AT LAST! THE LONG LOST MONSTER VITAMINS COMMERCIAL STARRING VINCENT PRICE

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!

BICENTENNIAL FIRESIDE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

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!

THANK YOU LORD FOR OUR CHRISTMAS BREAD END-LABELS

Back in the nifty-fifties, a loaf of bread came in a wax wrapper instead of a plastic bag. On the end of the wrapper was a label that helped keep the wrapper sealed. Some clever bread companies printed up fun labels for kids to collect. Sports figures to Disney characters to popular TV western stars could be found on the end of a bread loaf. Some bread companies had promotions and offered albums to save your end-label collection inside.

Recently I found four Christmas themed end-labels for you to enjoy today. 

Here's an example of how the end labels were used.

A small sample of different end labels. I found these images on eBay and if you want to see more just put "bread end-label" in your eBay search.

READY TO GO...VINTAGE SNOWMAN AD ARTWORK

Earlier this year I was fortunate to find this neato cool piece of original advertising artwork. I have no clue what it was used for. My guess it was probably commissioned for a beer or soda company, maybe for a sign or a grocery store display. It's a great piece of art that was created by some one with a lot of talent. I wonder who illustrated it? Anyway, now this piece of art is ready to go as a Christmas decoration in our house.

OLD SPICE SOAP ON A ROPE BOX (FOR HALLOWEEN?)

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #90

A couple of months ago I found this fun Old Spice soap on a rope box. I kind of associate Old Spice with Christmas because of the gift boxes and seasonal commercials. This box is different and it definitely doesn't fit in with the Christmas style boxes. Am I right at saying this box kind of has a Halloween thing going for it? Maybe it was available during the Halloween season back in the 1960s. According to the Old Spice Collectibles website there were some oval shaped bath soaps with funny faces aimed at children. Maybe this one was a kids product too.  

Aren't those faces great! I especially dig the goofy spaceman! Too bad the faces are wrapped around the box and are difficult to see. Okay, I fixed that for you and now you can enjoy seeing the faces front and center. Happy Halloween (or not) from Old Spice!

HAPPY HOTPOINT HAND PUPPET

 FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #88

I just recently found this 1950's Happy Hotpoint hand puppet at an antique store. Everyone knows Happy Hotpoint right? This version of the little imp/pixie was the official mascot for Hotpoint appliances in the 1950s. (Click here to see what he looked like back in the 1930s.)

Hotpoint was the official sponsor of the TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Watch the little imp in action in this animated spot.  

Eventually the animated version gave way to a live action portrayal by Mary Tyler Moore. Hmm... too bad they didn't make a Happy Hotpoint Mary Tyler Moore doll.  

I'm not sure when Happy retired from the ad mascot biz, but the old imp looks pretty darn happy in his domain inside my stove. (Shh... don't tell him that it's a Whirlpool.)

LET'S CELEBRATE MOTHER'S DAY WITH AN ORIGINAL PIECE OF ADVERTISING ART

To all the moms of the world past and present...you are all neato cool!!!

Two weeks ago I found this large piece of original artwork in an antique store and brought it home. I'm sure it's a piece of advertising art but I haven't had time to do any research. Probably from the 1950s or 60s.  As we celebrate our moms, I thought today would be the perfect day to showcase this artwork. If anyone has a clue what this could be from please add your thoughts in the comments.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM CHIEF BIG WHEELS

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!!!

1963 MOPAR PARTS ADS FEATURING SERVICE STATION ROBOTS

Check out these very cool Mopar ads from 1963. I guess this fab four are robot service station men made from Mopar parts. It would be fun if there was an animated commercial from back then, but I didn't find any evidence of one. I hope whoever designed these got a big fat raise! 

WWII ERA PHONE ADVERTISEMENTS

In honor of Veterans Day, here are two 1944 phone advertisements. A big neato cool thank you to all who have served, are serving and will serve!   

TWO OLD FAST FOOD CUPS: COLONEL DIXIE & BONANZA

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #85

If they're on the cheap, I always enjoy picking up old fast food wax/paper cups. I just found two old cups that are really fun looking.

First one is from Colonel Dixie Fast Foods, a small fast food chain started in Mobile, Alabama. I wasn't familiar with this fast food chain. Quick research shows that there's only one of these still in operation.

I'm sure many are familiar with Bonanza Steakhouse. This popular chain was started in 1963 by Dan Blocker who played Hoss Cartwright on the TV show Bonanza. 

1977 GIVER'S BROWN DERBY HALLOWEEN AD

Gotta love that wacky '70s artwork on this 1977 Halloween ad from The Famous Girves Brown Derby!

FIND THE HEAD OF THE MYSTERIOUS HEADLESS HORSEMAN

I was happy to find this excellent illustration of the Headless Horseman in a 1931 issue of Needlecraft Magazine. You never know where you're going to unearth a Halloween nugget. This Headless Horseman is probably glad to be released from that old musty magazine. I hope he doesn't wreck havoc searching for a head on the internet highway. My apologies if he does.   

Ride Headless Horseman, ride!!

THE INVISIBLE MAN WEARS HANES UNDERWEAR

Today, I just discovered one more Invisible Man pitching for a product. This time, he's known as the Invisible Hanes Man for Hanes underwear. I like how this commercial went with the H.G. Wells version unlike the Scotch Magic Tape Invisible Man. Crazy that we had two invisible men running around in the world of commercials back in the 70s.

I did some digging and found this one page article out of Broadcasting Magazine about the making of the commercial. Apparently this is the second commercial. 

CODE 10 HAIR DRESSING "IT'S INVISIBLE, MAN!"

Yesterday, I showed you one of my favorite ads growing up, the Invisible Man for Scotch Magic Tape. In 2012, when I originally blogged about the Scotch Tape Invisible Man, I listed a few other famous invisible men from pop culture. One of those invisible men was from a 1960s commercial for Code 10 Hair Dressing. At the time, I wasn't able to link to a commercial online.

 Recently I noticed a commercial finally showed up on YouTube! So here's Code 10's Invisible Man.

This commercial is probably from 1963 and I like how it plays up the whole spy fad of that era. The invisible spy is reminiscent to 1942's Invisible Agent from Universal Pictures. 

Wow, that Code 10 must have been powerful stuff. This magazine ad from 1963 says it "inflames women and infuriates inferior men."  

SCOTCH MAGIC TAPE: THE INVISIBLE MAN AND HIS FRIEND SCOTTY MCTAPE

I was happy to see that one of the Scotch Magic Tape Invisible Man commercials was uploaded to YouTube earlier this year. I loved these commercials back when I was a kid in the 1970s. So much, I blogged about the Invisible Man in 2012.

I wish I had more Scotch Magic Tape's Invisible Man stuff for today, but I do have a fun Halloween ad from 1951. It features Scotch Tape's earlier pitchman, Scotty McTape!

1977 DRAKE'S DEVIL DOGS AD

Drake's Devil Dogs have been around since the 1920's and according to this Pittsburgh ad; they had a devil dog mascot that made appearances in 1977. I was hoping to find an appearance photo of the Devil Dog online, but my search was unsuccessful. So instead, here's a commercial from the 1970s. Since there's nothing related to Halloween in this commercial, just imagine the kids are watching a horror flick.

1976 SUPER-GRUESOME IRON-ON TRANSFERS AD

Back in 1976 when red, white and blue was a mainstream fashion choice because of our nation's bicentennial, some kids bucked the trend and instead wore monsters on their chests. They probably didn't know (or care) that these monsters were ripped from other artists and copyrighted by Canyon House Inc. Hmm...some things will never change!

I found this ad in a 1976 Boy's Life mag. It was fun playing monster detective trying to figure out what these iron-ons were based after. Majority of the images were swiped, altered and reused from Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book from 1974.

This first design is a swipe of Karloff's Mummy from 1932. Maybe Canyon House swiped this from the cover of Famous Monster #58 published in 1969, but more than likely, they simply grabbed a copy of Monster Fantasy #2 off the newsstand back '75 and swiped the Mummy from that cover. At least it's red, white and blue for the bicentennial!  

Everyone knows that Medusa's gaze turns people into stone. By the 1970s, poor Medusa was irrelevant. People didn't have to look at her face to get stoned. Medusa is a swiped and altered image of a witch found in Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.

Hey look! Mr. Hyde has his eye on you! Here's another example of raiding the newsstand. This altered image was swiped from 1975's Quasimodo's Monster Magazine #5.

I suppose the title of this transfer is Heart Attack. Instead, it kinda looks like those demons are getting ready to eat a big plump strawberry. The demons/ghouls are swiped from Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.

Arrrrwooooo! I wasn't able to pinpoint the swipe source for this one. It's based after a classic publicity photo from the original 1941 Wolf Man.

I can hear the Canyon House editor say, "Yeah, just add a railroad spike and some blood to the mummy drawing and we're good!" Swiped from the Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.

Another Wrightson swipe and this time they hardly altered the axman from Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.

A poorly altered Wrightson space alien. They took away his space helmet and added some overalls and an ax. Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.

For the cyclops monster, they used a combo of two drawings from Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book. It has the head of a giant cyclops and the body of Swamp Thing. 

I'm not sure where Canyon House snagged this last image from. He's wearing the classic Son of Frankenstein fur coat, so that's a clue. I guess this one will remain a mystery. Also, what is Frankie holding? Looks like he's flicking his Bic!