A Jones for Java. My secret history with coffee commercials #1

I've often thought that talents were distributed in a very haphazard way.  How else can you describe the decades long appeal of Jim Nabors? Or Carrot Top?

My talent?  A remarkable facility for remembering coffee commercials.  Like a moth to the flame, I am drawn to see to what lengths the coffee cartel has gone to lure me into a lifetime of caffeine cravings.    For example, Maxwell House decided to use Margaret Hamilton to shill for their omnipresent brew.  You may recognize Margaret in her other career -- the Wicked Witch of the West.  I'm sorry, was Frankenstein not available? Dracula too expensive? 

Here's the set up.  Margaret (AKA Scare the pants off kids) Hamilton played no-nonsense New England shop-keeper named Cora.  A man boorishly complains that his wife's coffee is the equivalent of a liguidified compost heap. (That's my interpretation, he just winced when he talked about it.) Apparently Maxwell House is the only coffee she sells.  'Cause it's good to the last drop.  Things end happily when the husband takes a sip and say's "it's as good a Cora's."  This couple next appeared in Divorce Court.  Frankly, any commercial that reminds me of flying monkeys and green makeup is not going to turn me into a raving, brand-loyal fan. Click here to see Cora do her thing:  http://www.roadode.com/margaret_1.shtml 

Maxwell House switched direction a decade later with a roving photographer and his dog Duke.  Apparently, it was acceptable in the '70s to ask a vagrant with a Kodak and Cujo into your kitchen for a cup of Joe.  Think "In Cold Blood."

My next great coffee memory is Mrs. Olson.  Yes, the Folger folks used a Hitchcockian woman with a frightfully strong Colonel Klink accent to convince us that "Mountain Grown" was the richest kind.  Oddly enough, she would often appear in people's kitchens  like a caffeine crazed stalker.  Her real name was Virginia Christine.  In 1971, her hometown honored her Folgers work by transforming the city water town into a giant coffee pot.  So, poor Christine acting in more than 150 movies and her legacy is a 120 foot water tower?  You know, Jim Nabors is looking pretty good right now.  Maybe we'll brew some Starbucks.