Do you remember those ads for Blackglama furs? I do, although not as well as I remember the Ron Rico rum ads in New York magazine, which I mentioned in WHAT THE DEAD KNOW. I loved those ads, the rum ones, because I wasn’t sure what was going on.
Ads are amazing time capsules for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in an era. Researching WTDK, I spent as much time reading ads as I did anything else, especially ads in Seventeen magazine. Bonne Belle! Hope chests! (The discovery of the latter definitely influenced the book, reminded me that some high school girls in the ’70s saw marriage as a very real/near thing.)
Well, officially I’m a legend now, so designated by the people who were kind enough to vote in the first-ever Spinetingler Awards. That is, WTDK won in the “best book by a legend” category, which I think is the designation used for any writer who has published more than eight books.
And, yes, this entry is a total cheat, a way to combine this blog’s ostensible topic with its recent rash of self-promotion. Sorry, but with a book coming out in — oh dear, five weeks, the hives should be starting very soon — it’s hard not to highjack this thing.
Speaking of which: Check out <a href=”http://thehoyden.blogspot.com/2008/01/lippman-list.html”_blank”> The Hoyden</a>, my new BFF.
I’d rather fight than switch. (Tarryton)
I’d walk a mile for a Camel.
L.S.M.F.T. (Lucky Strike)
Call for Philip Morris. (sorta sung, words drawn out)
(Winston) Tastes good, like a cigarette should!
BFF came up with a dandy list.
What do you want, good grammar or good taste? (Follow-up after complaints that the message should have read “Winston tastes good AS a cigarette should”)
To a fight fan, it’s the main event/To a smoker…it’s a Kent. The taste of Kent, the taste of Kent… (the tune is a song called “Happiness Is”)
I went to summer camp with the children of the man who composed the music for “Hot dogs, Armour hot dogs/What kind of kids like Armour hot dogs?”
Also, although it’s possibly apocryphal, I think the children of Tony the Tiger’s creator attended the same camp.
Johnny Ketchum was an editorial assistant at the Evening Sun, famous for his malaprops. They were collected in a file called “Ketchumisms.”
I totally think you’re a legend. And if you can’t do shameless self-promotion on your blog, where can you?
I certainly agree with the Hoyden. I read the books as they were released, but in January, I re-read all the Tess books and agree that each book has been better than the previous one. That, I think, is quite an accomplishment even from a Legend…a designation with which I have no problem. Congratulations.
Sam speaks for me regarding Tess — perfect summation.
Barbara
I read your BFF’s post and can only say…amen to that sister!
Cigarette TV ads from the 60′s and 70′s (“Have a Lark, Have a Lark, Have a Lark today” to the tune of William Tell Overture)were the leaders of the pack (pun intended!).
A silly millimeter longer.
Tarryton is better, charcoal is why.
I really hope that Marijuana will be legalized so the creative tradition of smoke ads can be reborn.
Your new BFF is right on.
Also, I have been meaning to ask this for a while . . . Who is Johnny Ketchum?
Thanks for asking (for me, too), Kevin.
You’ve always been legendary to me, Laura!
I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!
Four out of five doctors smoke Camels.
Outstanding. And, they are mild. (Lucky Strikes)
BFF is right on.
Lena Horne, Lauren Bacall, Jessey Norman, Laura Lippman. Good line up.
Bonne Belle, indeed. And Yardley slickers. Alka-seltzer’s “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” and “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” “You ate it Ralph.”and “poached oysters!”
The recent PBS show on “The Jewish Americans” showed, in the 3d ep, an ad I remember from the NY subway (even though I’m a Connecicut kid) which showed every kind of person eating a piece of bread and saying “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s”. It’s stuck with me all these years as great visuals. Which is why I remember the Blackglama ads – I HATE fur!
LL,L is a great suggestion, as it lines up nicely with “Triple L,” a nickname bestowed by a friend who says it stands for “Lovely Laura Lippman.”
Though there are certainly national ad campaigns that have stuck with me, some even making their way into my everyday vernacular (“two great tastes that taste great together”)it seems the local ones are really the ones that worm their way in. I can still sing one particularly bad jingle from a treat your kids with kindness campaign of 30 years ago. (“H,ave you hugged your kid today?”) Cause you know child abusers are so suseptable to a catchy jingles.
And now it can be told: I actually appeared in a commercial (against my will) for the San Antonio Light. The jingle was:
We’re your paper
San Antonio
The Light of your day
And I was in a group of reporters who had to look at the camera and sort of shout the words: “We’re your paper!”
By the time the ad appeared, I was already working at the Evening Sun in Baltimore.
I still love the little guy who shouted “YONKUHS!” in an old NY Lottery commercial. Also the old dude who kept saying “Surely you’ll remember THIS one…” for a TV-order only record set of classical favorites.
CONGRATULATIONS!! Can we call you LL,L now?