A couple of weeks ago, I found this great Forry Ackerman photo that I'd never seen before. It was originally part of an article on nostalgia in the December 28, 1970 issue. I posted it on Twitter and had a request to post the complete article. Now you can see what your parents or grandparents were nostalgic about. This article is still relevant to any generation. Just switch out the pop culture nostalgia with your own era's pop nostalgia and then it will apply to you. Be sure to read the last page. The author, Disney historian John Culhane, could have easily been talking about today. (Btw, I want to go back in time and visit that End of An Era store in San Francisco and buy some props from the famous MGM prop auction!)
Come a little closer madam—I want you to watch this 30 second commercial for Monster Vitamins!
The credits for this commercial.
Advertising Agency - SSC&B. Art Direction by Warren Godfrey. Written by Nancy Richmond
Wow! Now that was neato cool!!! I've been wanting to see this "lost" commercial forever and I'm thrilled for the opportunity to share this amazing artifact relating to TV, "kids food" and monsters. Anyone remember seeing this when it first aired in 1974? Of course, I remember taking my Monster Vitamins every morning with breakfast, but unfortunately I have no memory of this commercial.
I've blogged about Monster Vitamins a few times before and hoped the TV commercial would eventually surface. Thanks to Clio award winning art director Warren Godfrey, my wish finally came true. In Warren's archives, he found an U-matic tape featuring a collection of his commercials including the Monster Vitamins commercial. I can't thank Warren enough for his time and generosity for sharing the MV commercial with all of us! (Click here to read my original blog post featuring Warren.)
Print ad from early 1975
Wait! There's one more Monster Vitamins treat! Inside the current issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine—you can read a Monster Vitamins article written by David Weiner, whose father Joel Weiner helped create Monster Vitamins (along with PALS) for Bristol-Myers.
Be sure to pick up a copy of Famous Monsters #288, the Forry Ackerman centennial tribute issue on newsstands now.
One last thing, as there seems to always be something else hiding in the shadows related to Monster Vitamins. The animation cel below is from my collection and a handful of these surfaced several years ago.
I'd always assumed this was the animated sequence from the Vincent Price commercial. Now after finally watching the VP commercial I now know that this animation sequence is...zoinks...from another commercial. Okay neato readers, let's go and find this second "lost" Monster Vitamins commercial!!
Big thanks to Warren Godfrey and David Weiner for their help shedding some more light on these crazy little Monster Vitamins!
Today as we celebrate the 4th of July and the 40th anniversary of the Bicentennial. Let's take a look at a neat box of Fireside Chocolate Chip cookies from the bicentennial year of 1976!
Here's something neato cool for your Easter basket today! We all have fun memories of decorating eggs and probably most of us used PAAS kits to color eggs. The other day I found an uncommon kit that was available back in 1979 and was created by Current, a company that's still in business and has a neat origin going back to 1950. You can read their story here.
Now check out what kids were using to dress up Easter eggs back in 1979. Enjoy!
As a fun bonus, I turned this image into a desktop wallpaper. Kinda fun for Spring!
Recently, I found a stack of early 1970s teen magazines and two issues feature the gothic TV soap, Dark Shadows. So for all the Dark Shadows fans, here's some reading material. (Click on the pages to read.)
It's hard to believe the movie Jaws is forty years old today! To help celebrate one of the best movies ever made, lets look at this crazy Jaws cake from back in the day. (I found this article in a cooking magazine called Mail Box News.)
Agnes Willis must have been a cake making genius because I love everything about this Jaws cake. Of course the best part of the article is the quote from Agnes, "I cut off one of the doll's legs to fit it in the mouth better." Well played Agnes!
As a bonus, this magazine had another Jaws cake! Wow, you can almost hear the famous theme! No, wait...that was just my stomach growling for a piece of Jaws cake!
Since I grew up in the midwest, I never had a chance to buy any Big Wheels snack cakes. I wasn't even aware of the product until I discovered the boxes for sale on ebay. Big Wheels existed only out east or where Drake's Ring Dings were sold. Essentially, Big Wheels are Ding Dongs. I'm not sure on all the legalities, but Hostess wasn't allowed to sell Ding Dongs in Ring Ding territory because of the similar sounding name and shape. I would like to know the history behind the creation of the Big Wheels mascot Chief Big Wheels. I wonder why Hostess decided to go with a Native American themed character? I suppose since they already had Twinkie the Kid they were going for the whole cowboys and Indian thing. But what does an Indian Chief have to do with a wheel? I like the character, but I'm thinking a race car driver would have been a better fit, especially in the early 1970s.
I added the above box to my collection a couple of years ago and it came from my friend Waffle Whiffer who is a big Hostess collector. Check out his amazing Hostess archive here. Waffle send over this very cool pic of a Chief Big Wheels hat premium from his collection. It's a fantastic piece!
If you have an eagle eye you might notice on the hat that Chief Big Wheels is orange. That's because orange flavored Big Wheels were available for sometime.
From Dan Goodsell's collection, here's a rare box of Big Wheels with the orange flavor frosting! Kinda funny a snack cake that's marked vitamin fortified.
The above vacuform Chief Big Wheels has been in my collection for a few years now and came from our friends at the Tiki Ranch. I'm guessing it was probably part of a larger display and is also from the early 70s. The big V started showing up on Hostess products around the same time.
I was hoping to find an old Big Wheels commercial, but there doesn't seem to be any online. Was there any made? I did find two ads from the early 1970s pushing the vitamin fortified campaign.
For one last Big Wheels item, here's a fun iron-on premium from Waffle Whiffer's collection.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May the day be filled with happiness and neato cool fun!!!
I've always been a fan of General Mills Monster Cereals for as long as I can remember and Boo Berry has always been my favorite of the gang. Below is an article I found about the intro of Boo and some of the market research that went into developing the famous cereal. Click on the article to go big for easier reading.
Back during in 2007, I shared an article about Boo Berry from the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Here's the same article once again.
I've blogged about Frankenstein Glow Putty before. The first time was way back in 2006, during the infancy of this blog. Frankenstein Putty showed up a second time in 2010, when I added the Dracula Glow Putty to my collection. As you can tell, Frankenstein Glow Putty is a special artifact from my childhood. Since I hold this 1970s toy in such high regard, I have a fun treat for your Halloween bag today. But first, a time travel trip down memory lane.
Cue wavy lines and sappy music. Okay, we're now in the year 1978 and my eight year old self is cruising the toy aisle at Wal-Mart. It was always toy overload in that toy aisle. So many toys! From Star Wars to Shogun Warriors, Wal-Mart had it all. Sometimes this toy cornucopia aisle would make my stomach hurt. The pressure on what to buy with my three buck allowance was way too much. Usually, I went with a Star Wars figure and got the heck out of there, but on this day in 1978, I spied something different. It was the Frankenstein Glow Putty! Wow! I'd never seen that before. As a kid, I'd go through a baker's dozen of Silly Putty eggs each year. I loved the stuff! The combo of Silly Putty, my favorite monster Frankenstein and glow-in-the-dark powers made for a quick and easy decision that day. "Sorry, Star Wars Walrus Man, I'll have to buy you next week!" In the car riding home, I shredded the neat packaging and popped open the plastic egg. The little glob entertained me all the way home. Later that night when I was supposed to be asleep, I played with my Frankenstein Glow Putty. I charged it with the flashlight and then turned it off for the glow action! This putty really glowed! Of course with any kind of "silly" putty, the temptation was always too great not to roll it up into a ball and bounce it. That's exactly what I did with my glow putty. I bounced it off my bedroom wall and unfortunately it disappeared into the darkness. I got out of bed to look for it and sure enough I found it under my foot, embedded into the gold shag carpet. I was able to pull some of the putty out, but wasn't able to get the rest of it. The bad thing, is that we just moved into our new house and the shag was brand new. It still had that new carpet smell and everything. I don't think I slept too well knowing how much trouble I'd be in the next morning. After a scolding over breakfast, we tried our best to remove the putty, but no luck. For many years after, I had a small glowing spot on my bedroom carpet. A reminder of my Frankenstein Glow Putty.
Sometime in the 1990s, I found some Frankenstein Glow Putty still sealed on the card. I've enjoyed it in my collection ever since. Recently, I noticed the glue that holds the cardboard together, had finally dried up. My card was open. I was bummed at first, but noticed a great opportunity to scan and clean up the artwork for you guys during this Halloween countdown. Enjoy this large scan of Frankenstein Glow Putty minus the glow putty!!
By the way, the putty still glows!!!! Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep it away from shag carpet.
