You are unique when you wear Wind Song . . . because Prince Matchabelli created this perfume to diffuse differently on each woman who wears it. You are the lovely disturber that (sic) wakens its fragrance to fulfillment. . . Wind Song is the subtlest form of communication between woman and man. Its aftermath is a lingering and memorable message -- its message is you.
Well, Prince Matchabelli himself didn't create Wind Song. Wind Song debuted in 1952. The Prince died in 1935.
Go here for obituary and a quite nice photo. We will come back to the obituary later - but not because of perfume. One gets the idea that the Prince was mixing his first batches of scent in his bathroom sink. He appears to have done well with the business. After his death, the company was passed from hand to hand, always churning out inexpensive, but not trollopy perfume. As near as I can tell.
J. Walter Thompson got the account for women's fragrances in 1958. It appears that the first Wind Song Man debuted in 1959. This might be him. But who was he? Lost in the mists of time.
Old blog entry:
In 1959, the company was owned by Chesebrough-Pond, recently acquired from Vicks Chemical Company. The prince died in 1935. So who was Prince Matchabelli? A guy who gave a concert of modern Italian songs at his apartment at 50 Central Park West in 1924, attended by every rank of various aristocracies; a guy who entered a common Sealyham terrier in the Popularity Contest of Famous Pets of Famous People in 1926. Oh, you must read the write up of that madcap evening. 1959 is nothing to 1926. Or any other time. (Enhanced a bit from the previous blog - (October 15, 1959 - Albion ad that we will see again later)
If I were more enterprising, I'd head over to CVS and buy something in the Wind Song line People seem to like it. But then I would have it. Is this not the most subtle of First World Problems?
But back to the important part -- who is this guy? He was around for a long time. I know I saw this ad.
He is the Mystery Date. Or at any rate, to this day, I associate this guy with Mystery Date.
I don't remember this commercial at all. Come to think of it, aren't those girls a little young to date? When we played it, we thought we were getting away with something we shouldn't be doing. I didn't realize it was marketed to me. And then, just within a year or two, the loser date became the dream date and the Wind Song Man looked so square I couldn't bear to look at him - or his younger brothers.
He still looks like he's sitting across from you at a nice restaurant and he's hanging on your every word. What was really going through his head?
The other page has more Dacron and Abe Schrader, another Seventh Avenue stalwart. Fortunately, I forgot to photograph it.
Let's (Not) Go to the Movies (Because It's the Wrong Year), But Since We Just Did . . .
* Wikipedia strikes again. Final frame - copyright 1960. Released in U.S.,1964. I had never heard of it. Also - don't believe the trailer. Not a love story! Not a romance that happens to take place in a forced labor camp. No. Netflix also has 1959, but more accurately describes it as a "disturbing character study."
* Susan Strasberg extremely moving as 14-year-old Jewish girl who survives exportation and a labor camp by assuming the identity of a French criminal, volunteering as a prostitute and becoming a Kapo. Emmanuelle Riva - in her second role after Hiroshima Mon Amour, and still going strong in this year's Amour - good as a sympathetic French political prisoner. But Susan Strasberg . . . I remember her from a photo in Life Goes to the Movies on the set of Picnic.
She never did anything much after Kapo. Go here for an interesting obit from The Independent (UK) that doesn't even mention Kapo. Of course, thinking Kapo was a 1959 film, I thought about Diary of Anne Frank, and it turns out that Susan Strasberg originated that role on Broadway and was bitterly disappointed she didn't get the film role. And in a weird twist that links her with another female icon - Susan Strasberg's best friend was Marilyn Monroe.
* An early Holocaust film. According to the trailer, audiences at the Venice film festival gave standing ovations throughout the film and stood and cheered for twelve minutes near the end. Which is always strange, given the subject matter. But the suspense toward the end is remarkable. Director Gillo Pontecorvo went on to make Battle of Algiers and Burn! with Marlon Brando. Up for Best Foreign Film in 1960.
Next week: The Giant iPod.
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