Showing posts with label Zenith television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zenith television. Show all posts

6/28/12

Be wary of WOMEN WEARING BLINDFOLDS!


Once upon a time there was a tv show called “What’s My Line?” A panel of New Yorkers, from generally showbusiness, publishing, and high society, would sit behind a desk and ask questions of a contestant they didn’t know while the host tried to control the situation and also had the job of flipping over cards with money amounts on them. When the contestant was someone famous the panel would wear blindfolds.

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

Somehow this poor woman got lost backstage. She was meant to be a panelist on the show, but ended up at a shoot for Zenith televisions. Poor thing. Nobody would tell her of her mistake and she simply wandered around for hours saying things like, “Have you ever jumped out of a plane?” and “Are you known for your meatloaf?” 

This shot was taken just as she said, “Oh, you must be a man because you have a very large button.”

As to the copy of the ad, well...the copywriters could have never imagined that in the future we'd do everything with remotes which contain enough buttons to launch an Apollo mission...AND do it without ever looking at the remote. I guess this is progress, though someday doctors specializing in repetitive motion injuries for thumbs will really clean up.

9/15/09

Sure it's big, but DOES YOUR TV LOOK LIKE A PORTHOLE?


With the new fall tv season upon us I'm sure there are people rushing out to buy new televisions just as they do around the Super Bowl. My tv is over 20 years old and works fine and dandy thank you very much so I won't be out hunting for a new one. But if I were to go looking...take a gander at this one from the March 1949 Holiday magazine. 

Oh sure, you've got a huge screen and you can hang it on your wall because it's only an inch and a half thick (I think mine is 6 feet deep), but does yours look like a porthole? I mean, how cool is this? I remember all in ones like this. And I remember my grandfather watching Groucho Marxs on "You Bet Your Life" on a tiny screen in a piece of furniture about this big. 

Loved Groucho. Loved the Secret Word with the duck coming down from the top of the screen. I got to see Groucho near the end of his life on a Merv Griffin show in Hollywood. I had a front row seat even though I came in midway in the line. Yes, they pack those audiences with what you look like and it the time I was young with long blond hair. Charo was also on the show and during a commercial break I felt the woman behind me pulling on my hair, then she turned to her companion and said, "Yes, it's real." Charo's didn't all look real so I guess mine was better than Charo's. My hair, I'm talking about my hair. Other than that Charo beat me hands down.

Zenith tv 1949_tatteredandlost
Click on image to see it larger.

And now, sit back and enjoy "You Bet Your Life" and try to imagine watching a tv smaller than your computer screen. Stick with it because at the 9 minute mark it gets very funny!! Don't skip to the second one. Start with the first one.