Phillip Liebmann

PHILLIP LIEBMANN, HEADED BREWERY ‘Miss Reingold’ Competition Originator Is Dead at 56 Philip Liebmann, former president of Liebmann Breweries, makers of Rheingold Beer, died Wednesday night in a nursing home at Portchester, N.Y., after a long illness. He was 56 years old and lived in Rye. Mr. Liebmann was the fourth generation of his family to be involved in making and selling beer. He joined the family business in 1936, upon his graduation from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania. He became president of the brewery in 1950, when his father, Alfred, retired to become chairman of the company’s executive committee. Four years after entering the family business, Mr. Liebmann began the annual “Miss Rheingold” beauty contests. They brought fame to such beauties as Jinx Falkenberg, the first Miss Rheingold, and profit to the company through sharply higher sales. Pepsi Bought Business In 1954, under Mr. Liebmann, the Liebmann Breweries became the first East Coast company in the field to expand to the mushrooming West Coast market. The New York company acquired Acme Breweries, California’s oldest and largest company in the field. Ten years later, the family’s ownership of the 110-year-old Liebmann Breweries ended with its sale to the Pub United Corporation, formerly Pepsi-Cola United Bottlers, Inc. Two years after the sale of the family breweries, Mr. Liebmann joined the advertising concern of McCann-Erickson as a consutant, a post he held until a few months ago, when illness prevented him from continuing. He was a director of the Untied States Brewers Foundation and a member of the National Association of Manufacturers. Married Three Times Mr. Liebmann was born Feb. 19, 1915, the son of Alfred Liebmann and Alma Wallach Liebmann. He attended the Westminster School, Simsbury, Conn., before going on to the Wharton School. In 1942 He married Dorothy Walp. They were divorced the following year. Mr. Leibmann’s second marriage was to the actress, Linda Darnell, in 1954. That marriage also ended in divorce, the following year. Soon afterward, Mr. Liebmann married Joan Barry. He leaves his wife, a daughter, Alfreda, and a sister, Mrs. Dorothea Liebmann Straus. A funeral service will take place Monday at 10 A.M in the Church of Resurrection in Rye.

The New York Times Published: February 4, 1972 Copyright © The New York Times