June 2026 - Page 6 of 8 - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

Reddy Kilowatt: The Little Electric Man Who Got Expensive

Never did I think when they were pushing Reddy Kilowatt that he would end up representing such a large portion of people’s monthly bills.

Reddy Kilowatt was the smiling cartoon mascot for electric companies for much of the 20th century. He was created in 1926 by Ashton B. Collins Sr., a commercial manager for the Alabama Power Company, as a way to give electricity a friendly face. After all, electricity itself was invisible, but Reddy made it look cheerful, modern, safe, and ready to work.

His design was clever: lightning-bolt arms and legs, a light-bulb nose, wall outlets for ears, gloves, shoes, and a big smile. He was often promoted as “Your Electric Servant,” back when electric companies were trying to sell the idea that more electricity meant more comfort, convenience, and progress.

Reddy showed up in ads, school materials, recipe books, buttons, signs, utility trucks, safety campaigns, and even promotional items. By the late 1950s and 1960s, hundreds of utility companies around the world had licensed him. He helped sell everything from electric heat to appliances to the general idea that the modern home should run on electricity.

Looking back, Reddy is a perfect little time capsule. He came from an era when electricity was being sold as the future, and in many ways, it was. But today, when the electric bill shows up, that smiling little lightning man feels a little different.

He was once the friendly face of convenience.

Now he might be the mascot for opening the bill and saying, “How much?”

When 7-Eleven Was the Store Mom Trusted

This vintage 7-Eleven ad is a perfect snapshot of a different kind of neighborhood convenience store. The ad asks, “Where does Mrs. McCall send Molly with a note to the grocer?” The answer, of course, is 7-Eleven.

The image shows a little girl handing a note to the friendly man behind the counter. The message was aimed directly at mothers, reminding them that 7-Eleven was the kind of place where they could send their child for bread, milk, and maybe even a little candy money, knowing she would be treated kindly and given the correct change.

One detail that really dates the ad is the promise that Molly’s groceries, candy, and change would be placed safely in a special 7-Eleven envelope. It was not just selling convenience. It was selling trust.

And look at the hours at the bottom: “Open 7 A.M. ’til 11 P.M…. 7 Days A Week.” Before 7-Eleven became known for being open all night, those hours were a big deal and gave the store its name.

Today, the ad feels like a time capsule: handwritten notes, dime candy, trusted clerks, and kids walking to the store on their own. It is a reminder of when convenience stores tried to feel less like quick stops and more like part of the neighborhood.

Lee Press-On Nails for Teens

Lee Press-On Nails became a huge 1980s beauty fad because they made grown-up glamour feel easy and affordable. For teens watching the commercials, that was the big hook: you didn’t need a salon, long natural nails, or even much patience. You just pressed them on and suddenly had a polished, stylish look.

The commercials made them look almost magical. In just minutes, girls and young women could go from plain nails to perfect nails, ready for school, a party, a date, or just feeling a little more grown up. For many teens, Lee Press-On Nails were like makeup in a box: a quick way to experiment with beauty without making a permanent change.

Of course, they didn’t always survive real life. Opening a locker, digging through a purse, typing, or doing chores could send one flying. But that was part of the memory. They were fun, flashy, temporary, and very 1980s.

The Untouchables: Before There Was Airplane!

Before Robert Stack showed up in Airplane! as Rex Kramer, he was dead serious as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables.

The show aired on ABC from 1959 to 1963 and gave TV viewers a gritty trip back to Prohibition-era Chicago. Stack played Ness as the calm, tough, incorruptible federal agent leading his team against gangsters, bootleggers, and mob bosses.

It had tommy guns, raids, speakeasies, gangland hits, and that hard-boiled narration from Walter Winchell that made every episode feel like a crime file being opened.

And here’s a fun connection: Leslie Nielsen, who later co-starred with Stack in Airplane!, also guest-starred on The Untouchables in the episode “Three Thousand Suspects.” So before they helped make deadpan comedy history, they were both part of this very serious crime-drama world.

Looking back, The Untouchables helped shape the TV crime drama: sharp suits, mob danger, straight-faced lawmen, and the kind of dramatic seriousness that made Airplane! even funnier years later.

Cheerios: Get Yourself Go!

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Before cereal commercials got too complicated, Cheerios gave us the Cheerios Kid, Sue, and the promise of “go-power.”

The idea was simple: eat Cheerios and suddenly you had the energy to take on whatever trouble showed up next. The late-1960s ads had that catchy “Get Yourself Go” jingle, the kind of line that stuck in your head long after Saturday morning cartoons were over.

A fun bit of trivia: the jingle is credited to Neil Diamond, before most of us knew him as the Neil Diamond.

Looking back, it was pure cereal-commercial magic: a bowl of oats, a quick cartoon adventure, and one more earworm we never quite forgot.

Mr. Magoo: The Man Who Couldn’t See Trouble Coming

Mr. Magoo was one of those cartoon characters built around one joke that somehow kept working: he could barely see, refused to admit it, and still managed to stumble through danger without realizing how close he came.

His full name was Quincy Magoo, and he first appeared in the 1949 UPA cartoon The Ragtime Bear. The character was voiced for decades by Jim Backus, who later became just as famous as Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island.

The humor was simple. Magoo would mistake one thing for another, walk into ridiculous situations, and somehow come out fine while everyone around him panicked. His famous line was:

“Oh, Magoo, you’ve done it again!”

What made Mr. Magoo stand out was that he wasn’t a talking animal or superhero. He was a stubborn little old man with terrible eyesight and total confidence. The cartoons had a sharp, modern look compared to a lot of animation at the time, and Magoo became one of UPA’s signature characters.

He later moved into TV cartoons, specials, commercials, and even holiday programming. Looking back, Mr. Magoo is definitely a product of his time, but for many of us, he’s still remembered as that squinty little guy who caused chaos everywhere he went and somehow never knew it.

Suzy Cute and Louis Armstrong: Yes, This Really Happened

The Suzy Cute doll commercial is one of those 1960s toy ads that makes you stop and say, “Wait, is that really Louis Armstrong?”

Yes, it is.

The commercial was for Topper Toys’ Suzy Cute doll, part of the company’s Suzy line. After Armstrong’s huge 1964 hit “Hello, Dolly!”, Topper’s Henry Orenstein apparently thought, “Who better to sell a doll than the man singing about Dolly?” Armstrong filmed and recorded the spot on January 6, 1965, shortly after returning from a major overseas tour.

The ad has Armstrong singing and performing with a group of little girls while promoting the doll. What makes it so charming, and a little surreal, is that Armstrong does not phone it in. The Louis Armstrong House Museum notes that even the full unused take of the jingle shows him treating it seriously, scatting, encouraging the band, and even playing trumpet during the extended recording.

That is what makes the commercial so memorable today. It is not just a toy ad. It is one of the greatest jazz legends of all time giving full Louis Armstrong energy to a tiny baby doll commercial.

Only in the 1960s could a toy company say, “Let’s get Satchmo to sell Suzy Cute,” and somehow make it happen.

Silly Rabbit, Trix Are For Kids!

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The Trix Rabbit is one of those cereal mascots who spent decades chasing the same bowl of cereal and almost never getting it.

Trix cereal was introduced by General Mills in 1954, but the famous slogan came a little later. General Mills says “Trix are for kids!” first appeared on the box in 1959, before the now-famous rabbit fully took over the campaign.

The setup was simple and perfect for kids: the rabbit wanted Trix, the kids caught him trying to get some, and then came the line everybody remembers:

“Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!”

It worked because it was funny, colorful, and a little unfair. As kids, some of us probably felt bad for the rabbit. He tried costumes, schemes, disguises, and tricks, but those kids almost always shut him down.

Looking back, that was the magic of the campaign. One rabbit, one cereal, one catchphrase, and a generation that can still hear it in their head.

The World of Commander McBragg

The World of Commander McBragg was one of those quick little cartoon shorts that showed up inside other shows, especially Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and later syndicated cartoon packages. The shorts were usually only about 90 seconds, but they packed in a whole tall tale before moving on.

Commander McBragg was a retired British-style officer and gentleman who loved telling outrageous stories about his impossible adventures. He would buttonhole some poor listener at his club, point to a map or globe, and launch into a story about the time he survived some ridiculous danger. Of course, the name said it all: McBragg. He was always bragging.

The humor came from how seriously he told these completely unbelievable adventures. Giant birds, dangerous jungles, impossible escapes, wild animals, lost valleys, flying machines, and whatever else the writers could dream up. At the end, he would usually survive by some absurd bit of cleverness, then calmly accept praise as if it had all been perfectly normal.

The character’s deep, gravelly voice was done by Kenny Delmar, who had been famous on radio as Senator Claghorn, the character who helped inspire Foghorn Leghorn.

Looking back, Commander McBragg was basically a cartoon version of that old uncle or neighbor who always had a bigger, better, wilder story than everyone else. You didn’t believe a word of it, but you still wanted to hear how he got out of it.

Tennessee Tuxedo: The Penguin Who Tried, But Couldn’t Succeed-o

Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales was a Saturday morning cartoon that aired on CBS from 1963 to 1966. It starred Tennessee Tuxedo, a penguin in a hat and bow tie, and his loyal but dim pal Chumley the walrus. They lived at the Megapolis Zoo and were always trying some new scheme that usually went wrong fast.

Tennessee was voiced by Don Adams, before Get Smart made him a household name. Once you know that, you can hear a little Maxwell Smart in Tennessee’s voice. Chumley was voiced by Bradley Bolke, and Larry Storch voiced the brilliant Phineas J. Whoopee, the professor who explained things with his famous 3DBB, the “three-dimensional blackboard.”

That was the sneaky educational part of the show. Tennessee and Chumley would get into trouble, then Mr. Whoopee would explain science, history, or how something worked, but it didn’t feel like school because the cartoon was still silly.

Looking back, it had that classic early Saturday morning feel: simple animation, funny voices, a catchy theme, and just enough learning hidden inside the laughs. Tennessee may have tried and failed a lot, but the show stuck around in a lot of memories.