Category: 1960’s

Remember Morris The Cat?

Before there was Grumpy Cat or cat memes we only had Nine Live Morris The Cat commercials to look forward to. Morris the Cat was the mascot for Nine Lives from the ’70s through the ’80s. Known to be the “world’s most finicky cat” with snarky voice-over comments.

The first Morris The Cat was discovered by Bob Martwick in 1968 at the Hindsale Humane Society in the Chicago area. Martwick worked at the Leo Burnett advertising company where Morris was featured in 58 television commercials from 1968 to 1978. Morris was Martwick’s family pet.

John Erin was the voice for Morris and also He-Man in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

The original Morris died in 1978. Since then there have been 2 other Morris cats, all were rescue cats.

https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/morris-video.mp4

McAshtrays

Not all memories are happy ones. I remember as a kid thinking to myself that if McDonald’s was mostly for kids, why did they have smoking in the restaurants? I hated when they were at a table we were at or near! The glass ones were really old school with the tin ones taking over in the 80’s. Smoking was banned in 1994.

Will Hart of the Delfonics Passes at 77

According to TMZ, the Grammy Award-winning lead singer of The Delfonics Will Heart  passed away on Thursday, July 15, 2002 after complications of surgery. He was 77. The former barber from Philadelphia formed the Delfonics with his brother Wilbert. In 1975 after a number of hits the brothers split into two Delfonics groups. A judge ruled both brothers could use the name Delfonics if they properly informed the audience of the distinction between the two groups, so Will became Will Heart and the Delfonics.

Hart’s lead vocal led to  hits like “La – La – Means I Love You,” “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” and “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love).”

He Should Be As Famous As Edison

Most of the things you use today Nick Holonyak Jr. had a hand in it. We all know Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but who invented the LED light bulb? Nick Holonyak Jr. is receiving the credit for that energy saving device. Your TV, computer and phone screen are more than likely LED. Although the LED was around for a while, Holonyak made the first visible light from and LED and credited as the father of the LED light.

Holonyak won two Nobel Prizes. The first for co-inventing the transistor and the second one for explaining superconductivity (Google that one). He holds 30 patents. “His work is responsible for the technology used to develop red lasers in CD and DVD players, the ability to transmit information over the Internet, and applications in replacing conventional lighting with LEDs. Holonyak also created the basic electronic element of household light dimmer switches” (see https://www.invent.org/inductees/nick-holonyak-jr).

At the time of this writing (May 2022) he is still with us and enjoying retirement at the age of 93.

To learn more about his of course Google him or see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Holonyak

https://mntl.illinois.edu/ssdl

https://mntl.illinois.edu/ssdl

Vavoom From Felix The Cat

I was in a restaurant with my wife celebrating our anniversary and there was a table with kids. All were well mannered but one kid was just so loud I said he reminded me of the cartoon character Vavoom which gave me the inspiration for this post.

Vavoom was an Inuit (Alaskan indigenous person) on the Felix the Cat cartoon who used his voice to get them out of situations, like blasting rocks away in this video.

I grew up watching Felix The Cat on the Saturday morning cartoons. Surprisingly Felix The Cat only ran from 1958 to 1960 for a total of 126 episodes. CBS revived in the 90’s from 1995 to 1997 under the name The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat for just 21 episodes.

Did you ever give someone the nickname Vavoom. Please tell!

Skittle Everything!

Aurora Toys had big success with Skittle Bowl when it launched in 1969. It seems their company started making EVERYTHING Skittle, except for the candy!

This was one of the games my dad played with me and my four brothers that we actually started leagues with playoffs and championship. We even had a cup like the National Hockey League.

You can still find the games on eBay, but way more than $6.99. I bought one over fifteen years ago and play it with my kids from time to time. Sometimes when my brothers get together one of us will break it out and relive the memories.

Here is the commercial on Youtube I wonder where we got the idea for leagues and a championship cup? !!

The Munster Test Pilot

The Musters was a series that ran from Fall of 1964 to the Spring of 1966 and aired on CBS at 7:30 on Thursday nights. It was written by the same writers from Leave It To Beaver.

Here is the 1964 pilot that was recorded in color. It was recorded for 15 minutes but edited to 13 minutes. Many say the network didn’t want to spend the extra money to produce it in color while others say it was to copy Universal’s vintage monster film’s appearance from the 1930’s and 40’s.

There were a total of 70 episodes recorded. The show ran for two years until it received stiff competition from ABC’s Batman that aired opposite of the Munster’s. The show continues to run in syndication. At the time of this writing it has been picked up by Cozi-TV

As you can see, the characters weren’t finalized. What did you like or dislike about the original cast? Do you wish it was recorded in color?

Howard Johnson Restaurant Specials

What was your favorite item or special at Howard Johnson’s? Who didn’t love their clams? My all time favorite was the strawberry ice cream, the only brand that I chose over chocolate ice cream!

Howard Johnson chairman, George Carter was quoted as saying back in 1987 to the Orlando Sentinel “We have the concept, but it desperately needs to be modernized, internally and externally. Howard Johnson was allowed to become tired and stale. We must get rid of that plastic image… Anything can be salvageable if a great deal of time and money and effort is put in it. And Howard Johnson needs all those same things.” So they just let the restaurant chain die. Sadly, only the hotel chain remains.

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