Friday, May 6, 2011

Back in the day.....

Back in 1977 when my family lived in Hawaii my mother put me and my sister into the Barbizon School of Modeling. We ended up being hired for a couple of commercials. Print ads were more like it.

The first one was for Coca Cola. Now that was an interesting experience! First off we went to a Hotel room where we tried on a bunch of bathing suits (bikinis....what were we thinking!) for the Japanese men who were making the commercial. It went something like this: We came out of the bathroom in a bikini, stood there and then they spoke in Japanese. Back in the bathroom for another bikini until they made their final decision. Ugh. Once that was done we went out for the rest of the day to several different locations for some picture taking. We rode Vespas in Kahala, posed next to a phone booth at the Ala Moana pier and sailed on a boat. Did you know that they spray the coke bottles with water to make them look ice cold?
We never saw the ad and had heard that the pictures were never used. Who knows.

The second one was for the Kodak Colorburst 100 Camera. This was fun. We met at the top of Tantalus Drive over looking Honolulu and stood next to Dick Van Dyke. They bought us matching outfits at J.C. Penny's, put our hair in pony tails with purple ribbons and then we blew big bubbles with Double Bubble bubble gum. After awhile we then got into our Datsun 240Z and (followed Dick Van Dyke who was driving in a limo) drove down thru Waikiki to Kapiolani Park for more pictures. We made $100 for 3 hours of work and the only thing we got to keep were the purple ribbons in our hair which I still have to this day.
If you click on the link below you will see the ad. This ad was actually used and was featured in People, Good Housekeeping, Sunset, Glamour, Time and Seventeen magazines. Very exciting for 2 seventeen year old girls wouldn't ya say?
http://store.valueweb.com/servlet/vintagepaperads/-strse-8039/1978-Kodak-Colorburst-100/Detail

8 comments:

Mark said...

Ok, a few clarifications as I remember. We made $100 for a whole days work with Coca Cola and $80/hour for the Kodak ad.

What I don't remember is the drive to Kapliolani Park for more photos and the bathing suit "try-ons".

And yes, the clothes were returned to the store afterwards. You still have the purple ribbons? Get out!

And the ads in the magazine were pretty much in the back pages, no lie.

Dad said...

Great post of long ago.
even mentioned the 240Z. Lee could add her more recent experience with Dick Van Kyke.

Dallin & Kelly said...

Holy crap. My mom wore bikini's. Scandal!

Marilee said...

Oops. I was on Marks computer , thus his name above.

Dixie Dee said...

Wow, fun story and I could buy the ad for $10, OH boy!! Such famous twins, so cool to say I hunt rodents with them!! "Recent experience", can't wait to hear about that!! How recent?

Barb said...

Oh my goodness, I have heard the story but I have never seen the add. This totally made my day better thank you!

Unknown said...

Very interesting and fun post Marilou. So neat to see the actual ad too. Is that you on the left?

Jo-Ann said...

Oops... Okay, it was me, not Thea. I'm sure you knew that!