The ads of TV Guide

Once again it's time to take a look at the wonderful local ads that populate the pages of TV Guide. These come from last Saturday's issue, but they could have come from any time in the early to mid '60s, before the ads became slicker and louder and were generated from some network's graphics department. Some have to do with television, some with ads for local businesses; all of them give us a slice of life in the Twin Cities of the early '60s.

Classic Theater was a local movie series airing Saturday nights on KSTP. This was before NBC introduced its classic Saturday Night at the Movies, mind you. Classic Theater airs in place of NBC's The Nation's Future, which itself was a replacement for The Campaign and the Candidates (a program that only ran through November). The tag line about Film "Greats" does make it seem as if they're a bit cynical as to the quality of the movies, though, doesn't it?

No need for cynicism on the part of WCCO, which for many years aired Critic's Award following the 10:00 p.m. news. Although it doesn't say so here, it was usually presented without commercial interruption - after a brief film feature on behalf of the Iron Mining Industry of Minnesota. I wish I could find a film clip of that.

What was always interesting to me about WCCO's Sunday night bowling program was that they could air a 90-minute program live on a Sunday night, ending at midnight, which included a live audience. I can remember seeing this show, probably under a different name, in the summers when I didn't have to go to school the next day.

Ah, the Chef Cafe! Indeed, it never did close - until it closed for good, though I'm not quite sure just when that was. (If there are any fellow Twin Citians out there, maybe you can shed some light on it.) The wonderful local movie host Timothy D. Kerr did commercials for Chef Cafe when it sponsored his late-night movie programs, and no matter what time it was, no matter how I'd felt just before I saw the commercial, I was always hungry afterward. In fact, I'm getting hungry right now just looking at it.

By the '70s you never saw ads in the program section for anything other than TV shows, but that wasn't always the case. This ad for Oasis dehumidifiers is interesting more for where they were sold than anything else.

One of the Minneapolis dealers was Brandt Appliance & TV at 6408 Bass Lake Road. Not many TV and appliance stores around nowadays - at least not like it was back in the day, when you actually had TV repairmen. Here's what the location looks like today

KMSP had never been known for their local news prowess - in fact, it's one of the main reasons ABC jettisoned the station as an affiliate in favor of KSTP. In this ad they're touting the presence of Elliott Roosevelt, son of the late President, probably delivering commentaries. Bob Allard was a newsman for Channel 9 for several years before becoming better-known as a radio talk-show host until he took his own life in 1982. He was a troubled man.

Not to be outdone, WTCN reminds us that it has hourly news. Since they don't literally have news listed every hour, I suspect they mean hourly updates leading up to their 9:30 p.m. news. Of course, with the resources of Time-Life, they should be able to provide hourly news.

I think I've mentioned Dave Lee before; he was a children's show host throughout the '60s, when I watched all those shows. I always wanted that grab bag that kids got for being on his show, even though, as this article reminds us, it was only "Orange Drink, TV Times, Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy...."

And speaking of kids, a last reminder that if your little one has the sniffles, nothing cures like Witch Hazel!

"[A]at one time that company produced 50 percent of the witch hazel used in the world and that witch hazel products are still made today under the same label at the American Distilling and Manufacturing Company in East Hampton," the New Haven Register says.

TV Guide really has changed, hasn't it?