Saturday Cat and Real Dairy Cream

Saturday - the cat that got the (real dairy) cream.

It was appropriate, of course, to have a cat advertising Real Dairy Cream. And why not a cartoon one?

Saturday Cat was the advertising feline for Real Dairy Cream in the UK around the early-to-mid 1970s. He may have first appeared earlier than the 1970s, and his tenure may have been longer than I remember, possibly extending into the early 1980s, but I think his reign was brief, and I know he is little remembered today.

But for a time he was the star of TV, magazine and newspaper ads, badges and booklets.

Ah, how fleeting fame can be!

December 1973 magazine ad - "Make Christmas really creamy!" That pud and pastry looks a tad indigestable to my finely-tuned 21st Century tummy.

Why was our hero of mag, book and screen called Saturday Cat? Well, the "Cat" part of the name is self explanatory, but perhaps "Saturday" indicated that Real Dairy Cream was a weekend treat? I confess myself puzzled. Does anybody out there know the answer?

"How to make the best use of cream - as recommended by Saturday Cat" - Dairy Produce Advisory Service, Milk Marketing Board, circa 1980.

1981: The Rumbelows Present CB Radio

17 December, 1981. Citizens' Band Radio was here! The equipment seems absurdly pricey by today's standards. But technology has moved on a great deal!

What a decade of fads the 1980s was!

One minute it was Space Invaders, the next it was Rubik's Cube, the next it was Pac-Man, the next it was dancing flowers, the next it was...

You get the picture?

One of the biggest fads of the decade, of course, was CB radio.

CB radio was invented by an American called Al Gross, way back in the 1940s. Some CB usage had been known in England since the 1960s, but successive governments refused to legalise it, and there was no great interest anyway.

By 1980, interest was growing. A couple of films had increased enthusiasm for American CB jargon, and a small but growing band of CB'ers were breaking the law by using imported rigs. In May 1980, the UK Government announced it was considering legalisation, and from then on the illegal craze started to escalate.

By the summer of 1981, many stories were appearing in the popular press about how the rapidly spiralling illegal craze was causing interference with emergency services communications, heart monitors and all sorts of things. By then, legalisation, with Government approved frequencies and equipment, lay just ahead.

From 2 November 1981, you could buy a licence and have a rig.

The craze peaked in 1983, with 300,000 licences issued.

Rumbelows electrical suppliers ("We save you money and serve you right!") reaped the benefit, as UK shops immediately sold out. For a few years, CB radio was a nice little earner. Then, on 1 January 1985, comedian Ernie Wise made the first handheld mobile phone call in the UK. They were too expensive for most. "Yuppie toys!" we cried. "They'll never take off! Haven't they ever heard of phone boxes?" However the mobie would soon rise to mightiness. And with BT's new "Chat Lines" booming in the mid-to-late 1980s, CB sank slowly into die-hard "enthusiasts only" territory.

Fond memories of the craze linger...

As for Rumbelows, the cartoon family group (one of them was called Gloria, I recall) disappeared from newspaper and TV advertising sometime around 1984/85. If anybody has a more specific date, I'd love to know!

Of course, the 1980s ensured that more changes in communications were on the way, changes that would make CB radio even more obsolete.

In March 1989, an Englishman called Tim Berners-Lee invented something called the World Wide Web.

And the 21st Century was well and truly on its way.

Yeast Vite

A very early Yeast Vite bottle - "The New And Wonderful Treatment of Pure Yeast Vitamins".

A box of Yeast Vite was always to be found in my grandmother's handbag. She swore by the little brown tablets to give an energy boost and settle the nerves. This blotter, printed in 1929 ready for 1930, proclaims: "YEAST-VITE TABLETS - The greatest Medical Discovery of the Century."

A whole series of ads, depicting men and women discovering the benefits of Yeast-Vite, appeared in newspapers in 1947 and 1948.

A Yeast-Vite box from the 1960s.

1982 - a far cry from the 1947 woman "done up, aching all over" and not half finished the washing yet! This lady has big hair, no doubt an automatic washing machine, and is evidently going places!

Yeast Vite are still available today.

I was introduced to them by my gran years ago and still rate them as a handy boost when my eyelids start to droop at inappropriate times!

"You Got An Ology?" - 1987 - The Launch of the BT Beattie Ads...

Having just been told by her grandson Anthony that he's flunked his exams, passing only pottery and sociology, Beattie says: "He gets an ology and he says he's failed... you get an ology you're a scientist..."

Mrs Beattie Bellman was created by Richard Phillips of the J Walter Thompson advertising agency in 1987.

And she was originally to have been called Dora.

The BT Beattie ads were launched around December 1987. It is often stated on the web, and indeed on a "Greatest Ads" TV show, that 1988 was the launch year, but the BT site lists the first appearance as 1987, and Maureen Lipman states in the 1989 script book You Got An Ology? that the recording of the first ten ads, accomplished in just over two weeks, took place before and after the great gale of October 1987!

Those first ten ads included the legendary "Ology".

Here's what the BT site says:

A star is born and Beattie takes the nation by storm. Maureen Lipman's Jewish granny goes on to star in 32 TV commercials and contributes the word "ology" to the English language.

See the full article here and scroll down to the 1987 section for the Beattie info.

The phone used by Beattie in the "ology" ad was a red BT Tribune - released in 1987.

"You Got An Ology?" by Maureen Lipman and Richard Phillips, 1989. Beattie had become a major celebrity in two years, justifying the publication of this funny book - which included twenty ad scripts, the thoughts of Beattie, and various household hints and recipes from the great lady!

1980s - The Sony Walkman Arrives...

Invented in Japan in 1979, and first released in Britain as the "Sony Stowaway" in 1980 (also its American release year), the personal stereo was first patented here under its original name, "Sony Walkman", in 1981.

Cheaper versions were available, but this advertisement from late 1984 shows the original mobile music gadget dropping below £30.

1980s: The Scotch Skeleton Ads

Video technology had been around for yonks, but domestic VCRs had only been around for a few years by the 1980s.

In 1980, only 5% of UK households had a VCR. As the decade progressed, the beasts became cheaper to buy or rent and our home entertainment went through something of a revolution.

Of course, advertisements reflected the trend. The ad above, featured in the TV Times in December 1985, shows the popular Scotch skeleton, voiced by Deryck Guyler of Please Sir! and Sykes fame.

"Re-record not fade away, re-record not fade away..." was the skeleton's famous catchphrase, from 1985 onwards. The skeleton made his debut in 1983, when nearly 20% of UK households had a VCR. By the time of the "re-record..." ad of 1985, it was 25%.

Buzby and the Arrival of British Telecom

Buzby - the talking cartoon bird, voiced by Bernard Cribbins, was launched c. 1977 and was around well into the 1980s. Buzby's catchphrase was: "Make someone happy with a phone call." A cynical play on this, very prevalent in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was: "Make someone happy - wring Buzby's neck!"

Keeping in touch with developments at the All England Club - via "the blower"! In 1980, Post Office Telecommunications became British Telecom and would become a totally separate public corporation on 1 October 1981.

British Telecom has arrived, as seen in this newspaper advertisement from July 1980.