Track 1: Ajax

This ran on television in the 1950s, unchanged, for years, as many old jingles did. Ajax was a kitchen cleanser, used for tougher cleaning jobs, like pots and pans. Its competition was the more powerful Comet, the more gentle Bon Ami––its slogan, “Hasn’t scratched yet”, appearing next to a cute baby chick, as in chicken––and Old Dutch Cleanser, which had a side view of a way out-of-date Dutch cleaning lady running and waving a big stick. She’s wearing a bonnet and wooden shoes; “Chases dirt”, its caption explained. She also chased me in my nightmares.

Use Ajax (boom boom)
The foaming cleanser (baba boom boom boom boom)
Floats the dirt right down the drain (baba baba baba boom)

Track 2: All-Purpose Rit

Rit was a dye for clothing. It came in a little box, smaller than a Jell-O package. It was the only dye I ever remember seeing in stores as a kid, it was ubiquitous. This jingle ran unchanged for years, from the ‘40s into the ‘50s. Note the ever-popular repeat-brand-name-three-times motif.

All-purpose Rit
A-a-a All-purpose Rit
The finest dye that money can buy
Is All-purpose Rit

Track 3: Aunt Fanny’s Bread

A local Chicago brand of the common white bread variety. Aunt Fanny was featured on the package. She was actually played by the wonderful Fran Allison, of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, a brilliant “children’s” TV puppet show out of Chicago. The quote marks are meant to say the characters and dialogue were suitable for children but very adult-friendly, attracting more and more grown-ups and then earning a national audience. It was the first show I ever saw on TV, in a store window in West Allis, Wisconsin in 1949. It was on five days a week, and much of it was improvised, Chicago being the birthplace of improv. For the package and the billboards, they did Fran up in granny drag, circa late ‘50s. She also sang the jingle.

It’s those old-time ingredients that she uses when she bakes
Adds that old-fashioned flavor to that wonderful bread she makes
Try Aunt Fanny’s bread, Aunt Fanny’s bread
A nourishing old time treat
And just like Aunt Fanny, you’ll say, Jing!
Here is the bread I love to eat
Jing, it’s good tasting!

A catch phrase for the ages. Brand name only repeated twice. Jingles were becoming more subtle by the late ‘50s. “Jing!”, as a mild oath, dates at least as far back as 1808. “Jings!” is an older English/Scotch variant.