I discovered Stan Freberg through a CD I bought at a record store in Buffalo, NY in 1991 or ’92. It was an anthology of his comedy records, including “St. George and the Dragonet”, “Wonnerful, Wonnerful” and lots of others. Later that year I bought his brilliant concept album “The History Of The United States Of America”. I have shamelessly stolen Freberg’s Ben Franklin voice for a hundred or so commercials over the years. (It’s an easy voice for someone with an underbite.)
In 1993 or thereabouts I read Freberg’s autobiography, which detailed the career change he made in the late 1950’s. After doing the last great network comedy show for CBS (which ran only 15 episodes because Freberg refused to let cigarette companies sponsor the show), Freberg began doing radio and television advertising work…and this became his primary business for most of his life. I don’t know if he invented the “funny commercial”…claims like that are always hard to nail down…but he most assuredly perfected it.
When I took a Radio & TV Writing class in my first semester at college I found that writing commercials was something I was not awful at. It really opened my eyes to what a career in radio could be…even by 1996 it was clear that just being a disc jockey wasn’t enough.
The methods I have drawn from Freberg’s ad work are things I’ve discussed on this blog previously…real-sounding conversation, scenarios that force people to use their imagination, and the like. I happen to think that radio sparks the imagination like no other medium…proof follows me everywhere I go, as people talk to me about Bob S. Bestos and Hot Dog as if they were as real as their own family. Just this past Saturday Kalin and I had about a 20-minute conversation with some folks about how Bob hates Kalin and it upsets me because they’re both my friends. For people to go along with that kind of conversation is a testament to the human willingness to suspend disbelief and let their imagination run wild.
Some of my favorite Freberg stuff is a series of ads he did promoting radio as an advertising medium, including the famous “drain Lake Michigan and fill it with hot chocolate” spot. Obviously most of these ads reflect a different time before smartphones and 58” TVs. But the message in each is still sound: radio reaches people in places where no other medium can.
Radio is indeed a very special medium. Stan Freberg was the first of many radio legends to open my eyes to that. I even got to talk to Freberg (for all of 15 seconds) when he was a guest on The Jim Bohannon Show, which we used to air on KCOW. I later got to speak with Andy Williams on Jimbo’s show, and that time I won a pair of old man slacks…some sponsor promotion.