Essentially the first mainstream light beer, Miller Lite has a colorful history. After its first inception as “Gablinger’s Diet Beer,” which was created by the Rheingold Brewery in New York in 1967, the recipe was literally given by the inventor of the light beer process to one of Miller’s competing breweries, Chicago’s Meister Brau, which came out with the Meister Brau “Lite” brand in the early 70’s. When Miller acquired Meister Brau the recipe was reformulated and relaunched as “Miller Lite” in 1975, and heavily marketed using masculine pro sports players and other macho figures of the day in an effort to sell to the key beer-drinking male demographic. Miller’s approach worked where the two previous light beers had failed, and Miller’s early production totals of 12.8 million barrels quickly increased to 24.2 million barrels by 1977 as Miller rose to 2nd place in the American brewing marketplace. Other brewers responded, especially Anheuser-Busch with its heavily advertised Bud Light in 1982, which eventually overtook Lite in 1994. In 1992 light beer became the biggest domestic beer in America.
The Twist was a rock and roll dance popular in the early 1960s named after the song that originated it, The Twist. It was the first major international rock and roll dance style in which the couples did not have to touch each other while dancing. It was arguably the product of a logical progression of popular hip-swiveling activities, from swing dances such as the Lindy, to the famous pelvic moves of Elvis Presley and other 1950s rock-and-roll stars, and even the late-1950s toy fad, the Hula Hoop.