"Sit Back, Light Up a Camel, and Be an Eyewitness..."

November 8, 2018 11:43 AM

Spend 15 minutes with original anchorman John Cameron Swayze as the Camel News Caravan (press release) brings you the news of the day for September 19, 1952.

A little more from archive.org.

Some things change. Some things stay the same. Politics, elections, natural disasters, weather, investigations, u.s.w.

posted by Krazor (16 comments total)

Who knew there was so much news about camels in those days!?!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:19 PM on November 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Okay, I just watched the second one. Everyone is now required to go watch that one to see the baseball players professing their love for Camel cigarettes like they're being held hostage.
posted by Krazor at 12:20 PM on November 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

The gage on those Camels is like a
9mm round and film.
posted by clavdivs at 12:33 PM on November 8, 2018

I was nine and a family on our block had just acquired a tv. We used to cram into their small living room on Sunday nights to see Ed Sullivan's show. It was all very exciting.
posted by MovableBookLady at 1:01 PM on November 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

Nice reminder of how, once upon a time, sponsors had a whole lot more control over what was shown on TV. As geezery as I am, even I only remember Swayze from Timex commercials. At the time, I thought he was some kind of pre-Aykroyd anchorman parody.

This comment brought to you by Earl's Jr.

Also, hard to understand how Ike could warn us about the Military-Industrial Complex, yet be totally cool with the Dubious-Nixon-Ethics Complex. I guess anti-Communism was a helluva drug back then.
posted by zaixfeep at 1:10 PM on November 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking...
posted by jim in austin at 1:47 PM on November 8, 2018

Plymouth also sponsored the News Caravan, which is odd because it was Dodge that came up with the Caravan decades later.

The 50'ss saw a lot of failed attempts at news programs:
* Budweiser News Belch
* Tums News Digest
* Excedrin News Capsule
* Finesse News Rinse (with Repeat Broadcast)
* Serutan Gentle News Release
* Preparation H Presents Global Pressure Points
posted by zaixfeep at 2:19 PM on November 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Wow, Nixon was dirty?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:21 PM on November 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

And finally...
* The Tampax News Blotter, early proponent of 'if it bleeds, it leads'

(I may just flag this one myself for tastelessness once I finish giggling.)
posted by zaixfeep at 2:25 PM on November 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

The statement from Nixon (2:09) is amusingly Halloween-lit.
posted by migurski at 2:51 PM on November 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Eisenhower despised Nixon, but the party convinced him to keep Nixon on the ticket. Nixon would soon make his famous Checkers speech to try to mitigate the damage.

I am actually quite impressed at the production quality for such early television days. It would have been quite the big feat to switch live between New York, Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles in the days before satellites.
posted by briank at 4:45 PM on November 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Today's News Today

"We go now to the arrest of arch commie spy, Ivan Ivanovich"

*man in ushanka hat takes a long, satisfying drag on a Camel*
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:35 PM on November 8, 2018

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
      __                      ______                                           __                      
    /    )    /        /        /       ,                                    /    )    /            /  
---/----/----/-----__-/--------/------------_--_-----__----)__----__--------/---------/------------/__-
  /    /    /    /   /        /       /    / /  )  /___)  /   )  (_ `      /         /    /   /   /   )
_(____/____/____(___/________/_______/____/_/__/__(___ __/______(__)______(____/____/____(___(___(___/_
                                                                                                       

posted by CynicalKnight at 5:36 PM on November 8, 2018

I've never trusted Nixon.
posted by mattoxic at 6:29 PM on November 8, 2018

Archive.org does have many tobacco industry videos from UCSF as a result of the Minnesota lawsuit in the 90s. Just take a look at some of these ... hey, I should start smoking!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:12 AM on November 9, 2018

Just trying smoking Camels for 30 days and see if you take to it. Take it from me, John Wayne.
posted by ejoey at 11:57 AM on November 9, 2018