Wednesday, September 24, 2008

TODAY'S TWD: FAMILY FEUD

'Mad Men' uses real products for the clients of the Sterling-Cooper ad agency back in the early 1960s. No fake companies like those represented by McMann & Tate on 'Bewitched'. However, small differences make these companies truly Toobworldian, distinct from their real world counterparts. In the first season, a new slogan for a coffee brand was introduced, one which had been already in use with the company since the 1920s/1930s.
This season, the Utz company had TV commercials made by Sterling-Cooper and which featured comedian Jimmy Barrett. The only problem was that Jimmy, known for his insult humor, zeroed in on the wife of the company's owner and made fun of her for being over-weight.

The owners were identified as Mr. and Mrs. Schilling. However, here in the real world, the owners were William and Salie Utz.

Here's the info from Wikipedia:

Utz Quality Foods, Inc. (rhyming with "nuts"), based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, is the largest independent privately held snack brand in the United States. The company was founded in 1921 and distributes a variety of potato chips and other snack foods throughout the eastern United States.

Utz Quality Foods began in 1921 as "Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips” when William and Salie Utz began making potato chips out of their home in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with an initial investment of $300. The hand-operated equipment used at the time produced approximately 50 pounds of potato chips per hour. After Salie cooked the chips, Bill delivered them to local grocery stores and farmers’ markets in the Hanover and Baltimore, Maryland, areas.

Success soon allowed Bill and Salie to move operations to a small cement building in the family’s backyard. In 1938, production was boosted with the purchase of an automatic fryer capable of producing 300 pounds of chips per hour.

In 1938, Francis Xavier “F.X.” Rice joined the Utz Company after marrying Arlene Utz, William and Salie Utz’s daughter. In 1949, post-war success allowed the company to build a new production facility on 10 acres in Hanover. F.X. Rice became president of the company in 1968, after the passing of Salie Utz in 1965 and Bill Utz three years later.
I have no clue if Mrs. Utz was a human blimp as Jimmy Barrett suggested about Mrs. Schillinger.

But I wonder if the Schillingers were any relation to Vernon Schillinger, the Aryan leader in Oswald Penitentiary in 'Oz'.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

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