Thanksgiving Feed - Campbell's Bean and Bacon Soup (1950)

Here's one that's near and dear to my heart, Campbell's Bean and Bacon Soup. You see, one of the memories from the all to infrequently golden days of my youth centers around Campbell's Bean and Bacon Soup and Ritz Crackers. Sunday evenings at our house, back in the days before NFL games that ran until midnight and ten-thousand channels of unwatchable reality shows, meant The Walt Disney Hour and The Andy Griffith Show, the ladder of which was often enjoyed while eating a bowl of Campbell's Bean and Bacon Soup that was so packed with Ritz Crackers it had a texture more like oatmeal than soup. Ah, the sometimes good old days.

As for the ad itself, I think I could have gone my whole life without hearing beans described as "munchy meaty and zestful."

1950 Indy 500 - The Drink of Champions, Blatz

Our first color ad comes from 1950 and, as the big day is very near, I thought I'd go with a beverage that will be consumed in quantity between the green and checkered flags - beer.

Blatz, Milwaukee’s first bottled beer…not its best, not even the middle of the road, but put in a glass container first. Myron Fohr, the gentleman wearing the grease, never led a lap in the one Indy 500 in which he raced. Looking at him he has the appearance of a guy who drives a bar stool, not a race car. He probably fit into the cockpit a little like the cork in the fifth of thunderbird he kept tucked under the seat for emergencies. And take a quick look at those nails…apparently the folks at the ad agency spent some time caking crud under Myron’s nails (or gave up on removing it out and decided to go with the dowdy grease ball look).

The small ad in the lower left is for NBC’s television adaptation of the radio show Duffy’s Tavern. The series centered around an Irish tavern in New York and the misadventures and get-rich-quick schemes of Archie, its manager. The show opening featured a rendition of When Irish Eyes are Smiling played on a tinny piano. The music always was interrupted by the ring of a telephone and Archie spinning the catch phrase “Hello, Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin'. Duffy ain't here—oh, hello, Duffy..." Here's a bit of the radio show.

 

And here's some of the television show.