Handy Housewife Helper - On
episode "Better Living Through TV" (aired 11/12/1955) of the
classic sitcom THE HONEYMOONERS/CBS/1955-56 Bus Driver Ralph Kramden
(Jackie Gleason) in one of his many get rich schemes paid $100 to make a
TV commercial with his friend Ed Norton (Art Carney) to sell handy, dandy
"Handy Housewife Helper," a sort of all purpose kitchen tool (a
la the Swiss army knife). The Handy Housewife Helper featured a bottle
opener, screwdriver, combination Boy Scout knife and glass cutter,
corkscrew, combination nail-clipper and corn remover, scissor sharpener,
razor, can opener, self-propelled spearfishing attachment, pencil
sharpener, fish scaler, tweezer, combination potato peeler and apple
corer, cheese grater and skate key. To get one of these marvelous devices
TV viewers were asked to call Bensonhurst 5-6698 (number in original
script was Bensonhurst 5-6832). Ralph's supply of 2000 Handy Housewife
Helpers cost him 10 cents each and sold for a dollar each. By the end of
the commercial, however, Ralph posing as the Chef of the Future botched
every demonstration and even knocked over the wall of the mock TV kitchen
set.
