Rheingold Extra Dry Lager Beer Flat Top Can

Miss Rheingold Margie McNally Can

This flat top container represents one of the most famous promotional campaigns in mid-century American brewing history: the annual Miss Rheingold contest conducted by Liebmann Breweries. This specific container features candidate Margie McNally and bears the mandatory brewery text indicating it was produced for Liebmann's facility in Orange, New Jersey.

The Miss Rheingold Promotion

Beginning in the 1940s, Liebmann Breweries built one of the nation's most successful advertising phenomena around the selection of Miss Rheingold. Millions of ballots were cast annually in grocery stores, taverns, and restaurants throughout the brewery's primary distribution footprint, rivaling standard electoral turnouts in regional participation. Finalists were selected by company executives and affiliated retailers before the public voted to crown the official brand ambassador for the following year.

To promote the competition, Liebmann took the innovative step of placing photographic portraits of the candidates directly on production beer cans. Margie McNally, a New York native and professional model, appeared on these commemorative candidate cans and ultimately emerged as the victor, becoming Miss Rheingold 1957. Following her tenure as Miss Rheingold, McNally continued her career in entertainment and modeling, later marrying publishing magnate Robert E. Petersen and co-founding the famed Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Collector Notes

Cans from the Miss Rheingold series are among the most celebrated graphic portrait cans in breweriana collecting. While Liebmann packaged beer across facilities including Brooklyn and Orange, examples carrying the Orange, New Jersey mandatory text are particularly sought after by regional and thematic collectors alike. The portrait series stands as a prime example of mid-twentieth-century lithographed consumer advertising.