Mr. Clean in your Washing Machine?

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Unimatic1140

Unimatic1140

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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.

mrclean.jpg


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

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

http://www.meisterproper.de/mandatory/frames.html
 
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
 
Leave your puppy out of this

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

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

Does anyone remember their mom using the little brown bottle (super concentrated) Lysol in the washer? Oh my, when we were sick, everything was washed with Tide (or Oxydol) and Lysol. Gross. Remember that odor? I still have a brown bottle at home and use it only when I really, really have to. Like only a teaspoonful!

The odor reminds me of illness.
 
Triva fact:

Lysol was once marketed to women to be used as a douche. IIRC the advertisment which appeared in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, went along the lines of a woman's husband would "appreciate" her more and would get "closer" to her if she were free of embarassing feminine odors. This was the 20's or 30's folks, so everything was in code.

As for using Lysol in the laundry, tried it once and could not get the stench of Lysol out of the washer. Lysol used to make a great product called "laundry sanitizer" which was a powder. It was discontinued years ago, don't know if it was a LCB based or what.

For what it's worth, Lysol still is super concentrated and comes in those brown bottles, but today they are made of plastic instead of glass.

Regarding Action Dry Bleach

Carbona now sells chlorine bleach tabs, and have always been curious, so now maybe I'll pick up a box. Really do not use chlorine bleach that much in my laundry, as I get great results with hot water and Ecover oxygen bleach for stain removal.

Launderess
 
Overhere in the Netherlands Lysol was never sold to the consumers as far as I know. I know the smell from visits to hospitals. On my last trip to the US I bought a bottle and used it a few times to mop the floors. It's a very particular smell!

Jon (Jetcone) send me a box of Carbona chlorine bleach tabs too. Although I sometimes use liquid chlorine bleach for other purposes I hardly ever use it on laundry. I tried a tab now and the results are OK and what's even better, the laundry smells better than after using liquid chlorine bleach.

Louis
 
I remember the Lysol Laundry Sanitizer. I used it a few times in school, and remember it being unscented. As for that old advertisement, it's just plain cruel.
 
Petebldg9

Always wanted to try the Lysol Sanitizer but never got around to it.

As for the Lysol "feminine hygiene" advert, a woman must have been pretty rank to chase her husband out of the home! *LOL*

My grandmother used Lysol to clean her bathroom and disenfect around the kitchen, so the smell kind of reminds me of her house. Speaking of old "disenfectants" does anyone remember a product called "CN"? It came in a dark brown bottle and was a dark thick brown liquid that stank to high heaven.

Launderess
 
Oh my ... that ad. That's something. Who would have thought? I wonder if Lysol smelled differently then?

Just to get reacquainted with the odor, I used some out of my "little brown bottle" (yep, I've got the plastic one) while cleaning my bathroom today. Oh boy, that smells just like illness to me. I had to leave the bathroom window open all afternoon. Not used to it anymore. I can still smell it tonight. I think they also make a pine scent in the concentrated formula. Haven't tried that one.

I haven't heard of CN or the Carbono bleach tabs. Where can you get those?

I remember Lysol Sanitizer. Wasn't it really expensive? It really didn't take off too well; great concept, however.
 
love jubilee

Great mr clean commercial, LOVE IT !!, and I still use jubilee on kitchen counters and appliances, my mom always used that when i was growing up ...........
 
Mr. Cleans First Name?

Does anyoneknowif they ever did name him? This is from the back of a 11/62 Better Homes and Gardens mag. that we just got on eBay (so we are re-collecting all the stuff we got rid of to move here)
 

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