Variety Show

Content

Commercial in stop-motion for Beech Nut chewing gum, in which strips of chewing gum come to life. A dazzling dance act with chewing gum comes to a climax.

It is not clear who the original creator is. It is possible that it was not made by Joop Geesink's Dollywood, but by a rival studio in the United States.

Many animated commercials have been made for Beech Nut. A large number of these, and perhaps therefore the most famous, are Joop Geesink's 3D stop-motion films. Afterwards, cartoon versions were also made. Unfortunately, no complete documentation of this extensive series has survived. If this film has to be estimated by age, it will come out to a production year around 1950 - 1955: somewhat slowly cinematically visualised, but with nice flowing dance steps from apparently simple pieces of chewing gum. Handsomely made with simple means. Too bad the original 35mm recording has been downgraded to a low-resolution MPG file.

Trivia

The gum strips that appeared on camera were models and often slightly larger than reality. The larger scale gave the animator more control over the movement. However, it was not a fixed feature. For some shots, these could be scale models from 200 to 500% of the actual size. It is quite possible that for the sake of saving space in the studio, the screw-shaped carousel was actually built on a smaller scale.
At the time, the white chewing gum tablets were probably made by combining custom-cut pieces of sheet lead over which a layer of latex rubber was applied.
The flexible lead could be bent image by image and the layer of rubber gave the illusion of chewing gum texture. This rubber layer was painted with fruit stripes to achieve a striking resemblance to real chewing gum. With ingeniously concealed pins, the 'dolls' could be pinned into the floor of the set. This way, they even remained dancing on one leg.

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Eternal Jingle

The sung jingle "Buy Beech Nut, Buy Gum!" sounds simple, even predictable. However, it was used extensively for many years in countless cinema shows and later on US television. Now, more than half a century later, many Americans are still alive who know and sing along with this jingle.
Based on the huge success of the jingle, later commercials could reduce the tune to an accompanying music to still be recognised. The common thread within the concept has always been that the atmosphere was a cosy book. In later videos, it became a cosy chaos, with newly introduced characters.
Those who also watch the other Beech Nut films after watching this video can detect an evolution in the concept.
'More flavor to chew,
more flavors to choose.
The flavor starts lively,
the flavor stays lively.
Buy Beech-Nut, buy gum.'