https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0N290zPrbAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbNJHQoFxls Here’s how weirdly tuned-in to each other YouTube and I are. Yesterday I posted a short musical variety film featuring a young Jack Benny as the emcee. It got me to thinking about how different Benny’sl later persona was from the brash, unfunny young man in the film. That
Watching the above reel of TV cigarette commercials from the early 1960s, one might get the impression that the product being peddled wasn’t really a cigarette, but more of a combination of perfume, cold tossed mediterranean salad, herb-infused lemonade and a good massage. Words like ‘flavorful’ and ‘relaxing’ and ‘rich’
For the past couple of years I’ve been comparing where we currently are with Artificial Intelligence with where we were in 1994-1995 with the internet; alternately impressed and scared, dismissive and fascinated, eager to figure out how to use it to give us some kind of advantage we never thought
Here are a handful of late 1950s/early 1960s animated TV commercials for such diverse products as pretzels, underarm deodorant, children’s cereal, Lucky Strike cigarettes and Beechnut chewing gum. The last mentioned features a nifty jazz score and the others are all witty and interestingly drawn. We’re beyond the lush and
Smoking on airplanes was once okay. Hell, I participated in that challenging sport for quite a few years. But advertising smoking on planes is another thing entirely. Above is a late 1950s commercial for Winston cigarettes. Apparently this particular airline handed out mini-packs for you as gift favors–kind of like
Here’s a wonderful fifteen minute reel of TV commercials from 1965. This is what the world looked and sounded like when I was one year old. It was a world of Ford Mustangs, cigarettes, new pocketbook sized cameras, cleaning products advertised by housewives talking to each other in kitchens and
Here are eight minutes of television commercials from 1964 (the year I happened to be born in). Plenty of animated cereal commercials, innocuous Bactine and Lipton tea spots and such. I’ve always felt that TV (and magazine) ads are a surefire way to experience the culture of a given period
This slick, early 60s-ish, commercial for Rice Krispies puts to bed once and for all the myth that Rice Krispies weren’t hip and cool and that the folks who ran Kellogs were a pack of capital ‘S’ Squares. Who supplied the swinging voices and accompaniment for this abjectly cool ad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAG2omxiR-ohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA-KIaNmcE8 The main thing I remember about the children’s toy Lite Brite was that it never worked. Not mine, not my friends, not anyone’s who I knew. The pegs didn’t light up, the back of the thing fell apart easily, the bulbs weren’t even included with the set–which led to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb_HyDvUcGAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TrpjKelALc When I was a kid I was deeply involved with playing ragtime and stride piano, having learned how to do it by putting my fingers on our player piano while a roll played and seeing where the keys depressed and how the whole business of two-handed jazz piano worked.