Ernie Kovacs for Dutch Masters Cigars #2

I really like Ernie Kovacs!! He knew how to make commercials -- well, not 'fun', but strange!! Not sure if he or Stan Freberg is my favorite, but they did the coolest commercials 40+ years ago. And the odd thing is, Ernie did commercials shot on videotape (like this one) when most were only using film...

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Ernie
• Kovacs
• Dutch
• Masters
• Cigars
• commercial
• 60s

[KewazingaBabinga]

Today this would be politically incorrect....are we becoming more stupid?

[biographnovelty]

Dutch Masters was a rare example of a corporate entity practically being a much-needed patron of the arts as far as Ernie was concerned, allowing him the freedom to do some of his best work for his ABC network shows. Much like Orson Welles, Ernie Kovacs was a not merely an entertainer, but a true artist whose medium happened to be video. He produced brilliant and lovely work thatwas often too good for the bottom-line world of commercial television.

[fromthesidelines]

True, Ernie preferred smoking ONLY expensive hand-rolled Cuban cigars, but I believe he had an arrangement with Consolidated Cigar- something along the lines of, I won't knock your cigars, and you won't say a single word about the way I do your Dutch Masters commercials....it was a very happy and productive relationship for both of them.

[MrUnidyne]

One of the reasons Dutch Masters would give Kovacs total "carte blanche" in the direction of the TV spots was that people tuned in to his shows just to see the commercials!

[MrUnidyne]

Yes, he was of Hungarian ancestry. Both parents were immigrants to the USA, and he was born and raised in Trenton, NJ.

[youngr33zy15]

ernie kovacs... hungarian?

[wiedep]

he smoked hand-rolled cuban cigars...

[tkhering]

I bet this was "racy" stuff in 1961!

[fromthesidelines]

This is a transition and commerical from one of Ernie's 1961 ABC specials, which were sponsored by Consolidated Cigar [Dutch Masters], who gave Kovacs the freedom to produce his own Dutch Masters spots ANY WAY HE WANTED. He used the "blackout" format, with a Haydn Quartet recording as background music. "Step Up- To Finer Smoking Pleasure"...