Lorain Journal Promotes "Gilligan's Island" – Sept. 1964

It’s a question that men have been struggling to answer for generations – a debate that has raged on since 1964. 

When discussed openly, it’s sometimes pitted father against son, and poisoned formerly cordial relationships among co-workers and neighbors.

But when pondered privately, a man must look deep into his soul and be honest with himself – even if he might be surprised by his own answer.

And that question is: Ginger or Mary Ann?

Yup, which comely castaway on perennial TV rerun Gilligan’s Island did you fall for like a coconut dropping on Gilligan's noggin? Were you a sucker for the highly seductive charms of sexy, slinky Ginger, who very likely was no stranger to the Hollywood casting couch? Or were you more comfortable with the irresistibly cute, wholesome, Mary Ann in her short shorts and certain way with a coconut cream pie?

This debate all began exactly sixty years ago, when Gilligan’s Island made its TV debut on September 26, 1964. In the weeks before that, the Lorain Journal did its best to help promote the show. And it did it by printing – what else? – photos of Ginger (Tina Louise) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells).

Mary Ann struck first with a photo on the TV page of September 9, 1964.

It's interesting that Dawn Wells was a former Miss Nevada in the Miss America pageant.

But this photo of Tina Louise, shown cavorting with the U.S. Olympic basketball team, neatly capsulates the point of view held by those who wouldn't mind being marooned with Ginger rather than Mary Ann. It ran in the paper on Sept. 24, 1964.

Anyway, in our house we watched Gilligan's Island both first-run and in reruns. I was a loyal fan of the show, reduced to watching it during its last season on a small black and white TV while my siblings watched The Monkees at the same time on the large color TV in the kitchen.

We must have missed the first season of Gilligan's Island, because the black and white reruns that showed up on Channel 43 when it first signed on were new to us. It always annoyed my mother that we enjoyed it, and I vividly remember her kicking us out of the house one time to go outside and play when we were watching it.

What's funny to me now is that while watching a lot of GRIT-TV, I see the Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.) and the Professor (Russell Johnson) in lots of old Westerns. Russell Johnson plays a particularly rotten weasel in the great Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) with Audie Murphy. 

And speaking of 1960s TV regulars playing Western scumbags, DeForrest Kelley was the king, before becoming Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on Star Trek. And he, too, tormented Audie Murphy, in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963).

This insightful tome was on the Brady bookshelf for years

Be with us next time when we debate the rocky choice of Wilma vs Betty (although they giggled the same and could both be shrews to their hard-working husbands), followed by Archie Andrews' conundrum of Betty vs Veronica (who were both drawn exactly the same except for hair style and color).

Just kidding.