Who remembers the Valentine cards we shared with our classmates in school? I remember being excited receiving one from the girl I had a crush on only to realize we had to exchange cards with everyone in the class. I wonder if they still allow kids to do this? I guess it depends from school system to school system.
20 Mule Borax Team Show
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!
Star Wars Holiday Special
In 1977, George Lucas broke box office sales records with Star Wars. While working on the sequel CBS suggested the idea of a holiday special. Lucas passed the project on to others. It’s Star Wars, how could it lose? We will find out after this.
In 1978, CBS approached George Lucas for a full length Star Wars Holiday Special. Lucas was busy with The Empire Strikes Back. CBS insisted that it be like a variety show, so the show was put in the hands of veteran variety show writers and producers.
George Lucas insisted that the show center around Chewbacca’s family but insisted on no subtitles to the unintelligible family.
So, we have guest hosts like Art Carney in a futuristic Ed Norton as an appliance salesman carrying the dialogue.
Before there was even a Food Network, Chewbacca’s wife watches a cooking show with an eight armed Harvey Korman doing his best impression of an alien Julia Childs.
Korman also plays a malfunctioning instructional video of what appears to be a Radio Shack 50 in 1 project kit.
The show was stretched for time with scenes like this futuristic Cirque du Soleil hologram to entertain the little Wookiee.
Grandpa then had his fantasies fulfilled, no, I’m not kidding, with sequinned dressed Diahann Carroll. I can’t believe this made it past the censors at the CBS Practices and Standards. Cher was actually offered the part but wisely turned it down.
The Wookiees Facetime with Mark Hamill and R2D2, as well as a scene from Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia, with C3P0 in order to have a cameo for all the Star Wars stars.
In keeping with the variety show angle, Jefferson Starship of all groups appear to entertain and soften the spirits of the Imperial Patrol. In an interview with Vanity Fair, former lead singer for Starship said, “It was such a strange iteration of the original big-screen-movie concept and your regular variety-show, Carol Burnett vibe,” he says. “I was like tripping on it myself, man.”
Bea Arthur who was famous for the TV character Maude at the time wanted the public to be aware of her previous Broadway talents as a singer. After pouring drinks down Harvey Korman’s volcano head, she bursts into song with this number.
At the time, there were only three networks and the Star Wars Holiday Show came in second, being beat by Love Boat.
In the end, all character unite with globes, donned in red snuggies and walk into the sun while Carrie Fisher sings.
In the same Vanity Fair article George Lucas was quoted as saying that if he had the time and a hammer, he would personally “smash” every bootlegged copy of the special; otherwise he has yet to come clean on the matter.
Which just proves the old saying, if you want a job done right, do it yourself!
National Lampoon Ted Kennedy VW Ad
In 1972 National Lampoon ran this parody Volkswagen ad as a comment on the infamous 1969 Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick incident. (Volkswagen sued National Lampoon for using the name, logo and image of a Volkswagen automobile without permission.)
TV Cartoons Of The 60s
Remember those Saturday & Sunday morning cartoons we watched as kids? Some of us watched them in the 60’s, kids and us still watch them today. All of these aired in the 60’s, though some were made even earlier then that. So take a look back and see if you can remember them all. Music is by Classics IV and Spanky & Our Gang.
The Swear Box
This sketch is from one of the most popular TV comedy shows in the UK. It ran for almost seventeen years and regularly drew a large audience. The Two Ronnies as it was called starred Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett and in my house was required Saturday night viewing.
Honda Accord ad done in 606 takes
And you thought those people that set up a room full of dominos to knock over were amazing… believe it or not, just unbelievable!! When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation, including the costs. There are six, and only six, hand-made Honda Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make this film. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in real time, exactly as you see it. The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn’t work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again.
The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence. In addition, it is two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they’re shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime. Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp and complete Honda Accord) are parts from those two cars. And how about those funky windshield wipers…?? At a cost of $6.2 million for 90-sec commercial, this is the world’s costliest ad and hands down winner in the world of ads.
East German Steroid Swimmers
At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, American Shirley Babashoff was supposed to be the female version of Mark Spitz. Babashoff was a threat to win six gold medals. Instead, she won just one gold medal and four silvers. In every race she lost, she lost to an East German. The star of the East German women’s swimming team was Kornelia Ender (pictured here). Babashoff was immediately suspicious of the East Germans because of their muscular builds and deep voices. She claimed the dressing room ‘sounded like a coed room.’ At the time, Babashoff was criticized as a sore loser. The press dubbed her ‘Surly Shirley.’ After East Germany collapsed in 1989 the truth came out: East German athletes were regularly given steroids via injections to increase their athletic capabilities. Babashoff now campaigns to have the East German medal results nullified.
Umpire John McSherry Dies During Game
On April 1, 1996, the Cincinnati Reds opened the Major League Baseball season by hosting the Montreal Expos. Seven pitches into the game, 51-year-old umpire John McSherry staggered away from home plate on unsteady legs and collapsed face-first to the ground. He likely died immediately of a massive heart attack, but he was officially pronounced dead an hour later. Another umpire, Tom Hallion, accompanied McSherry to a Cincinnati hospital. The remaining two umpires, after consulting with the Reds and Expos, decided to postpone the game. The decision did not sit well with outspoken Reds’ owner Marge Schott who was unhappy about having to issue rainchecks to the 50,000 spectators. (She later sent flowers to McSherry’s funeral, but reports claimed they were second-hand flowers she herself had received on Opening Day from a local TV station.) McSherry, who tipped the scales at over 300 pounds, was a stereotypical out-of-shape MLB umpire. Beginning in 1997, MLB insisted on tough new physical fitness standards for its arbiters.
The Jackie Gleason Show
Watch for when Crazy Guggenheim and Joe discuss the movie The Hustler. I love it when Crazy says he remembers the guy who played Minnesota Fats used to be on the Art Carney show.
