I’m quite certain that the first time I ever heard about beer was during a commercial for a Mets game. Now it boggles my mind how many beer commercials I must have watched in my lifetime. I’m sort of curious – have I drunk more beer or watched more beer commercials? I’m probably better off not knowing that particular score.
When I think of beer and the Mets, the first two brands that come to mind are Rheingold and Schaefer. In fact, I bet reading that made you recall the jingles for both brands.
Won’t you try extra dry Rheingold beer
Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one
The funny thing is – despite witnessing hundreds (thousands?) of the commercials for these two beers in my lifetime, I’ve never had a Rheingold and the only Schaefer I’ve ever had was Schaefer Light, which I only had outside the tri-state area when I found a place that sold six packs of that watered-down treat for $1.99 each.
But I think I’m better off not having tasted these brands. This way, I can think of the memorable commercials and not think of the goat piss that it probably was/is. I found a couple of neat commercials for these beers on YouTube, which I’ll include here for your viewing pleasure.
Here’s a great Rheingold one featuring Bob Murphy:
And here’s one for Schaefer that is undoubtedly in the beer commercial Hall of Fame:
So, I want to know two things from the readers. First, which commercial did you like better? Second, have you ever tried either of these two beers?
I have tried both in my day. Rheingold was still popular in the seventies, when I was first eligable to drink legally. One more thing, you may be too young to remember the Rheingold girls contests. A lot of good looking girls but then I’m dating myself….
Thanks Rob! And here I was thinking it was the AOL email address dating you…
You’re right – I don’t remember those contests. Doing some quick research, here’s what I found:
“As early as 1965, Rheingold Beer, for example, was airing TV spots featuring African American, Puerto Rican, and Asian actors. The venerable Miss Rheingold contests–an annual institution in New York since 1939–had been discontinued the previous year, due largely to the realization that a single Miss Rheingold could not accurately reflect the brewery’s racially diverse customer base.”
http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/beer_commercials.shtml
And for those of you demanding pictures…
http://www.rheingoldbrewingcompany.com/miss_rheingold.html
Bob Murphy was awesome. He managed to make smaller cans of beer sold for the same price sound like an upgrade.
We could really use his happy recaps this upcoming season. Mets broadcasters are the best. I can watch 9 innings of crap if GKR (and Ralph) are calling it.
Thanks Bus!
My favorite was calling them “cubs” – I’ve never heard anyone refer to the smaller size can/bottle that way. We used to call that size the extremely non-PC “nips”
You know, it’s really no small blessing that the Metsies have the best announcers in baseball. Can you imagine how much more painful the past couple of seasons would have been without Gary, Keith and Ron? (and Howie on the radio – can’t say much in favor of Wayne Hagan, except that he rides the 7 train to the ballpark.
Murph was great at his job, too. It takes a great announcer to make poor baseball worth listening to. The Mets would be down something like 9 to 3, and Murph would be saying “Fasten your seatbelts – we’re heading to the bottom of the ninth!” My favorite part of the Rheigngold commercial is Bob’s suggestion that an 8-pack of “cub cans” was just the right amount to get you through a ball game. That would be 64 ounces of beer in 9 innings. Fasten your seatbelt, indeed.
Great post. If I’m not mistaken, the “kid” in the Schaefer commercial was Larry Kert, who was the original Tony in West Side Story.
Back in the old days, before your time, Brian, Schaefer was the chief sponsor for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Ballantine had the Yankees and
Rheingold had the NY Giants. Each team had two sponsors, a beer sponsor and a tobacco sponsor (Dodgers-Lucky Strike, Yankees-Muriel Cigars, Giants-Chesterfield). In the Giants last few years in NYC they switched beer sponsors to Knickerbocker Beer (“Knock, knock for Knick”).
The Miss Rheingold posters brought back memories of those days–even the subway system had a “Miss Subways” which was similar to the Miss Rheingold ads.
Wow NormE – lots of information in that comment, thanks. I should have had you write this post!
I went to Kert’s Wikipedia page and it did not mention the commercial. It gave his date of birth as 1930, so if it was him he would have been in his early 40s.
One of the fun things about that Schaefer commercial is one of the guys in it is the actor who later went on to play Mr. Bentley in “The Jefferson’s.”
Brian,
As an aside, which might not interest many Mets fans, a number of the Miss Rheingold contestants, went on fame. Elyse Knox (1942) starred in the old Joe Palooka movies, married football great Tom Harmon and is the mother of Mark Harmon. Tippi Hedren (1953) starred in the Hitchcock movie “The Birds” and is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith. Hope Lange (1954) had a very successful career as an actress. Madelyn Darrow (the winner in 1958) married tennis great Pancho Gonzalez and gave up her career to raise their children.
Man, I could just listen to Murph say “Rheingold” all day long…
[…] collection, I think it’s greatest value might be as an excuse to link back to Brian’s Rheingold post from last […]
Hi Brian,
Yes, notwithstanding the fact that ‘the kid’ was over 40, it was indeed Larry Kert, the original Tony in West Side Story!
Nothing looked more refreshing and appealing to this NYC-area kid growing up in the ’60s pre-air conditioning on a hot summer afternoon than the sight of a Rheingold or Schaefer beer being poured into a frosty cold glass on a ballgame beer commercial. It made that frothy sound, and that little rivulet of condensation running down the side — oh man! It just made beer look like the best drink in the world … which made it all the more disappointing to experience it in reality: watery and sour, at least to my palate that had been formed by years of sugary soft drinks. I especially remember the Schaefer ones that showed some sweaty athlete or musician or someone working hard in the sun: “This man is working up a thirst. Not just any thirst. And not just one, not even two beers will do …” We would pour our ginger ale pretending it was beer and see if we could achieve the Rheingold “10 minute head.”
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