Saturday, July 31, 2010

Ain't dere no more, except on videotape


There's a fella in Baton Rouge who's hit the mother lode of TV-commercial nostalgia for those of us -- those of us of a certain age -- who grew up in Red Stick.

In other words, this YouTube page is something akin to video meth for Baby Boomers from thereabouts. I mean, Gordon Lloyd McLeod . . . holy crap! I haven't thought about McLeod's appliances in 20 years -- at least.

But there you go! And Goudchaux's, too (where the difference was U). If I have to explain it, you ain't from there, and most likely don't care anyway.


FOR THOSE of you who do care, though, let me present the Baton Rouge edition of Ain't Dere No More, beginning in three . . . two . . . one . . . roll 'em!


PHIL'S! Oysters! (sob)


AMERICAN BANK . . . ain't dere no more. And we ain't Young Americans no more, neither.


ABBY! The only chick who ever gave a guy a buck on a Saturday night. (Hey, it's the '70s . . . I'm supposed to be sexist!)


SIMPLE THINGS, like two in the morning . . . life was simple yesterday. And these Louisiana National Bank ads -- almost 40 years later -- are doin' their best to bring me yesterday.

LNB. My first bank.
Sigh.


CAPITAL BANK. Weill/Strother ad agency, before Ray went to D.C., and became a political guru.


WHEN Bon Carré was Bon Marché, and it was THE place to shop.


OBVIOUSLY, Ossie Brown never spied the bodacious tatas on display in this Del Lago commercial, being that the spot presumably aired more than once . . . and the meat market that was orders of magnitude groovier than Smiley's shook its booty for some years to come. That ad probably aired only on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, when Ossie was safely ensconced in a church pew.

No, the late district attorney
was not a Del Lago kind of guy. But every testosterone-crazed high school boy sure as hell wanted to be.


THE GAP wasn't the only thing that was widening here. Go buy yourself an RCA XL-100 color TV and hep' Gordon Lloyd out.


STILL MR. BINGLE gently weeps . . . cause ain't no Goudchaux's . . . or Maison Blanche . . . or that God-awful slash-o-nated thing dere no more.

Well, that's about it for now. I do declare, the only thing that could have improved upon this experience would be going to the videotape of Al Crouch laying a sloppy, wet one on Joni Anderson, Tex Carpenter warning Channel 9 weather watchers about the nefarious "troffaloff" . . . or uncovering complete episodes of
The Buckskin Bill Show or Storyland.

Because, boys and girls, Baton Rouge
was a zoo. Count Macabre said.

1 comment:

Jackx2 said...

Thank you for the write up, it looks excellent. I have added more information about some of the places I was unsure about (ie. Del Lago and McLeod's). As for the other information, the tape, alas, did not have any news promos or news broadcasts or local material, save two promos for WBRZ and WRBT (WVLA) from 1986. Obviously, if I ever run across news promos or newscasts, I will upload them--I have uploaded a few found on tapes.

When WBRZ celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2005, they ran a few old promos, mostly from the 1980s. I did capture many of them and have uploaded them.

The tape containing most of the ads you described was put out by the Greater Baton Rouge Ad Council or Ad Federation. I am not sure when this occurred--probably late 1990s, but not certain. I am not sure if this is an easily accessible tape, but I found a copy at the Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Thrift Store on Burbank Drive in Baton Rouge. Relatively few thrift stores in town put out "homemade" VHS/Beta tapes for sale.

There was at least one ad from the tape I did not put up because it is already on YouTube--one for Tic Toc Shoes from 1978 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgp75KGbeAY). I almost reloaded it myself to do away with some of the extra stuff seen on that video. That profile also has a news intro for WRBT from 1983 and a handful of other Baton Rouge goodies.

Thanks for your support and interest!