The 1950s were arguably the golden age of television and many people of a certain age look back fondly at some of the shows of the time The Lone Ranger, I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. These shows were in black and white and were watched on a set that got its signal from a huge antenna on the roof, but they were loved just the same.
Almost as compelling as the TV shows themselves, were some of the commercials of the time. TV was still a novelty during the 1950s and companies were anxious to cash in on the new craze. Particularly popular were commercials for cigarettes, cars and state of the art kitchen appliances. And the average length of TV advertisements was around a minute compared to the 30 seconds or less today.
Beer was also one of the products widely advertised on TV during the 1950s. At first, it was only late at night and never on a Sunday, so as not to offend anyone. During the early part of the decade, Blatz Beer became one of the beer industrys biggest advertisers, partly due to the companys sponsorship of the popular Amos n Andy show.
One of the most instantly recognizable characters in television advertising at the time was Mabel. Mabel was a...