----------------------------------------------------------------- Nostalgia Part 1 GENERAL TRADEMARKS OF THE 1950s AND ST. PAUL RADIO AND TV SHOWS, ETC ----------------------------------------------------------------- Everything Old Is New Again... ============================== Some Nostalgia from the 1950s and Early 1960s ============================================= 06-xx-2006 Dave Morton Part 1 Today, the television press depicts the 1950s and early 1960s very narrowly, omitting about 95% of what that era was about. So, presented here, is another picture: MY nostalgia list. Some of these memories are still with us today, but there aren't as many of them (gumball machines) or they were more popular or first introduced in the 1950s (Mad Magazine) - or we just remember them with some fondness. And some others are still with us, but in an altered state or altered taste - not quite like the original. Okay - it wasn't all fun and games. The teenage years especially could be stressful! And we didn't have enough worldly information, smarter parents, more-understanding teachers, advanced psychology, Email, the Internet, cell phones, Caller-ID, answering machines, Call Waiting, pocket calculators, Ritalin, Retin-A or The Pill to help us back then - when we really could have used them! But we've probably gotten over most of it by now through various means - I hope... Dave Morton + = More dialogue from radio/TV/movie for this show is available towards the end of this document. For example, "Who's On First?" with Abbott and Costello. * = More information located in the FOOTNOTES section. ============================================================= ------- GENERAL TRADEMARKS OF THE 1950s AND ST. PAUL ------- Schuneman's Emporium 1st National Bank Building Streetcars... Streetcar tracks... Streetcar overhead wires... I do miss the streetcars - maybe not the overhead wires... See the book "Until They Bring The Streetcars Back" by Stanley West - a St. Paul Central grad with a picture of Saint Paul Central High School as it appeared in 1949. 3 cent stamps - later, 4 cent stamps You could always say to a lazy or cheap person, "Just put it in an envelope, stick a 3-cent stamp on it, and mail it!" Penny post cards Postal Zones St. Paul 5, Minnesota (or St. Paul 9, or St. Paul 4, etc) US Mailboxes painted government olive-drab Indianhead Nickels / Buffalo Nickels Penny loafers Oxfords Milkmen - Also, the BambiMan, the TassieMan (pastries), and the FruitMan Northwestern Bell Telephone (then US West, then Qwest) Dial Telephones (I still have one for old times' sake, and it works) Telephone Party Lines (Sharing one of these is not fun) Dial 0 (zero) for "Operator" Dial 411 for "Information" Old telephone exchanges: EMerson, MIdway, CApitol, JAckson, PRior, NEstor, IVanhoe, HUron, FRanklin (Golden Valley).... Our number was: MIdway 1574 then MIdway-8 1574 then 698-1574, then 651-698-1574. Now it's: http://www.011-2213-**12-651-698-1574.com/index.html (You may need to reboot your phone after calling...) S&H Green Stamps - Save 'em, paste 'em into a book, and redeem them for great merchandise Service Stations and *double* stamps Ethyl gasoline (For a while, they added Boron to one brand) The unveiling of next year's line of car models! GM's "Motorama" - an exposition of futuristic cars Route 66 - Get Your Kicks on Route Sixty-Six Crew cuts Bouffant hairdo's Davey Crockett coonskin caps Morning and evening newspapers The St. Paul Pioneer Press, and St. Paul Dispatch The paperboy collected each month for your paper, and punched your payment card - if you could find it! Once Over Lightly, by Paul Light (Roy Dunlap) The Winter Carnival The Ice Palace The Vulcans smooched girls and got their faces black with soot (Now they paint an "X" on your cheek with black lipstick. Of course, they DID go a little too far, sometimes, but now it's so controlled and antiseptic - why bother?) Send a Boxtop Plus 25 Cents to PO Box 1234, Battlecreek Michigan Parochial and private schools Red Goose Shoes - "It's a GOOD shoe..." Lund N' Lang Flowers Bridgeman's Fountain Coleman's In Highland Park Lee's Village Inn Highland Drug Store - great hot fudge sundaes Ben's Delicatessen The Fruit Bowl Hove's Bakery The Dutch Bakery - Hugo Schuh, Joe Schuh, Clara Schuh, Uncle Schuh, -- and "Willy". St. Clair & Cleveland, and Ford Pkwy & Cleveland. Well, at least they made good pastries... Kessel's Bakery Salada Tea - with signs on many grocery store doors SevenUp Bars Cracker Jacks Bonomo's Turkish Taffy Banana Popsicles Root Beer Barrels Tom's Peanut Butter Logs Candy cigarettes Sen Sen Gum: Gumballs and gumball machines Bazooka bubble gum Gum with baseball cards Fleer's gum with cartoon character "Pug" Blackjack Cloves Beeman's Wax candy red lips Wax bottles filled with juice which were later chewed Margarine bags with color blister ManTan - Remember the orange/brown tans of the early users? Theaters The Orpheum Theater The Paramount Theater The Grandview Theater The Uptown Theater The St. Clair Theater The Highland Theater The Randolph Theater The Selby Theater The Cooper Theater The Rose Drive-In The Flying Cloud Drive-In The Edyth Bush Theater (plays) The Faust Theater? Field trips The Shrine Circus at the downtown auditorium The Festival of Nations (every 4 years) The Science Museum The State Capitol Juke boxes by The Seeberg Company - big ones and counter-top ones Juke boxes by The Wurlitzer Company Pinball machines Robert Hall Clothes - Low Overhead (!) Slinkys (coiled springs) 78-RPM phonograph records 45-RPM phonograph records (they are still being made today) From a 4-song 45 released in 1956 (Love me Tender): RCA VICTOR EPA 4006 45 EP SIDE 1 "NEW ORTHOPHONIC" (G2WH-7523) HIGH FIDELITY 1--LOVE ME TENDER 2--LET ME (from the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope production "Love Me Tender") (Elvis Presley, Vera Matson) Elvis Presley Car nostalgia Wing windows: Natural air conditioning Car radios: Pull out the button and push it back in to save location Car spotlights (driver's side) Curb feelers Steering wheel knobs Fox tails tied to the top of car radio antennas Rumble seats (older cars) Running boards (older cars) The Corvair car The little Italian Isetta car - the only door was at the front. Early models had only 3 wheels - with front-wheel drive. Nash Rambler (fold-down seats) Nash Metropolitan (small, boxy) Packard Studebaker DeSoto Ford Edsel Cushman motor scooters The Bread box in the kitchen Bottle caps Lux Soap Fels Naptha Saddle shoes 48 States - and a few territories Disneyland - a new state of fun... Air Carriers Western Airlines (The ONLY way to fly...) Eastern Airlines Capitol Airlines Pan Am - Pan American Airlines TWA Flying Tiger Lines (cargo) Vertical-hold control on TV set Heathkit Build-It-Yourself kits (radios, TV's, etc) ------- RADIO AND TV SHOWS, ETC ------- KDWB - 63, that's easy to remember... WDGY - The "NEW" WDGY... (Watch out for Chief Wahhhhh-chick-anoka!!) The Mutual Radio Network The Jack Benny Show - with Jack Benny, Mary Livingston, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Don Wilson, Dennis Day, Mel Blanc (Oh Rochester, Rochester...) (--Awright, bub! Yer money or yer Life!!......... Well???? --I'm thinking, I'm thinking....) Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snurd (--Now Mortimer, didn't you EVER go to school? --Nope... Nope... Nope... --You're quite certain about that?... --About what??) Red Skelton (This is going to be a clean campaign - no mud-slinging... My political opponent is an upstanding family man with a wonderful wife... What he sees in that woman he's running around with, I'll never know...) +Abbott and Costello (Who's on first. What's on second. I-Don't-Know's on third...) (No mustard - just Wooster-shire-sheer-sauce). Bob & Ray - Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding (Wally Balloo, here...) Our Miss Brooks - Eve Arden as Connie Brooks, Gale Gordon as Osgood Conklin, Richard Crenna as Walter Denton Fibber McGee and Molly - and the Fibber's overstuffed closet The $64 Question Stop The Music - Bert Parks, Kay Armen, Dick Brown Twenty Questions - Bill Slater The Quiz Kids Amos N' Andy The Lux Radio Theatre *The Mercury Theatre On The Air Arthur Godfrey - Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts Fury - Peter Graves, Bobby Diamond Sky King - Kirby Grant and Gloria Winters as Sky King & Penny The Adventures of Tarzan Andy's Gang: "Plunk your magic twanger, froggie" Mr. Wizard The Adventures Of Gunga Ram Winky Dink and You - with Jack Barry Sherry Lewis and Lamb Chop Ding Dong School *Captain Kangaroo The Little Rascals My Friend Flicka Kukla, Fran and Ollie The Buster Brown Show Laurel and Hardy (Here's ANOTHER fine mess you've gotten me into!) Buck Rogers Flash Gordon Tom Corbett: Space Cadet (TV: 1950 - 1956, 4 networks) Terry and the Pirates Charlie Chan - and his Number One son Tom Mix Roy Rogers - with Dale Evans, Trigger, and Bullet Founded the singing group "The Sons of the Pioneers". Happy trails to you, Until we meet again... Roy Rogers - King of the Cowboys. Trigger - his golden Palomino. Dale Evans - Queen of the West. Pat Brady - his comical sidekick. Roy's Wonder dog - Bullet.) (Jeep - Nellybelle) The Lone Ranger - with Tonto and Silver ...And of course, his nephew's horse, "Victor". Starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. Theme Music: The William Tell Overture Hopalong Cassidy - with Gabbey Hayes Gene Autry's Melody Ranch Gunsmoke - James Arness, Amanda Blake, Wilburn Stone, et al (Matt Dillon, Kitty, Doc, Chester then Festus) Mr. Dillllllon....? Doc, you got anything for a broken badge? --Nope... The Cisco Kid - Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo Rin Tin Tin Wild Bill Hickok - Guy Madison and Andy Devine Kit Carson The Range Rider Death Valley Days Annie Oakley Sergeant Preston of the Yukon Cheyenne Wyatt Earp Broken Arrow Adventures of Jim Bowie Wells Fargo Colt 45 Have Gun, Will Travel Zorro Tombstone Territory Maverick Wagon Train Sugarfoot U.S. Marshall Lawman The Rifleman The Texan Yancy Derringer Cimarron City Bronco Layne Bonanza The Rebel Laramie Bat Masterson Riverboat Rawhide Wanted Dead or Alive Davy Crockett (The king of the wild frontier) The Mickey Mouse Club with Jimmy Dodd and friends Who's the leader of the club That's made for you and me? M-I-C--K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Hey there! Hi there! Ho there! You're as welcome as can be! M-I-C--K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse. Forever let us hold our banners high... High! High! High! Come along and sing a song And join our jamboree. M-I-C--K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. M---O---U---S---E. Annette Funicello Howdy Doody (Princess "Summerfall-Winterspring"...) (Hey kids! What time is it?) Crusader Rabbit (5-minute TV program shown at 5:55pm) (Sidekick - Rags The Tiger) (First project: To wipe out the State of Texas) Pinky Lee Captain Video And His Video Rangers (But Commissioner....) The Adventures of Superman - with Clark Kent, Lois Lane, the Chief, and Jimmy (Faster than a speeding bullet... More powerful than a locomotive... Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... Look!.... Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman!) American Bandstand - Dick Clark (age 27) (Hi - What's your name and your school?) (It has a good beat, and you can dance to it) The World of Aviation with Sherm Boem (Sundays at noon, 15 mins) (But next week we'll be on at 12:15, and the week after that we'll be on at 11:35, then I'll be on vacation for a week, but the following week we'll be back to our regular schedule, until the holidays) Omnibus Playhouse 90 Masterpiece Theater The Hallmark Hall Of Fame The Westinghouse Studio One Summer Theater The Kraft Television Theater The Philco Television Playhouse The Armstrong Circle Theater You Are There - - Walter Cronkite The Twentieth Century - Walter Cronkite Air Power - - Walter Cronkite Victory at Sea West Point Story See It Now - Edward R. Murrow reports Lassie (Campbell's Soup) ("Eeee-ahhhh-keee" was the secret recognition call of Jeff and his friend) Walt Disney Presents (When you wish upon a star.................) Toast of the Town (later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show) The Ed Sullivan Show (We've got a really big shew for you tonight...) Senor Wences (It's all right? Tzall right!) Maria Tallchief (ballerina) Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour Your Show Of Shows - Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca The Texaco Star Theater - Milton Berle Burns and Allen - George Burns and Gracie Allen Jimmy Durante - (Goodnight, Mrs. Kalabash, wherever you are.) Ernie Kovacs (and his Nairobi Trio of gorillas - one gorilla hits one of the other gorillas on the head with timpani sticks) The Jonathon Winters Show - Jonathon Winters (The first TV program to try video tape as part of a skit) (I wish ya hadn't squeegied-off the windshield sa darn good, there sonny... Some of them bugs is mighty tasty...) George Gobel (Well I'll be a dirty bird...) Steve Allen comedy shows - Tom Posten, Don Knotts, etc Man-On-The-Street interviews: "And your name sir?" --My name Jose Jimenez...") "And YOUR name sir?... Oh no... You still can't remember your name?" John Cameron Swayze - Live commercials for Timex Watches. "Well, if we COULD find the watch, I'm sure it would still be ticking." The Colgate Comedy Hour The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (See the USA in your Chevrolet...) The Cavalcade Of Stars Jackie Gleason and the June Taylor Dancers (And AWAY we go!!) +The Honeymooners - Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney, Joyce Randolph as Ralph, Alice, Ed, and Trixie (--Alice, I wear the pants around this house! --One pair of your pants would almost FIT around this house!) (I love you, Ralph. --Baby, you're the greatest!) Joey Bishop (It was around Christmas time here in New York, and a fellow passed me on the street and said, "Mr. Bishop! Happy Cha-noo-ka!!") Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis The $64,000 Question - with Hal March (I'll take the Cadillac...) (Who went all the way to win $64,000? One contestant was Dr. Joyce Brothers. Her category? Prize fighting.) Twenty One - Charles van Doren (Quiz show contestant, a professor from Columbia University. Subject: Art.) What's My Line - John Charles Daley, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennet Cerf, Arlene Francis, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Robert Q. Lewis (Mystery Contestant, will you come out and sign in, please!) You Bet Your Life - Groucho Marx with George Fenniman (Say the secret word and win $50) (I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member) Name That Tune Beat The Clock I've Got A Secret (Gary Moore, Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, Betsy Palmer, Jayne Meadows) The Price Is Right - Bill Cullen Tic Tac Dough This Is Your Life - Ralph Edwards (Do you recognize that voice? That's your Kindergarten teacher...) The General Electric Theater - hosted by Ronald Reagan (At General Electric, progress is our most important product) Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Your application for membership at our gourmet restaurant has been approved!) (And now, a word from a very important viewer: Our Sponsor.) Science Fiction Theater (Scientists are pragmatic enough to realize that it could take many decades - or even centuries - for us to reach the moon...) Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield My Little Margie - Gale Storm as Margie Albright, Charles Farrell as Vern Albright I Love Lucy - Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz The People's Choice - Jackie Cooper and Cleo Mr. Peepers - Wally Cox The Bob Cummings Show/Love That Bob - Bob Cummings (Full name: Robert Orville Cummings. He was a pilot, and owned and flew an Aerocar - a 1950's car-airplane.) Father Knows Best +Ozzie and Harriet - The Nelson Family Sergeant Bilko - Phil Silvers, with Paul Ford as the Colonel (Poker? Is that a card game? How do you play it?) (Sidekick - Doberman) Your Hit Parade Gisele McKenzie, Dorothy Collins 77 Sunset Strip - Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Edd Byrnes (The street that wears the fancy label, That's glorified in song and fable. The most important people pass you by, Including a Private Eye!) (Edd Byrnes/Connie Francis - Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb) Medic - Vince Edwards as Dr. Ben Casey Gary Moore The Today Show - Dave Garroway and his chimpanzee "J. Fred Muggs" The Tonight Show - Steve Allen The Tonight Show - Jack Paar (Hugh Downs, Dodie Goodman, Hans Conreid, Joey Bishop, Charlie Weaver) Liberace (I cried all the way to the bank...) Queen for a Day - Jack Bailey Art Linkletter's House Party People Are Funny - Art Linkletter Kids Say The Darndest Things - Art Linkletter Make Room For Daddy - Danny Thomas The Loretta Young Show Leave It To Beaver Laurence Welk - a one and a two and a.... Jack LaLane (excercise) Perry Como Andy Williams The Real McCoy's Dennis the Menace The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis Topper (the dog's name was "Neil") Candid Camera with Alan Funt (A car is driven to a gas station by coasting down a hill... "Lady, there's no engine in this car! No wonder it doesn't work!") (A man is eating dinner with friends in a restaurant, and is called away for a minute to take a phone call. While he's on the phone, they remove the table and adjust all the other tables to fill in the empty space. He returns to find his table and his friends are missing. It looked like his table had never even BEEN there!) The Twilight Zone with Rod Serling (the fifth dimension) (You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension...) The Huntley-Brinkley Report - Chet Huntley, David Brinkley 15-minute National News shows (later expanded to 30 minutes) The Millionaire Gang Busters Dick Tracy +Dragnet - Jack Webb as Joe Friday (This is the city - Los Angeles, California. I carry a badge.) I Led Three Lives - Richard Carlson (Herb Philbrick) Highway Patrol - Broderick Crawford The Thin Man - Peter Lawford Perry Mason - Raymond Burr Richard Diamond Peter Gunn The Untouchables - Robert Stack (Elliott Ness) Sea Hunt Hawaiian Eye Whirly Birds Bounty Hunter Lunch with Casey - and Roundhouse Rodney Axel's Treehouse - Axel and His Dog (Towser) - Clellan Card - Shown on "Canal 4" (Channel 4) Skipper Daryl / Captain Daryl Captain 11 Mel Jass - WTCN 11 - Personality Mel's Matinee (with a live studio audience) Dick Nesbitt - KSTP 5 - Sports John McDougal - KSTP 5 - News Anchor Jimmy Valentine - KSTP 5 - Personality Jimmy's Junior Jamboree Boots and Saddles Bud Kraehling - WCCO 4 - Weather George Grimm - WCCO 4 - Commentator and Star/Trib writer Dave Moore - WCCO 4 - News Anchor The Midnite Newz Test Pattern - Do they broadcast these anymore? (Broadcast television actually started in the US in the late 1920s, finally got rolling in the late 1940s (mostly on the East Coast), and really took off nationally in the 1950s. Milton Berle first appeared on an experimental TV broadcast in 1929. When they joked in the 1950s, 60s and 70s that Uncle Miltie had been around for quite a few years, they weren't kidding!) The Dumont Television Network The NBC Peacock "This program is brought to you in living color on NBC" Power for Tomorrow (Channel 5 - when signing off for the night) (Now, they never sign off...) ......................................................................... * Truth: Bob Keeshan joined the Marines towards the end of the war, but never saw combat because the war ended. He was never on Iwo Jima. FALSE Legend: Bob Keeshan (Kaptain Kangaroo and the first Clarabell on Howdy Doody), was a former Marine, served on Iwo Jima during WW2, and was the bravest man Lee Marvin had ever met. Truth: Lee Marvin received the Purple Heart for wounds received during WW2 on Saipan. He was never on Iwo Jima. However, he did make a number of appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetary. FALSE Legend: Lee Marvin received the Navy Cross for bravery during WW2 on Iwo Jima. Truth: "Mr. Rogers" (Fred Rogers) was never in the military. There are no tattoos on his arms - just pasty white skin. Would a former Navy Seal wear a cardigan to work every day??? FALSE Legend: Mr. Rogers served as a sniper or Navy Seal during the Vietnam War, and wore a cardigan sweater to cover up the many tattoos on his arms. How do these rumors get started??? .........................................................................