Bill Thomas Service – Davy Crockett Promotion

During the recent holidays, there was a "Happy Honda Days" TV commercial airing that featured a mischievous little boy named Pete (at left).

In the commercial, Pete's wearing a Davy Crockett cap in the opening scene. I guess the commercial's art director was hoping to tap into some nostalgic goodwill for 1950s Dennis the Menace types.

Anyway, the commercial reminded me that I had this June 1955 ad for Bill Thomas Service with a Davy Crockett promotional tie-in. (By that time, Walt Disney had featured Davy Crockett in a multi-part miniseries on his Disneyland TV series, and Crockettmania was already sweeping the nation.)

Here's the ad (below), which ran in the Lorain Journal. The service station, which was located at the corner of East Erie Avenue and Iowa Avenue, was celebrating the anniversary of its first year in business. It offered a set of tumblers featuring the beloved coonskin-cap-wearing frontiersman for only 18 cents with the purchase of 8 gallons of gas.

Note the keylining error: DAVY TUMBLERS! CROCKETT. I can understand how it happened, because I started out as a paste-up artist – and those types of mistakes were easy to make when you have a bunch of little pieces of type to glue down on an artboard.

In case you're interested, here's one of the tumblers (below) featured in the ad. It was recently on Ebay.

I'll bet Walt Disney was upset that he didn't get a share of all of the generic Davy Crockett merchandise being produced to cash in on his TV series!

Happy New Year from First Federal - 1963

Here's a space-age New Years ad for First Federal Savings of Lorain that ran in the Lorain Journal in late December 1962. John Glenn had become the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, so I guess it was still fresh in everyone's mind.

I love the offbeat First Federal Savings and Loan Association logo in the ad. It's very bold and simple, with a lot of personality. Quite different from the current version (at left).

These New Years-themed ads often show the bearded "Old Year" character trudging off in the background. I'm surprised the ad doesn't show him forlornly drifting away into space.

The Woolly Bear Forecast: the Drive-In is Closing

The busy scene at the restaurant on snowy Saturday, December 29.

Although I only ate there once or twice, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the closing of the Woolly Bear Drive-in on this blog. (Special thanks to Mark Hicks for the tip.)

The small restaurant at the intersection of State Route 60 and State Route 113 dates back to the days when Dick Goddard's Woollybear Festival was still held in Birmingham (before moving to Vermilion in the early 1980s).

It opened on May 9, 1981 with Zelma Hughes as the owner-operator.

What first lured me to eat there was the fact that the Woolly Bear was the only place besides Midway Oh-Boy that used the secret Oh-Boy mayonnaise-based sauce on their burgers.

The Woolly Bear Drive-in had its devoted legion of fans (just read some of its online reviews), and it's always sad when a family business shuts down. It's still open today until 4:00, so if you are hankerin' for a Big Bear sandwich, you'd better hurry!

The restaurant's mascot

Invitation to Disaster – 1962

Well, it's New Year's Eve – so readers of this blog know that means it's time for yet another macabre "Don't Drink & Drive" full page vintage ad featuring the Grim Reaper.

This one is from the pages of the December 29, 1962 Lorain Journal. This Grim Reaper is kind of a bare-bones (heh-heh) version. No robe or scythe for him.

As usual, there's an interesting roster of area businesses of yesteryear. There doesn't appear to be very many that are still around; Lucas Plumbing and Ed's Transmission managed to survive, however.

Anyway, have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

Kline's New Year's Eve Ad 1956

I posted some Kline's Christmas-themed ads in this space a few days ago. Well, here's a New Year's Eve version that ran in the Lorain Journal on New Year's Eve, 1956. (Click on it for a larger version.)

By George, it looks like the same illustrator who drew Baby New Year in the Driscol Music ad from yesterday. The unsung artist sure was very good at his craft. The artwork of Baby New Year and Father Time has a lot of heart.

The ad copy is bright and encouraging as well – sentiments that we sure do need for 2013.

Driscol Music Ad - December 31, 1955

Here's a 1955 New Year's Eve ad for an iconic Lorain company that happily is still around in the 2000's: Driscol Music Company on Broadway. Back in 1955, the company was at 1000 Broadway instead of its current 445 Broadway Avenue address.

According to their company website, Driscol Music Company has been around since 1941.

If you were a band or orchestra student in the Lorain City Schools like me, then you probably were in Driscol's at some point or another through the years – to rent an instrument, or perhaps to buy some music (maybe a Belwin Band Builder). Even as an adult, I used to go in there every couple of years to buy slide oil for my trombone.

It's good to see a company that has managed to survive the ups and downs of Downtown Lorain!

Pueblo Ad – December 1956

Here's another holiday-themed 'preview' of coming attractions on this blog. The ad at left for El Pueblo ran in the Lorain Journal around Christmas in 1956.

Like Kline's, the Pueblo is another long-postponed topic on this blog which I will get to early in the new year – I promise.

The restaurant, which opened in May 1928, was a Lorain landmark out on Lake Road near the undercut west of town for decades. It went through several name changes and ended its "life" as the Gypsy Fiddle Inn in a spectacular blaze.

I first heard of the Pueblo from my parents, and the idea of an elegant restaurant with a Spanish motif on the western approach to the city fascinated me. Researching it, however, took years. (I did it the hard way, looking at newspaper microfilm at the library for months until my eyeballs almost fell out.)

I've filled two file folders with newspaper clippings, ads, a few photos and other goodies – and will boil it all down and present it here soon.