Check out the old local commercials from the 70s & 80s!
What were some of your favorite old commercials, and in your opinion, what were some of the worst?
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39 comments
That’s great
Long long ago I worked with Marty/Ronny Sherman of The Saw Mill. Last I knew Marty was raising Arabian Horses in Tri-Valley area. Had some good memories working there and always good times at employee events.
Arabians, eh? I hope he wasn’t the one training them. I always felt so sorry for poor George. I was always worried his knees would buckle. As our friend Shoulda Coulda once said, “Marty needed a Clydesdale”.
Ahh, Paul, it’s been a long time! I also remember Jim Rogers, “The People’s Lawyer”, although last I heard he got himself in trouble…
There were a lot of lawyer jokes about Rogers that would have been funny if they hadn’t been true. He was also a Contra Costa Supervisor for a while.
I remember seeing Paul from the Diamond Center near Park-n-Shop. He really stood out because of his big head sticking out of his red Mercedes convertible.
The Saw Mill had some nice quality solid wood unfinished furniture at really good prices. I still have a coffee table that I bought over 40 years ago and a small table from about 25 years ago.
Ed Barbara was a crook and scam artist who scammed investors out of millions. They believed they were investing in a gold mine in New Mexico. He disappeared with their money to start a furniture business in Canada. While in Canada he took his customers money and came back to the US to Oregon where he was arrested and extradited back to New Mexico, but let out on his own recognizance and again disappeared. Ed’s wife later testified that he has since died of cancer.
Ed once said, “the secret to success is to irritate the public, no one forgets his worst enemy.”
Still got my Saw Mill oak tables from Oakland too. Built like a Battleship.
I always liked this one. The kid was serious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbxLsqJIdsk
“Go see Cal” Worthington has to be in the bad commercial hall of infamy.
LOL ….I agree with you 100%
@ Cowellian
And don’t forget Cal’s dog Spot. Whether
it was an alligator or a mountain lion, he
always called it “My dog Spot”.
How about Jim Wesman from Gateway
Chevrolet. He use to do the commercials
for the wrestling show on KTVU from Kezar
Pavilion. I recall The Sheik came on one of
the live commercials and started pounding
his head on the hood of a new Chevy. Of
course The Sheik was in a trance and could
feel no pain. That Chevy was marked down
for sale.
HIKIDSI’MEDBARBARFURNItCHOOESAY BLABLABLABLABLABLABLA BLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLA….. Fastest talker outside of an auction he was.
Unblinking eyes staring straight into the camera. Only his lips moved.
We totally spoofed the Diamond Center ads in 6th or 7th grade when we did our presentation on the Aztecs. I remember action figures and carrying a classmate across the screen singing “He’s the Aztec man! duh duh duh, duh duh duh!”
Good lord that would be comedy gold if anyone ever ran across THAT vhs tape!
Can’t forget this classic!!!
https://youtu.be/bT1f9DzM6ks
Ok one more!!
https://youtu.be/RsPTgYMjNcs
I saw Paul at Safeway in Blackhawk around 1990………..do they still have gold plated carts?
LOL ….I agree with you 100% but the but the credit man is definitely up there with it classics …lol
One from the 1970s that Channel 44 ran regularly: Wiseman’s Furniture (was in Hayward, long gone), with a man saying (at the end): “This is your Uncle Sol, saying nothing but thanks”. They even did a button giveaway once.
Paul didn’t sell diamonds, he sold credit. He could open a shop in the Veranda and business would be booming.
I’ve had a jingle in my head for around 40 years. I think it was for a camera shop. The part of the jingle that really sticks is their locations: “…Dublin, Berkeley, San Lorenzo, Cupertino, San Jose.”
I seem to remember it being a radio ad, but i’m not sure.
Anybody remember it?
Spot on!
https://blog.sfgate.com/parenting/2008/06/24/dublin-berkeley-san-lorenzo/
No memory of it, but you piqued my interest!
@Lo you’re correct Peter Hartlaub has tracked down some of these guys over the years to see what they’re doing. He also followed up on the “Matthew’s Top of the Hill Daly City!” commercials as well. Growing up in the 80s/90s you couldn’t go a few commercials on channel 44 or 36 w/out seeing at lest one of these pop up.
The prices on those electronics before they were made in China were astronomical!
even today, I still sing this one to myself….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZXPs3ExHY
Ah yes, I remember Dina Shore singing:
Seeee, the USA in your Chevrolet, America is asking you to call,
Drive your Chevrolet through the USA, America’s the greatest land of all, Mmmwah!
Seeeeee Ellis Brooks today for your Chevrolet, corner of Bush and Van Ness! Ethel Merman
What ever became of Paul after the Diamond Center closed?
Hey “The Professor,” the jingle you reference is from Denevi Camera.
Thank you Rafter Man!
I bought a car stereo and got a free (mountain-ish) bike from Matthews top of the Hill, Daly City…circa 1985. It was a very cheap chinese bike worth $40-50, but it brought me and thousands of customers into that little corner store.
When I went there you had to wait in their
lobby until they could assign a salesperson
to escort you around the store. You weren’t
allowed to go in and browse on your own.
Worse than buying a used car.
Meet the swinger, poloroid swinger… barry manilow before fame and OMG ha ha Ali Macgraw ooo the butt.
For thirty years, I have been trying to figure out what the name of the song is playing behind this Wells Fargo video ad from 1997. I only today found the ad on YouTube. I believe the song was a commercial hit and played widely on the radio before Wells Fargo bought it for their ad. After that you only heard it there. Does anyone know what the name of the song is? I think there is some way you can hum it into google 😜 and google will identify it, but I don’t sing that well and it didn’t work.
https://youtu.be/xL_rjix5Rsk
Twenty years! Just seems like thirty!
I’m gonna go with it’s a jingle written for that commercial; it has a familiar sound though. Little research with my 2nd cup of coffee kinda indicates that.
I did find out that apparently the song We’ve only just begun was written for a Crocker Bank commercial…. By Paul Williams…. The Carpenters recorded it as a full length song afterward…
I plan on a 3rd cup later; I’ll see if I can pin it down for you….
Oh, thanks S. Interesting that We’ve only just begun was written for Crocker by Paul Willians. That may be the case with the Wells Fargo song. I remember hearing the whole WF song only once and thinking it conveyed a lot of sentiment.
The only lyrics I remember, and that you can sort of make out in the commercial, were something like, “… be fore I, be fore I …” “fade away” or “go away.” There are several recent releases with those words in the title but it isn’t the song. The guitar intro and style is very distinctive, too.
it’s actually just a plot to confuse us old folks
@ S Is that what it is? Well, I’m afraid they have succeeded. 🙃
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