Photo Credit: Arthur E. Scott/Reni News Photos/Courtesy of WHNPA/NPR
Television cowboy and roping legend Montie Montana lassoes President Eisenhower in the presidential reviewing box during his 1953 inaugural parade.
Photo Credit: Museum of the American West/LA Times
The third entry in the “Odd Ads of the Past” series is a bit different from the previous two. These advertisements ran in the 1980′s and would hardly be considered “the Past.” Since they featured Chuck Norris and a new jean with a hidden “gusset” I could NOT pass up posting it!
Chuck Norris’ Action Jeans are described in the advertisements as the following:
Developed by Chuck Norris for stunt fighting in action movies. These great looking western style jeans have a unique hidden gusset* which allows greater movement without binding or ripping.
I bet these were perfect for the everyday person or martial artist who walked around roundhouse kicking people….
Source for both advertisements
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*I did not know what a “gusset” was but according to Wikipedia it is “a triangular or rhomboid piece of fabric inserted into a seam to add breadth or reduce stress from tight-fitting clothing.”
Mister Rogers with Bill Bixby (left) and Lou Ferrigno (right as the Hulk) Photo Credit: Universal/Mental Floss
In the February 6, 1980 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Mister Rogers meets The Incredible Hulk. If you are shocked to hear the words “Mister Rogers” and “The Incredible Hulk” in the same sentence, join the club. In the episode, aptly called ”Mister Rogers’ Talks About Superheros,” Mister Rogers visits the set of The Incredible Hulk to talk about make-believe and expressing one’s feelings. Since the Hulk is a great example of “expressing one’s feelings,” I guess it makes sense…
The Original Ronald McDonald, played by Willard Scott ca. 1963
Ronald McDonald, the famous mascot of McDonald’s was created by media personality and weatherman Willard Scott. Known for being the Today Show’s centenarian birthday wisher since 1983, Scott created and played the popular red, yellow and white clown from 1963-1966 and, at times, as late as 1971. In his 1982 book The Joy of Living, he describes how he came up with the idea of the clown.
At the time, Bozo was the hottest children’s show on the air. You could probably have sent Pluto the Dog or Dumbo the Elephant over and it would have been equally as successful. But I was there, and I was Bozo… There was something about the combination of hamburgers and Bozo that was irresistible to kids… That’s why when Bozo went off the air a few years later, the local McDonald’s people asked me to come up with a new character to take Bozo’s place. So, I sat down and created Ronald McDonald.
Photo Credit: Disney
Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse, was married to Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse. Taylor has been the voice of Minnie since 1986 while Allwine voiced Mickey for three decades, only two people have voiced Mickey before him – Jimmy MacDonald and Walt Disney himself. Allwine and Taylor were married from 1991 until Allwine’s death in 2009. Of their marriage, Taylor once stated,
Everybody goes, ‘Oh, that’s so sweet.’ When we got married, we kind of kept it quiet because everybody was saying, ‘Oh, Mickey and Minnie got married.’ It wasn’t Mickey and Minnie; it was Wayne and Russi. We wanted to keep it about us and not about the characters.
Taylor was also the voice of Scrooge’s grand nephews, the identical triplets - Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck on the animated television series DuckTales.
Dennis McLellan, “Wayne Allwine, voice of Mickey Mouse, dies at 62,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2009.
Wayne Allwine’s IMDb.com biography
Russi Taylor’s IMDb.com biography
From 1955 to 1975, Gunsmoke was the longest-running primetime drama on US television. With 20 seasons, there were 635 episodes. The premise of Gunsmoke was similar to most western movies. Marshal Matt Dillon protected the wild west town of Dodge City against outlaws and corrupters. James Arness, who played Dillon, appeared in every episode.
According to imdb.com, “[Gunsmoke was] slated to be canceled in 1967 due to low ratings, but then-CBS president William Paley reversed the decision. He moved the show from Saturdays to Mondays (cancelling Gilligan’s Island in the process), placing it back in the Nielsen’s Top Ten (Paley and his wife were both big fans of the show).”
Steinberg, Cobbett. TV Facts. New York: Facts on File, 1985, 76.
The first “TV Guide” cover featured Desi Arnaz Jr., the baby of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. (Source)
During the 1940s, TV Guide magazine was comprised of three magazines, Chicago’s Television Forecast, Philadelphia’s Local Telviser, and New York’s Television Guide.
They eventually merged and on April 3, 1953, the first national edition of TV Guide was released. The photo above is the first edition of the newly formed TV Guide, the cover featured Desi Arnaz Jr., the baby of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
By 1960s, TV Guide became one of the most curculated and read magazine in the country and in 1974, TV Guide became the first magazine in history to sell a billion copies.
[Zim's Note: Today, August 6, 2011, marks the 100 birthday of Lucille Ball. I have decided to do a short overview of her life, I Love Lucy and various achievements.]
Photo Credit: The Lucy Desi Center for Comedy
On August 6, 1911, Lucille Desiree Ball was born in Jamestown, New York. She moved to New York City at 15 years of age and initially struggled to fulfill her acting dreams. She spent nearly 20 years in motion pictures before she landed the role that made her a household name.
I Love Lucy Years
Lucy and her best friend Ethel (played by Vivian Vance). Photo Credit: The Morton Report
Ball is known best for her enormously popular television program, I Love Lucy, a role that led her to be called “the first woman of television.” I Love Lucy first premiered on October 15, 1951. It was the first television series that filmed live in front of a studio audience. The show originally ran for six years, from 1951 to 1957, earning Ball two Emmys. I Love Lucy aired in 100 countries and is still broadcasted through syndication. Slapstick routines and elastic expressions cemented I Love Lucy and Lucille Ball into popular culture.
Some of Hollywood leading actors made appearances on I Love Lucy. They included Orson Welles, Bob Hope, John Wayne, Rock Hudson and George Reeves.
The show was so popular that the episode “Lucy Goes to the Hospital,” which aired January 19, 1953, set a viewer rating record of 71.1. More viewers watched that episode of Lucy giving birth, than did those who watched President Eisenhower’s inauguration.
Additionally, Lucille Ball was so popular that she successfully fought the Communist witch-hunts that took down many celebrities at that time. During the 1930s, her voting registration listed her as a supporter of the Communist Party. She stated during a September 1953 meeting with Walter Winchell, an investigator with the House Un-American Activities Committee, that she only listed her affiliation with the party out of respect for her grandfather who was a socialist. Ball voted for Eisenhower, but it was reported that she was so upset with the whole ordeal and she never voted again.
Lucille Ball and husband, Desi Arnaz seated in directors chairs at press conference in Los Angeles on September 13, 1953. (Source)
Desilu Studios & Lucille Ball Production
Beyond acting, Ball along with her husband Desi Arnaz co-owned and controlled one of the most successful television production studios in history. The production company was Desilu Studios and Ball served as Vice-President. The studio produced 1950s and 1960s television hit such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mission Impossible and Star Trek.
Lucy and Desi Arnaz divorced in May 1960 (after nineteen and a half years of marriage). Two years later, Ball bought out Arnaz’s shares of Desilu Studios and became the first woman to head a major television production studio.
Ball sold Desilu Studios in the mid-1960s to Gulf and Western for about $17 million. She then created Lucille Ball Productions.
Awards & Honors
Some of the awards and honors bestowed on Lucille Ball include the following:
Actress Lucille Ball making her final public appearance (four weeks before her death) with husband Gary Morton at left. Photo taken at the 61st Academy Awards on March 29, 1989. Photo Credit: Alan Light
Lucille Ball passed away on April 26, 1989 at the Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from cardiac arrest associated with a dissecting aortic aneurysm. She left behind two children from her marriage to Desi Arnaz. As for Ball’s legacy, Nina Leibman summed it up best for Ball’s biography for the Museum of Broadcast Communications,
For all her impact upon the very nature of television production, Ball is most vividly recalled as a series of black and white images. To remember Lucille Ball is to recall a profusion of universal images of magical mayhem–a losing battle with a candy conveyor belt, a flaming nose, a slippery vat of grapes–images which, contrary to most American situation comedy, transcend nationalities and generations, in an absolute paradigm of side-splitting laughter.
Further Online Reading
The Museum of Broadcast Communications website
The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Center website
William A. Henry III, “Lucille Ball: 1911-1989: A Zany Redheaded Everywoman,” Time Magazine, May 8, 1989. Found online here.
Image of the commercial for Bulova clocks
The first television commercial premiered on July 1, 1941 during a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. It was purchased by the Bulova company to promote their clocks with the phrase, “America Runs on Bulova Time.” Bulova paid $9 for the world’s first commercial spot.
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