Mr. Clean in your Washing Machine?

[Unimatic1140]

Well the only thing I found today at the sales was this wonderful glass bottle of Mr. Clean from the mid 1950’s when Mr. Clean was first introduced. It says and I quote “To boost cleaning power in your washing machine and leave clothes smelling clean and fresh, add ¼ to ½ cup of Mr. Clean to usual amount of regular soap or detergent”.

Yuk, I’ll have to try it for the fun of it. I can go to work next week smelling like I was scrubbing the kitchen floor all weekend. YAY.

Here how about having this video and song in your head all weekend…

(1.5mb) right click and save target as…
1957 Mr. Clean

 

[cadman]

I love it! Love it Love it Love it! And why can't we have commercials like that nowadays?

All I've got under the sink are some steel aerosol cans of "Jubille Kitchen Wax" to shine up those kitchen appliances!

 

[maytagbear]

Hehe

Great bottle, Robert!

I don't think I'd use that particular Mr. Clean, though. Chemicals do change over the decades

I have used much newer Mr. Clean as a detergent booster, though. Good on cutting grease.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[gansky1]

Adding a bit of alkali will brighten and clean better - especially on greasy stains, etc. in the laundry. Follow up with some vinegar in the final rinse - the lemony fresh scent is a bonus ;-) My grandmother's neighbor used Pine-Sol in her wash constantly, talk about a long lasting scent!

If we did have commercials like that today it would certainly make them memorable which is the whole point of the commercial to begin with! In fact, they could just run the vintage version for an added bit of nostalgia, people would hop in the car humming that tune and buy it by the case!

I'll pour some in the fishbowl tonight and let you know how it works ;-)

 

[foraloysius]

Mister Clean exists in Germany too and is called Meister Proper. I bought a bottle of bathroom cleaner a few weeks ago on one of my shopping trip to Germany. There is a german website and I saw they make detergent too. Click under "Waschwelt on "Produkte". I must try one of those products sometime.

Meister Proper | Bewertungen, Tipps & Stories | for me & Victoria

Entfernt bis zu 100 % Schmutz und Fett.. Lesen Sie ehrliche Bewertungen zu Meister Proper Produkten auf for me. Außerdem gibt’s hilfreiche Tipps rund um das Thema Putzen. Gleich schlaumachen!

www.meisterproper.de

 

[partscounterman]

Pine Sol

I got in the habit of using Pine sol in the wash when we had to use coin laundries. Dennis likes the smell, so now I add a tablespoon or two to all our sturdy clothes. Only the genuine pine oil stuff disinfects-don't use the other colors. It smells real nice when the clothes are dried-not nasty like pine-sol scrubwater

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Leave your puppy out of this

I could not imagine washing your dog in this. "From 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon?
Blah!
Brent

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Great Commercial

Thanks for the commercial! Very cute.
The male singer really sounds like Bing Crosby. I am sure that he is not, but it is obvious they wanted a singer that sounded like him.
Thanks for posting it!
Brent

 

[angus]

What a great commercial jingle - now it is stuck in my head!!
I have also seen Mr Clean in the Hispanic market called "Don Limpio" and in a New York City market, I saw it with TWO different French names - "M. Propre" and M.Net. I think one was from Canada and one was from French speaking islands - I can't remember which was which. If I remember correctly, "propre" is correct French for clean, and "nettoyage" refers to the act of cleaning or washing.. Reminds me of working in Toronto in the 80's and finding Canadian Gain in the Loblaw's market - slogan was something like "Ligne si propre qu'il deborde de fraicheur"!! Translation - Laundry so clean it's bursting with freshness........

 

[MikeS]

One of my quirks is collecting old television shows/ads from the 50's and 60's. In my collection, I have a Mr. Clean ad from 1961-62 that aired on "The Dick Van Dyke Show"; it showed a woman scrubbing her clothes on a washboard to get them clean, but no longer--thanks to a little Mr. Clean in her Maytag for "bright, fresh-smelling clothes".
Even nicer was the tag for the show, when the announcer read:
"'The Dick Van Dyke Show' has been brought to you by the champion of clean himself. Mr. Clean--the all purpose liquid cleaner."
I don't know if the cast did a Mr. Clean commercial, but on the "Dick Van Dyke" DVD collection, they do have a commercial with Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore pitching Joy liquid detergent. The cast later did ads for Kent cigarettes...but that's another story!

 

[laundramatt]

Another old television commercial-

It had to be late '50s or early 60's, I don't remember the name of the laundry product. But during the commercial, a fist and arm would come up out of the suds and the running washer, to signify the strength of the detergent. Does anyone know what this detergent was? It would be great to add to the video archives if it could ever be found. The commercial was removed from television, because it was scaring too many children. They were afraid to go near the washer! Of course, that never bothered me.

 

[angus]

That would have been Action Dry Chlorine Bleach. Came in dissolvable packets that you put in the wash. It was around for a few years, but I am not sure how well it really caught on....

 

[tolivac]

Yes-I use Mr. Clean in my washer-especially good when you launder your shower curtain-Have to do this each week or mildew sets in-the Mr. Clean gives both the curtain and the bathroom a piney scent-Very pleasent!

 

[jetcone]

Yes Action bleach!

"Put a Giant in your washer! Use Action Bleach!" And then that big male hairy arm would plunge through to the surface with an out streched palm holing a box of Action Bleach!

I remember seeing that Mr.Clean commercial on tv, if it was 1957 they must have run it longer into 1960. My earliest tv memories are the Dinah Shore Chevy show and Ozzie& Harriet. That was about 1958-59 so if I remember this it was from then or later.

I remember the later ads with the real Mr. Clean coming in and wiping all the walls clean and saving the housewife.

 

[MikeS]

Remembering Action Bleach

My mother loved Action Bleach. Of course, I did the laundry when I was a boy but she bought the laundry additives. It seemed to do the job, but I couldn't remember getting a new box that didn't have a packet or two broken inside. Plus you had to learn to pick up the packets with dry hands. Occasionally, I forgot--the packets melted in my wet hands and I had dry Action all over our Lady Kenmore 800. (It's ironic we even used Action, considering the LK had a bleach dispenser.)

 

[Unimatic1140]

Lights, Camera, Action

Action Bleach...

 

[peterh770]

Jet -- Did the woman/wife in the commercial cry out "There's a giant in my washing machine!!!"?

 

[kenmore1978]

Action bleach

I don't remember Action bleach ads until around 1961. For a while we used Action and Salvo at the laundry

 

[geoffdelp]

You guys, these are great memories!!

Growing up in the 1960's, I remember the Mr. Clean ads!! They used a portion of the original tune and words a couple of years ago introducing some new cleaning formula with Mr. Clean. I have been trying to wrack my brain to rememeber the jingle ever since ... thank you Robert!!

Also, Laundramatt ... I'm one of those kids who had the dickens scared out of them by that Action commercial! I remember crying the first time I saw it. The home we lived in had an unfinished basement ... dirt floor, except for a concrete slab that the automatic Maytag sat on. I was afraid to go down there anyway, but after that commercial ... I remember my dad saying, "Stop being afraid! No arm is going to come up out of the washing machine! It's just a commercial!" Couldn't convince me, however ... We moved to the city soon after and our basement was nicely finished. I remember mom using those Action packets (they smelled good) and every once in a while I would be allowed to drop one in the washer ... cool!