939 World?s Fair, the last at the 1964 World?s Fair, the two World?s Fairs in ? where else? ? New York.

Those were the days of sky-blue dresses with matching sky-blue pumps, white purses and white gloves and, one year, of beer cans with the finalists? pictures above the label.

Some aficionados say the Miss Rheingold campaigns year after year were predecessors of ?American Idol,? because ordinary people could vote for one of the finalists. One finalist bragged, ?I got 20 million votes ? I would have beaten Nixon.?

Every vote was counted, according to Walter H. Liebman, whose family founded the brewery in 1854. ?We did it by weighing them? after first sorting them, finalist by finalist, he said.

There were finalists who became famous without winning, like Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren, and some Miss Rheingolds were a Miss in title only. Mrs. Mahoney said the legendary gossip columnist and broadcaster Walter Winchell found out that she was already married and had a 2-year-old son when she was chosen. Winchell went on the air and broke the news to all the ships at sea: ?Miss Rheingold is really a Mrs.?

Some Miss Rheingolds who were a Miss when they entered the contest became a Mrs. because of it. Mrs. Bacal told how she met the man she later married after she became a finalist, and how he smuggled himself into her hotel suite in a laundry cart, and how their first kiss took place in that laundry cart.

And how she then spirited him ? and the laundry cart, with him still in it ? out of the suite. ?We were well-chaperoned,? she said. ?Besides, my roommate would have sent him away if I hadn?t.?

She and four other Miss Rheingolds attended a party on Wednesday evening for the opening of the New-York Historical Society?s exhibition ?Beer Here: Brewing New York?s History,? which continues through Sept. 2. As Mrs. Mahoney looked at the display of the floor-length gown she had worn as Miss Rheingold 1956, the president of the society, Louise Mirrer, said she had a soft spot for Rheingold, which went out of business in 1976.

?I longed to be a Miss Rheingold,? Dr. Mirrer said. ?My greatest ambition, What little girl in New York didn?t want to be Miss Rheingold??

But Dr. Mirrer was too young to try out. ?The first time I was allowed to travel by myself was to go to the 1964 World?s Fair,? she said,
and she was hardly the only Miss Rheingold fan at the historical society party who still harbored a sense of loss.

?They ended the contest,? recalled Rick Goeren, a photo archivist who was 12 in 1964 and went on to collect scrapbooks of Miss Rheingold memorabilia, "and I said, ?This can?t be happening."

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York


A six pack of Rheingold beer featuring contestants for Miss Rheingold at the New-York Historical Society. Yana Paskova for The New York Times.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cyberider




Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 501
Location: Tempe, AZ

PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great advertisement, Mr. Linsky. I'm no beer drinker but I've seen Rheingold in old NYC photos. I thought the White 3000's were cool-looking trucks when I was a kid and still think so. Thanks for sharing more interesting stuff.

Dave
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    BusTalk Forum Index -> General Transportation - All Other Modes All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You can attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group