Track 21: Swift Premium Franks

Another audience participation radio jingle from the late ‘40s. I think it was another Saturday morning show, but I’ve forgotten which one. The entire audience would sing and whistle together. I loved the whole audience whistling in unison.

Tender beef, juicy pork
Known from the west coast
To New York
Swift premium franks
Twee twee, twee twee 

Track 22: Beer Jingle

A frothy appeal put forth by a local Milwaukee brewery promotion group.

You’ll find that beer is a money saver
Rich and fine and full of flavor
Makes you popular with your neighbor
That’s what we like about beer! Hey!

Track 23: White Rose Petroleum Jelly

My favorite jingle of all time. Dare I say, the mightiest jingle ever. I only heard it on WLAC, the 50,000-watt clear channel voice of the Life and Casualty Insurance Company, out of Nashville, Tennessee. It occupied the same space on the dial, in the 1500s, as WKBW in Buffalo and KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa. All three of these 50,000-watt stations carried far at night, and under some weather conditions I would hear all three, sort of playing King of the Hill (a childhood game boys loved: Someone on top of a small hill as “king”, and the other kids would try to become the king by knocking him off the top). This was the first jingle I ever heard that was done in R&B style:

Whether you’re a filly, husband or wife
Use White Rose in your everyday life
Listen to me ladies
Listen to me gents
The new White Rose only costs ten cents
White Rose! White Rose! White Rose!
Petroleum jelly!
Petroleum jelly
Pure as can be
Use White Rose for your family
Listen to me, people
Listen to my song
Use White Rose and you won’t go wrong
White Rose! White Rose! White Rose!
Petroleum jelly!
Why don’t you buy White Rose
So you can try White Rose
Why don’t you buy White Rose
So you can try White Rose
White Rose! White Rose! White Rose!

Followed by a saxophone break. Seventeen brand name reps, a possible all-time record. A friend who is from West Virginia also heard the jingle there, with the amazing tag line: “And remember gentlemen, a container of White Rose in the glove compartment is worth two at home on the bathroom shelf.” In the 1950s! Glory be!

I had discovered WLAC in 1956. I don’t know what they played during the day, but at night they played R&B, and I heard a lot of records I didn’t hear up North. All the DJs sounded Black––I thought they all were––but I eventually found they were all White. This jingle was so popular they even made it into a single, but it said “shooby dooby” instead of petroleum jelly. White Rose had an unusual contest in 1957. To win, you had to submit your most unusual use for White Rose Petroleum Jelly. The contest’s tag line was: “White Rose Petroleum Jelly has 1001 uses. We know the one use, send us the other thousand.” I don’t remember who won. The only use I remember was to coat the blades of your lawn mower with White Rose in the winter so they wouldn’t gather rust. We had a push lawn mower until 1955 when we got a power mower. I was overjoyed, mowing the lawn was my job. The hardest section to cut was where the sump pump in the basement sent water. That’s where the grass grew longest and thickest.