Steve, Author at Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures - Do You Remember

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.

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.

Silly Rabbit, Trix Are For Kids!

https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Trix.mp4

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.

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.

Two-Year-Old Tiger Woods On TV

Before he became one of the greatest golfers of all time, Tiger Woods was a 2-year-old kid on The Mike Douglas Show, standing beside his father Earl and putting while Bob Hope watched.

The clip is incredible because it is not just cute. You can already see the swing, the confidence, and the beginning of something unusual. Tiger’s father, Earl Woods, had introduced him to golf almost as soon as he could walk, and he became his first coach, teacher, and biggest influence.

Earl did more than teach him how to hit a ball. He taught Tiger discipline, focus, and how to handle pressure. That early father-son bond helped shape the child prodigy who would grow into a golf legend.

Looking back, that little TV appearance feels like the first public glimpse of history. A toddler with a golf club, a proud father nearby, and the start of a career nobody could have fully imagined yet.

National Donut Day: Time To Make The Donuts With Fred

https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/000000.mp4

Today is National Donut Day, so it feels like the perfect time to celebrate with Fred the Baker and his famous line: “Time to make the donuts.”

Fred was played by actor Michael Vale, who became the face of Dunkin’ Donuts in commercials from the early 1980s until 1997. The whole idea was simple: while the rest of us were still sleeping, Fred was dragging himself out of bed before dawn to make fresh donuts. That tired little walk and mumble made him feel like every hardworking person who had to get up early and do the job.

National Donut Day itself goes back much further. It was created by The Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to honor the “Doughnut Lassies,” women who served donuts to soldiers during World War I. It also helped raise money for people in need during the Great Depression.

So today, grab a donut and give a little nod to Fred. He made getting up before dawn look exhausting, funny, and somehow heroic.

Time to make the donuts!

Before There Was Jell-O Wrestling…

Check out this advertisement for Jell-O from the early 60’s. Jell-O fisticuffs! Would they run an ad like this today?

Sesame Street’s Counting Songs: The Numbers That Got Stuck In Our Heads

When people mention the Sesame Street counting song, a lot of us instantly hear that funky:

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5…”

The best-remembered version is the Pinball Number Count, the animated segment where a pinball rolls through wild little number-themed machines while the song counts up to 12. It was recorded by The Pointer Sisters in 1976, which explains why it had so much more groove than a regular kids’ counting song.

That was part of Sesame Street’s genius. They didn’t talk down to kids. They used real music, catchy animation, and repetition that worked. You learned numbers without feeling like you were being taught.

There were plenty of other number songs on Sesame Street, including ones focused on counting to 10, but the Pinball Number Count is probably the one most people remember first. It was funky, fast, colorful, and impossible to forget.

For a lot of us, that little pinball didn’t just teach numbers. It gave us one of the greatest earworms in children’s TV history.

Nobody Doesn’t Like Sara Lee

As a kid growing up, I didn’t understand why everyone said “Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee” was incorrect English. I just knew they made great baked products.

The famous Sara Lee campaign was built around that odd but unforgettable line:

“Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.”

It was catchy, a little strange, and maybe not what your English teacher wanted to hear, but that was the point. The double negative made people notice it, remember it, and repeat it.

The commercials usually showed off Sara Lee cakes, pies, pound cake, coffee cake, and other desserts that looked like they came from a bakery, even if they came from the freezer. For a lot of families, Sara Lee was the “company’s coming” dessert you could serve without doing all the baking yourself.

Looking back, the grammar may have been questionable, but the advertising worked. Everybody had foods they didn’t like, but the campaign wanted us to believe Sara Lee was the one thing nobody could turn down.

And honestly, as a kid, I wasn’t diagramming the sentence. I was looking at the cake.

Columbia House: 11 Albums For A Dollar

Columbia House was how I started my record collection. 11 albums for just one dollar! What a bargain, until you forgot to send in the postcard saying you didn’t want the automatic shipment and wound up with an Engelbert Humperdinck album the next month. Not that there’s anything wrong with him, just not exactly a 17-year-old’s style.

That was the Columbia House magic and the Columbia House trap. The club pulled you in with a ridiculous opening deal, then made its money when you bought more albums at regular club prices, or when you forgot to decline the monthly selection.

Columbia House started as the Columbia Record Club in 1955 and became huge through mail-order records, tapes, and later CDs. The music club side shut down in 2009, after BMG bought and folded it into its own operation. The company kept going for a while as a DVD/Blu-ray club, but its parent filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015, after years of declining revenue and a music world that had moved to downloads and streaming.

Looking back, Columbia House was part bargain, part lesson in fine print, and part rite of passage. For a lot of us, it was the first time the mailman delivered music we actually wanted — and sometimes music we absolutely did not.