Suspended Animation #378
In the 1950s, almost all television advertisements were live performers extolling the virtues of the products sponsoring the television show.
In fact, sometimes the actors in the sponsored show were required to do the actual advertisement themselves with Desi Arnaz not only loving Lucy but Phillip Morris cigarettes, as well and George “Superman/Clark Kent” Reeves chowing down on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with a smile.
Walt Disney never really had to do those live product endorsements for his weekly Disneyland television program (though he did on rare occasions). Instead, since Tinker Bell appeared on every show, she was quite literally Walt’s co-host so it was only natural that she would be the one to promote the company products sponsoring the show.
As Disney historian Mindy Johnson wrote, “She became the pitch pixie for a wide range of sponsors’ products. From the American Dairy Association to the American Motors Corporation, sponsors clamored for Tink’s magical endorsements. She touted Kelvinators, Hudson and Nash automobiles and even a new line of frozen dinners from the Swift company.”
However, she was most prominently showcased in a series of one minute commercials for Peter Pan Peanut Butter that in the 1950s was advertised as “America’s favorite…outsells all others.”
The primary director for these commercials was Charles “Nick” Nichols. Nichols, who began his Disney career as an animator on the Disney shorts, had most of his recognition as a director on the Pluto cartoons from 1944-1951. He also had his Screen Directors Card so he could also direct the live action in commercials.
According to records at the Disney Studio, Roy Williams, Don Luske, Bob Carlson, Bill Justice, Phil Duncan, and Xavier Atencio among others were all assigned at one time to work on the Tinker Bell cartoons.
They were produced by Hurrell Productions run by photographer George Hurrell and his wife Phyllis who was Walt Disney’s niece and the company established in 1951. It closed up shop in 1959.
The agreement was that the television production company would function on the Disney Studio lot itself and be able to use the talent and resources of the studio but basically keep the Disney Studio name out of any connection with television.
Legendary Disney storyman Bill Peet had a run-in with Walt Disney when Peet didn’t make a change Walt wanted in a scene on Sleeping Beauty where the prince and Aurora are dancing in the forest.
“The next day, I was sent down to the main floor to work on Peter Pan Peanut Butter TV commercials, which was without a doubt my punishment for what Walt considered my stubbornness,” wrote Peet in his autobiography. “I toughed it out for about two months on peanut butter commercials, then stubbornly decided to return to my room on the third floor whether Walt liked it or not.”
“Yes, he worked on some on some Peter Pan commercials,” animator Paul Carlson remembered. “And he had some input on those. I don’t remember what he talked to Phyllis about, but yeah, Peet did make some comments or some suggestions to story.”
Tinker Bell was mute in those days and had to pantomime her delight at the peanut butter that could be put on hot toast because it melted like butter and was so smooth that it could even be “spread on crackers and even crispy potato chips.”
A lively background chorus would sing that “your eyes know and your tummy knows; best of all, your taster knows, Peter Pan Peanut Butter is so grand — the smoothest peanut butter in the land.”
Cliff “Jiminy Cricket” Edwards and Sterling “Winnie the Pooh” Holloway often narrated the commercials. At the time, Holloway had finished doing the voice of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland and Edwards was doing the voice of Jiminy for segments on the Mickey Mouse Club television show and on records.
Reportedly, Josh Meador, who was the head of the Disney Studios animation effects department, did some work on the Tinker Bell commercials especially with the combination of live action and animation.
In one commercial, Captain Hook has tied up little Tinker Bell to force her to tell him where the Peter Pan Peanut Butter is and when she refuses, he makes her walk the plank.
She is rescued by Peter Pan who battles Hook and tosses him to the hungry crocodile who is already consulting a recipe book for “Hook Stew” and “Baked Hook”. However, a kindhearted Tink rescues the Captain from the jaws of death with a jar of peanut butter because “it certainly is true Peter Pan Peanut Butter is the favorite of people and crocodiles, too!”
Tink appeared in a commercial where she uses her hands to make hand shadows on a nearby blank wall for viewers to guess the figures, including the easiest of all, her miming the opening of a jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter.
Often times there were enthusiastic off-camera children’s voices, like when Tink played a game with live-action hands and another where she interacted with a set of three different pairs of animated hands.
In one commercial, Tink even plays a game of connecting the dots to reveal a jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter and in another plays with a large storybook of words and pictures. (“Let’s play a word and picture game!” although all the pictures are of jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter and Tink.)
One commercial has a peanut butter machine with the voice of Paul Frees making crunchy peanut butter for Tink. (“I’m the one who puts the crunch in Peter Pan. My work to me is fun because you know I’m the one…who puts the crunch in Peter Pan.”)
In another commercial, Tink is momentarily startled when a jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter comes flying out of a jack-in-the-box and demonstrates its new easy opening lid. It may not have been as easy-opening as advertised because the narrator had to explain to twist it to the right to open and then twist it to the left to seal it up again.
In yet another commercial, Peter Pan himself shows up. He and Tink have hidden a treasure of Peter Pan Peanut Butter in a treasure chest in Never Land. “A treasure more precious than gold!”
Captain Hook and his pirate crew have a map that lead to the treasure. Pan tricks them and captures the pirates in a fishing net and when Hook opens the treasure chest “his old friend” a hungry crocodile with bib and fork and knife is waiting inside. The crocodile chases Hook out to the beach. Pan and Tink celebrate their victory with Peter Pan Peanut Butter on bread.
Tink’s character design was very similar to the version that was used for the opening of the Disneyland television show and in fact at the end of that show, Tink might do an animated sequence to remind viewers to get some Peter Pan Peanut Butter or that the American Dairy Association recommends three glasses of whole milk a day just as live action television stars who were promoting their own sponsors in commercials.
Tinker Bell no longer appears in commercials promoting non-Disney products although her iconic trail of swirling pixie dust has been used in commercials advertising everything from cereal to cars in recent years.
Jim Korkis is an internationally respected animation historian who in recent years has devoted his attention to the many worlds of Disney. He was a columnist for a variety of animation magazines. With his former writing partner, John Cawley, he authored several animation related books including The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars, How to Create Animation, Cartoon Confidential and Get Animated’s Animation Art Buyer’s Guide. He taught animation classes at the Disney Institute in Florida as well as instructing classes on acting and animation history for Disney Feature Animation: Florida.
Peanut butter on potato chips? Now I’ve heard everything.
These commercials are all very cute, but I’m wondering how effective they were at influencing consumers’ buying habits. Like cigarettes, peanut butter seems to command strong brand loyalty. My family never had a jar of Peter Pan, Skippy or Jif in our house; we wouldn’t dream of buying anything other than Velvet peanut butter, a local Detroit brand. The Velvet mascots were three identical boys with red hair and freckles: Fresh, Pure, and Delicious. Delicious was licking his chops, Pure had a halo, and Fresh looked like he wanted to start a fight. I don’t recall any television commercials for the brand.
The other thing I’m wondering is, how on earth did Hook manage to tie Tinker Bell up with only one hand?
7/1/22
RobGems68 wrote:
To: Paul Groh: I remember the Velvet Peanut Butter brand as well, being a metro Detroit area child (originally from Pontiac/Auburn Hills, now currently living in Oxford, Michigan.) Today, they still sell the jars of Velvet Peanut Butter at the local Meijer’s & Kroger’s markets. I remember the three little imps on the jars as well: Fresh, Pure, & Delicious. As for Peter Pan ‘s commercials, these vintage ads are great and Tinker Bell looks just as cute as ever. Disney even back then knew how to sell their characters even when Uncle Walt was still alive. The effects of the projects were very convincing to kids who saw the Peter Pan movie & loved the characters.
Glad to know that Velvet peanut butter is still going strong, Rob, and hasn’t gone the way of Hudson’s and Farmer Jack. If you don’t remember any commercials for it either, it’s probably safe to say that there never were any.
7/2/22
RobGems68 wrote:
To: Paul Groh:
Faygo, Towne Club, Better Made Potato Chips, Sander’s Ice Cream & Cakes, Bill Knapp’s doughnuts(but not the restaurants, unfotunately), Pioneer Sugar, Jiffy’s Corn Bread, and Kar’s mixed nuts are still going strong in Michigan as well. Stroh’s beer is still being made, even though it’s now brewed at Miller’s brewery (they still use the Stroh’s name, though.) I was surprised that Vlasic Pickles was once located in Michigan, but has since re-located in another state.
That’s great, Rob. My family used to buy Towne Club by the case in returnable bottles (back before Michigan passed its deposit law). As for Vlasic Pickles, I’m sure they’re owned by an out-of-state conglomerate now, but the pickles themselves are still made at the same plant in Imlay City from 100% Michigan-grown cucumbers. There’s also Aunt Jane’s pickles, based somewhere in the Thumb. But those are national brands, not regional ones. Michigan is the #1 pickle state! If you seek a pleasant pickle-producing peninsula, look around you.
Paul and Robgem,
I remember Velvet peanut butter too, as I’m also from the Detroit area. I vaguely remember a commercial with one of the local celebs of the day (I think it might have been local radio/TV personality Tom Ryan, in his vampire alter-ego “Count Scary”mode.)
I remember him saying “Velvet Peanut Butter- The only peanut butter made fresh daily in Detroit! It’s gooder because it’s fresher! Velvet!”
(and yes, he did say “gooder!”)
Thanks for that comment, Leslie. I moved away from Detroit just before Count Scary made the big time, but I remember my friends telling me how much they hated him! Are you sure it wasn’t Sonny Eliot in that commercial? “Gooder” sounds like something Sonny would say.
Paul, you may be right-it might very well have been Sonny Elliot (talk about a blast from the past-I haven’t heard that name in years!) And it does sound like something he would say.
And as for Count Scary, I agree with your friends-I couldn’t stand him either!
Tinker Bell. The only pixie with enough star power to appear alongside Porky Pig.
You mean, he’s the only pig with enough star power to appear alongside her 😉
Were there ever commercials for Donald Duck Orange Juice? I remember it being around since childhood, and regularly bought the frozen concentrate as an approximate adult.
In the commercial with the kids dressed up as a cowboy and an astronaut, the cowboy kid sounds like he’s voiced by the great June Foray.
Incidentally, although I enjoyed the commercials, we’re a loyal Skippy family.
That had to be June Foray!!
Certainly sounded like her. The minute I heard the kid in the cowboy costume, the first thing that came to mind was “gee, that’s straight up Rocky”.
I wonder what the change was that Walt wanted in the waltz scene in “Sleeping Beauty” that Bill Peet didn’t make. Maybe it was a close-up of Aurora, which the film could have used more of; in fact, the central lack in the movie is not enough footage of her, presumably because she took so long to draw (her design was so precise that one line ever so slightly out of place, magnified on the Technirama screen, would have made a mess of her).
The Peter Pan Peanut Butter commercials are fun, but I prefer the Alice in Wonderland Jell-O commercial which has the Gryphon and Mock Turtle (who don’t appear in the film) in it.
To this day, Peter Pan sports a silhouette of the Disney Peter Pan on the label. I recall Peter himself being on the label at one point…
As a kid it used to puzzle me that Peter Pan was depicted as a woman on the label – though I found out later that women portrayed Peter on film/TV/stage (I hadn’t seen the Mary Martin version yet), and Disney’s film was the first to have a boy play Peter. I think it was sometime in the early 70s that Peter would be a boy on the peanut butter label – and I seem to recall Laugh-In’s Alan Sues play him in Peter Pan commercials.
Unlike the lady on the peanut butter label, the actresses who played Peter Pan in the stage show never wore skirts and high heels, much as this might have enlivened the flying scenes for the dads in the audience.
I noticed that on a trip to the supermarket yesterday. I didn’t even know that Peter Pan was still made. I guess it’s not very popular anymore here in the Northeast, where Jif, Skippy, and the “natural” brands compete for attention on the supermarket shelf.
She is, truly, THE sexiest thing in the Toon Division!!