Tale #18

Subject: 60's and 70's TV commercials
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998

Although hundreds went to the first calls for commercials, there were about 10 of us who kept getting the call-backs: Connie Hunter, Jackie Joseph, Lavina Dawson, Edwina Goff, Sally Struthers, Sybil Scottford, Gloria Lord and a couple more females. I kept changing my hair styles, wearing wigs and hats and remodeling my face with make-up and changing my voices to get more commercials.

Finally, I had so many commercials on the air that I could not do any more, so for a spell, I set up a commercial department for the Witzer-Small Agency and was asked to be a commercial agent for their clients.

Their clients were so famous that I just wanted to get their autographs: Diane McBain, William Shatner, Will Able, Lorne Greene, Altovise Davis, to name a few. (I wasn't very successful as an agent and went back into comedy commercials and voices.)

I did the first Mr. Clean Commercial which was in Black and White because color cmmercials had not come out yet. I still have a copy of it. The script was :

"He's mean."
"Who's Mean?"
"Mr. Clean is Mean."
"What made him so mean?"
"Dirt. He hates dirt."
"OOOOh OOOOh OOOOh... He's Mean"
"I love him."

Our commercial was banned for a while because some group thought it was too sexy when i said oooh, but then it was released to be played again..

That ws my first on-camera commercial. I made a lot more money than I was making as a market-research analyst at the Los Angeles Times doing research on a possible rapid transit system, trash disposal, and movie-goer habits.

I got into commercials because I went to see a small theater produciton at the Company of Angels workshop with another market researcher and ended up auditioning for the workshop when some actor asked me to just say a few lines onstage so he could get into the workshop. He chickened out and I got in. Then the talent agents came to see the production of "All The Kings Men" where I was a person in the crowd. Two agents asked me to sign with them.

I signed with both -- then Screen Actor's Guild called and said I had to choose between them. I choose the smaller agent and stayed with her for many working years... and later went to NY to do some commercials and was sent out by William Morris . Norman Brokow was an agent at the time, and he sent me out for my Vanquish commercial and STOP THE WORLD, a play. I did the commercial but came back to Hollywood because California was an easier place to raise my children.

I just finished a radio show "GrannyMay Comedy Recipe Hour -- GrannyMay can't cook...she needs your recipes!" on 1010 Talk Radio which was ABC but is now NBC. I've been too lazy to get over to NBC to talk about my show with them and I just finished taking my 86 year old mom to UCLA to live together with the students in the dormitory and study art drawing for the summer session.

I got mom out of her mental institution and enrolled her in UCLA because I didn't think she or the students would notice.

Now I have all these drawings of plants, trees, and nude models to frame this week before I tape a comedy show to give to my entertainment attorney .

Grannyrat Hunter
grannyrat@webtv.net