Culligan
Lady - Female character who shouts "Hey Culligan Man!"
in a series of successful print, radio and TV spots since the
late 1950s. The Culligan company is an
international water softener business that treats hard water and sells water
purification and bottled water. Today, the Culligan brands
include such products as Everpure, Elga, and Bruner.
Culligan was founded by Emmett Joseph Culligan in 1936.
Initially, he began his water softener firm in 1924 in Saint
Paul, Minnesota, but when he learned it was more profitable
selling the "service" rather than the softener units, Culligan installed the water softening machines at no cost to
customers who paid two dollars a month as a user fee.
"At
Culligan, water is
all we do. For over 50 years we've been solving all types of
water problems with the highest quality water products. So for
brighter clothes, dishes that sparkle and great-tasting water
there's only one name to trust."
The
service became popular because of the "no deposit, no
obligation" arrangement, in which customers could cancel the
service at any time.
By 1961, company
sales had risen to over 11 million dollars.
The Culligan Lady in the ads is
shouting "Hey Culligan Man!" to one of their many service trucks
that roamed suburbia of the late 1950s. With so many other
housewives using the franchised service, our Culligan Lady
didn't want to be left out and so she gives a hearty shout to
one of the company trucks as it passes through the neighborhood.
In later commercials, the Culligan Lady is seen shouting into a
telephone.
In 2004, the investment firm of Clayton, Dubulier and Rice
acquired the company from Veolia Environnement for $610 million. In 2006, Culligan
closed its Northbrook, Illinois plant and relocated its
headquarters.
|
Host Peter Marshall: |
Question:
True or false? At a recent hearing in New Jersey,
opponents of fluorinated water argued that too much
fluorine in a persons system can cause an uncontrollable
desire for sex. |
|
Paul Lynde: |
[excitedly] HEY, CULLIGAN MAN! |
| |
--
The Hollywood Squares |
TRIVIA NOTE:
Emmett J. Culligan, a devout Catholic, wrote the book: The Last World War and the End
of Time (1950, 1975 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.) which examines prophecies and apparitions that suggest
that we are in the final era.
Culligan was born in Yankton, South Dakota, on March 5, 1893. He
retired to San Bernardino, California in 1965 and died in 1970.
The idea for the "Hey Culligan
Man!" campaign is also attributed to a 1959 ad campaign created
by the Dallas Williams Productions of Los Angeles. According to
Dan Bessie, "It was Dallas Williams
who first created the Culligan commercials (on radio). In about
1961, as I recall. They went to TV the following year, with the
original animation designs created by designer / animator Lee
Mishkin. After Mishkin did the spots for the first year, I did
them for the next 15, with Dallas and I jointly creating the
stories, and myself doing the animation."
Dan Bessie, a filmmaker and former animator began his career
at MGM Animation Department. He co-wrote, directed and animated the
award-winning "Hey Culligan Man!" soft water commercials for 15
years. His book, Reeling Through Hollywood: How I Spent 40
Fabulous Years in Film and Never Made a Nickel traces his
humorous and sometimes desperate career from Tom & Jerry
to the award-winning Hey Culligan Man! commercials.
