As is the tradition, we have old radio on Friday Hiatuses - but not old old radio. Crackling AM DJ radio. Booming ads and jingles.
Which one? For a while, America had its choice of Gabors.
My transgression dahlink.
Charlie Tuna - the DJ, not the beatnik fish - takes a break to sell you some juice-cylinders:
The Energizer came out of Eveready, which I’ve always viewed as superior to Ray-O-Vac.
I don’t know when the brand was launched, but it made a big splash in the 80s? With the Energizer Bunny ads. Perhaps the first:
Says one comment:
Well, I wonder. Imdb gives a brief bio. A fair amount of credits. No obit in CA comes up right away in the newspapers.com archive, but if I loosen the search terms, this comes up. It’s him; Woodland Hills, donations can be given to the Actors Fund.
Western contributed to popular culture with its 1960s era advertising slogan, "It's the oooooonly way to fly!" Spoken by Wally Bird, an animated bird hitching a ride atop the fuselage of a Western airliner, and voiced by veteran actor Shepard Menken, the phrase soon found its way into animated cartoons by Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera. Another famous advertising campaign by the airline centered on Star Trek icons William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
WHAT
But hold on.
Hollllld on
Now I want to go back to 1986 and never leave.
Finally: one of the YouTube videos that had old air checks - can’t find it at the moment - had a news report from KSTP’s John MacDougal.
New Nu. Surprise yourself! It’s not as bad as the other spreads. What is it? Why, it’s a spread! Spread it on toast! Spread it on bread that is not toast! Spread it on a bagel! Just kidding, those are years away.
That’s the basic idea. Now a pantomime of Mom and Daughter in the perfect suburban home, transported to a realm of sensory ecstasy by Nucoa, which does not need that final vowel, I guess:
The yellow hue is natural. It’s keratin!
When they say “no benzoate preservative” you know that’s been in the news. From the wikipedia page:
Sodium benzoate is also used in fireworks as a fuel in whistle mix, a powder that emits a whistling noise when compressed into a tube and ignited.
That could’ve made for some amusing flatulence.
A charming little animation:
Doesn’t it seem as if the same people sang every jingle in every ad?
A brief intro that raises a few question. Yes, YouTube, but only 16 seconds.
Never heard of it.
This series originated as a series of comedy sketches in 1950 on the Garroway at Large (1949) series, which ran from 1949-51.
Norton was born in 1918 and was working in TV until 1994, when he did a Murphy Brown ep. He was in everything.
Pure Americana.
He did ads:
Comment:
I mainly remember Cliff Norton from the Funny Manns films, but the first time I saw him outside that series was in the final episode of Kolchak The Night Stalker, playing a paroled smuggler with a fancy for corny jokes. Of course it was my favorite part of the episode.
The Funny Manns is an American syndicated television program that first appeared in 1961. It was hosted by comedian Cliff Norton and featured re-edited silent comedies.
Here it’s old episode of a child star, Mickey (Himself) McGuire.
You might recognize him!
It’s Mickey Rooney.
That'll do! Thanks for your patience. Back on Monday.
