Rheingold Extra Dry

Black text on yellow sun background with red around the rim.

Rheingold Beer, introduced in 1883, is a New York beer that held 35 percent of the state's beer market from 1950 to 1960. According to the New York Times, "Rheingold Beer was once a top New York brew guzzled regularly by a loyal cadre of workingmen who would just as soon have eaten nails as drink another beer maker's suds." At the center of its media campaign was the "Miss Rheingold" pageant. 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 said to be as highly anticipated as the race for the White House. Rheingold shut down operations in 1976, when they were unable to compete with the large national breweries.