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Betty Furness Westinghouse Washing Machine Comparison ~ 1956 Live TV Commercial on Studio One
🕑 Added 2020-04-11 20:40:14 +0000 UTCmore at http://quickfound.net/
Originally a public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Furness
Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Elizabeth Mary Furness (January 3, 1916 – April 2, 1994) was an American actress, consumer advocate, and current affairs commentator...
In 1948, Furness was performing in the television series Studio One, which was broadcast live. She filled in for an actor to promote Westinghouse products during the advertisement break, and impressed the company with her easy and professional manner. They offered her a contract to promote their products and she thus became closely associated with them.
Early television commercials often utilized radio performers who had a difficult time adjusting to the visual medium of TV, leading to sometimes embarrassing incidents such as a Westinghouse commercial where a woman demonstrating an electric stove spilled hot chocolate all over it. Furness, due to her experience at Studio One, felt that she could do a better job. An advertising agency offered her a shot, and she found that she had a natural talent for commercials. Making $150 a week at first, Furness did three Westinghouse commercials (they were the sole sponsor of the show) for every episode of Studio One, all of them shot live as video tape did not yet exist. (One live spot featured a refrigerator door that refused to open, causing one of the most infamous bloopers in TV history; however, this was not Furness, but actress June Graham, who was substituting for her. For decades, Furness was "credited" for the blooper, until she set the record straight in the 1981 TV special TV's Censored Bloopers.)
Furness proved a successful spokeswoman because of her good looks and attractive, but neat and modest clothing, which she changed three times a day. She also proved strongly independent-minded about her appearance and image, refusing to adopt a stage name or wear an apron after Westinghouse offered these suggestions. She did however agree to wear a wedding ring on camera to appear more like a housewife. Furness also purchased all of her clothing herself, not wanting Westinghouse to decide her appearance for her. During the political party conventions in the 1952 presidential election, which was heavily sponsored by Westinghouse, Furness wore 28 different outfits, enough to become the subject of a Life Magazine story.
Furness's contract with Westinghouse eventually resulted in her receiving an annual salary of $100,000 and her advertisements caused sales of the company's appliances to soar...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_One_(American_TV_series)
Studio One is an American radio anthology drama series that was also adapted to television. It was created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. It aired under several variant titles: Studio One in Hollywood, Studio One Summer Theatre, Westinghouse Studio One and Westinghouse Summer Theatre...
In 1948, Markle made a leap from radio to television. Sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the television series was seen on CBS (which Westinghouse later owned between 1995 and 2000), from 1948 through 1958, under several variant titles: Studio One Summer Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Summer Theatre, Westinghouse Studio One, and Westinghouse Summer Theatre. It was telecast in black-and-white only.
Offering a wide range of dramas, Studio One received Emmy nominations every year from 1950 to 1958. The series staged some notable and memorable teleplays among its 467 episodes. Some created such an impact, they were adapted into theatrical films. William Templeton's 1953 adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, starring Eddie Albert as Winston Smith, led to the 1956 feature-film version with Edmond O'Brien in the principal role. Reginald Rose's drama "Twelve Angry Men", about the conflicts of jurors deciding a murder case, originated on Studio One on September 20, 1954...
