It will never cease to amaze me what "we," the unsuspecting cow public, will buy into...until social consciousness (or conscience, period -consumer or corporate) kicks in and "new and improved" wheedles its way into our collective psyche...corporate flim-flam epiphanies.
Lol...sorry. Yes, it is a wonder at how silly, naive, or whatever we are as a consumer public.
I remember that Flintstonian Winston plug very well.
Winston tastes good like a (tap tap) cigarette should...
Tobacco companies were big, big, up-front sponsors...still are...but kind of covert now - like Anheuser Busch sponsoring breathalizer tests or something...or Phillip Morris (R.J. Reynolds Co.) doing the "truth" ads.
One of my favorite thwack-your-forehead movie moments is one (possibly any...lol) John Wayne movie where the Duke is sucking in hot, poison cigarette smoke...one movie has him face down, prostrate on a board in post-op after a surgery that leaves him paralyzed. The doc comes in, sits next to him, lights up two smokes, and hand feeds one to the obliging lips of the stricken man. Sheesh.
Smoking in the 20th century was THE thing to do.
How iron-lung ironic that John Wayne lost one lung to cancer, and ultimately succumbed to the disease after a long, battle. Sad. So many did...do.
Matilda, having never been a smoker I can't truly relate but I can to habits of other kinds I'm quite sure. Still and all I must admit when watching John Wayne movies with my John Wayne loving hubby I have seen him smoking and thought the same thing, regarding his death.
But are we easy targets? Yup! Some are waaaaaay easy. Hmmm wonder if that is how some of us end up being so screwed over in life? Oh man that is like way too serious for a lunch break item. And like NOT this thread at all. :)-->
I don't think I ever saw the ad, or if I did, have long forgotten it. What a trip! Cartoon characters pitching cigarettes (of course it was aimed at the adults in the audience, I'm sure).
I wonder if they gave any thought to having Fred and Barney knock back a few at the bowling alley bar and tout the merits of Budweiser or Seagrams 7 ?
So you never watched Amos 'm Andy?? It was a great show that got yanked by nervous exectutives when the NAACP started grousing about it. Too much ahead of its time. It was the only thing on TV that showed blacks as police officers, teachers and even judges back in the 50's. And funny? I have 12 episodes on VHS that are just hilarious. Again.. timeless humor that even my kids enjoy.
And about the Flintstones and Winston cigarettes. It was a different plain and simple. Kids could buy cigarettes back then. I usta' go in and buy 'em for my mom when I was no more than 10 years old. Cigarette machines were as ubiquitous as Coke and Pepsi machines today. There was even a place in high schools here in Memphis for boys to go for smoke breaks. All allowed and sanctioned by school authorities. Not only did the Flinstones light up but so did Lucy and Desi. Chesterfields. Johnny Carson smoked at his desk on the Tonight Show. He died of emphysema.
Things change. As Matilda was saying, smoking was big in the 20th century but that's come to a big halt. Lots of folks still smoking, I know. Seems I hear someone saying, "millions now smoking". Naw.. I probably dreamed that -->. But as I look into my crystal ball I see big changes by the time I get old in another 30 years.... No hydrogenated oils will be allowed. Fast food restaurants will all have healthy stuff available and everyone will love going to the dentist.
Understood Steve, but 'before my time' is not what being into this junk is all about. "Amos and Andy' were before most of our times, except in some blurry childhood memory of reruns before it got pulled from the air. It still lives on as a cultural icon of sorts.
Part of the fun on this board is drawing on memories not only of having been there, but general osmosis through re reuns, books,old school jokes, anything that stirs a responsive chord. I love Buster Keaton silent films, and they weredecades before my time.
I can see where you may have no cultural reference for Amos and Andy in your databank, and that's fine. Maybe this will stir you to find out about them, and that may be the best benefit of this board.
"Amos & Andy" wasn't taken out of syndication until the mid-60s in the civil rights era. I can remember watching it in the afternoons after school and thought it was hilarious.
It's been a long time since I've seen it and maybe I'm naive, but it seems like the only objectionable character might have been the Kingfish, who was basically a small-time con artist. Everybody else was just normal people with jobs and families. There were no pimps or drug dealers or numbers runners or any of that stuff.
I guess the black "dialect" was objectionable, I don't know. I grew up as a white middle class North Carolina kid, I know, but I never thought the Kingfish represented all black people any more than Jethro Bodine or Gomer Pyle represented all southerners.
The "Amos' character was shoved way in the background on the tv series, largely because he was 'too normal'. Kingfish was the broad character that played well with the type of sitcom it was.
"too normal" or just didn't hook the audience as much...and another quirkier character supplants or rivals the more mundane ala Alex Keaton or The Fonz or Gomer...
Perhaps 'too normal' was the wrong choice of words. The Amos character was not broad,like Kingfish and Andy, and the show's humor played to that brand of humor.
From what I understand, though never have seen, is that Amos' most memorable episode was the Christmas show, where he tells the story of Christmas to a child.
Damn, where have I been? I've heard a snippet or two of "Amos and Andy" from the old radio show, but have never heard a whole show and I never even knew there was a T.V. version.
The Amos and Andy Tv show aired in the early 50's.
The biggest difference between it and the earlier radio series was that the men who played Amos and Andy on the radio were white!!!
I've not listened to enough of the radio show, nor seen the tv show in so long a time. I cannot speak to other differences or similarities between the radio and tv versions.
As I stated earlier, my chief memory of the TV series is Kingfish eating his way through jelly donuts to retrieve a lost ring.
The show was on here as late as the early '60's so I remember it fairly well. I'm 52 years old. Amos definitely took a back seat. The show should have been called the Kingfish and Andrew H. Brown show. It was mostly about the chronicly unemployed Kingfish trying to weasel money out of Andy. Where ANDY got all his money is a big mystery to me because he didn't work either.
My favorite episode was where the Kingfish and lawyer Calhoun conspired to sell Andy a "house" which was only a facade that was used as a movie set. Oh, and the episode of the invisible glass was hilarious, too. The Kingfish acted like he was dropping glass and Calhoun was in the closet breaking real glass on cue for the sound effects. Guess you had to have been there..
I'm just guessing...but I think it was Mike, the one in the middle:)-->
FrauLayben...pretty laady...
When this duo was topping the marquees, buck-toothed, coke-bottle glasses donning Japanese caricatures were common, Japs fair game to lampoon especially in the WWII generation.
"...me so solly.."
France embracing the doofus still baffles me...lol
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Steve!
Not me! I don't recognize the show in the slightest.
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MATILDA
Yo! Chat-tay!
It will never cease to amaze me what "we," the unsuspecting cow public, will buy into...until social consciousness (or conscience, period -consumer or corporate) kicks in and "new and improved" wheedles its way into our collective psyche...corporate flim-flam epiphanies.
Lol...sorry. Yes, it is a wonder at how silly, naive, or whatever we are as a consumer public.
I remember that Flintstonian Winston plug very well.
Winston tastes good like a (tap tap) cigarette should...
Tobacco companies were big, big, up-front sponsors...still are...but kind of covert now - like Anheuser Busch sponsoring breathalizer tests or something...or Phillip Morris (R.J. Reynolds Co.) doing the "truth" ads.
One of my favorite thwack-your-forehead movie moments is one (possibly any...lol) John Wayne movie where the Duke is sucking in hot, poison cigarette smoke...one movie has him face down, prostrate on a board in post-op after a surgery that leaves him paralyzed. The doc comes in, sits next to him, lights up two smokes, and hand feeds one to the obliging lips of the stricken man. Sheesh.
Smoking in the 20th century was THE thing to do.
How iron-lung ironic that John Wayne lost one lung to cancer, and ultimately succumbed to the disease after a long, battle. Sad. So many did...do.
So...how 'bout them 'noles?
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ChattyKathy
Oops to Steve!
:(-->
Matilda, having never been a smoker I can't truly relate but I can to habits of other kinds I'm quite sure. Still and all I must admit when watching John Wayne movies with my John Wayne loving hubby I have seen him smoking and thought the same thing, regarding his death.
But are we easy targets? Yup! Some are waaaaaay easy. Hmmm wonder if that is how some of us end up being so screwed over in life? Oh man that is like way too serious for a lunch break item. And like NOT this thread at all.
:)-->
c-y'all
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George Aar
OMG! Geeze, thanks for that clip Pirate.
I don't think I ever saw the ad, or if I did, have long forgotten it. What a trip! Cartoon characters pitching cigarettes (of course it was aimed at the adults in the audience, I'm sure).
I wonder if they gave any thought to having Fred and Barney knock back a few at the bowling alley bar and tout the merits of Budweiser or Seagrams 7 ?
Toooo funny...
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Sudo
Steve!,
So you never watched Amos 'm Andy?? It was a great show that got yanked by nervous exectutives when the NAACP started grousing about it. Too much ahead of its time. It was the only thing on TV that showed blacks as police officers, teachers and even judges back in the 50's. And funny? I have 12 episodes on VHS that are just hilarious. Again.. timeless humor that even my kids enjoy.
And about the Flintstones and Winston cigarettes. It was a different plain and simple. Kids could buy cigarettes back then. I usta' go in and buy 'em for my mom when I was no more than 10 years old. Cigarette machines were as ubiquitous as Coke and Pepsi machines today. There was even a place in high schools here in Memphis for boys to go for smoke breaks. All allowed and sanctioned by school authorities. Not only did the Flinstones light up but so did Lucy and Desi. Chesterfields. Johnny Carson smoked at his desk on the Tonight Show. He died of emphysema.
Things change. As Matilda was saying, smoking was big in the 20th century but that's come to a big halt. Lots of folks still smoking, I know. Seems I hear someone saying, "millions now smoking". Naw.. I probably dreamed that
-->. But as I look into my crystal ball I see big changes by the time I get old in another 30 years.... No hydrogenated oils will be allowed. Fast food restaurants will all have healthy stuff available and everyone will love going to the dentist.
Two out of three ain't bad prognosticating, huh??
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Steve!
Amos 'n Andy were before my time.
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hiway29
Understood Steve, but 'before my time' is not what being into this junk is all about. "Amos and Andy' were before most of our times, except in some blurry childhood memory of reruns before it got pulled from the air. It still lives on as a cultural icon of sorts.
Part of the fun on this board is drawing on memories not only of having been there, but general osmosis through re reuns, books,old school jokes, anything that stirs a responsive chord. I love Buster Keaton silent films, and they weredecades before my time.
I can see where you may have no cultural reference for Amos and Andy in your databank, and that's fine. Maybe this will stir you to find out about them, and that may be the best benefit of this board.
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MATILDA
Amen to that, hiway.
It is amazing, if not altogether scarey, what trivia lurks in the deepest recesses of the gray matter...lol.
Thanks Easter Bunny..bawk! bawk!
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Pirate1974
"Amos & Andy" wasn't taken out of syndication until the mid-60s in the civil rights era. I can remember watching it in the afternoons after school and thought it was hilarious.
It's been a long time since I've seen it and maybe I'm naive, but it seems like the only objectionable character might have been the Kingfish, who was basically a small-time con artist. Everybody else was just normal people with jobs and families. There were no pimps or drug dealers or numbers runners or any of that stuff.
I guess the black "dialect" was objectionable, I don't know. I grew up as a white middle class North Carolina kid, I know, but I never thought the Kingfish represented all black people any more than Jethro Bodine or Gomer Pyle represented all southerners.
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hiway29
The "Amos' character was shoved way in the background on the tv series, largely because he was 'too normal'. Kingfish was the broad character that played well with the type of sitcom it was.
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MATILDA
"too normal" or just didn't hook the audience as much...and another quirkier character supplants or rivals the more mundane ala Alex Keaton or The Fonz or Gomer...
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hiway29
I thought about the Fonz comparison, Matilda.
Perhaps 'too normal' was the wrong choice of words. The Amos character was not broad,like Kingfish and Andy, and the show's humor played to that brand of humor.
From what I understand, though never have seen, is that Amos' most memorable episode was the Christmas show, where he tells the story of Christmas to a child.
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George Aar
Damn, where have I been? I've heard a snippet or two of "Amos and Andy" from the old radio show, but have never heard a whole show and I never even knew there was a T.V. version.
When was it on T.V.?
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hiway29
The Amos and Andy Tv show aired in the early 50's.
The biggest difference between it and the earlier radio series was that the men who played Amos and Andy on the radio were white!!!
I've not listened to enough of the radio show, nor seen the tv show in so long a time. I cannot speak to other differences or similarities between the radio and tv versions.
As I stated earlier, my chief memory of the TV series is Kingfish eating his way through jelly donuts to retrieve a lost ring.
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Sudo
I remember it like Pirate does..
The show was on here as late as the early '60's so I remember it fairly well. I'm 52 years old. Amos definitely took a back seat. The show should have been called the Kingfish and Andrew H. Brown show. It was mostly about the chronicly unemployed Kingfish trying to weasel money out of Andy. Where ANDY got all his money is a big mystery to me because he didn't work either.
My favorite episode was where the Kingfish and lawyer Calhoun conspired to sell Andy a "house" which was only a facade that was used as a movie set. Oh, and the episode of the invisible glass was hilarious, too. The Kingfish acted like he was dropping glass and Calhoun was in the closet breaking real glass on cue for the sound effects. Guess you had to have been there..
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ChattyKathy
Hey, are you calling me an old lady?
:P--> 
:)-->
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ChattyKathy
This will be easy I know but which one of these played a stereotype Asian character?
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George Aar
I think that would have been Joseph Levitch (the one on the right)...
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MATILDA
I'm just guessing...but I think it was Mike, the one in the middle
:)-->
FrauLayben...pretty laady...
When this duo was topping the marquees, buck-toothed, coke-bottle glasses donning Japanese caricatures were common, Japs fair game to lampoon especially in the WWII generation.
"...me so solly.."
France embracing the doofus still baffles me...lol
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Pirate1974
I think Andy was supposed to be Amos' partner in the taxi business. You wouldn't know it on the show since he never did seem to do any work.
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ChattyKathy
Yup, and you even used his real name.
:)-->
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ChattyKathy
Agree!
;)-->
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ChattyKathy
Your produce alone was worth the trip.
Anyone recognize what movie this came from?
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ChattyKathy
Thought it was kinda kewl!
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