> Back in the late 1950s, many TV commercials were live, especially the
> Timex watch commercials with John Cameron Swayze. One evening he was
> demonstrating the durability of a Timex watch by attaching it to the
> propeller of an outboard motor, dropping it into a tank of water, then
> running the motor for about 30 seconds. When he lifted the motor out of the
> tank, the watch was gone. I was watching that commercial when it happened.
>
> The watch was found a couple of weeks later, embedded in the ceiling.
> They wound it up and it still ran.
Oh, the joys of live television.
My all time favorite was the eggnog commercial. Fortunately, it was
B&W television. The advertisement was a couple of weeks apart. After
the first time it was done, nobody put the 1/2 gallon container of
eggnog back in the fridgerator, nor was a new one provided. When the
actress poured the now curdled and green colored eggnog into the
glass, it came out in a blob. She was supposed to take a sip and say
"Hmm. Now that's good eggnog".
My mentor, who recently passed away, was the last surviving member of
the WXYZ radio production team for The Lone Ranger, Challenge of the
Yukon, and the Green Hornet. The behind-the-scenes stories were
amazing. He went on to get a Doctorate degree in mass communications
and established television studios and courses in a couple of major
universities around the country while television was just getting its
start, and up through about 1980.
During the first 30 years of commercial television, there was still a
lot of experimentation and success/failure of any program was always
in question. Most of the methods, techniques and base-line information
was created by my mentor. What an incredible exposure to television
history, I got. Complete with lots of stories about the failures and
gaffs.
One of the interesting bits had to do with Gracie Allen. Early in the
program, the roles were reversed and George with the ditz. But once
they changed that, the program took off. From that point on, she
rarely ever broke character in public. It is said that she was one of
the most brilliant actresses and her ability to do a live commercial
was second to none. The production team would do all sorts of things
to catch her, but she would always find a way to deliver the goods
without breaking character and would leave everybody around her in
tears.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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