I just got these cool pieces of art for some obscure cereal premium stickers. Normans and Bopperoos were short lived cereal from Nabisco so it is hard to find much related to them.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
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things that I collect, things that I make and things that I like.
2 comments:
Great snags! (I don't have an account on Flickr or I'd post there).
Raspberry and tangerine - that's a color combo that has 1971 written all over it.
I did my first commercial with Arnold Stang (a cartoon) in 1974.
It was for a cereal called "Norman".
Arnold Stang was the voice of Norman.
Norman was a caveman? (I think).
I voiced the boy in the spot.
We had a little dialiogue.
I remember saying, "Norman Cereal? You got to be crazy."
Then we sang a song.
"You'll be wild about Norman,
You'll be nuts about Norman,
You'll be nuts about, you'll be wild about,
You'll be nuts about...
Norman!
Part of a complete breakfast by Nabisco."
We recorded it in a studio in midtown.
There was a big orchestra.
Back then, there was a pack of little kids doing all the commercials.
They were from the city or New Jersey and they all had New York accents.
(Remember the Mikey kids from the Life Cereal commercial? That was my era).
When we started the session I decided I should use a New York accent. All the others kids had one. I figured it would make me sound more professional.
So standing on a box, leaning into a microphone, wearing headphones for the first time, I stood across from Arnold Stang and sang...
"Yule be wild dabout Noah-min.
Yule be nuts about Noah-min.
Yule be nuts about yule be wild dabout
Yule be nuts about Noah-min.
Pawt of a complete breakfast by Nabisco."
After a few takes, the advertising executive took my mother aside and explained to her that they hired me because I didn't have a New York accent. Please see if your son would use his natural voice. My mother then explained their request with the ad exec standing by. I was embarrassed and a little hurt but it was also the first time I understood myself as a marketable entity.
(Oh! I get it. I'm the kid WITHOUT the New York accent).
I remember thinking I could tell Arnold Stang was important. I'd never seen or met anyone like him before. He was supremely confident, he understood exactly who he was and why he was hired. He was larger than life. At aged ten, by working with Arnold Stang, I understood on some hidden level, the professional side of show business.
Arnold Stang didn't pay much attention to me. I was the kid hired for the spot. He probably had five other appointments that day.
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