Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Oh, 'poo!

From the looks of things, Lustre-Cream shampoo had a stranglehold on Hollywood-endorsed products for 1950s locks! Anybody who was anybody, regardless of their studio, seemed to appear in one of their colorful print ads. And we have a sizable collection to show you today along with a couple of other things. Lustre-Cream came in a small milk glass jar, yes, a jar! Nowadays, I believe most of us associate shampoo with being liquid and in bottles (which did happen with this product eventually, too.) See if any of your favorite ladies turn up in this photo essay.
It may have had something to do with the copious amounts of goop that Esther Williams had combed into her hair for all those water ballet routines, but if you watch her movies, take note of how beautiful her hair nearly always is!
Rita Hayworth, of course, paid a painful price for her glamorous hairline. It used to come further down on her forehead (think Teresa Guidice), but she went through rounds of stinging electrolysis to permanently raise her hairline and created a heart-shaped widow's peak in the bargain. Funny... my hairline rose higher all on it's own!
I always liked it when Eleanor Parker wore long falls or elaborate up-dos versus the more simple style shown here. (Escape From Fort Bravo, 1953, and The Naked Jungle, 1954, come to mind.)
Miss Deborah Kerr nearly always looked great and very pulled together. She's one of several ladies who appear here twice today.
Love the gloves and jewelry here!
Ava Gardner is also a two-fer in this post.
Although some people find it inappropriate that she was cast as Julie in 1951's Show Boat, I thought she did an excellent job and was, by the end, rather heart-breaking.
Once seen, few can forget that Margo Channing shoulder-length mane of hair that Miss Bette Davis sported in All About Eve (1950.) Davis showed off quite a wide range of looks with her hair over the years, even shaving off two inches of the front in order to play the follically-challenged Queen Elizabeth I in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939!)
Natalie Wood had pretty hair, but - like many of the ladies seen here today - did wear wigs in many of her mid-career movies. The studio lights and punishing (not to mention time-consuming) styling techniques just made it simpler for most to use other hair than their own.
The same year the movie mentioned in the text came out (The Girl Next Door, 1953), June Haver was living at The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth as a postulant nun from February to October. In fact, it was her final film. After leaving the order, she soon wed Fred MacMurray and never acted on-screen again apart from an appearance as herself on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour with her husband. The union lasted thirty-seven years until his death.
This would definitely count as one of my least favorite hair looks on Lana Turner. So compounded and stiff looking. Love the color of the gown and jewels, though!
Not a tremendous improvement here! Turner was noted for having shaved off her eyebrows during a bit role in The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938), after which they failed to grow back! They always had to be drawn on or little false ones adhered to her forehead thereafter...
This ad with Marilyn Monroe heralds the introduction of "lotion form" Lustre-Creme. The original was sort of close to Pond's cold cream in texture. Presumably, this was less thick?
This is a nice picture of Jane Russell. If you, like me, have never heard of "The Big Rainbow," it's because the film's title was changed in the meantime to the more appropriate Underwater! (1955.)
This is not a very flattering representation of Loretta Young! Garish coloring, even after I dialed it back a little.
You'll note that Arlene Dahl is shown in four photos in this ad (as were a few of the prior ladies), but much of the time a different model was used in the preparation shots along the bottom.
I love green and lavender together and this is a lovely shot of Miss Elzabeth Taylor.
I would venture to say that this is a wig (and I hated her hair in the second half of The Last Time I Saw Paris, 1954, which featured a close-cropped wig.)
In this Betty Grable ad, it says that Lustre-Creme is the favorite beauty shampoo of 4 out of 5 top Hollywood stars. I believe it!
Debra Paget was a very pretty young lady and a decent actress. Having been wed very briefly twice, she left the biz in 1964, not long after a third marriage to a wealthy Chinese-American oil executive. They divorced in 1980 with one son born to them. Later, she became a born-again Christian and wound up on TBN.
Ann Blyth was pretty, but had unusual features which sometimes didn't photograph well in stills.
See what I mean? There's something a bit crooked and "off" in this one.
Miss Joan Crawford, who famously played Blyth's mother in Mildred Pierce (1945) has got one serious piece of bling around her shoulders here!
So few of Crawford's early films were in color it's sometimes a surprise to see her outside of black & white depiction. Female on the Beach (1955) is a black & white hoot.
Miss Barbara Stanwyck was notable as one of the very few (perhaps only!) major Hollywood actresses who let her gray hair show. It ultimately became a trademark of hers. The plotline of Jeopardy (1953), by the way, was reworked for an episode of her later series The Big Valley, with Bruce Dern essaying the sort of role Ralph Meeker played in the original.
Here, Babs has developed more gray in her hair.
Both Rhonda Fleming and her contemporary (and costar in Slightly Scarlet, 1956) Arlene Dahl are still alive as of this writing.
What?!?! Someone has dared to promote a product other than Lustre-Creme?! Virginia Mayo, how could you?!
That's more like it. She has now drunk the Kool-Aid and is converted.
I have enjoyed quite a few Jane Wyman movies (and, of course, thought she was wonderful on Falcon Crest!), but I have never liked her helmet hair of this period...
It's a little bit better here, perhaps, but I have never been able to get on board with those clamped-on, tightly-styled looks of some 1950s actresses.
Over the last few years, my appreciation of Mitzi Gaynor has grown by leaps and bounds. She's so effervescent and an amazing performer. And her online career retrospective interviews are a joy to watch and listen to.
The plot line of Dangerous Crossing (1953) with Jeanne Crain was reworked a hundred times in Hollywood. It even turned up in a reworked version on The Big Valley.
I scarcely recognize Grace Kelly here. I have yet to view The Swan (1956), a film which was released to theaters the same day Kelly wed Prince Rainier of Monaco.
I can't say that this rendering of Ruth Roman is particularly flattering. The already hardy actress seems very burly, even with all the surrounding foliage.
Kathryn Grayson saw her career fall apart once colorful Hollywood musicals went out of fashion (at least ones with her operatic sort of vocals.)
Grayson's friend and occasional costar, the marvelous Miss Ann Miller.
Aack! Miss Merle Oberon is using Drene instead of Lustre-Creme! This is why she was excluded from the big party down at Sidney Guilleroff's!
Oh dear... We have yet another traitor! Ida Lupino is using Drene! And as was the case with Oberon, I could find no evidence that she ever switched to Lustre-Creme... Love the neckline of her gown.
Pier Angeli is so pretty and fresh-looking here. She had a rough go of it in Tinseltown after a very promising start. She was compelled to end her relationship with James Dean because he was not a Catholic and wound up in a rocky marriage to Vic Damone. Then her Hollywood career began to falter at the end of the 1950s. By 1971 she was dead of a drug overdose at only age thirty-nine. (Her twin sister Marisa Pavan is alive today at eighty-seven.)
I'd never heard of The Girl in White (1952) with June Allyson. In it, she played New York City's first female doctor amid Arthur Kennedy and Gary Merrill.
I am not fond of the way Maureen O'Hara's mouth has been done in this ad. She doesn't look right! Almost like a Zuni Fetish Doll...! LOL
This is somewhat better. What a mutually beneficial relationship Lustre-Creme had with the studios. Each winning publicity for its product.
I always liked Jane Powell and thought she was pretty. She's still alive today at age ninety!
She was another casualty of certain types of Hollywood musicals falling out of fashion.
You know we couldn't forget our beloved Joan Collins (and this is surely a wig, too!)
We'll allow La Collins to introduce the all new LIQUID Lustre-Creme shampoo!
Also getting on the liquid bandwagon is Miss Vera Miles (also ninety at present!)
Myrna Hansen was never a star the same way all these other ladies were. Most of her parts were minor walk-ons, often uncredited. However, she was a Miss USA who went on to be runner-up for Miss Universe (and that year's winner was later found to have been too young for eligibility, so she really ought to have won!) Hansen only worked sporadically after 1964.
Martha Hyer's role in The Best of Everything (1959) was cut down significantly. There just wasn't room for all those working girls' personal issues...!
Tina Louise went from a promising movie career to becoming a TV icon (something she resented for many years!) The Trap (1959) had her opposite Richard Widmark and Lee J. Cobb, which is indeed a step up from Gilligan's Island's Bob Denver!
Few international starlets made quite the same splash as Anita Ekberg did when she became known to U.S. audiences, but it wound up being a rather brief period from the mid-1950s to the early-'60s.
This next set of ads all have artist Jon Whitcomb's renderings of their famous subjects, but - while they tend to be flattering - they are highly idealized portraits, augmenting things like eye size. This one is Janet Leigh.
Shirley Jones was then starring in the Italian-made thriller Dark Purpose (1964), which I've yet to see. Sounds interesting.
Debbie Reynolds, then starring in My Six Loves (1963) was about to embark on her signature role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964.)
No idea why, but Mr. Whitcomb declined to add his usual signature to this portrait of Janis Paige. (It doesn't necessarily look like her all that much!)
He's got Natalie Wood looking quite young and impish for this 1963 portrait.
See what I mean about the stylization? I barely could recognize Deborah Kerr in this rendering.
Recognize this Breck Girl?
Yes, before she became one of Charlie's Angels, Jaclyn Smith was a frequent model for Godl Formula Breck.
Eventually, though, she jumped ship and began hawking Wella Balsam shampoo instead!
I'm sure that many of you recall Victoria Principal's Jhirmack days. She really helped put them on the map for a time (and just look at all that hair!!!)
We're going to wring out the remainder of this post with a series of altogether different types of shampoo ads. These (by a brand called Halo) put the emphasis on the back of the heads of the models while simultaneously featuring a famous male celebrity checking them out, circa 1958. You know I am always in favor of tossing in a hunk or two whenever I can.
First up we have Louis Jourdan.
Peter Lawford
Singer Jimmie Rodgers
Andy Griffith (during Broadway's Destry Rides Again and before The Andy Griffith Show.)
James Darren (And I love this gal's pert li'l 'do!)
Tommy Sands
Paul Anka
John Saxon
Farley Granger
And, finally, our personal favorite, Mr. Tab Hunter! (Anthony Perkins must have been standing on the other side of this gal... Ha ha!)

25 comments:

  1. The wonderful Janis Paige, Tina Louise and Shirley Jones are still alive at ages 97 and 85. Miss Paige was working on her autobiography last time I heard (a Facebook page run by someone who knows her) and is definitely a talented lady who should be more well remembered.

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  2. This really brought back memories! We actually used Lustre-Creme (in the original thick formulation jar) and Halo shampoos when I was a wee small thing, though later we switched (or, I suppose, my Mom switched) to other brands.

    And I fondly remember these ad campaigns. Even though he did indeed stylize the features, I absolutely love Jon Whitcomb and the rest of the Cooper Studio artists of the '50s and early '60s. They were everywhere, in both ads and magazine illustrations.

    Breck also had a long-running campaign with portraits by Ralph William Williams from 1957 until his death in 1976 that featured a number of soon-to-be-famous lovelies like Cybill Shepherd, Kim Basinger, Brooke Shields, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith-- and with perhaps even less accurate likenesses than Whitcomb, though that might've been due to the ladies in question not yet having achieved their "look".

    One detail in a number of the Lustre-Creme ads that I find amusing is that little full-length image of the star next to the product. It's an illustration, but it shows a full view of the outfit we only see the neckline and shoulders of in the head shots. And they're mostly in "cheesecake" poses with one hand behind the head, one on the hip!

    And one other thing-- shampoos were marketed in glass bottles up until some point in the '60s, when plastic took over.

    I can't remember which product this was for, but a commercial for one of the first 'poos to go plastic had a woman in a bathroom ask someone to hand her the shampoo, only to have it tossed at her instead, with her fumbling the catch and the bottle hitting the floor. "It didn't break! IT DIDN'T BREAK!!" she screams ecstatically, having avoided picking glass shards out of her tootsies.

    Thanks for another great post!

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  3. I have a vague memory of one of those glossy 50's 'woman's' movies (Marjorie Morningstar?) with the credit "Hair Beauty by Lustre Creme".

    I also recall those TV ads for the first plastic shampoo bottles. Pretty sure it was Prell.

    Poor Ann Blyth looks like her photo was printed on rubber that was pulled slightly out of whack.

    Mitzi Gaynor is so much fun in those interviews and has such a great sense of humor about herself. She is far more entertaining in her TV specials than in movies since her personality can really shine.

    And what is with Merle Oberon's right breast hovering in space?

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  4. What fun! Interesting how shampoo was typically marketed to women as such a symbol of glamour...evident in TV spots I recall from the 60s as well. The bottle of Prell, with the pearl dropped into it, sinking slowly in the luxuriously thick green goo. I was so entranced, I think I actually broke a strand of my mother's "pearls" to try it myself...ha-ha!

    And how different from today where actresses have so much more control over what they do and how they are depicted - not bound by a contractual studio demand, as was the case with these women. I can imagine that a number of them had to be appalled with some of these ads, especially with their version of Photoshop during that era and the obviously painted on colors and enhanced facial features.

    That being said, I can't deny the charm of the imagery! Love it!

    Thank you!

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  5. I had lots of comments but forgot them all when I saw James Darren and John Saxon.

    But I do somehow remember that it was Prell with the slogan "It didn't break".


    Thanks Poseidon!

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  6. When Lustre Creme turned green for a second I thought maybe the product morphed into Clairol Herbal Essence!

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  7. I loved this, the period of hairstyles not my favorite (and why did so many have that same shade of red hair? not that that's a bad thing). I really love the stylized illustrations, everyone looks gorgeous (and that's the best Janet Leigh's hair ever looked!).
    Bette Davis had noticeably nice hair so she's a natural to hawk this. In Old Acquaintance she's always playing with the front of it as an affectation.
    I didn't realize Stanwyck was gray by the 50's. I think of her as going blond and then white by the 60's. BTW I just found The Night Visitor on youtube and it looks like a hoot!
    Demure photo of Ann Miller, I like her asymmetric 60's look much better. Sydney Guilaroff wrote a book called "Crowning Glory" which I gave as a gift and only skimmed. I bet there are hair raising tales in that. What a great way to start the day Poseidon.

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  8. "When Lustre Creme turned green for a second I thought maybe the product morphed into Clairol Herbal Essence!"

    Maybe it had a "completely organic experience"! Remember those WTF Clairol Herbal Essence ads that conflated "organic" with "orgasmic" and made it appear that the product was giving the woman an orgasm?

    And I checked and it was indeed Prell that did the "It didn't BREAK!" campaign-- only it was the Prell concentrate in a plastic tube, not a plastic bottle as I had remembered it.

    This one's a misogynistic lulu (imagine this one on TV now):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeLT1IrJivY


    Maybe there were also Prell commercials with a plastic bottle when those replaced glass?

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  9. normadesmond, RIGHT...??? Sounds like Drain. Remember when the old deodorant Tussy had commercials where it was trying to have it's name changed? LOL

    Huttonmy710, thankfully quite a few of these gals are still with us since these weren't TOO ancient, although the '50s are long ago now. Janis worked with many great people and I would love to read her story. Usually, she was very good. Occasionally (as in "The Caretakers") over the top, but she seemed a great gal.

    hsc, how neat that you used this shampoo! I looked at some of Whitcomb's artwork when preparing this post and it is divine indeed! Though he loved to paint beautiful women, his men were nothin' to sneeze at either. I totally forgot about glass shampoo bottles, but now that you say that, I do recall some as a kid. Prell comes to mind for some reason! I would imagine the increased usage of showers in the home versus baths helped to usher that plastic in.

    Dan, thanks for validating my Prell memories! I agree, obviously, on the Ann Blyth pic! Mitzt could record five more hours of interviews and I would devour it all. She's spectacular and so entertaining to listen to. The way Merle's portrait was cut/edited is really ODD...!!!

    jobj69, you cracked me up!!! Yes, this was primarily when actors were owned by a studio and had little say in the way they were used in promotion... and some of the pictures are horrid. Most are decent, though, thank goodness. I was also very fascinated with those old Prell commercials!!! It was so odd to see something like that. I think I tried it with a marble. Probably couldn't get it back out which likely startled my mother. Ha ha!

    A, glad you enjoyed the male side of this post, brief as it was.

    Scooter, I think Clairol's Herbal Essence had a very ornate bit of artwork used in promotion? Or am I confusing it with Eve cigarettes?!?! LOL I know that those had a really distinctive example of artwork with foliage going on. Hilarious that there would be a cigarette called "Eve" but I guess she needed something after hanging out with the serpent....

    Gingerguy, it's true that Janet Leigh had some difficult hair days along the way. I don't think it bore up very well to all those years of (over) processing! Don't think it got enough nutrients, either, thanks to her stringent diet. I love Ann Miller's wave of asymmetrical hair, but I also liked it when she pulled it tightly back with a bun at the nape of her neck. But, hell, I just LIKE her. I never read the Sydney book, but I felt like he probably kept more secrets than he gave away (especially about himself! LOL)

    hsc, OMG I recall those commercials now with the "organic" experience. And let me assure everyone... organic was not a term tossed around with the frequency then that it is now! As for Kenneth Mars in the Prell ad (about as normal and everyday as I've ever seen him!), I think he loved her deep down. She seems happy enough. And a little squeeze does give you a big head. LOL

    This post really seemed to get everyone into quite a lather...!!

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  10. Miss Davis first shaved her hairline back to play Elizabeth in “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” (1939). In almost every respect a higher quality film than TVQ but I much prefer the later film.

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  11. I was just watching All That Heaven Allows last night and was actually upset over Jane Wyman's awful hairdo. She's only 8 years older than her "scandalously" younger paramour, but that 'do makes her look so matronly.

    Anyway, I never knew who/what to blame for the godawful hairstyles she and Joan Crawford and seemingly everyone wore in the 50s, but now I do. It's all Lustre-Creme's fault!

    And I can't stand the suspense, whatever happened to Lustre-Creme? I've never heard of it before.

    And I assume that Drene was pronounced Drain as in, if you endorse this shampoo and not Lustre-Creme your career will go down the Drene?

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  12. Poseidon, similar artwork was indeed used in the package design on Eve cigarettes (which actually pushed itself as "pretty cigarettes" for women)-- simple line drawings of women's heads surrounded by complex florals, with flat color application. Sort of Beardsley-esque art nouveau pastiche, by way of Peter Max.

    Eve cigarettes:

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ce/53/fb/ce53fbe9a5d8b1cd7f3492836c8fb349.jpg

    Clairol Herbal Essence:

    https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0f/a1/50/0fa150ed93b704b14fd23c42c8dd696c.jpg

    Clairol really went with this campaign at first, with a whole line of "herbal essence" products, even including an animated commercial (alas, in really poor form here):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89_CtYEE2k4

    Then they decided to go with the "organic/orgasmic" thing:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsfNXj9s-iY

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCYiaFqA15M

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSI_nN0DvWA

    (Who washes their hair in an airplane restroom?)

    I've always wanted to have seen the client's faces after the pitch the ad agency came up with for that series of commercials.

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  13. Hey Poseidon, what fun!

    Whenever my sister watches TCM, she is always amazed at the many unflattering hairstyles from the '50s and early '60s that calls grandma hairdos! She always thought that it aged the actresses.

    I think that Elizabeth Taylor cut off her hair in a fit of pique at MGM during 'The Last Time I Saw Paris,' and she was also pregnant. I love her shoulder length hair in the first half, reminds me of 'The Sandpiper.'

    Ironic that Ida Lupino did hair ads as Hollywood legend has it she lost most of her hair during an illness (shades of Fanny Skeffington!) and relied on wigs most of her career...

    Cheers and Happy Belated New Year,
    Rick

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  14. F. Nomen, you are completely right! I fixed that. I will blame the flu, which I have been (mightily) suffering from this whole week. It's all I can do to stay awake and function. For me, Errol Flynn was never more handsome than he was in "Essex," so I enjoy it, but it's also fun to see Bette with (a different) Joan in "Queen!"

    Dave in Hollywood, I dislike Jane's hair in that movie, but not nearly as much as I hate her hair in "Magnificent Obsession!" It defies all reason that Rock would move heaven and earth to win someone with a molded mane like that. LOLOL I assume that Lustre-Creme was finally edged out by newer, trendier brands (as their clientele died off!) I went down a wormhole of vintage shampoo ads yesterday and in one compilation (worth it for the parade of Valley of the Dolls-ish gals near the end!) there was Halo and Drene (which the man pronounced "Dreen.")

    hsc, thanks for all the links to the artwork and ads. To say that the orgasmic ones are outrageous is an understatement!! They clearly seemed to be building off of "When Harry Met Sally" right down to the woman on the plane (!) asking for some for herself. I take it it was an international flight since she took all that time to dry and style it, too?!

    Rick, I am often blown away by how many young actresses had long hair, but wore it up in very conservative, sometimes matronly buns! You almost never saw Kim Novak or Tippi Hedren with their hair down. Some of their up-dos were nice, even glorious, but it seems so mature versus a younger, freer look! I can recall many a TV movie with Ida Lupino sporting a dog-eared, very unflattering wig. Poor thing. I know that in her early career she was peroxided to the nth degree, too! Thanks!

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  15. I'm almost embarrassed to mention this, but the famous restaurant orgasm scene in "When Harry Met Sally" is a rip-off of a scene in a '70s porno film directed by Radley Metzger/"Henry Paris"!

    "Barbara Broadcast" was set in some real upscale hotel/restaurant location (not sure how they finagled this) and shows a world-famous TV reporter (gee, who do you suppose she's based on?) who's just published her scandalous memoirs being interviewed by the press. While this is going on, waiters and waitresses are serving customers at tables-- only what they're "serving" is sexual in nature.

    At one point, a waiter brings a female customer to screaming orgasm while two Gladys Kravitz-types are watching bug-eyed from a nearby table. One of them frantically calls a passing waitress to the table, and then tells her, "I'll have whatever she was having."

    Similarly, the final joke in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"-- Ferris "breaking the fourth wall" and noticing the audience still sitting after the credits and telling them to go home-- is stolen from another '70s porn film, "The Oddballs and the Weirdos" (also released as "Zora Knows Best").

    In that one, there's a final group sex scene during the end credits, and one guy suddenly starts staring into the camera as the film cuts back and forth between credits and the orgy. Finally he brings his face close to the camera and yells "LEAVE!" at the audience.

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  16. I realized I hadn't left the link to the shampoo commercials! Here it is:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltmDbEj94CY&t=201s

    hsc, I think you need a blog of your own! Fascinating...

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  17. Late to the shampoo party but what a lot of fun comments! There must have been commercials for the product because in my head I can remember the announcer saying "LUSST-er Crème Shampoo".

    Please let me testify as a user of Herbal Essence shampoo back in the 70's! While I loved the sweet smelling spice cabinet scent (What the hell was that piercing scent?), that stuff took EVERY drop of moisture out of your follicle! I'm 66 now and thank God I still have as much hair as I got! But that frizzy hippy hair was THE look and Herbal Essence was THE way to get it! Didn't Eve cigarettes have a floral drawing on the actual cigarette to delineate where the tobacco stopped and the filter started? Or am I thinking of Virginia Slims from a couple years earlier?

    I do remember Halo shampoo, maybe my mother bought it occasionally, but the packaging doesn't look like I remembered.

    Poseidon I had an image of a Prell bottle with a marble in it that every time your mother would tip it over to pour some liquid the marble would fall down clogging the opening so she couldn't get any shampoo and your mother yelling from the shower! Something that might have happened to Doris Day in Please Don't Eat the Daisies! LOL! I certainly remember those commercials and yes that pearl drop was mesmerizing! Probably because they never let you see it hit bottom!

    Interesting that Bette Davis isn't promoting a hair product unless it was cut off from the top of the ad. She was never one who I would have pegged as the type of glamour girl these ads promoted. But when you look at her hairstyle compared to others from that period it is kind of revolutionary in it's free flowing, elegant look.

    I commissioned a college artist to do something for me years ago and when he shipped the art to me it was an over sized shipment and I had to go to the post office to pick it up. I gave my notice to the lady at the PO counter and she came back to me with this pickled, disapproving look on her face and handed me this white 9x12 envelope. I turned it over and there was the picture of Joan Crawford from the Female on the Beach ad in your post, cut out and pasted on the front of the envelope, address and all, with a small picture of a blonde, pony tailed teen pasted in front of her holding her hands up in terror, his homage to "Mommie Dearest"! I ended up with TWO works of art! And now I know where he found the picture of Joan!

    I think the first Breck Girl is Karen Valentine! Did I win?

    That Lustre Crème girl that's supposed to be Janis Paige looks more like Marta Kristen from Lost in Space!

    My dear departed friend Fred always wanted to write a play with Arlene Dahl, Rhonda Fleming and I think it was Tina Louise called "Clash of the Titians"! I do have the script to his all male homage to "The Best of Everything", titled "Tokens in the Gutter"! People nowadays of course don't know what subway tokens are!

    I was a 8 years old when we went to the movie theatre to see Jimmy Rogers in "The Little Shepard of Kingdom Come" and when he died at the end I was inconsolable! Nice to see him here, he was so cute!

    BrianB

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  18. Oooh! I just had a vague memory of commercials for Hudnut Shampoo featuring, of all people, the glamorous Buster Keaton! Can't find anything on online. Ring a bell with anyone else?

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  19. BrianB, I also seem to recall the artwork on the actual Eve cigarettes. That's a hilarious and eerily accurate vision of my mother and the Prell. I was always in trouble for something regarding my overactive imagination. Very astute observation about David having no movie to promote. As this was 1951, she was in a weird place, having filmed "Eve" and "Payement on Demand" but with only the rather low-yielding "Another Man's Poison" on the horizon. If that was a British production (can't recall), maybe the US-based company didn't feel the need to push it. She was on her way to real career dry spell (and that infamous ad about being available!) I do hope you KEPT that envelope from the artist! Oh, and I clearly muffed the Breck Girl thing. The pic is of Jaclyn Smith, which was supposed to be addressed in the next shot, which is also her. I've since fixed it. Fun play titles!! Thanks!

    Dan, wow... never heard of that! Buster did quite a few commercials, though.

    I just had a flash of once taking a sip of Mom's Body On Tap shampoo...!! Nothing like Dad's Miller Lite!! Ha ha!

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  20. As an aside, Mitzi Gaynor has a truly delightful presence on Twitter @TheMitziGaynor

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  21. What an amazing collection of ads! Growing up I always liked the way Hollywood pitched itself as The Glamour Factory. They're all terrific, but for a second I thought the Loretta Young was a Lypsinka parody!

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  22. Your mention of Tussy deodorant reminds of a boss my Dad had back in the day. He invited Dad to an outing, to which he demurred, citing my Mom as an excuse. "Hell," the boss replied, "throw some Tussy under her arms and drag her along." My Dad thought this was hilarious and repeated it to my Mom. She was not amused.

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  23. rigs-in-gear, that is HYSTERICAL!!!!! Thanks for sharing it.

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  24. Actresses made huge sums (and still do) endorsing products. Lana Turner earned a small fortune from endorsing various cosmetic products, but according to her daughter Cheryl she never used any of them. Well, why not? I don't like beer, but if you paid me a million dollars to do a suds commercial, I would.
    Likewise, Lucille Ball smoked Chesterfield's, but her sponsor was Philip Morris. She had Chesterfield's packed in PM cartons so people would not know she did not smoke her sponsor. She originally got her start in New York modeling for Chesterfield ads, and stayed loyal to the brand.
    When you read these old ads, it is amazing at how many stars endorsed cigarettes, and smoked in films. In many Bette Davis pix she smoked in almost every scene. Duke Tobacco Co. should have given her a stock option for all the free advertising.

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