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From Frosty to the Lennon Sisters — Jimmy Durante in 1969

Most of us probably know Jimmy Durante’s unmistakable voice as the narrator of Frosty the Snowman. What I didn’t realize was that Frosty first aired in 1969 — the very same year Durante was appearing on ABC with the Lennon Sisters.

It was quite an unusual pairing.

Durante was 76 years old, with a career that stretched back through vaudeville, radio, movies and early television. Dianne, Peggy, Kathy and Janet Lennon had literally grown up on television after joining The Lawrence Welk Show as children in 1955. By the time they left in 1968, they were young women with families and wanted more freedom to pursue other opportunities.

I never realized money was part of their decision too. Kathy Lennon later recalled that for their first ten years with Welk they earned only $110 a week at group scale.

Then ABC gave them their own showcase.

Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters combined their beautiful harmonies with Durante’s raspy voice, comedy and piano, backed by Nelson Riddle’s orchestra. Guests included Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Sammy Davis Jr., George Burns, Glen Campbell, Jerry Lewis, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

There was also terrible tragedy behind those smiles. Just weeks before the weekly series premiered, the sisters’ father was murdered by a deranged stalker. They eventually returned to work under heavy security.

The show ultimately lasted just one season, with its final broadcast airing July 4, 1970. Ratings were never strong enough, and the attempt to appeal to both younger viewers and Durante’s older audience apparently left the show caught somewhere between the two.

The Lennon Sisters certainly didn’t disappear, though. They continued performing for decades and later spent years working with Andy Williams.

For me, this clip feels like two generations of entertainment meeting on one stage — and hearing Durante now, it’s almost impossible not to picture Frosty coming to life.

Do you remember Jimmy Durante from shows like this, or will he always be the voice of Frosty the Snowman to you?

“Ever Eat a Pine Tree?” — The Commercial That Turned Euell Gibbons Into a Punchline

This may be one of those commercials where one sentence became much more famous than the product being advertised.

Euell Gibbons looks into the camera and asks:

“Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.”

And if you were watching television in the early ’70s, apparently there was no escaping what happened next!

I found contemporary FTC records for this exact Grape-Nuts commercial dating it to 1972, even though it’s often identified today as a 1974 spot. Gibbons wasn’t some eccentric actor they hired either. He was a respected author and wild-food expert whose Stalking the Wild Asparagus had been around since 1962.

But that pine-tree line turned him into a pop-culture phenomenon.

John Byner spoofed him on The Carol Burnett Show, Johnny Carson made tree-eating jokes, and Match Game used Euell Gibbons repeatedly as material. One question joked that he had eaten the television camera! Even The Electric Company created “Early Gibbons,” who ate stumps, sticks and stones.

Gibbons even got into the act himself. When Sonny and Cher handed him what appeared to be a wooden plaque, he took a bite out of it. It was actually made to be edible.

And all those jokes certainly didn’t hurt Grape-Nuts. By the end of 1973, the advertising trade press reported that his commercials had increased sales by about 30 percent.

There was one unexpected ending. In 1975, the FTC stopped commercials showing wild plants as edible because regulators worried children might imitate Gibbons and eat something dangerous.

More than 50 years later, say Euell Gibbons to someone who remembers the ’70s and there’s a pretty good chance they’ll answer with something about eating a pine tree.

Do you remember the original commercial — or do you remember all the jokes about Euell Gibbons even more?

Jane Russell Playtex Commercial

Watching this 1981 Jane Russell Playtex commercial, one thing really jumped out at me when I compared it with the bra commercials we see today.

Jane is talking directly to what she calls “full-figured gals,” but she never actually appears in the bra. She stays completely dressed while explaining the support, fit and comfort of the new Playtex 18 Hour Lovely Look.

And there was a reason for that.

At the time, network television still had very strict standards about showing women in underwear. In fact, it wasn’t until 1987 that Playtex helped break a long-standing television taboo by airing commercials showing live women actually wearing bras.

Compare that with today. We routinely see women of all sizes — including larger and plus-size women — actually modeling bras and lingerie on television and in advertising. The whole idea of what can be shown, and who gets shown, has changed dramatically.

In a way, Jane Russell’s campaign feels like a step between those two worlds.

She was almost 60 years old here, talking directly to women who weren’t built like the typical young, thin lingerie model. That alone made the campaign unusual. And Jane certainly had some history with bras — Howard Hughes famously designed one for her while making The Outlaw, although Jane later admitted she hated it and secretly wore her own instead.

Then decades later, she became one of television’s most recognizable bra spokeswomen.

So watching this today isn’t just about remembering Jane Russell or Playtex. It’s also a little snapshot of how much television standards — and ideas about women’s bodies — have changed.

Do you think today’s more open approach to showing women of different sizes is better, or did these older commercials leave a little more to the imagination?

THE JERRY LEWIS TELETHON — A LABOR DAY TRADITION

For a lot of us, Labor Day weekend wasn’t complete without the Jerry Lewis Telethon. You could turn it on Sunday night, go to bed, wake up Monday morning, and somehow Jerry was still there — surrounded by ringing phones, celebrities, Ed McMahon and that famous tote board.

The Labor Day telethon began in 1966 and eventually became a huge national television event. Over the years, stars including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Cash, Cher, Michael Jackson, Johnny Carson and Robin Williams stopped by. John Lennon and Yoko Ono even appeared in 1972, with Lennon performing “Imagine.”

But the moment almost everyone remembers came in 1976. Frank Sinatra surprised Jerry by bringing Dean Martin onto the stage. The former comedy partners had gone their separate ways 20 years earlier, and Jerry clearly had no idea Dean was coming out. Watching his face when Dean walks onto that stage is still one of those great live-TV moments.

And if you watched all the way to the end, you knew what was coming — an exhausted and emotional Jerry singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

For me, that song always seemed to signal that Labor Day was ending… and so was another summer.

Do you remember watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon? Who do you remember seeing on it?

The Joey Bishop Show: Taking On Johnny Carson With a Young Regis Philbin

I remember The Joey Bishop Show as one of those late-night programs that always seemed to live in the shadow of Johnny Carson, but there was a lot more to it than I realized.

ABC launched the show in 1967 as a direct competitor to The Tonight Show, and Joey Bishop was no stranger to that world. He had already guest-hosted for Carson many times, so putting him behind his own late-night desk made plenty of sense.

Sitting beside him was a young Regis Philbin, long before Live! or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? made him a household name. One of the strangest moments came in 1968 when Regis dramatically quit on-air after saying he believed ABC executives thought he was hurting the ratings. Years later, Regis revealed that the whole thing had actually been planned with Joey as a publicity stunt.

Then came an even stranger ending. On the final broadcast in December 1969, Joey said goodbye and walked off the set early, leaving Regis and the guests to finish the show without him.

The series also had an incredible parade of guests, including Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Cash, Sonny & Cher, the Three Stooges, Debbie Reynolds and many more.

And the music had its own pedigree. Johnny Mann served as musical director and wrote the opening theme, “Joey Is the Name.”

It only lasted a little over two years, but between Joey, Regis, the celebrity guests and some very unusual television moments, it left behind quite a story.

Do you remember staying up late enough to watch Joey Bishop and Regis Philbin together?

Happy Meals

Here’s a commercial showing the beginning of something that eventually became such a normal part of childhood that it’s hard to imagine McDonald’s without the Happy Meal.

This commercial is from 1979, the year McDonald’s took the Happy Meal nationwide. But here’s something that confused me at first: the Happy Meal actually dates to both 1977 and 1979.

McDonald’s was already test-marketing Happy Meals in selected cities beginning in 1977, and the company even filed the HAPPY MEAL trademark that year. Those early tests gave McDonald’s time to refine the meal, the packaging and the prizes.

Then in June 1979, the Happy Meal officially went national with the colorful Circus Wagon boxes. That’s why 1979 is usually considered its official birthday.

And those first boxes weren’t tied to Disney, a movie or the latest cartoon. Inside you got a hamburger or cheeseburger, fries, a drink and McDonaldland cookies, along with prizes like an ID bracelet, Doodler ruler or McPuzzle Lock.

I also didn’t realize how complicated the “who invented the Happy Meal?” story was. Advertising executive Bob Bernstein said the activity-covered box was inspired by watching his son read cereal boxes at breakfast. But in Guatemala, McDonald’s operator Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño had already created a smaller children’s meal called the Menú Ronald, complete with a gift.

And McDonald’s wasn’t even the first burger chain to try the idea. Burger Chef introduced its Funmeal in 1973 and later sued McDonald’s over the similarities.

What amazes me is how quickly it all took off. By the end of 1979, McDonald’s was already doing movie tie-ins, and from there the toy became almost as important as the food.

Do you remember your first Happy Meal — and were you more excited about the hamburger or the toy?

Before Taxi, Judd Hirsch Was Selling Us Listerine

Take another look at the young radio DJ in this commercial. That’s Judd Hirsch, years before Taxi, Ordinary People and the long career we know him for today.

This spot appears to be from around 1970, when Hirsch was still trying to establish himself as an actor and doing commercials to make a living. What I didn’t know was that before acting, he had earned a degree in physics and actually worked as an engineer. A few years after this commercial, his career began taking off, and by 1978 he was Alex Rieger on Taxi, eventually winning two Emmys for the role.

But the other star here may really be Listerine’s advertising.

Most companies tried desperately to convince us their products tasted good. Listerine basically said the opposite. Its famous campaign was “The taste people hate twice a day.” In other words, yes, it tastes awful — but that must mean it works!

And boy did we believe that.

Listerine had actually been around since 1879, originally developed as an antiseptic rather than an everyday mouthwash. By the 1920s, advertising helped make the word “halitosis” part of the American vocabulary and convinced generations that bad breath could ruin everything from a date to a marriage.

Looking back, I think the burning sensation became part of Listerine’s identity. You swished it around, tried desperately to make it the full 30 seconds, and then came up gasping for air!

And sitting there in this old commercial is a young Judd Hirsch, probably with no idea that millions of us would someday know him as one of television’s most familiar faces.

Did you recognize Judd Hirsch right away — and be honest, how long could you actually keep old-fashioned Listerine in your mouth?

When we were growing up, did we really think Ragu was authentic Italian food?

I think a lot of us probably did — or at least we never questioned it. The commercial ended with “That’s Italian!”, there was an Italian family gathered around the table, Mom or Grandma knew good sauce when she tasted it, and that jar somehow represented the Old World.

And the interesting part is that Ragu really did have authentic Italian roots. Assunta and Giovanni Cantisano came to America from Italy in 1914, settled in Rochester, New York, and in 1937 began selling Assunta’s homemade family sauce from their home.

But by the time we were seeing commercials like this one, Ragu had become something quite different — a huge American packaged-food brand. It went national around 1970 and absolutely dominated the jarred spaghetti-sauce business. By 1975, Ragu reportedly controlled about 65 percent of the prepared spaghetti-sauce market.

And those commercials were a big reason why. Beginning in the 1970s, millions were spent selling us “That’s Italian”, using the family, the kitchen, Mom and Grandma and all the familiar Italian-American imagery to make opening a jar feel like somebody had been simmering sauce all afternoon.

Of course, what Italians traditionally call ragù can be very different. The official Bolognese version is a slow-cooked meat sauce with pancetta, vegetables, wine and relatively little tomato — quite a distance from the red tomato sauce most of us poured from a jar.

So maybe Ragu wasn’t exactly Italy in a jar. It was really an Italian immigrant family recipe that evolved into a very American idea of Italian food.

And apparently the advertising worked on us pretty well!

Be honest — growing up, did you think Ragu was authentic Italian sauce, or did your family insist homemade was the only real thing?

Dolly Parton, Breeze and the Free Towel in the Detergent Box

This old Breeze detergent commercial with Dolly Parton sent me down a rabbit hole, because I remembered detergent boxes with glasses and dishes inside too. I assumed somewhere along the way they switched to towels.

Turns out, that’s not quite what happened.

The glasses and famous Golden Wheat dishes were associated with Duz, a Procter & Gamble detergent. Breeze was made by rival Lever Brothers, and its specialty was towels. Breeze was putting genuine Cannon towels and washcloths in detergent boxes by at least 1956. So what many of us may remember as one promotion changing over the years was actually several detergent companies competing to see who could put the most tempting “free” premium in the box.

And apparently those giveaways really worked. In 1966, Lever Brothers told a Canadian government committee that it had distributed around 170 million towels in detergent packages over 15 years. When the company tried selling detergent at a lower price without the towel, sales dropped so badly they abandoned the idea.

Then along came Dolly Parton. She joined The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967, and Breeze became one of the products Dolly and Porter promoted during those years. Dolly later remembered that they had to do their own commercials on the show, pulling those enormous towels right out of the Breeze boxes. She even said she still had some of the towels years later.

So Mom wasn’t necessarily choosing detergent just because it got the clothes clean. Sometimes she was working on a new set of glasses, dishes or towels too!

What did your family collect from detergent boxes — glasses, Golden Wheat dishes, towels, or something else?

ABC “Meet Us in September” — 1969

I remember this song like it was yesterday, played dozens of times a day on ABC to promote the new season. I was hoping to find the writer or performer of the song, but no luck this time.

“Meet Us in September” was ABC’s big promotional campaign for the fall of 1969, and looking back at what ABC was introducing that season, they had plenty to promote. The Brady Bunch, Marcus Welby, M.D., Room 222, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Love, American Style and ABC’s Movie of the Week were all part of that new season.

The graphics in this clip were created by Harry Marks, one of the pioneers of television motion graphics. That same year Marks worked with Douglas Trumbull, who had done groundbreaking visual-effects work on 2001: A Space Odyssey, to create the memorable opening for ABC’s Movie of the Week.

I really thought finding out who wrote and sang the catchy “Meet Us in September” jingle would be the easy part. Surprisingly, the surviving archival material credits Marks for the visuals but doesn’t identify a songwriter or the studio singers. Rather than guess and attach somebody’s name to it, we’ll have to leave that one a mystery for now.

ABC was still battling CBS and NBC for viewers, but this season brought some major successes. Marcus Welby finished #8 during its first season and, the following year, became the first ABC series ever to finish #1 in the ratings.

It’s funny how a little network promo like this can stick in your head for more than half a century. Does anyone else remember ABC playing “Meet Us in September” over and over as the new fall season approached?