Willie Mays, with an important message for kids about blasting cap safety. Any of you 50's kids remember this?
I don't remember the ad, but I find it interesting that a black athlete appeared in a public safety ad during the 50's. Maybe it wasn't as pioneering as I think. Can you trivia experts (Doc O'Keefe!) tell me who was the first black in a TV ad? Was it Willie? Jackie? Someone else?
Don't know Sid, but I wonder about the need for a "blasting" caps safety ad for kids. I personally never was around any blasting caps, now firecrackers sure, but blasting caps? Also it appears that Willie hit a lot of homers with a less than Bondsian type of body, were those quick wrists that I saw? Wasn't that Hank Aarons situation, very quick wrists? When did that go out of style? Terry
Blasting caps were a big concern here in SoCal in the early-mid 1950s. This entire section of the country was created overnight, after WWII and a lot of the roads and hillsides were blasted with dynamite. This was particulary true of the Carbon Canyon area, between Chino in the southern Inland Valley and the Fullerton/Brea area in nothern Orange County. I grew up in Chino and blasting cap safety was a regular part of our education. We were told never to pick up anything that we didn't recognize and tell our parents about it immediately. ...........DD :idea:
Terry, I do not remember that particular add. However, I do remember many public service adds in the early 60's about blasting caps. These devices came close to the public due to the construction of interstate highways all over the US. Hillsides were blown away to make the straight relatively level roadways that could be used as runways in a national emergency. (I am extremely surprised that the Interstate system was not used to down all aircraft immediately during the 911 incident) Blasting caps were used to detonate the explosives used to level these hills. They would drill many holes down into bedrock and plant the explosive. Any cap that did not go off was carelessly discarded. It may have been a "dud" because of a bad electrical connection. It could still be "live" but the construction engineers didn't want to waste time trying it again. There were many reports of kids finding these caps and playing with them. There were some instances where kids were severely injured by these devices. My grandparents were deathly afraid of me getting injured by anything. They were very quick to point out these ads to me. I grew up within walking distance of the construction of I-40, I-24, and Briley Parkway. I went to school within 200 yards of the construction of I-65. They saw plenty of opportunity for me to get into trouble. Little did they know... well, that's another story! :roll:
Interstate Runways <t>Tom, <br/> There are a few reasons that I can think of for not using the interstates as runways, (1) It would take a great amount of coordination for the state police to clear the highways. It would also take a lot of time. (2) The aircraft are bigger and faster now than in the 60's and landing on 2 lanes of concrete is much tougher than landing on a 250 or 300 foot wide runway (3) There are a lot more airports now than then. (4) Radar coverage is almost universal over the continental US which means that the air traffic controllers can get aircraft to airports much quicker.</t>
KP, Excellent reasoning. However, most of the planes over the US were not the huge aircraft you are thinking of. Every time I fly American Airlines anywhere in the US, I am on a MD 80. With United and Delta, I am on a 737. The most used plane when the Interstates were being constructed was a 707. The 707 had a longer wing span than the two previously mentioned planes. It did take over an hour to clear the skies. Even my little volunteer fire department can block 10 miles of interstate within 20 minutes. We set up helicopter landing zones on the interstate on a routine basis. Now, a large metropolitan area would be harder to clear traffic. Rural areas like Jarrell, TX, are easy. Just put a fire engine or tanker across the interstate and post a POV at every on ramp (two in 10 miles) until the sheriff’s officers arrive.
Bobda, Good guess. You probably are correct. However, the ad you cite is directed to black men. I guess what I'm wondering is who might have made ads directed to the general population. We now know that Willie Mays did. For someone in the fifties to believe that he appealed to children of all races seems to have been against the grain for those times.