Comments on: My own Christmas special–gone commercial!

By: OlderThanDirt

OlderThanDirt — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:47:18 +0000

Ah candy cigarettes! I grew up in North Carolina where school children regularly toured the P. Lorillard plant and watched them make and package cigarettes. When the tour was over, every child received a pack of candy cigarettes in the brand packaging. We also toured the Coke bottling plant, but the cigarettes were much more memorable.

Totally off-topic, but I adored plant tours and feel sorry that children don’t get to go anymore (or at least mine didn’t). It left me with a burning desire to tour anything real.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 01:36:16 +0000

Susan–I thought the same thing about the mileage claims. 30 miles to the gallon was pretty damn good in 1961, and it’s better than most vehicles these days! (Although one reason the ’61 Falcon was so good on the mileage was that it didn’t have all of those pesky safety featuers, and could seat as many as a minivan these days b/c of bench seats and no need for seatbelts!)

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:34:05 +0000

I don’t remember these, but that may be because whenever our TV broke or was stolen, my mother waited quite a while to replace it.

What I think is so interesting is all the cheering about gas mileage. The Falcon gets 30 miles to the gallon! Who said that concern with mileage was new? Oh, and that it sat 6 people, ’cause you got three in the front seat!

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:39:15 +0000

I remember the chalky ones too, which had tiny red tips, to represent the lighted part. They wouldn’t have come in as handy at a WWF steel-cage match, I must say, as the chocolate kind. I can’t believe they still make and sell any kind.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:13:54 +0000

Thanks for the spelling correction, Joshua–I’ll fix that.

Indyanna–did you know they still make candy cigarettes? Not the really good ones like the ones you describe, but just the chalky ones. I’m nostalgic for an old candy lipstick that was soft and chocolate-like, and that I had only once as a four-year old, I think. (Candy lipsticks today are just ripoff Swee-Tart-like sticks. Bleh.)

Dr. Virago: I’ll just quote Notorious, Ph.D. and say: mmmmm, pies!

By: Dr. Virago

Dr. Virago — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:09:54 +0000

Er, not International, *Interstate*, and not Brands, but *Bakeries*. *Interstate Bakeries.*

By: Dr. Virago

Dr. Virago — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:08:59 +0000

Not only do I remember the Peanuts/Dolly Madison campaign (as well as the MetLife one), but I also had a brother-in-law who worked for a few years for Internaional Brands at the Emporia, KS, Dolly Madison bakery, and every time I visited my sister and brother-in-law, I got a tour of the factory bakery, got a chocolate pie hot out of the oven, and got to take home *tons* of Peanuts cross-promotion loot. Good times.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:07:49 +0000

It would be interesting to deconstruct what Schulz/Ford were up to with the chocolate seegars and “everyone.” Drive girls away from the Ford brand? This reminds me of being allowed to buy a pack of chocolate cigarettes, probably also in about 1959, on the way into the old Island Garden to attend a match with a corporate predecessor of the World Wrestling Federation. When the thing inevitably melted in my tiny hand I just threw the whole sticky blob at one of the certified wrestler bad guys of the era, The Sheik, who was working over one of the certified good guys, Haystack(s) Calhoun. This was apparently either not prohibited or possibly even encouraged, I don’t remember. What WAS discouraged was to “tell your mother about this,” so I guess “everyone” always contained a lot of fine print and outright exclusions–many of the gender and/or/and role-based.

By: Joshua Paddison

Joshua Paddison — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 17:55:33 +0000

I didn’t know about this either, but considering how Schulz (no t) merchandized the hell out of the strip, it’s not surprising.