Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Time Travel via DVD


One of my birthday gifts is a DVD of the four Ed Sullivan Shows in which the Beatles appeared. I've watched the first show, and what fascinates me is that the commercials are left in. One of the commercials was for shoe polish, and I was wondering if people even polish their shoes anymore... I guess they do, but shoe polish has fallen in status, I think. Another one was for Pillsbury rolls that you hit the tube against the counter. At the end it said "available in the dairy case" and they show this supermarket dairy case that's about 15 feet long, not the two-block long dairy case in stores now.

Ed kept referring to the Beatles as "youngsters" and they were young and sweet. In the first song, the show put the names of the Beatles, first names only, while the camera was on each. When it was on John, instead of just JOHN, it said, "Sorry girls he's married" -- you just sort of shake your head.

It does make me feel ancient that I have very clear memories of what a tradition it was to watch this show on Sunday nights. My friend David who gave this DVD to me played it for his young sons. One of them asked, not as a smart aleck, but slightly confused about Top Gigio, "Did you find this funny back then?"

And, of course, thinking black and white tv was normal seems bizarre. Anyway, it's a fun DVD to watch. Now I guess I'll go shine my shoes!

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