Sunday, July 19, 2009

And Now, Another Word From Our Sponsor . . .

 

 

 

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Recently I watched a couple of episodes of an old detective show called Brenner, which starred Edward Binns and was sponsored by Handy Andy cleaning solution.   

 

The shows were pretty good (and I’ll probably blog on them at some point) but what struck me was the sales pitch for the commercials.

 

You see, Handy Andy’s claim to fame was it was an all purpose household cleaner without Kerosene!

 

Yes, it may seem hard to believe, but during the 1950s we had all sorts of household products that today, if spilled, would necessitate the calling out of a Hazmat squad.

 


Amazingly, despite the commercials for cigarettes, alcohol, lead paints, asbestos tile, DDT, and a whole world of toxins. . .  most of us still managed to survive.

 

Last march I highlighted a collection of TV commercials from the 1950s and 1960s (see And Now A Word From Our Sponsor).   Hopefully some of you have already enjoyed them.

 

Today we’re going to do it again, albeit with a new selection of advertisements.   These are part of the Prelinger Archives on the Internet Archive.    You can watch them online, or download them.

 

If you were around 40, 50, or even 60 years ago, you will probably find these very nostalgic.   For younger viewers, this is how television advertising looked during the 1950s.   

 

Along the way you’ll see some celebrities, some well crafted little vignettes, and hear some famous jingles.  

 

Sure, some of this is pretty simplistic by today’s standards, but life back then was simpler . . .  so sit back and enjoy roughly 30 minutes of entertaining and historically significant commercials from TV’s golden age.

 

Click the images below to view.

 

click to play movie
Part 1

 


click to play movie
Part 2

 

 


click to play movie
Part 3

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