That was an upgrade that was done with the auto-link. You use to have to surround it with [youtube] [/ youtube] for it to be imbededed
The Rockford Files
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That was an upgrade that was done with the auto-link. You use to have to surround it with [youtube] [/ youtube] for it to be imbededed
Ok, again here I go with more Retro stuff for you all to reminisce about. This time since we hit the subject, Retro Commercials. So, here are the ones that I can remember growing up and they are still stuck in my head to this date! The advertisers should get royalties! Sorry this is a long post but worth reading!
FOOD
Trix Cereal!
Trix is a brand of breakfast cereal made by General Mills for the North American and by Nestlé for the European, South American and Asian markets. The cereal consists of fruit-flavored, sweetened, ground-corn pieces. These were originally round cereal pieces, but were later changed to puffed fruit-shaped pieces. In January 2007, Trix Cereal company General Mills returned Trix cereal to their original shape.
Joe Harris created the Trix Rabbit, an anthropomorphic cartoon rabbit. In Trix television commercials, this rabbit would continually try to trick children into giving him a bowl of Trix cereal. He would be discovered every time, and the kids would tell him that "Trix were for kids," and take back their cereal. He did occasionally succeed in obtaining and eating the Trix on some occasions, however.
The rabbit's popularity has led him to appear in some other commercials, as well, such as a Got Milk? advertisement.
This commercial scene was featured in "Kamek's Great Journey: The Preschooler Movie". Silly Rabbit, Trix Are For Kids!
Mikey & Life Cereal
Life is a breakfast cereal made of whole grain oats, distributed by the Quaker Oats Company. It was introduced during the year 1961.
Life was popularized during the 1970s by an advertising campaign featuring "Mikey," a finicky four-year-old who "hates everything." The commercials featured the catch phrase "He likes it! Hey Mikey!" The ad campaign ran from 1972 to 1985, becoming one of the longest running and popular commercials of all time. The "Mikey" character became so ingrained in the consciousness of American popular culture that urban legends began to develop surrounding the actors in the commercial. The most popular urban legend was that the actor who portrayed "Mikey" had died from eating Pop Rocks while drinking Coca-Cola. According to the urban legend, "Mikey" had a liver condition, and the mixing of Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola caused his liver to fail. In reality, John Gilchrist, who played "Mikey," is still alive and works as an advertising account manager in New York. The other kids in the "Mikey" commercial were Gilchrist's brothers in real life, and are also still alive.
In 1978, Cinnamon Life was introduced, followed shortly thereafter by "Raisin Life". Today Cinnamon Life comprises one third of total Life sales. "Raisin Life" wasn't as popular however and was soon discontinued sometime in the early 1980s. Twenty five years after the release of Cinnamon Life, Honey Graham Life was released in early 2004. In late 2005 Life added a new flavor, Life Vanilla Yogurt Crunch and in 2006 another new flavor, Life Chocolate Oat Crunch. These 2 Flavors lasted around 2 years before being discontinued during the Summer of 2008. In 2008 Life introduced yet another new version, "Maple & Brown Sugar Life". In Canada and certain areas of the United States, there is also Multigrain Life. In the early 2000s, there was also a short-lived version called Baked Apple Life.
The cereal's advertisements currently sport the slogan "Life is full of surprises".
Thanks Petey for that one!
xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEXzx-TINc
Cocoa Puffs!
"Are you coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs?"
Cocoa Puffs is a brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal manufactured by General Mills. Introduced in 1958, the cereal consists of small spheres of corn, oats and rice that have been flavored with chocolate. Essentially, Cocoa Puffs are Kix cereal with added chocolate flavoring. (Similarly, Trix was, for most of its existence, Kix plus fruit flavoring and coloring.) Kix cereal is produced at the same factories as Cocoa Puffs, but differs in both density and circumference.
The mascot of Cocoa Puffs is Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, whose catchphrase is "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs". Sonny was originally dark brown but has since become orange. He wore a striped pink and white shirt, but this has been removed since 1993. The original voice of Sonny was Chuck McCann.
On several occasions, Cocoa Puffs boxes have stated that they are made with real Hershey's chocolate. Cocoa Puffs are sold in Latin America and Canada under the Nesquik brand thanks to a partnership between Nestlé and General Mills; Nestlé and Hershey are major competitors in the chocolate business.
A cereal bar of Cocoa Puffs has also been made. A layer of dried, sweetened condensed milk is added to the bottom of it, and marketed as a substitute for a bowl of milk and cereal.
The newest addition was introduced in the summer of 2008, Cocoa Puffs Combos, which consists of the recognizable chocolate puffs as well as vanilla puffs. Unlike the original Cocoa Puffs, the Combos cereal does not contain any real cocoa. Instead, it contains artificial, imitation cocoa.
Tony The Tiger & Frosted Corn Flakes
Frosted Flakes is a cereal first introduced by Kellogg's. consisting of corn flakes "frosted" or coated with sugar. The "Frosted Flakes" name is used by Kellogg's in United States and Canada. The cereal was first introduced in 1952 as Sugar Frosted Flakes. The word "Sugar" was dropped from the product in the 1980s during a time when many cereals dropped "Sugar" from their titles.
"Frosted Flakes", by itself, is purely a description of the product; as a result that term cannot be trademarked and can be used by any company making a similar product. By contrast, "Kellogg's Frosted Flakes" and "Frosties" are registered trademarks in their respective markets. Tony the Tiger has been the mascot of Frosted Flakes since its introduction Tony is known for uttering the cereal's slogan: "They're Gr-r-reat!". Tony the Tiger was originally voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who continued to provide his voice until his death in 2005.
The character is currently voiced by the former professional wrestling play-by-play announcer, Lee Marshall. In 1997, seven-time USA barefoot water skiing champion Lee Marshall played Tony the Tiger in a Frosted Flakes TV commercial and is the current voice of tony.
Another character, Katy the Kangaroo, was on the Frosted Flakes box for a short time.
Pringles!
Pringles is a brand of potato chips produced by Procter & Gamble. Pringles are sold in over 30 countries and have yearly sales of over $1 billion. Even though the Pringles brand of potato chips was first sold in the United States in October of 1968, this product was not rolled out across America until the mid-1970s.
They were originally known as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips", but the name was slightly altered for introduction to the national market. Procter & Gamble chose the "Pringles" name from a Cincinnati telephone book, having been inspired by the street name of Pringle Drive in Finneytown, Ohio, simply due to its pleasing sound. The original Pringles television commercials were written, produced and directed by Thomas Scott Cadden (composer of the original Mr. Clean Jingle) in 1968, while working at Tatham-Laird and Kudner Advertising Agency in Chicago.
According to the patent, Pringles were invented by Alexander Liepa of Montgomery, Ohio. Science-fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe developed the machine that cooks them.
Pringles is advertised in the United States, Ireland and Britain with the slogan "Once you pop, you can't stop and elsewhere with the slogan "Everything pops with Pringles". In the United States and Canada, Pringles is no longer marketed as potato crisps, but rather as "potato chips".
Kool-Aid!
Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins and his wife Kitty in Hastings, Nebraska, USA. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. To reduce shipping costs, in 1927, Perkins discovered a way to remove the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder. This powder was named Kool-Ade. A few years later, it was renamed 'Kool-Aid', due to a change in U.S. government regulations regarding the need for fruit juice in products using the suffix. Perkins moved his production to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General Foods in 1953. Advertising and promotion
The mascot of Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid Man is a large anthropomorphic frosty pitcher filled with Kool-Aid (usually cherry, though other flavors have been used). He was introduced in Kool-Aid advertising shortly after General Foods acquired the brand. In TV and print ads, Kool-Aid Man was known for bursting suddenly through walls, seemingly summoned by the making and imbibing of Kool-Aid by children.
His catch phrase is "Oh, yeah!" For many years, the Kool-Aid Man was portrayed by a live-action actor in a giant pitcher suit; starting in the mid-1990s, the character was computer-generated. The most recent commercial, however, features a new actor in a whole-new pitcher costume.
Hastings still celebrates a yearly summer festival called Kool-Aid Days on the second weekend in August, in honor of their city's claim to fame.
Jolly Green Giant!
The Jolly Green Giant is a symbol of the Green Giant food company of the United States, appearing as a smiling green-skinned giant wearing a tunic, wreath and boots made of leaves. In 1973, JGG teamed up with "Little Green Sprout", the diminutive young green giant. Created by Leo Burnett, the Giant first appeared in advertisements in 1928; the name originally came from a variety of unusually large pea called the "Green Giant" that the company canned and sold.
The original televised Jolly Green Giant was nothing more than a puppet that, through the use of stop-motion animation, stalked through the "valley" and said little more than "fo fum fi fe". The original jolly green giant portrayed himself as a giant that not only was green, but also jolly, this because green was his favorite colour and he was also a nice guy to be around. The commercial, which first aired in 1953, was deemed too scary for younger viewers and the puppet was discarded. The next commercial featured several different animated elves (similar to the Keebler elves) working in a "factory" around the valley while Keith Wegeman (shown in far-away shots) stood over the area, chanting the soon-to-be-famous "ho, ho, ho" phrase.
Mounds! (candy)
Mounds is a candy bar made by Hershey's, and is the sister product of Almond Joy. Like Almond Joy, it consists of a coconut based center; however, it is topped with dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and has no almond in its center.
Mounds uses a packaging and logo design similar to its sister product, with Almond Joy's blue replaced by red. The candy's famous 1970s ad campaign used a jingle, "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't", written by Leon Carr.
A limited edition Mounds Island Orange candy bar was introduced in 2006 with orange colored and flavored coconut.
A similar coconut filled chocolate bar by the name of Bounty is manufactured by Mars, Incorporated and sold in markets other than US.
Mounds was created in 1920 as a single piece for 5 cents. In 1929 the Peter Paul Company purchased the line and had begun production. The format changed to two pieces that still sold for 5 cents, with the price rising to 10 cents after World War II. Mounds also was made in milk chocolate as well. During World War II Peter Paul was faced with severe shortages of sugar and coconut which had been shipped from the Philippines before war broke out. Rather than sacrifice quality, the company discontinued some of its lesser selling brands and concentrated production on the Mounds candy bar. Over the years Peter Paul added several products to its line, including the Almond Joy candy bar and York Peppermint Patties.
Cadbury and Peter Paul merged in 1978, and Hershey Foods purchased the company's U.S. operations in 1988.
The TV Jingle Lyrics
Sometimes you feel like a nut
Sometimes you don't
Almond Joy's got nuts
Mounds don't
Almond Joy's got rich milk chocolate
Coconut and a crunchy nut, too
Mounds got deep dark chocolate
Chewey coconut ooh
Sometimes you feel like a nut
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Sometimes you don't
Oooh oooh
Almond Joy's got nuts
Mounds don't
Peter Paul Almond Joy's got nuts
Peter Paul Mounds don't
Because...
Sometimes you feel like a nut
Sometimes you don't
CLEANERS
MR.Clean!
Mr. Clean made its debut in 1958. Within the first six months of the introduction, Mr. Clean became the best-selling household cleaner on the market.
In November 1962, Mr. Clean was assigned a first name Veritably Clean as a result of the "Give Mr. Clean a First Name" promotion.
In the winter of 1963 Mr. Clean played a police officer "Grimefighter" who really arrested dirt problems.
In the summer of 1963 Mr. Clean became the first liquid household cleaner in a plastic bottle.
In April 1965 Mr. Clean got mad at dirt and appeared as "New, Mean Mr. Clean."
In the spring of 1966 Mr. Clean played "two-fisted" grime fighter, who knocked out dirt with one hand and left the shine with the other. Also offered a spray dispenser as promotion pack to increase convenience of use.
In spring 1966 Mr. Clean offered clean and shine, in the "Mr. Clean leaves a sheen where you clean" campaign. He grew whiskers for brute strength, had a black eye to show floor "shiner" and testified in court against dirt.
In Spring 1968 Mr. Clean was a "Changed Man" and was reformulated to include pine aroma and better cleaning "in the bucket."
In October 1970 "Lemon Refreshed" Mr. Clean premiered.
In the summer of 1974 "Two Fisted Mr. Clean" was introduced, who was great at cleaning on one hand and on the other hand he leaves what's shiny gleaming. (This commercial brought back the use of the original Mr. Clean jingle).
In July 1976 "Sunshine Fresh Mr. Clean" with improved fragrance was introduced.
In December 1981 Mr. Clean was had a new no-wax floor formula.
In January 1983 Mr. Clean offered Lemon Bright improved no-wax formula.
In March 1985 Mr. Clean celebrated his 24th anniversary as "The Man Behind the Shine" with donation of all Mr. Clean television commercials to the UCLA Film Television and Radio Archives.
In July 1985 a new Mr. Clean was introduced with better full-strength cleaning to clean down to the shine like never before. Also in 1985 a national search for Mr. Clean look-alikes launched in Los Angeles.
In 1996 Mr. Clean appeared in "How Times Have Changed", once again using the original Mr. Clean jingle and the new Ultra power in it.
House Peters, Jr., an actor, appeared "live" as "Mr. Clean" but never appeared in any of the Mr. Clean commercials airing in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He died from pneumonia at the age of 92 on October 1, 2008.
Mr. Clean Mr. Clean....
Palmolive!
Palmolive (soap), a brand of soap made by the Colgate-Palmolive company.
Madge the Manicurist - The Colgate-Palmolive Company used Madge the Manicurist as their spokesperson in a series of successful television spots from 1966-92. Working in the Salon East Beauty Parlor, Madge pre-soaked all her customer's fingernails in Palmolive's green dish washing detergent and advised them "Palmolive softens hands while you do the dishes." Madge's catchphrase was "You're soaking in it." The campaign was created by the Ted Bates Ad Agency in 1966. The Madge character was popular around the world. The French called her Francoise; the Germans called her Tilly; and the Finnish called her Marissa.
According to Jan Miner "When I get off the plane, it's always, 'Madge!'" As an homage to the Madge character, the writers of the occult drama BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER added the cultural reference "You're soaking in it, Bud." to episode "Go Fish" (5/05/1998).
Scrubbing Bubbles!
The Scrubbing Bubbles are mascots for Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner from S. C. Johnson & Son. They are anthropomorphic bubbles with brush bristles on their undersides.
They were originally created to promote Dow Bathroom Cleaner; when Dow sold some of its consumer product lines to S.C. Johnson, the cleaner was renamed after its scrubbing mascots. The ad campaign was created by the advertising agency of Della Femina Travisano & Partners.
In the 1970s, the popular commercials featured Paul Winchell, (best known as the voice of Tigger in Winnie the Pooh cartoons), as the voice of the leader of the Scrubbing Bubbles.The commercials and animation were done by animator Tissa David.
In 1995, pranksters at MIT placed Scrubbing Bubbles on the side of the school's Media Lab building to celebrate the Media Lab's tenth anniversary
We Work Hard So You Don't Have Tooooooo!
TOYS MOSTLY FROM THE SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS
Slinky!
Slinky is a helix-shaped toy that can travel down stairs end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum.
The toy was invented and developed by naval engineer Richard James in the early 1940s and demonstrated at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1945.
The toy was a hit, selling its entire inventory of 400 units in ninety minutes. James and his wife Betty formed James Industries in Philadelphia to manufacture Slinky and several related toys such as the Slinky Dog and Suzie, the Slinky Worm. In 1960, James' wife Betty became president of James Industries, and, in 1964, moved the operation to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1998, Betty James sold the company to Poof Products, Inc.
Slinky was originally priced at $1, and has remained modestly priced throughout its history as a result of Betty James' concern about the toy's affordability for financially disadvantaged customers. Slinky has seen uses other than as a toy in the playroom: it has appeared in the classroom as a teaching tool, in wartime as a radio antenna, and in physics experiments with NASA. In 2001, Slinky became Pennsylvania's official state toy, and, in 2003, was named to the Toy Industry Association's "Century of Toys List". In its first 60 years Slinky has sold 300 million units.
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy.
Operation! (game)
Operation is a battery-operated game of physical skill that tests players' hand-eye co-ordination. Made by Milton Bradley, it has been in production since 1965, the year in which the game was invented by John Spinello.
The game is a variant on the old-fashioned wire loop electric game popular at fun-fairs and the flammer stores around the United States. It consists of an "operating table", lithographed with a comic likeness of a patient (nicknamed "Cavity Sam") with a large, red light-bulb for his nose. In the surface are a number of openings, which reveal fictional and humorously-named ailments made of white plastic. To work, the game requires two D batteries.
Gameplay
There are two sets of cards: Doctor and Specialist cards. The Specialist cards are dealt out evenly amongst the players at the beginning of the game.
Players take turns to pick Doctor cards, which offer a cash payment for removing a particular ailment, using a pair of tweezers connected with wire to the board. If a player successfully removes the ailment they collect the amount shown on their card. However, if the tweezers touch the metal edge of the opening during the attempt (closing the circuit), a buzzer sounds, the patient's nose lights up red, and the player loses their turn. The player holding the Specialist card for that piece then has a try, getting double the fee if they succeed. Since there are times when the player drawing a certain Doctor card also holds the matching Specialist card, s/he can be tempted to purposely botch the first attempt, in order to succeed on the second try, for double value.
The winner is the player with the most money after all the pieces have been extracted.
The game can be difficult, due to the shapes of the plastic ailments, and the fact the openings are scarcely larger than the ailments themselves.
Adam's Apple: in the throat; The Adam's apple is a colloquial term referring to the thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx that becomes more visually prominent during puberty. Worth 100 points.
Broken Heart: a heart shape with a crack through it on the right side of the chest. The phrase "broken heart" refers to an emotional feeling in which someone is very sad for some reason. 100 points.
Wrenched Ankle: a wrench in the right ankle. 100 points.
Butterflies in the Stomach: a large butterfly in the middle of the torso. The name comes from the feeling in the stomach when nervous or afraid. 100 points.
Spare Ribs: two ribs fused together as one piece. "Spare Ribs" are a variety of meat. 150 points.
Water on the Knee: a pail of water in the knee. Colloquialism for fluid accumulation around the knee joint. 150 points.
Funny Bone: a play on the anatomical name for the upper arm bone (the humerus), and a reference to the colloquial name of the ulnar nerve. 200 points.
Charley Horse: a small horse resting near the hip joint. A play on the real charley horse, which is a sudden cramp in the leg or foot, that can be cured with massage or stretching. 200 points.
Writer's Cramp: a pencil in the forearm. Refers to the real writer's cramp which is a soreness in the wrist, and can be cured resting it. 200 points.
The Ankle Bone's Connected to the Knee Bone: This is not a plastic piece, but rather a rubber band stretched between two pegs at the left ankle and knee that has to be unhooked. 200 points. The name is taken from the African-American spiritual "Dem Bones".
Wish Bone: located on the left side of the chest. A "wish bone" is a chicken bone which is traditionally used by two people to make a wish on. 300 points.
Bread Basket: a slang word for the stomach, this is a difficult piece to remove. It is a very small slice of bread, with only a small notch taken out of the top for grip. 1000 points.
In 2003, Milton Bradley allowed fans a chance to vote on a new piece to be added to the original game. The people were given three choices, and could make their selection via the company's official website or by phone (866-SAM-VOTE) for a chance to win a $5,000 shopping spree. Voting ended on the 31st of December, and the winning piece (beating out tennis elbow and growling stomach) made its debut in October 2004:
OPERATION! THE SONG
During the game's rising popularity in the 1990s, a catchy song would play in the background while the children would attempt to remove various objects from Cavity Sam. One of many versions included:
"Is it water on the knee?
OPERATION!
A whole bucket, see?
OPERATION!
A Charley Horse, it's true!
OPERATION!
I'm the doctor for YOU!"
Connect 4!
Connect Four (also known as Plot Four, Find Four, Four in a Row, and Four in a Line) is a two-player game in which the players take turns in dropping alternating colored discs into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid. The object of the game is to connect four singly-colored discs in a row—vertically, horizontally, or diagonally—before your opponent can do likewise.
The game was published under the famous Connect Four trademark by Milton Bradley in 1974; however, the much older original version is known as "The Captain's Mistress".
Duncan Yo Yo!
Duncan® yo-yos are widely recognized as the finest yo-yos in the entire world.
Since 1929, the name "Duncan" has been synonymous with "yo-yo" across the United States.
Started in 1929 when entrepreneur Donald F. Duncan Sr. purchased the Flores Yo-Yo Company from Filipino immigrant Pedro Flores, Duncan Yo-Yos are an indelible part of American history. Promoted across the entire United States continuously from the late '20s to the mid '60s, owning a Duncan yo-yo and seeing the official Duncan Yo-Yo Man perform was an inimitable part of childhood.
Purchased by current owners Flambeau® Inc. in the late 1960s, Duncan continues to set the standard by which all yo-yos are judged.
Battleship (game)
The game Battleship (also known as Battleships) is a guessing game played by two people. It is known throughout the world as a pencil and paper game and predates World War I in this form. It was invented by Clifford Von Wickler in the early 1900s, but he never patented the game and it was soon published by Milton Bradley Company in 1943 as the pad-and-pencil game "Broadsides, the Game of Naval Strategy".
The game is played on four square grids, two for each player. The grids are typically square – usually 10 × 10 – and the individual squares in the grid are identified by letter and number. On one grid the player arranges ships and records the shots by the opponent. On the other grid the player records their own shots.
Before play begins, each player arranges a number of ships secretly on the grid for that player. Each ship occupies a number of consecutive squares on the grid, arranged either horizontally or vertically. The number of squares for each ship is determined by the type of the ship. The ships cannot overlap (i.e., at most one ship can occupy any given square in the grid).
The types and numbers of ships allowed are the same for each player. These may vary depending on the rules.
There are two typical complements of ships, as given in the Milton Bradley version of the rules:
After the ships have been positioned, the game proceeds in a series of rounds. In each round, each player has a turn. During a turn, the player announces a target square in the opponents' grid which is to be shot at. If a ship occupies the square, then it takes a hit. When all of the squares of a ship have been hit, the ship is sunk. The opponent then takes a turn. After all of one player's ships have been sunk, the game ends and the other player wins.
For the Salvo variation, each player may take as many shots in one turn as he has ships remaining in play. The starting player announces all five shots, then his opponent announces which are hits. Each player has as many shots as he or she has vessels afloat in each turn. Thus each time a player's ship is entirely destroyed, that player has one fewer shot on all subsequent turns.
In 1977 Milton Bradley released a computerized Electronic Battleship, followed in 1989 by Electronic Talking Battleship
YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP!
Coleco Electronic Quarterback Football Handheld Game
This Coleco (Hartford, Connecticut) manufactured game was donated to the Museum in 1982, and includes instructions in both English and French.
The plastic case is approximately 17.5cm long x 10cm wide x 3cm high, with a built in speaker in the rear of the case. A rear battery door accepts a 9volt battery. The top surface of the case is divided into two screens.
One screen records "downs", "yards to go", "field positions", "time remaining", scores, etc. A second recessed screen on the top surface of the case resembles a football field. The lower top surface of the case includes an on/off and skill level switch, a kick/punt button, and directional buttons.
How to play the game
There is an automatic "kickoff" and a player using the appropriate buttons, can "run" with the ball down the field. Blips on the screen indicate the "quarterback" and "offensive linemen".
Instructions indicate combination of buttons used for "passes" and other maneuvers. The computer at times attempts to "tackle" the "quarterback", and intercept "passes".
Digital Derby Race Handheld Racing Game
Digital Derby Auto Raceway 1978 Manufacturer: Tomy
Handheld electronic racing game with small steering wheel.
XXX.youtube.com/watch?v=fpPtMBScVII
MUSIC
K-Tel Records
K-tel International is an "As-Seen-On-TV" company, which is most noted for its compilation music albums, such as "The Super Hits" series, "The Dynamic Hits" series and "The Number One Hits" series. It is also known for "The Record Selector," "The Micro-Roast," "The Tote-a-Tune portable stereo," and many other products.
Slight Bit Off The Subject, Way's We Used To Listen To Our Music Of The Time History!
8-track tape
The Stereo 8 also introduced the problem of dividing up the programming intended for a two-sided LP record into four programs. Often this resulted in songs being split into two parts, song orders being reshuffled, shorter songs being repeated, and songs separated by long passages of silence. Some eight-tracks included extra musical content to fill in time such as a piano solo on Lou Reed's Berlin and a guitar solo in Pink Floyd's Animals.
Stereo 8, commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or eight-track, is a magnetic tape sound recording technology, popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, Motorola and RCA Victor Records (RCA). It was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz. A later quadraphonic version of the format was known as Quad 8 or Q8.
The endless loop tape cartridge was first designed in 1952 by Bernard Cousino around a single reel carrying a continuous loop of standard 1/4-inch, plastic, oxide-coated recording tape running at 3.75 in.(9.5 cm) per second. Program starts and stops were signaled by a one-inch-long metal foil that activates the track-change sensor. (Bill Lear had tried to create an endless-loop wire recorder in the 1940s, but gave up in 1946, even though endless-loop 8 mm film cartridges were already in use for him to copy from. He would be inspired by Earl Muntz's four-track design in the early 1960s.)
Inventor George Eash, also from Toledo, invented a cartridge design in 1954, called the Fidelipac. The Eash cartridge was later licensed by manufacturers, notably the Collins Radio Corporation, which first introduced a cartridge system for broadcasting at the National Association of Broadcaster's 1959 annual show. Fidelipac cartridges (nicknamed "carts" by DJs and radio engineers) were used by many radio stations for commercials, jingles, and other short items right up until the late 1990s when digital media took over. Eash later formed Fidelipac Corporation to manufacture and market tapes and recorders, as did several others, including Audio-Pak (Audio Devices Corp.).
There were several attempts to sell music systems for cars, beginning with the Chrysler "Hiway hi-fi" of the late 1950s (which used discs). Entrepreneur Earl "Madman" Muntz of Los Angeles, California, however, saw a potential in these "broadcast carts" for an automobile music system. In 1962 he introduced his Stereo-Pak four-track stereo system (two programs, each consisting of two tracks) and tapes, mostly in California and Florida. He licensed popular music albums from the major record companies and duplicated them on these four-track cartridges, or "CARtridges", as they were first advertised. Stereo-Pak tape cartridges were commercially available from a number of companies, notably Fidelipac.
33 1/3 Records and 45’s and the pickups we used to play them.
1.78s: (c. 1900 - 1960)
The first disc format was the 10-inch 78 rpm record, invented around 1900. The first record player was invented around 1870 by Thomas Edison, but this used cylindrical records about the size of an empty toilet paper tube. The flat 78s were much easier to store. The grooves on these records were much larger than later LPs and 45s (about 4 times as big) and the needles were larger too. 78s were recorded and played back "acoustically", without any electric amplifiers or microphones, until about 1925. 78s were obsolete by about 1960.
Since the grooves are so spaced out and the records spin so fast, a standard 10-inch 78 can't hold more than about 3 minutes of music per side. They are typically made of a shellac compound (as in furniture finish!), and have the consistency of a china plate, so they are very thick and heavy and break easily.
33s / "LPs": (c. 1948 - 1990)
The 33, a.k.a. the "LP" (Long Playing record) or "album", was invented in 1948. These LPs were popular until around 1990 when CDs were popular enough to take over. An LP could hold up to a total of 60 minutes of music, but most didn't have more than 40 minutes. They are made of vinyl plastic rather than shellac, so they are more flexible and don't tend to break like 78s. The grooves are 4 times smaller, so they were originally called "Microgrooves" (MG), and early LPs have this written on the label.
Interestingly enough, there are enough people still willing to buy "classic" albums, particularly jazz and blues, that some of the labels in those styles, like Blue Note records, Original Jazz Classics (a.k.a. Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, New Jazz, etc) and Delmark Records are once again pressing and selling LPs for about $9 - 13 through mail order. LPs of some newer releases are available, in very limited quantities.
45s: (c. 1949 - 1990)
The 45, was the alternative to the LP when you wanted to record a single pop song rather than a full album. The 45 had the same smaller-sized groove as the LP, and the center hole was larger. 45s became popular in jukeboxes, which had previously used 78s, because 45s took up less space and you could fit more songs in the box. Suddenly jukes went from offering 24 or 40 songs on 78s to having 100 to 200 songs on 45s. 45s are also made of vinyl rather than shellac, and can hold up to about 5 minutes of music on each side. 45s are still being made in limited quantities for jukebox operators who have not upgraded to newer CD jukeboxes, so you can still get some of the latest releases on 45.
Pick up Cartridges (Needles, back then, it made a difference!)
Magnetic cartridge over ceramic
Ceramic cartridge
Widely used less quality in sound due to design which is very simple.
Crystal and ceramic pickups operate on an entirely different principle, chemical rather than electrical. It has been known for some time that a crystal made of Rochelle salts will bend without breaking, and will give off an electric signal when made to bend. In piezoelectric pickups the head of the stylus (or, more commonly, a lever attached to the head of the stylus) is inserted into the crystal or ceramic (a synthetic crystal).
Its side-to-side swing bends the crystal, and the result is a fairly sizable electric signal. The piezoelectric pickup has certain advantages over the magnetic. It gives off a much larger voltage, which means that it can be used without a preamplifier. Moreover, any extraneous noises that enter the system through the pickup will be far less important, because the intrinsic musical sounds are coming through with 60 to 70 times the strength they would receive from a magnetic cartridge
The most popular magnetic pickup made --- also one of the best
and one of the cheapest
A magnetic cartridge is a transducer used for the playback of gramophone records on a turntable or phonograph. It converts mechanical vibrational energy from a stylus riding in a spiral record groove into an electrical signal that is subsequently amplified and then converted back to sound by a loudspeaker system.
Moving Magnet MM Cartridge
In a moving magnet cartridge, the stylus cantilever carries a tiny permanent magnet, which is positioned between two sets of fixed coils (in a stereophonic cartridge), forming a tiny electromagnetic generator. As the magnet vibrates in response to the stylus following the record groove, it induces a tiny current in the coils.
Because the magnet is small and has little mass, and is not coupled mechanically to the generator (as in a ceramic cartridge), a properly adjusted stylus follows the groove far more gently and faithfully, requiring less tracking force (the downward pressure on the stylus).
There is a sub-category. Moving iron and induced magnet types (ADC being a well known example) which have the magnet fixed and move a piece of iron or ferous alloy in the field of the magnet to produce the signal within the fixed coils.
Now Back On Track!
OTHERS
Kodak Disc Camera
The Kodak Disc Camera is not that old, 1982.The film was in the form of a flat disc, and was fully housed within a plastic cartridge. Each disc held 15 exposures, the disc being rotated 24° between each image. The fifteen 11 x 8 mm images themselves were arranged around the outside of the disc.
"Im Gonna Get Cha With A Kodak Disc"!
Beautymist Pantyhose and Joe Namath!
Joe's commercials included some sexy spots with unknown model Farrah Fawcett selling Noxzema shaving cream. Obviously, Joe's sports hero appeal to guys was greatly overshadowed by that provided by the lovely future Mrs. Majors.
But if he was hawking Right Guard deodorant, it was Joe the quarterback who was selling to America's guys.
In 1974, he filmed a commercial for Beautymist pantyhose. The camera started at a shapely pair of feet attached to a reclined pair of legs. It slowly, seductively panned upward over the calves, knees, then thighs.
Finally, it showed the owner of said gams: JOE NAMATH!
His men fans were flustered. The women? Well, Beautymist sold a whole bunch of pantyhose that year.
Duracell Batteries With Robert Conrad
"I dare you to knock it off" Johnny Carson did a parody of that commercial. Johnny had the battery on his shoulder, and dared us to knock it off. Whereupon a cream pie was thrown directly at his face!
Chuck Wagon Dog food
Chuck Wagon Dog food was a brand of dog food made by Purina starting in the 1970s. The product is most famous for its commercials featuring a dog chasing a small covered wagon through a house.
The wagon displayed the trademark red-and-white checkerboard Purina logo and would disappear into a kitchen cupboard (by literally passing through the cupboard door), thwarting the dog's efforts to capture it. The door would then be opened to reveal a bag of dog food. The ad campaign inspired a video game called Chase the Chuck Wagon.
Captain Kangaroo!
Captain Kangaroo was a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS from 1955 until 1984. After a year of absence, in 1986 it moved to public television when the American Program Service (now American Public Television, Boston) distributed the program with some newly-produced segments which were integrated into reruns of past episodes. That version of the series finally ended in 1993.
The show was conceived and the title character played by Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children." Keeshan was the original Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show when it aired on NBC.
It had a very loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" (later renamed "The Captain's Place"), where the Captain (whose name came from the big pockets in his coat) would tell stories, meet guests and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets.
The show was live for its first four years, and was in black-and-white until 1968. In 1983, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour and moved it to an earlier time-slot. It was cancelled by CBS at the end of 1984.
In the TV season of 1997–1998, an All New Captain Kangaroo was attempted by Saban. The show starred John McDonough as the Captain. Keeshan was invited to appear as "The Admiral," but after seeing sample episodes, declined to appear or have any association with it. The show inspired a spinoff, Mister Moose's Fun Time.
Howdy Doody Show!
Howdy Doody is a children's television program (with a frontier/western theme, although other themes also colored the show) that was broadcast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. It was also a pioneer in early color production as NBC (at the time owned by TV maker RCA) used the show in part to sell color television sets in the 1950s.
Mr. Whipple & Charmin!
Mr. George Whipple is a fictional supermarket manager featured in television commercials and print advertisements that ran in the United States and Canada from 1964 to 1985 for Charmin toilet paper. In unvarying repetition, Whipple scolds customers (who were mostly women in those days) who "squeeze the Charmin," while hypocritically entertaining such actions himself when he thinks no one will notice.
The very first commercial set the tone of the advertising campaign. Mr. Whipple is seen looking off-camera at a female customer, commenting that first she's squeezing the grapefruits, then she's squeezing the melons, and then (in a classic comic "triple") when she gets to the Charmin, that's the last straw, and he walks over to her and utters his famous plea "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" for the first time.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a competitor named Hoffmeyer came along, who encouraged his customers to squeeze the Charmin, and scolded Whipple on his hypocrisy. By the late 1980s, Mr. Whipple was encouraging customers who weren't buying Charmin to squeeze it. One commercial featured him using a fishing rod to place the product in a skeptic's shopping cart.
"Mr. Whipple" was played by actor Dick Wilson, a character actor who also played a recurring role on the television series Bewitched. Between 1964 and 1985, Wilson appeared as Whipple in more than 500 commercials for Charmin. Playing this role allowed Wilson the luxury of working only 12 days per year, while earning an annual salary of $300,000. In 1999, after a 14-year hiatus, Mr. Whipple returned to Charmin with various commercials involving why he could not retire (with the answer being that he had to inform the public about Charmin).
A later series of commercials featured him with the new slogan, "Is Mr. Whipple watching?". In a subsequent advertising campaign in 2000, the Whipple character was eventually replaced with the Charmin Bears, a family of cartoon bears whose parents extol the virtues of Charmin to their bear-cub children.
Dick Wilson died of natural causes on November 19, 2007, at the age of 91, in California.
On November 28, 2007, a new commercial-tribute debuted on television, featuring old clips and paying tribute to Dick Wilson and Mr. Whipple. The tribute indicated that the deceased actor will be "In Our Hearts Forever".
Pillsbury Doughboy!
"The Pillsbury Doughboy", known as Poppin' Fresh, is an advertising icon and mascot of The Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. He is a small anthropoid character apparently made out of dough. Many commercials conclude with a human finger poking the Doughboy's stomach. The Doughboy responds by rubbing his stomach and giggling.
Fresh was thought up by the Leo Burnett advertising agency's copywriter, Rudy Perz, as he was sitting in his kitchen in 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign. Perz imagined a living dough boy popping out of a Pillsbury Crescent Rolls can. To distinguish the dough boy from the rolls he gave it a scarf, a chef's hat, two big blue eyes, a blush when girls kissed him, and a soft, warm chuckle when poked in the stomach. The Doughboy was originally drawn by Martin Nodell and brought to life using stop motion clay animation. Today, CGI is used.
Perz originally conceived the Doughboy as an animated figure, but changed his mind after seeing a stop motion titling technique used in the opening credits for The Dinah Shore Show. A three-dimensional Doughboy doll of clay was then created at a cost of $16. Paul Frees was chosen to be Fresh's voice.
Since then, Pillsbury has used Poppin' Fresh in more than 600 commercials for more than fifty of its products. He also appeared in a MasterCard commercial as one of ten merchandising icons, depicted as having dinner together.
After Paul Frees' death in 1986, Jeff Bergman took over. Today, the high-pitched giggles are done by JoBe Cerny.
He He!
Dunkin' Donuts!
Dunkin' Donuts is an international donut and coffee retailer founded in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts by William Rosenberg. It is now headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts.
Dunkin' Donuts is well-known for their advertising which have become popular culture references, especially in their home region of the northeastern United States. As well as being featured in many films, they have a close relationship with the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots, making new commercials at the start of each team's season for promotions.
Dunkin' Donuts' current slogan is America Runs On Dunkin.' In March 2009, the company unveiled an alternate slogan, "You 'Kin Do It!", and launched a $100+ million ad campaign to promote it. The original Dunkin' Donuts slogan was Sounds Good, Tastes Even Better.
While the Philippines' current slogan since 2004 is Pasalubong ng Bayan or A Welcome Present for Everyone, since Filipinos love to give treats after a hard days work to their families at home. Dunkin' Donuts' "It's Worth the Trip" campaign, starring sleepy-eyed "Fred the Baker" and featuring the catch phrase "Time to make the donuts," won honors from the Television Bureau of Advertising as one of the five best commercials of the 1980s.
Fred the Baker was played by actor Michael Vale for over 15 years until his retirement in 1997. Vale died of complications from diabetes at age 83 on December 24, 2005, in New York City.
"It's Time To Make The doughnuts!"
Maytag Repairman!
Ol' Lonely, or "the lonely repairman", is a character in Maytag advertisements, created for Maytag by copywriter Vincent R. Vassolo of the Leo Burnett advertising agency. He was initially played by Jesse White, beginning in 1967.
Ol' Lonely is representative of the professed dependability of Maytag products. Maytag advertisements stated “Ol' Lonely’s predicament is testimony to the durability and reliability of Maytag appliances. Now if only he had something to do with his days.”
LASTLY CHRISTMAS
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Directed by Kizo Nagashima, Larry Roemer. With Burl Ives, Billie Mae Richards, Paul Soles. A misfit reindeer and his friends look for a place that will accept them.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a character created in a story and song by the same name. The story was created by Robert L. May in 1939 as part of his employment with Montgomery Ward.
The story is owned by The Rudolph Company, L.P. and has been sold in numerous forms including a popular song, a television special (done in stop motion animation), and a feature film. Character Arts, LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph Company, L.P.
The song (first recorded in 1949 by Gene Autry) tells the tale of Santa Claus's ninth and lead reindeer who possesses an unusually red-colored nose that gives off its own light, powerful enough to illuminate the team's path through inclement weather.
Although the story and song are not public domain, Rudolph has become a Christmas folklore figure (as evidenced by the development of local variations and parodies such as "Deadeye the Lonesome Cowboy," collected in the field by Simon J. Bronner and included in American Children's Folklore).
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The 1966 animated special. read by Boris Karloff. The Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling creature with a heart "two sizes too small," lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep, 3,000-foot (910 m) high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is Max, his faithful dog. From his perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. Envious of the Whos' happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and, by means of burglary, deprive them of their Christmas presents and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming".
However, he learns in the end that despite his success in stealing all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. His heart grows three sizes larger, he returns all the presents and trimmings, and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It is based on the popular children's book of the same title by Dr. Seuss, the story of The Grinch trying to take away Christmas from the townsfolk below.
The special, which is considered a short film as it runs less than an hour, is now considered by most Americans to be a timeless classic. Horror film icon Boris Karloff narrates the film and also provides the speaking voice of The Grinch (the opening credits state, "The sounds of the Grinch are by Boris Karloff. And read by Boris Karloff, too!").
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Author: Dr. Seuss
You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch.
You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.
You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch.
I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.
You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile.
Mr. Grinch.
Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crockodile.
You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch.
The three words that best describe you,
are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."
You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots,
Mr. Grinch.
Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.
You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch.
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse.
Mr. Grinch.
You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool
sandwich
With arsenic sauce.
Copyright © 1957, Dr. Seuss.
I am sure there is a lot more but I stopped there to save space on the post, after all this is rather lengthy as it is already and I can go on and on! Here is another one someone else can give a go, we covered shows, retro commercials now what else?!?
B~Man
FOOD
Trix Cereal!
Trix is a brand of breakfast cereal made by General Mills for the North American and by Nestlé for the European, South American and Asian markets. The cereal consists of fruit-flavored, sweetened, ground-corn pieces. These were originally round cereal pieces, but were later changed to puffed fruit-shaped pieces. In January 2007, Trix Cereal company General Mills returned Trix cereal to their original shape.
Joe Harris created the Trix Rabbit, an anthropomorphic cartoon rabbit. In Trix television commercials, this rabbit would continually try to trick children into giving him a bowl of Trix cereal. He would be discovered every time, and the kids would tell him that "Trix were for kids," and take back their cereal. He did occasionally succeed in obtaining and eating the Trix on some occasions, however.
The rabbit's popularity has led him to appear in some other commercials, as well, such as a Got Milk? advertisement.
This commercial scene was featured in "Kamek's Great Journey: The Preschooler Movie". Silly Rabbit, Trix Are For Kids!
Mikey & Life Cereal
Life is a breakfast cereal made of whole grain oats, distributed by the Quaker Oats Company. It was introduced during the year 1961.
Life was popularized during the 1970s by an advertising campaign featuring "Mikey," a finicky four-year-old who "hates everything." The commercials featured the catch phrase "He likes it! Hey Mikey!" The ad campaign ran from 1972 to 1985, becoming one of the longest running and popular commercials of all time. The "Mikey" character became so ingrained in the consciousness of American popular culture that urban legends began to develop surrounding the actors in the commercial. The most popular urban legend was that the actor who portrayed "Mikey" had died from eating Pop Rocks while drinking Coca-Cola. According to the urban legend, "Mikey" had a liver condition, and the mixing of Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola caused his liver to fail. In reality, John Gilchrist, who played "Mikey," is still alive and works as an advertising account manager in New York. The other kids in the "Mikey" commercial were Gilchrist's brothers in real life, and are also still alive.
In 1978, Cinnamon Life was introduced, followed shortly thereafter by "Raisin Life". Today Cinnamon Life comprises one third of total Life sales. "Raisin Life" wasn't as popular however and was soon discontinued sometime in the early 1980s. Twenty five years after the release of Cinnamon Life, Honey Graham Life was released in early 2004. In late 2005 Life added a new flavor, Life Vanilla Yogurt Crunch and in 2006 another new flavor, Life Chocolate Oat Crunch. These 2 Flavors lasted around 2 years before being discontinued during the Summer of 2008. In 2008 Life introduced yet another new version, "Maple & Brown Sugar Life". In Canada and certain areas of the United States, there is also Multigrain Life. In the early 2000s, there was also a short-lived version called Baked Apple Life.
The cereal's advertisements currently sport the slogan "Life is full of surprises".
Thanks Petey for that one!
xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEXzx-TINc
Cocoa Puffs!
"Are you coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs?"
Cocoa Puffs is a brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal manufactured by General Mills. Introduced in 1958, the cereal consists of small spheres of corn, oats and rice that have been flavored with chocolate. Essentially, Cocoa Puffs are Kix cereal with added chocolate flavoring. (Similarly, Trix was, for most of its existence, Kix plus fruit flavoring and coloring.) Kix cereal is produced at the same factories as Cocoa Puffs, but differs in both density and circumference.
The mascot of Cocoa Puffs is Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, whose catchphrase is "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs". Sonny was originally dark brown but has since become orange. He wore a striped pink and white shirt, but this has been removed since 1993. The original voice of Sonny was Chuck McCann.
On several occasions, Cocoa Puffs boxes have stated that they are made with real Hershey's chocolate. Cocoa Puffs are sold in Latin America and Canada under the Nesquik brand thanks to a partnership between Nestlé and General Mills; Nestlé and Hershey are major competitors in the chocolate business.
A cereal bar of Cocoa Puffs has also been made. A layer of dried, sweetened condensed milk is added to the bottom of it, and marketed as a substitute for a bowl of milk and cereal.
The newest addition was introduced in the summer of 2008, Cocoa Puffs Combos, which consists of the recognizable chocolate puffs as well as vanilla puffs. Unlike the original Cocoa Puffs, the Combos cereal does not contain any real cocoa. Instead, it contains artificial, imitation cocoa.
Tony The Tiger & Frosted Corn Flakes
Frosted Flakes is a cereal first introduced by Kellogg's. consisting of corn flakes "frosted" or coated with sugar. The "Frosted Flakes" name is used by Kellogg's in United States and Canada. The cereal was first introduced in 1952 as Sugar Frosted Flakes. The word "Sugar" was dropped from the product in the 1980s during a time when many cereals dropped "Sugar" from their titles.
"Frosted Flakes", by itself, is purely a description of the product; as a result that term cannot be trademarked and can be used by any company making a similar product. By contrast, "Kellogg's Frosted Flakes" and "Frosties" are registered trademarks in their respective markets. Tony the Tiger has been the mascot of Frosted Flakes since its introduction Tony is known for uttering the cereal's slogan: "They're Gr-r-reat!". Tony the Tiger was originally voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who continued to provide his voice until his death in 2005.
The character is currently voiced by the former professional wrestling play-by-play announcer, Lee Marshall. In 1997, seven-time USA barefoot water skiing champion Lee Marshall played Tony the Tiger in a Frosted Flakes TV commercial and is the current voice of tony.
Another character, Katy the Kangaroo, was on the Frosted Flakes box for a short time.
Pringles!
Pringles is a brand of potato chips produced by Procter & Gamble. Pringles are sold in over 30 countries and have yearly sales of over $1 billion. Even though the Pringles brand of potato chips was first sold in the United States in October of 1968, this product was not rolled out across America until the mid-1970s.
They were originally known as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips", but the name was slightly altered for introduction to the national market. Procter & Gamble chose the "Pringles" name from a Cincinnati telephone book, having been inspired by the street name of Pringle Drive in Finneytown, Ohio, simply due to its pleasing sound. The original Pringles television commercials were written, produced and directed by Thomas Scott Cadden (composer of the original Mr. Clean Jingle) in 1968, while working at Tatham-Laird and Kudner Advertising Agency in Chicago.
According to the patent, Pringles were invented by Alexander Liepa of Montgomery, Ohio. Science-fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe developed the machine that cooks them.
Pringles is advertised in the United States, Ireland and Britain with the slogan "Once you pop, you can't stop and elsewhere with the slogan "Everything pops with Pringles". In the United States and Canada, Pringles is no longer marketed as potato crisps, but rather as "potato chips".
Kool-Aid!
Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins and his wife Kitty in Hastings, Nebraska, USA. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. To reduce shipping costs, in 1927, Perkins discovered a way to remove the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder. This powder was named Kool-Ade. A few years later, it was renamed 'Kool-Aid', due to a change in U.S. government regulations regarding the need for fruit juice in products using the suffix. Perkins moved his production to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General Foods in 1953. Advertising and promotion
The mascot of Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid Man is a large anthropomorphic frosty pitcher filled with Kool-Aid (usually cherry, though other flavors have been used). He was introduced in Kool-Aid advertising shortly after General Foods acquired the brand. In TV and print ads, Kool-Aid Man was known for bursting suddenly through walls, seemingly summoned by the making and imbibing of Kool-Aid by children.
His catch phrase is "Oh, yeah!" For many years, the Kool-Aid Man was portrayed by a live-action actor in a giant pitcher suit; starting in the mid-1990s, the character was computer-generated. The most recent commercial, however, features a new actor in a whole-new pitcher costume.
Hastings still celebrates a yearly summer festival called Kool-Aid Days on the second weekend in August, in honor of their city's claim to fame.
Jolly Green Giant!
The Jolly Green Giant is a symbol of the Green Giant food company of the United States, appearing as a smiling green-skinned giant wearing a tunic, wreath and boots made of leaves. In 1973, JGG teamed up with "Little Green Sprout", the diminutive young green giant. Created by Leo Burnett, the Giant first appeared in advertisements in 1928; the name originally came from a variety of unusually large pea called the "Green Giant" that the company canned and sold.
The original televised Jolly Green Giant was nothing more than a puppet that, through the use of stop-motion animation, stalked through the "valley" and said little more than "fo fum fi fe". The original jolly green giant portrayed himself as a giant that not only was green, but also jolly, this because green was his favorite colour and he was also a nice guy to be around. The commercial, which first aired in 1953, was deemed too scary for younger viewers and the puppet was discarded. The next commercial featured several different animated elves (similar to the Keebler elves) working in a "factory" around the valley while Keith Wegeman (shown in far-away shots) stood over the area, chanting the soon-to-be-famous "ho, ho, ho" phrase.
Mounds! (candy)
Mounds is a candy bar made by Hershey's, and is the sister product of Almond Joy. Like Almond Joy, it consists of a coconut based center; however, it is topped with dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and has no almond in its center.
Mounds uses a packaging and logo design similar to its sister product, with Almond Joy's blue replaced by red. The candy's famous 1970s ad campaign used a jingle, "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't", written by Leon Carr.
A limited edition Mounds Island Orange candy bar was introduced in 2006 with orange colored and flavored coconut.
A similar coconut filled chocolate bar by the name of Bounty is manufactured by Mars, Incorporated and sold in markets other than US.
Mounds was created in 1920 as a single piece for 5 cents. In 1929 the Peter Paul Company purchased the line and had begun production. The format changed to two pieces that still sold for 5 cents, with the price rising to 10 cents after World War II. Mounds also was made in milk chocolate as well. During World War II Peter Paul was faced with severe shortages of sugar and coconut which had been shipped from the Philippines before war broke out. Rather than sacrifice quality, the company discontinued some of its lesser selling brands and concentrated production on the Mounds candy bar. Over the years Peter Paul added several products to its line, including the Almond Joy candy bar and York Peppermint Patties.
Cadbury and Peter Paul merged in 1978, and Hershey Foods purchased the company's U.S. operations in 1988.
The TV Jingle Lyrics
Sometimes you feel like a nut
Sometimes you don't
Almond Joy's got nuts
Mounds don't
Almond Joy's got rich milk chocolate
Coconut and a crunchy nut, too
Mounds got deep dark chocolate
Chewey coconut ooh
Sometimes you feel like a nut
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Sometimes you don't
Oooh oooh
Almond Joy's got nuts
Mounds don't
Peter Paul Almond Joy's got nuts
Peter Paul Mounds don't
Because...
Sometimes you feel like a nut
Sometimes you don't
CLEANERS
MR.Clean!
Mr. Clean made its debut in 1958. Within the first six months of the introduction, Mr. Clean became the best-selling household cleaner on the market.
In November 1962, Mr. Clean was assigned a first name Veritably Clean as a result of the "Give Mr. Clean a First Name" promotion.
In the winter of 1963 Mr. Clean played a police officer "Grimefighter" who really arrested dirt problems.
In the summer of 1963 Mr. Clean became the first liquid household cleaner in a plastic bottle.
In April 1965 Mr. Clean got mad at dirt and appeared as "New, Mean Mr. Clean."
In the spring of 1966 Mr. Clean played "two-fisted" grime fighter, who knocked out dirt with one hand and left the shine with the other. Also offered a spray dispenser as promotion pack to increase convenience of use.
In spring 1966 Mr. Clean offered clean and shine, in the "Mr. Clean leaves a sheen where you clean" campaign. He grew whiskers for brute strength, had a black eye to show floor "shiner" and testified in court against dirt.
In Spring 1968 Mr. Clean was a "Changed Man" and was reformulated to include pine aroma and better cleaning "in the bucket."
In October 1970 "Lemon Refreshed" Mr. Clean premiered.
In the summer of 1974 "Two Fisted Mr. Clean" was introduced, who was great at cleaning on one hand and on the other hand he leaves what's shiny gleaming. (This commercial brought back the use of the original Mr. Clean jingle).
In July 1976 "Sunshine Fresh Mr. Clean" with improved fragrance was introduced.
In December 1981 Mr. Clean was had a new no-wax floor formula.
In January 1983 Mr. Clean offered Lemon Bright improved no-wax formula.
In March 1985 Mr. Clean celebrated his 24th anniversary as "The Man Behind the Shine" with donation of all Mr. Clean television commercials to the UCLA Film Television and Radio Archives.
In July 1985 a new Mr. Clean was introduced with better full-strength cleaning to clean down to the shine like never before. Also in 1985 a national search for Mr. Clean look-alikes launched in Los Angeles.
In 1996 Mr. Clean appeared in "How Times Have Changed", once again using the original Mr. Clean jingle and the new Ultra power in it.
House Peters, Jr., an actor, appeared "live" as "Mr. Clean" but never appeared in any of the Mr. Clean commercials airing in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He died from pneumonia at the age of 92 on October 1, 2008.
Mr. Clean Mr. Clean....
Palmolive!
Palmolive (soap), a brand of soap made by the Colgate-Palmolive company.
Madge the Manicurist - The Colgate-Palmolive Company used Madge the Manicurist as their spokesperson in a series of successful television spots from 1966-92. Working in the Salon East Beauty Parlor, Madge pre-soaked all her customer's fingernails in Palmolive's green dish washing detergent and advised them "Palmolive softens hands while you do the dishes." Madge's catchphrase was "You're soaking in it." The campaign was created by the Ted Bates Ad Agency in 1966. The Madge character was popular around the world. The French called her Francoise; the Germans called her Tilly; and the Finnish called her Marissa.
According to Jan Miner "When I get off the plane, it's always, 'Madge!'" As an homage to the Madge character, the writers of the occult drama BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER added the cultural reference "You're soaking in it, Bud." to episode "Go Fish" (5/05/1998).
Scrubbing Bubbles!
The Scrubbing Bubbles are mascots for Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner from S. C. Johnson & Son. They are anthropomorphic bubbles with brush bristles on their undersides.
They were originally created to promote Dow Bathroom Cleaner; when Dow sold some of its consumer product lines to S.C. Johnson, the cleaner was renamed after its scrubbing mascots. The ad campaign was created by the advertising agency of Della Femina Travisano & Partners.
In the 1970s, the popular commercials featured Paul Winchell, (best known as the voice of Tigger in Winnie the Pooh cartoons), as the voice of the leader of the Scrubbing Bubbles.The commercials and animation were done by animator Tissa David.
In 1995, pranksters at MIT placed Scrubbing Bubbles on the side of the school's Media Lab building to celebrate the Media Lab's tenth anniversary
We Work Hard So You Don't Have Tooooooo!
TOYS MOSTLY FROM THE SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS
Slinky!
Slinky is a helix-shaped toy that can travel down stairs end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum.
The toy was invented and developed by naval engineer Richard James in the early 1940s and demonstrated at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1945.
The toy was a hit, selling its entire inventory of 400 units in ninety minutes. James and his wife Betty formed James Industries in Philadelphia to manufacture Slinky and several related toys such as the Slinky Dog and Suzie, the Slinky Worm. In 1960, James' wife Betty became president of James Industries, and, in 1964, moved the operation to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1998, Betty James sold the company to Poof Products, Inc.
Slinky was originally priced at $1, and has remained modestly priced throughout its history as a result of Betty James' concern about the toy's affordability for financially disadvantaged customers. Slinky has seen uses other than as a toy in the playroom: it has appeared in the classroom as a teaching tool, in wartime as a radio antenna, and in physics experiments with NASA. In 2001, Slinky became Pennsylvania's official state toy, and, in 2003, was named to the Toy Industry Association's "Century of Toys List". In its first 60 years Slinky has sold 300 million units.
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy.
Operation! (game)
Operation is a battery-operated game of physical skill that tests players' hand-eye co-ordination. Made by Milton Bradley, it has been in production since 1965, the year in which the game was invented by John Spinello.
The game is a variant on the old-fashioned wire loop electric game popular at fun-fairs and the flammer stores around the United States. It consists of an "operating table", lithographed with a comic likeness of a patient (nicknamed "Cavity Sam") with a large, red light-bulb for his nose. In the surface are a number of openings, which reveal fictional and humorously-named ailments made of white plastic. To work, the game requires two D batteries.
Gameplay
There are two sets of cards: Doctor and Specialist cards. The Specialist cards are dealt out evenly amongst the players at the beginning of the game.
Players take turns to pick Doctor cards, which offer a cash payment for removing a particular ailment, using a pair of tweezers connected with wire to the board. If a player successfully removes the ailment they collect the amount shown on their card. However, if the tweezers touch the metal edge of the opening during the attempt (closing the circuit), a buzzer sounds, the patient's nose lights up red, and the player loses their turn. The player holding the Specialist card for that piece then has a try, getting double the fee if they succeed. Since there are times when the player drawing a certain Doctor card also holds the matching Specialist card, s/he can be tempted to purposely botch the first attempt, in order to succeed on the second try, for double value.
The winner is the player with the most money after all the pieces have been extracted.
The game can be difficult, due to the shapes of the plastic ailments, and the fact the openings are scarcely larger than the ailments themselves.
Adam's Apple: in the throat; The Adam's apple is a colloquial term referring to the thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx that becomes more visually prominent during puberty. Worth 100 points.
Broken Heart: a heart shape with a crack through it on the right side of the chest. The phrase "broken heart" refers to an emotional feeling in which someone is very sad for some reason. 100 points.
Wrenched Ankle: a wrench in the right ankle. 100 points.
Butterflies in the Stomach: a large butterfly in the middle of the torso. The name comes from the feeling in the stomach when nervous or afraid. 100 points.
Spare Ribs: two ribs fused together as one piece. "Spare Ribs" are a variety of meat. 150 points.
Water on the Knee: a pail of water in the knee. Colloquialism for fluid accumulation around the knee joint. 150 points.
Funny Bone: a play on the anatomical name for the upper arm bone (the humerus), and a reference to the colloquial name of the ulnar nerve. 200 points.
Charley Horse: a small horse resting near the hip joint. A play on the real charley horse, which is a sudden cramp in the leg or foot, that can be cured with massage or stretching. 200 points.
Writer's Cramp: a pencil in the forearm. Refers to the real writer's cramp which is a soreness in the wrist, and can be cured resting it. 200 points.
The Ankle Bone's Connected to the Knee Bone: This is not a plastic piece, but rather a rubber band stretched between two pegs at the left ankle and knee that has to be unhooked. 200 points. The name is taken from the African-American spiritual "Dem Bones".
Wish Bone: located on the left side of the chest. A "wish bone" is a chicken bone which is traditionally used by two people to make a wish on. 300 points.
Bread Basket: a slang word for the stomach, this is a difficult piece to remove. It is a very small slice of bread, with only a small notch taken out of the top for grip. 1000 points.
In 2003, Milton Bradley allowed fans a chance to vote on a new piece to be added to the original game. The people were given three choices, and could make their selection via the company's official website or by phone (866-SAM-VOTE) for a chance to win a $5,000 shopping spree. Voting ended on the 31st of December, and the winning piece (beating out tennis elbow and growling stomach) made its debut in October 2004:
OPERATION! THE SONG
During the game's rising popularity in the 1990s, a catchy song would play in the background while the children would attempt to remove various objects from Cavity Sam. One of many versions included:
"Is it water on the knee?
OPERATION!
A whole bucket, see?
OPERATION!
A Charley Horse, it's true!
OPERATION!
I'm the doctor for YOU!"
Connect 4!
Connect Four (also known as Plot Four, Find Four, Four in a Row, and Four in a Line) is a two-player game in which the players take turns in dropping alternating colored discs into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid. The object of the game is to connect four singly-colored discs in a row—vertically, horizontally, or diagonally—before your opponent can do likewise.
The game was published under the famous Connect Four trademark by Milton Bradley in 1974; however, the much older original version is known as "The Captain's Mistress".
Duncan Yo Yo!
Duncan® yo-yos are widely recognized as the finest yo-yos in the entire world.
Since 1929, the name "Duncan" has been synonymous with "yo-yo" across the United States.
Started in 1929 when entrepreneur Donald F. Duncan Sr. purchased the Flores Yo-Yo Company from Filipino immigrant Pedro Flores, Duncan Yo-Yos are an indelible part of American history. Promoted across the entire United States continuously from the late '20s to the mid '60s, owning a Duncan yo-yo and seeing the official Duncan Yo-Yo Man perform was an inimitable part of childhood.
Purchased by current owners Flambeau® Inc. in the late 1960s, Duncan continues to set the standard by which all yo-yos are judged.
Battleship (game)
The game Battleship (also known as Battleships) is a guessing game played by two people. It is known throughout the world as a pencil and paper game and predates World War I in this form. It was invented by Clifford Von Wickler in the early 1900s, but he never patented the game and it was soon published by Milton Bradley Company in 1943 as the pad-and-pencil game "Broadsides, the Game of Naval Strategy".
The game is played on four square grids, two for each player. The grids are typically square – usually 10 × 10 – and the individual squares in the grid are identified by letter and number. On one grid the player arranges ships and records the shots by the opponent. On the other grid the player records their own shots.
Before play begins, each player arranges a number of ships secretly on the grid for that player. Each ship occupies a number of consecutive squares on the grid, arranged either horizontally or vertically. The number of squares for each ship is determined by the type of the ship. The ships cannot overlap (i.e., at most one ship can occupy any given square in the grid).
The types and numbers of ships allowed are the same for each player. These may vary depending on the rules.
There are two typical complements of ships, as given in the Milton Bradley version of the rules:
After the ships have been positioned, the game proceeds in a series of rounds. In each round, each player has a turn. During a turn, the player announces a target square in the opponents' grid which is to be shot at. If a ship occupies the square, then it takes a hit. When all of the squares of a ship have been hit, the ship is sunk. The opponent then takes a turn. After all of one player's ships have been sunk, the game ends and the other player wins.
For the Salvo variation, each player may take as many shots in one turn as he has ships remaining in play. The starting player announces all five shots, then his opponent announces which are hits. Each player has as many shots as he or she has vessels afloat in each turn. Thus each time a player's ship is entirely destroyed, that player has one fewer shot on all subsequent turns.
In 1977 Milton Bradley released a computerized Electronic Battleship, followed in 1989 by Electronic Talking Battleship
YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP!
Coleco Electronic Quarterback Football Handheld Game
This Coleco (Hartford, Connecticut) manufactured game was donated to the Museum in 1982, and includes instructions in both English and French.
The plastic case is approximately 17.5cm long x 10cm wide x 3cm high, with a built in speaker in the rear of the case. A rear battery door accepts a 9volt battery. The top surface of the case is divided into two screens.
One screen records "downs", "yards to go", "field positions", "time remaining", scores, etc. A second recessed screen on the top surface of the case resembles a football field. The lower top surface of the case includes an on/off and skill level switch, a kick/punt button, and directional buttons.
How to play the game
There is an automatic "kickoff" and a player using the appropriate buttons, can "run" with the ball down the field. Blips on the screen indicate the "quarterback" and "offensive linemen".
Instructions indicate combination of buttons used for "passes" and other maneuvers. The computer at times attempts to "tackle" the "quarterback", and intercept "passes".
Digital Derby Race Handheld Racing Game
Digital Derby Auto Raceway 1978 Manufacturer: Tomy
Handheld electronic racing game with small steering wheel.
XXX.youtube.com/watch?v=fpPtMBScVII
MUSIC
K-Tel Records
K-tel International is an "As-Seen-On-TV" company, which is most noted for its compilation music albums, such as "The Super Hits" series, "The Dynamic Hits" series and "The Number One Hits" series. It is also known for "The Record Selector," "The Micro-Roast," "The Tote-a-Tune portable stereo," and many other products.
Slight Bit Off The Subject, Way's We Used To Listen To Our Music Of The Time History!
8-track tape
The Stereo 8 also introduced the problem of dividing up the programming intended for a two-sided LP record into four programs. Often this resulted in songs being split into two parts, song orders being reshuffled, shorter songs being repeated, and songs separated by long passages of silence. Some eight-tracks included extra musical content to fill in time such as a piano solo on Lou Reed's Berlin and a guitar solo in Pink Floyd's Animals.
Stereo 8, commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or eight-track, is a magnetic tape sound recording technology, popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, Motorola and RCA Victor Records (RCA). It was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz. A later quadraphonic version of the format was known as Quad 8 or Q8.
The endless loop tape cartridge was first designed in 1952 by Bernard Cousino around a single reel carrying a continuous loop of standard 1/4-inch, plastic, oxide-coated recording tape running at 3.75 in.(9.5 cm) per second. Program starts and stops were signaled by a one-inch-long metal foil that activates the track-change sensor. (Bill Lear had tried to create an endless-loop wire recorder in the 1940s, but gave up in 1946, even though endless-loop 8 mm film cartridges were already in use for him to copy from. He would be inspired by Earl Muntz's four-track design in the early 1960s.)
Inventor George Eash, also from Toledo, invented a cartridge design in 1954, called the Fidelipac. The Eash cartridge was later licensed by manufacturers, notably the Collins Radio Corporation, which first introduced a cartridge system for broadcasting at the National Association of Broadcaster's 1959 annual show. Fidelipac cartridges (nicknamed "carts" by DJs and radio engineers) were used by many radio stations for commercials, jingles, and other short items right up until the late 1990s when digital media took over. Eash later formed Fidelipac Corporation to manufacture and market tapes and recorders, as did several others, including Audio-Pak (Audio Devices Corp.).
There were several attempts to sell music systems for cars, beginning with the Chrysler "Hiway hi-fi" of the late 1950s (which used discs). Entrepreneur Earl "Madman" Muntz of Los Angeles, California, however, saw a potential in these "broadcast carts" for an automobile music system. In 1962 he introduced his Stereo-Pak four-track stereo system (two programs, each consisting of two tracks) and tapes, mostly in California and Florida. He licensed popular music albums from the major record companies and duplicated them on these four-track cartridges, or "CARtridges", as they were first advertised. Stereo-Pak tape cartridges were commercially available from a number of companies, notably Fidelipac.
33 1/3 Records and 45’s and the pickups we used to play them.
1.78s: (c. 1900 - 1960)
The first disc format was the 10-inch 78 rpm record, invented around 1900. The first record player was invented around 1870 by Thomas Edison, but this used cylindrical records about the size of an empty toilet paper tube. The flat 78s were much easier to store. The grooves on these records were much larger than later LPs and 45s (about 4 times as big) and the needles were larger too. 78s were recorded and played back "acoustically", without any electric amplifiers or microphones, until about 1925. 78s were obsolete by about 1960.
Since the grooves are so spaced out and the records spin so fast, a standard 10-inch 78 can't hold more than about 3 minutes of music per side. They are typically made of a shellac compound (as in furniture finish!), and have the consistency of a china plate, so they are very thick and heavy and break easily.
33s / "LPs": (c. 1948 - 1990)
The 33, a.k.a. the "LP" (Long Playing record) or "album", was invented in 1948. These LPs were popular until around 1990 when CDs were popular enough to take over. An LP could hold up to a total of 60 minutes of music, but most didn't have more than 40 minutes. They are made of vinyl plastic rather than shellac, so they are more flexible and don't tend to break like 78s. The grooves are 4 times smaller, so they were originally called "Microgrooves" (MG), and early LPs have this written on the label.
Interestingly enough, there are enough people still willing to buy "classic" albums, particularly jazz and blues, that some of the labels in those styles, like Blue Note records, Original Jazz Classics (a.k.a. Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, New Jazz, etc) and Delmark Records are once again pressing and selling LPs for about $9 - 13 through mail order. LPs of some newer releases are available, in very limited quantities.
45s: (c. 1949 - 1990)
The 45, was the alternative to the LP when you wanted to record a single pop song rather than a full album. The 45 had the same smaller-sized groove as the LP, and the center hole was larger. 45s became popular in jukeboxes, which had previously used 78s, because 45s took up less space and you could fit more songs in the box. Suddenly jukes went from offering 24 or 40 songs on 78s to having 100 to 200 songs on 45s. 45s are also made of vinyl rather than shellac, and can hold up to about 5 minutes of music on each side. 45s are still being made in limited quantities for jukebox operators who have not upgraded to newer CD jukeboxes, so you can still get some of the latest releases on 45.
Pick up Cartridges (Needles, back then, it made a difference!)
Magnetic cartridge over ceramic
Ceramic cartridge
Widely used less quality in sound due to design which is very simple.
Crystal and ceramic pickups operate on an entirely different principle, chemical rather than electrical. It has been known for some time that a crystal made of Rochelle salts will bend without breaking, and will give off an electric signal when made to bend. In piezoelectric pickups the head of the stylus (or, more commonly, a lever attached to the head of the stylus) is inserted into the crystal or ceramic (a synthetic crystal).
Its side-to-side swing bends the crystal, and the result is a fairly sizable electric signal. The piezoelectric pickup has certain advantages over the magnetic. It gives off a much larger voltage, which means that it can be used without a preamplifier. Moreover, any extraneous noises that enter the system through the pickup will be far less important, because the intrinsic musical sounds are coming through with 60 to 70 times the strength they would receive from a magnetic cartridge
The most popular magnetic pickup made --- also one of the best
and one of the cheapest
A magnetic cartridge is a transducer used for the playback of gramophone records on a turntable or phonograph. It converts mechanical vibrational energy from a stylus riding in a spiral record groove into an electrical signal that is subsequently amplified and then converted back to sound by a loudspeaker system.
Moving Magnet MM Cartridge
In a moving magnet cartridge, the stylus cantilever carries a tiny permanent magnet, which is positioned between two sets of fixed coils (in a stereophonic cartridge), forming a tiny electromagnetic generator. As the magnet vibrates in response to the stylus following the record groove, it induces a tiny current in the coils.
Because the magnet is small and has little mass, and is not coupled mechanically to the generator (as in a ceramic cartridge), a properly adjusted stylus follows the groove far more gently and faithfully, requiring less tracking force (the downward pressure on the stylus).
There is a sub-category. Moving iron and induced magnet types (ADC being a well known example) which have the magnet fixed and move a piece of iron or ferous alloy in the field of the magnet to produce the signal within the fixed coils.
Now Back On Track!
OTHERS
Kodak Disc Camera
The Kodak Disc Camera is not that old, 1982.The film was in the form of a flat disc, and was fully housed within a plastic cartridge. Each disc held 15 exposures, the disc being rotated 24° between each image. The fifteen 11 x 8 mm images themselves were arranged around the outside of the disc.
"Im Gonna Get Cha With A Kodak Disc"!
Beautymist Pantyhose and Joe Namath!
Joe's commercials included some sexy spots with unknown model Farrah Fawcett selling Noxzema shaving cream. Obviously, Joe's sports hero appeal to guys was greatly overshadowed by that provided by the lovely future Mrs. Majors.
But if he was hawking Right Guard deodorant, it was Joe the quarterback who was selling to America's guys.
In 1974, he filmed a commercial for Beautymist pantyhose. The camera started at a shapely pair of feet attached to a reclined pair of legs. It slowly, seductively panned upward over the calves, knees, then thighs.
Finally, it showed the owner of said gams: JOE NAMATH!
His men fans were flustered. The women? Well, Beautymist sold a whole bunch of pantyhose that year.
Duracell Batteries With Robert Conrad
"I dare you to knock it off" Johnny Carson did a parody of that commercial. Johnny had the battery on his shoulder, and dared us to knock it off. Whereupon a cream pie was thrown directly at his face!
Chuck Wagon Dog food
Chuck Wagon Dog food was a brand of dog food made by Purina starting in the 1970s. The product is most famous for its commercials featuring a dog chasing a small covered wagon through a house.
The wagon displayed the trademark red-and-white checkerboard Purina logo and would disappear into a kitchen cupboard (by literally passing through the cupboard door), thwarting the dog's efforts to capture it. The door would then be opened to reveal a bag of dog food. The ad campaign inspired a video game called Chase the Chuck Wagon.
Captain Kangaroo!
Captain Kangaroo was a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS from 1955 until 1984. After a year of absence, in 1986 it moved to public television when the American Program Service (now American Public Television, Boston) distributed the program with some newly-produced segments which were integrated into reruns of past episodes. That version of the series finally ended in 1993.
The show was conceived and the title character played by Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children." Keeshan was the original Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show when it aired on NBC.
It had a very loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" (later renamed "The Captain's Place"), where the Captain (whose name came from the big pockets in his coat) would tell stories, meet guests and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets.
The show was live for its first four years, and was in black-and-white until 1968. In 1983, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour and moved it to an earlier time-slot. It was cancelled by CBS at the end of 1984.
In the TV season of 1997–1998, an All New Captain Kangaroo was attempted by Saban. The show starred John McDonough as the Captain. Keeshan was invited to appear as "The Admiral," but after seeing sample episodes, declined to appear or have any association with it. The show inspired a spinoff, Mister Moose's Fun Time.
Howdy Doody Show!
Howdy Doody is a children's television program (with a frontier/western theme, although other themes also colored the show) that was broadcast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. It was also a pioneer in early color production as NBC (at the time owned by TV maker RCA) used the show in part to sell color television sets in the 1950s.
Mr. Whipple & Charmin!
Mr. George Whipple is a fictional supermarket manager featured in television commercials and print advertisements that ran in the United States and Canada from 1964 to 1985 for Charmin toilet paper. In unvarying repetition, Whipple scolds customers (who were mostly women in those days) who "squeeze the Charmin," while hypocritically entertaining such actions himself when he thinks no one will notice.
The very first commercial set the tone of the advertising campaign. Mr. Whipple is seen looking off-camera at a female customer, commenting that first she's squeezing the grapefruits, then she's squeezing the melons, and then (in a classic comic "triple") when she gets to the Charmin, that's the last straw, and he walks over to her and utters his famous plea "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" for the first time.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a competitor named Hoffmeyer came along, who encouraged his customers to squeeze the Charmin, and scolded Whipple on his hypocrisy. By the late 1980s, Mr. Whipple was encouraging customers who weren't buying Charmin to squeeze it. One commercial featured him using a fishing rod to place the product in a skeptic's shopping cart.
"Mr. Whipple" was played by actor Dick Wilson, a character actor who also played a recurring role on the television series Bewitched. Between 1964 and 1985, Wilson appeared as Whipple in more than 500 commercials for Charmin. Playing this role allowed Wilson the luxury of working only 12 days per year, while earning an annual salary of $300,000. In 1999, after a 14-year hiatus, Mr. Whipple returned to Charmin with various commercials involving why he could not retire (with the answer being that he had to inform the public about Charmin).
A later series of commercials featured him with the new slogan, "Is Mr. Whipple watching?". In a subsequent advertising campaign in 2000, the Whipple character was eventually replaced with the Charmin Bears, a family of cartoon bears whose parents extol the virtues of Charmin to their bear-cub children.
Dick Wilson died of natural causes on November 19, 2007, at the age of 91, in California.
On November 28, 2007, a new commercial-tribute debuted on television, featuring old clips and paying tribute to Dick Wilson and Mr. Whipple. The tribute indicated that the deceased actor will be "In Our Hearts Forever".
Pillsbury Doughboy!
"The Pillsbury Doughboy", known as Poppin' Fresh, is an advertising icon and mascot of The Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. He is a small anthropoid character apparently made out of dough. Many commercials conclude with a human finger poking the Doughboy's stomach. The Doughboy responds by rubbing his stomach and giggling.
Fresh was thought up by the Leo Burnett advertising agency's copywriter, Rudy Perz, as he was sitting in his kitchen in 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign. Perz imagined a living dough boy popping out of a Pillsbury Crescent Rolls can. To distinguish the dough boy from the rolls he gave it a scarf, a chef's hat, two big blue eyes, a blush when girls kissed him, and a soft, warm chuckle when poked in the stomach. The Doughboy was originally drawn by Martin Nodell and brought to life using stop motion clay animation. Today, CGI is used.
Perz originally conceived the Doughboy as an animated figure, but changed his mind after seeing a stop motion titling technique used in the opening credits for The Dinah Shore Show. A three-dimensional Doughboy doll of clay was then created at a cost of $16. Paul Frees was chosen to be Fresh's voice.
Since then, Pillsbury has used Poppin' Fresh in more than 600 commercials for more than fifty of its products. He also appeared in a MasterCard commercial as one of ten merchandising icons, depicted as having dinner together.
After Paul Frees' death in 1986, Jeff Bergman took over. Today, the high-pitched giggles are done by JoBe Cerny.
He He!
Dunkin' Donuts!
Dunkin' Donuts is an international donut and coffee retailer founded in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts by William Rosenberg. It is now headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts.
Dunkin' Donuts is well-known for their advertising which have become popular culture references, especially in their home region of the northeastern United States. As well as being featured in many films, they have a close relationship with the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots, making new commercials at the start of each team's season for promotions.
Dunkin' Donuts' current slogan is America Runs On Dunkin.' In March 2009, the company unveiled an alternate slogan, "You 'Kin Do It!", and launched a $100+ million ad campaign to promote it. The original Dunkin' Donuts slogan was Sounds Good, Tastes Even Better.
While the Philippines' current slogan since 2004 is Pasalubong ng Bayan or A Welcome Present for Everyone, since Filipinos love to give treats after a hard days work to their families at home. Dunkin' Donuts' "It's Worth the Trip" campaign, starring sleepy-eyed "Fred the Baker" and featuring the catch phrase "Time to make the donuts," won honors from the Television Bureau of Advertising as one of the five best commercials of the 1980s.
Fred the Baker was played by actor Michael Vale for over 15 years until his retirement in 1997. Vale died of complications from diabetes at age 83 on December 24, 2005, in New York City.
"It's Time To Make The doughnuts!"
Maytag Repairman!
Ol' Lonely, or "the lonely repairman", is a character in Maytag advertisements, created for Maytag by copywriter Vincent R. Vassolo of the Leo Burnett advertising agency. He was initially played by Jesse White, beginning in 1967.
Ol' Lonely is representative of the professed dependability of Maytag products. Maytag advertisements stated “Ol' Lonely’s predicament is testimony to the durability and reliability of Maytag appliances. Now if only he had something to do with his days.”
LASTLY CHRISTMAS
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Directed by Kizo Nagashima, Larry Roemer. With Burl Ives, Billie Mae Richards, Paul Soles. A misfit reindeer and his friends look for a place that will accept them.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a character created in a story and song by the same name. The story was created by Robert L. May in 1939 as part of his employment with Montgomery Ward.
The story is owned by The Rudolph Company, L.P. and has been sold in numerous forms including a popular song, a television special (done in stop motion animation), and a feature film. Character Arts, LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph Company, L.P.
The song (first recorded in 1949 by Gene Autry) tells the tale of Santa Claus's ninth and lead reindeer who possesses an unusually red-colored nose that gives off its own light, powerful enough to illuminate the team's path through inclement weather.
Although the story and song are not public domain, Rudolph has become a Christmas folklore figure (as evidenced by the development of local variations and parodies such as "Deadeye the Lonesome Cowboy," collected in the field by Simon J. Bronner and included in American Children's Folklore).
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The 1966 animated special. read by Boris Karloff. The Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling creature with a heart "two sizes too small," lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep, 3,000-foot (910 m) high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is Max, his faithful dog. From his perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. Envious of the Whos' happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and, by means of burglary, deprive them of their Christmas presents and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming".
However, he learns in the end that despite his success in stealing all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. His heart grows three sizes larger, he returns all the presents and trimmings, and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It is based on the popular children's book of the same title by Dr. Seuss, the story of The Grinch trying to take away Christmas from the townsfolk below.
The special, which is considered a short film as it runs less than an hour, is now considered by most Americans to be a timeless classic. Horror film icon Boris Karloff narrates the film and also provides the speaking voice of The Grinch (the opening credits state, "The sounds of the Grinch are by Boris Karloff. And read by Boris Karloff, too!").
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Author: Dr. Seuss
You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch.
You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.
You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch.
I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.
You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile.
Mr. Grinch.
Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crockodile.
You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch.
The three words that best describe you,
are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."
You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots,
Mr. Grinch.
Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.
You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch.
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse.
Mr. Grinch.
You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool
sandwich
With arsenic sauce.
Copyright © 1957, Dr. Seuss.
I am sure there is a lot more but I stopped there to save space on the post, after all this is rather lengthy as it is already and I can go on and on! Here is another one someone else can give a go, we covered shows, retro commercials now what else?!?
B~Man
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FTABman0,
I gotta say that the ChuckWagon Dog Food commercial was my favorite! I thought that the theme and idea and the filmography was really neat for the time.
Slinky was cool, so was Mr. Whipple (in a funny and "I like that commercial" sort of way). But, the one you didn't mention that as sort of gone away from our radars was the Lite-Bright. Remember that? I cannot exactly recall the commercial, but I remember playing with the toy!
And who can forget playing with our first video game? Pong? LOL I think that is what they called it. You hooked it up to your TV antenna twin leads and played a game of Hockey, Tennis, or Ping Pong (of course all the games were identical) LOL!
And how about Ron Popeil and his portable fishing rod (that was a little later in life, and I never owned one as I was already into better equipment by then), I don't think I would have bought one of those for my kid! But, I do remember the commercials. Seems like old Ron Popeil has been around a while.
RADAR
I gotta say that the ChuckWagon Dog Food commercial was my favorite! I thought that the theme and idea and the filmography was really neat for the time.
Slinky was cool, so was Mr. Whipple (in a funny and "I like that commercial" sort of way). But, the one you didn't mention that as sort of gone away from our radars was the Lite-Bright. Remember that? I cannot exactly recall the commercial, but I remember playing with the toy!
And who can forget playing with our first video game? Pong? LOL I think that is what they called it. You hooked it up to your TV antenna twin leads and played a game of Hockey, Tennis, or Ping Pong (of course all the games were identical) LOL!
And how about Ron Popeil and his portable fishing rod (that was a little later in life, and I never owned one as I was already into better equipment by then), I don't think I would have bought one of those for my kid! But, I do remember the commercials. Seems like old Ron Popeil has been around a while.
RADAR
Yes I remember Lite-Bright! I got one for Christmas when I was a kid! There are so much more to recall! Those I posted were the ones I still remember from my childhood days! I sill remember the Lite-Bright commercial yes!
Thanks Radar, forgot about that one!
B~Man
Saw the Life Cereal retromercial on RTN today while watching Airwolf. Boy, that brought back memories. "He likes it! Hey Mikey!"
Do you know what I think would go over very well?
Put up a network that truly is RETRO... If the producers would select some old TV station that was around in the 50's and still exists today. Then start off by playing everything broadcast from that station (the exact tv shows, news programs and commercials) from the time it went on the air in the morning until it went off at night from one week in 1950. The second week would be everything broadcast from a week in 1951, next week 1952, 1953 and so on.
Continue every week with a week from a past year in chronological order all the way up to 2002. Then start over with a different week from 1950 and continue again.
Something like this or maybe do Mondays as the 50's, Tuesdays as the 60's, Wednesdays 70's....Fridays 90's and Weekends have movies from the past all day, with no commercials. And have Saturday morning be kid's cartoons from the past and Saturday night be "Fright Night" with horror movies from the classic era. Sunday mornings have old westerns like the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers etc. Sunday night have the Grande Ole Opre and Disney and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kigndom and maybe a special or two.
Even better yet, have five or six stations, each devoted to a specific decade!
If I were an overly wealthy man, and had the time to do so. I would come up with something along this theme just for the sheer fun of it!
RADAR
Put up a network that truly is RETRO... If the producers would select some old TV station that was around in the 50's and still exists today. Then start off by playing everything broadcast from that station (the exact tv shows, news programs and commercials) from the time it went on the air in the morning until it went off at night from one week in 1950. The second week would be everything broadcast from a week in 1951, next week 1952, 1953 and so on.
Continue every week with a week from a past year in chronological order all the way up to 2002. Then start over with a different week from 1950 and continue again.
Something like this or maybe do Mondays as the 50's, Tuesdays as the 60's, Wednesdays 70's....Fridays 90's and Weekends have movies from the past all day, with no commercials. And have Saturday morning be kid's cartoons from the past and Saturday night be "Fright Night" with horror movies from the classic era. Sunday mornings have old westerns like the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers etc. Sunday night have the Grande Ole Opre and Disney and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kigndom and maybe a special or two.
Even better yet, have five or six stations, each devoted to a specific decade!
If I were an overly wealthy man, and had the time to do so. I would come up with something along this theme just for the sheer fun of it!
RADAR
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My Dad's favorite show in the 1960's was Combat. When Combat was on we weren't allowed to make any noise.
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[ame="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055666/"]"Combat!" (1962)@@AMEPARAM@@http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTc2ODgwMzEzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzIwOTIzMQ@@._V1._SX99_SY140_.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@BMTc2ODgwMzEzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzIwOTIzMQ@@@@AMEPARAM@@SX99@@AMEPARAM@@SY140[/ame]
I remember Combat. That was a really good show! Too bad I didn't realize they had colorized episodes until 20 years later! We had one of those B&W Sylvania TVs with a horizontal hold problem that kept rolling as the TV set warmed up. Ha Ha. Had to get up every few minutes and readjust it! And of course, there were the rabbit ear antennas coming out the back of the set that only worked when you held one and stretched your other arm out just right! Does anyone remember a TV like this?
Does anyone broadcast the reruns today?
RADAR
Many of the clips from You Tube have been removed from You Tube's site due to terms of service violations (copyright infringments). What the heck? I would think in those cases that they would be honored. Free advertising! Well, unless you are profiting from the deal, there shouldn't be a problem.
Geeze, that is really lame! That's like suing McD's because you are too stupid to hold your hot coffee properly! This stuff didn't occur when I was growing up. Nowadays people sue and gripe about the tiniest of things! Very dissappointed with "those" people.
Does anyone remember sleeping out in the tent in your backyard or in your treehouse and sneaking away at night to bombard the neighbor kids in their tent with green apples? Or tossing June Bugs into the girls tents? Just to hear them scream! LOL I guess you would get a ticket of some sort for doing that today. It's probably a hate crime now, or abuse of insects or something! Ha Ha
RADAR
Geeze, that is really lame! That's like suing McD's because you are too stupid to hold your hot coffee properly! This stuff didn't occur when I was growing up. Nowadays people sue and gripe about the tiniest of things! Very dissappointed with "those" people.
Does anyone remember sleeping out in the tent in your backyard or in your treehouse and sneaking away at night to bombard the neighbor kids in their tent with green apples? Or tossing June Bugs into the girls tents? Just to hear them scream! LOL I guess you would get a ticket of some sort for doing that today. It's probably a hate crime now, or abuse of insects or something! Ha Ha
RADAR
Slinky
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy.
Oh my gosh, that little jingle has been rolling around in my head ever since the first time I heard it! The advertising marketers knew exactly what they were doing with that one!
RADAR
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy.
Oh my gosh, that little jingle has been rolling around in my head ever since the first time I heard it! The advertising marketers knew exactly what they were doing with that one!
RADAR
Gone Fishin'
Do you remember the weekend fishing show - Gone Fishin'?
I remember it, but just barely. I cannot think of the show host's name! It was back in the late 60's or early 70's and the guy always wore a checkered red flannel shirt. And there was a rather rustic looking cabin that he emerged from. I think it was set in Minnesota, but they traveled around for each weeks show.
I had his name in mind, but before I could back to the keyboard, I forgot it. It isn't Babe Winkleman and it isn't Al Lindner or anyone like that, this is much earlier.
Does anyone remember this show?
RADAR
Do you remember the weekend fishing show - Gone Fishin'?
I remember it, but just barely. I cannot think of the show host's name! It was back in the late 60's or early 70's and the guy always wore a checkered red flannel shirt. And there was a rather rustic looking cabin that he emerged from. I think it was set in Minnesota, but they traveled around for each weeks show.
I had his name in mind, but before I could back to the keyboard, I forgot it. It isn't Babe Winkleman and it isn't Al Lindner or anyone like that, this is much earlier.
Does anyone remember this show?
RADAR
The was a simular show around here. The Red Fisher Show.
Real Fishing is the premiere sport and tournament fishing website for people passionate about reeling in the big one.
http://www.bushparty.com/htms/redfisher.html
Always one for respect for the environment and preached catch and release. (but had a few good shore lunches as well)
Not that I know of. The complete series box set is available but its a bit expensive. It does contain 40 discs though.
I finally remembered his name! Virgil Ward......
“From the lakes of northern Canada
To the Gulf of Mexico.
Wherever fish are biting
That's where we're going to go.
There's a lot of exciting country
Just waiting to be explored.
So join us now in the great outdoors,
The World of Virgil Ward.”
Kickin!
“From the lakes of northern Canada
To the Gulf of Mexico.
Wherever fish are biting
That's where we're going to go.
There's a lot of exciting country
Just waiting to be explored.
So join us now in the great outdoors,
The World of Virgil Ward.”
Kickin!
I thought that was Harold Ensley, "The Sportsman's Friend"?
Gone Fishin....
Instead....of just.....a-wishin
I thought that was Harold Ensley, "The Sportsman's Friend"?
Gone Fishin....
Instead....of just.....a-wishin
Yes, I think that you are right. I could not find any photos of the opening of Harold's show and therefore cannot confirm that that is the one I was originally thinking of. All I can really recall is a little rustic wooden cabin and the sign that said " Gone Fishin' " either carved or burned into it. Does that sound right?
If anyone can find any links to actual videos from this show, I would appreciate it if you would send them my way!
RADAR
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