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I just posted about dish night at the movie theaters back in the 30’s and 40’s posting pictures of what my mom collected along with dish promotions at supermarkets during the late 70’s. It reminded me of the glassware my mom collected through Duz laundry detergent. We kids had Cracker Jacks with a free prize inside and mom had Duz! During the 50’s Duz gave away towels and during the 60’s moved to glassware. I found pictures of the two styles we had in our home mom collected and share it with my brothers who were excited as I to see them again. They are the two in the top of the picture.
The bottom left picture were the glasses Shell Gas gave away during the 70’s and the bottom right photo was the Welch’s Jelly jars that became your free glassware!
I have four brothers so a family of seven had to make the dollar stretch. So if you had buy laundry detergent make it Duz for a free glass. Fill up the gas tank? Get another free glass. Buy jelly? Again, get a free glass. There were many other glass give-a-ways. How about the McDonald character glassware with a meal purchase? I have those tucked away in the attic! What give-a-way do your remember?
Back in the depression era, money was extremely tight. Movie theaters lowered prices to as low as a dime, but it wasn’t until they introduced dish night that started bringing in full houses. Many of the dish and china companies were going out of business but many of the survived because of this promotion. The give-a-way was mostly to women and each week it was a different piece. My mom went every week and was able to put together a full collection. The promotion ran through the 40’s and even the 50’s. There were many patterns offered by the various theaters across the county.
Another dish give-a-way was by supermarket chains during the late 70’s. My mom’s story about collecting a full china set for free enticed me when the Finast Supermarkets gave away china each week with a purchase. I was unable to complete the set when I joined the Navy in 1977 but my mom completed it for me while I served our country. Many other food chains across the country gave away china during this timeframe.
With Covid keeping movie goers away for over a year, maybe dish night will make a comeback!
Mom’s china from the 30’s and 40’s dish night at the movies.My china from Finast Supermarket back in the late 70’s.
Richard F. Outcault create the Buster Brown comic strip in 1902 which first appeared in the New York Herald. Buster was named after Buster Keaton who was at the time a child vaudeville actor. In 1904 Outcault went to the St. Louis World Fair, selling licenses for the character and the Brown Shoe Company purchased the and introduced to the Buster Brown Shoe Company to the world at the fair. In the 40’s and 50’s Buster Brown Shoes introduced a comic book as a give-a-way, prompting the stores to rubber stamp their business name and address on the comic book.
Many of you may remember the jingle
“I’m Buster Brown, and I live in a shoe. That’s my dog, Tige, and he lives there, too,” Tige was a pit-bull terrier and his sister’s name was Mary Jane.
In 2015, the company rebranded as Calares which in Latin means passion. You may know them today as Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl’s Shoes, LifeStride, Bzees, and Rykä.
In a new feature on the Retro Site we will explore the lives of the comedians of our most popular video Send in the Clowns, today we will explore the life of Jimmy Durante.
Most people today probably know Jimmy Durante as the narrator on the animated special Frosty The Snowman we see each December.
Jimmy Francis was born in 1893 in Manhattan, New York. He quit school in the seventh grade to become a full-time ragtime pianist. He teamed up with his cousin, also named Jimmy Durante but quickly out grew his cousin’s skill set and joined one of New York’s most recognizable bands the Original New Orleans Jazz Band. Durante was the only member from New York. Jimmy was then known as “Ragtime Jimmy”.
In the mid-20’s Durante became a vaudeville star and radio personality. In the 30’s Durante was bouncing back and forth between Hollywood and Broadway. It was the Broadway musical Jumbo when Durante where the expression “Elephant in the Room” came about!
His comedic style first started by interrupting a song for a joke. In 1934 he had a hit song “Inka Dinka Doo” which became his theme song for the rest of his life. In the 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle which he sang Make Someone Happy in the opening and closing credits. His version of As Time Goes By was also featured in the soundtrack.
Jimmy hated his nose in his younger days but found it to be his biggest asset in movies and television. He made fun of it more than any critic could have.
Jimmy Durante was first married to Jeanne Olson on June 19, 1921 but she expectantly died on Valentine’s Day, 1943 of a heart ailment. Jimmy would sign off all of his shows with “Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are”. Many thought he was referring to a waitress in Calabash, North Carolina. In a 1966 at a National Press Club Meeting Durante said he and his wife stopped at the diner and his wife liked the name Calabash which became her pet name and it was a tribute to his wife.
It wasn’t until 1960 until he met his second wife, Margie Little. He would kid around with the audience on his TV show and Margie was often the target of his clowning around with the audience. Margie was 41 and Jimmy was 67 when the married. They adopted a baby, Cecilia Alicia on Christmas Day 1961.
By now Durante was a beloved actor on TV. His gravelly lower east side New York accent made him one of the most familiar and beloved personalities. His gravely voice and butchering of the English language inspired the cartoon Augie Doggie/ Durante was Doggie Daddy in which he’d famously quipped “Dat’s my boy”! Jimmy also did a number of commercials for Kellog’s during the 1960’s. He also pitched for the 1973 Volkswagen about it being a big car enough for his schnozzola and his “companions”.
He often hosted ABC’s Hollywood Palace during the 1960. His last appearance was on the Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters Hour which ran for just one year.
Durante retired from performing in 1972 after he became wheelchair bound. He died of pneumonia on January 29, 1980 just shy of his 87th birthday.
In 1918 when this was posted in the Bridgeport Telegram (Connecticut) radio was yet to become popular. This was in essence an infomercial, a pretty big deal in it’s day. A visit to your town from the 20 Mule Borax Team with free entertainment, along with free samples of their laundry detergent, who could pass this up?
The Pacific Coast Borax Company adopted the the 20 mule team as it’s logo back in 1890 and the mule team was featured on the top of every box of soap flakes . Mules were used to extract the chemical borax from the mines of Death Valley between 1883 to 1889, this was before the train came to the west. Mules were used because they are less stubborn than donkeys and ate less than horses. Teams were often hitched in 80 foot chains hauling over 35 tons across 165 miles of the Mohave Dessert on less than ideal roads.
In 1916 the company sent the 20 mule team on a cross country trip promoting the brand. They started in California to Nevada. From there they were loaded on trains to Washington D.C. The team was even in the 1917 inaugural parade for Woodrow Wilson. Driving the team were colorfully name characters like Borax Bill or as in this advertisement Tarantula Pete usually reminiscing the ole west. You can still purchase their Borax 20 Mule Team to this very day!
To help promote a drive for Americans to buy war bonds the British tank Britannia was parked near the White House. This was before TV. Most news was on newsreels played at the movie theaters, a luxury for many. So not many people knew what a tank was. On April 19, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson was wounded in action while posing for photo opp. After inspecting inside the tank, the president exited the hatch of the tank and grabbed the hot exhaust, burning his hand. He smiled and exited to the east gate.
The president wore a bandage and then a white glove for many weeks. Wilson, an avid golfer did have to stop golfing for a couple of weeks, and then just with his left-hand weeks afterward. His wife Edith was quoted as saying “Woodrow is becoming the greatest one-armed champion of the world!
Send in the Clowns is by far the most popular video on YouRememberThat.com with 5.6 million views as of 3/10/2016. Such a classic video with all the great actors and actresses like Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Jerry Lewis, and Jackie Gleason to name just a few. An all time favorite of many to be sure.
