Y
Posted on 07/08/2005 4:20:29 PM PDT by Cagey
Tom Rogers, 87, a retired advertising copywriter whose beret- and sunglasses-wearing hipster tuna became an icon of pop culture, died June 24 in Charlottesville, where he lived with his son's family. He drowned while swimming alone in the family's backyard pool.
Charlie the Tuna was the likably obtuse deep-sea striver who never lived up to the taste standards of Starkist Tuna. ("Sorry, Charlie. Starkist wants tuna that tastes good, not tuna with good taste.") The character was based on an acquaintance of Mr. Rogers's who was an habitue of the beat scene in 1950s New York City, said his son, Lance Rogers. A beat musician and part-time actor who called himself Henry Nemo, the man personified one of Mr. Rogers's favorite aphorisms: "The straightest distance between two points is an angle."
"Everybody knows somebody like that, an appealing character who's totally confident but totally wrong," Lance Rogers said.
Mr. Rogers had a hand in creating other memorable ad mascots of the 1960s and '70s, the cookie-baking Keebler elves and the finicky feline in the 9 Lives cat food ads, Morris the Cat. He didn't originate the characters, his son said, but he infused them with distinctive personalities based on a lifetime of observing human nature as a screenwriter, aspiring novelist and copywriter.
Thomas Russell Rogers was born in Minneapolis and grew up during the Depression in a household run by his single mother. At times, he stayed with his grandparents in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
During Prohibition, he occasionally hung out at speakeasies, where he earned a little spending money cleaning floors and scurrying around town making deliveries for bootleggers, who presumed the police wouldn't suspect a kid. Although he was never a good student, he knew that he wanted to be a writer. When
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Sorry Charlie...
Tonight he sleeps with the fishes?
...maybe next time?
Oh the irony...
tuna ping
You'll be missed Tom. On the other hand, my tuna was a little fishy tasting after they went "Dolphin Free."
Y
You can tuna piano, but.....
I liked those classic commercials.
I'm reminded of Mary Tyler Moore and Chuckles the Clown.
LOL!! That was the funniest episode!
A little song
A little dance
A little seltzer
Down your pants
"Everybody knows somebody like that, an appealing character who's totally confident but totally wrong," Lance Rogers said.
"In the Latin declension my point is still moot." -- Cliff Claven
Skydiver dies in midair collision with airplane
Billings Gazette | April 25, 2005 | Associated Press
Posted on 04/25/2005 7:40:26 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1390624/posts
"Albert 'Gus' Wing III had already deployed his parachute..."
Every liberal I ever met.
Well, the appealing ones.
Both of them.
You could be dealing with LaRouchies.
They're like hard core, unreconstructed Marxists, only without the charm.
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