When I was a kid this was one of the worst times of the year. “Back to School” ads started appearing on the radio. The biggest offender: Robert Hall Clothiers. You have to be of a certain age to really remember (over… uh 30) but Robert Hall ran these truly tacky 40’s style jingles well into the ‘60s and maybe even the ‘70s.
You’d be at the pool enjoying the day, blissfully believing that summer would never end. The radio would be blasting the latest rock tune and all of a sudden, there it was – that first miserable Robert Hall commercial.
That’s it. Summer was as good as over. It was only a matter of time before you were gearing up with new school supplies (we never shopped at Robert Hall) and trudging off to another endless year of doom.
The Robert Hall jingle might as well have been the Volga Boatman.
Listen to these commercials and see if they still bring back that feeling of dread even though you are long past about to enter the seventh grade. I bet they do. They did for me. And I don’t care if it means I get a lunch box. I hate "Back to School!" And Robert Hall.
43 comments :
I grew up in the '70s and '80s so I have a visceral reaction against Jerry Lewis for much the same reason: His telethon meant that school started the next day.
But Les Paul could sure pick a guitar!
I was just talking to someone at work yesterday about the sick feeling I got in my stomach around this time of year, even in high school. I feared getting bad teachers I would be stuck with for 9 months. Fortunately, I had great teachers through elementary school and only a handful - out of dozens - in junior and senior high. What's worse for today's kids is that Back to School signs go up right after July 4th, when you haven't even broken a good summer sweat yet.
So it's like this ad for people of my generation (I'm 28, for the record).
A different recording of the second jingle here is literally one of my earliest memories. I was born in 1958, and by the way, from the NYC area, so it wasn't just LA.
An obnoxious part of my childhood too, though I thought it was a Chicago company. Does Halloween advertising start now, or is that after Labor Day?
Yes you do have to be over "30" to remember Robert Hall. Way over 30. LOL. Bought all our clothes there also in the 60's. Janice B.
To me the worst part about back to school shopping was always the clothes.
I hate Back to school for the kids. Now we have to wake them up early ((such a pleasure. Ugh)). Make sure they are dressed, fed, lunch prepared, after school sports/activities ready, homework signed, and then parent teacher conferences etc
I'll see your Robert Hall, and raise you Zachary All
For me it was Jerry Lewis, because the telethon airing on Labor Day weekend meant school was about to start.
Except that I liked school. Jerry ... er, a little less.
And then there's Christmas. In grad school in Boston, I had a roommate who had grown up in Brooklyn, son of atheist communists (one Jewish). He had gone to Brooklyn public schools (Erasmus), and even for college stayed in NYC (Columbia). One December, when the Boston radio stations were playing “Joy to the World” or whatever, he said that for most of his life the only song he knew that was associated with Christmas was “We’re doing our Christmas shopping / At Robert Hall this year.” New York was way ahead of the curve in the War on Christmas.
(Ah nostalgia. I found myself singing along with these. I also remember having to ask my father what "low overhead" meant and picturing a clothing store with 5-foot ceilings -- like those I saw decades later in "Being John Malkovich.")
Wow, did those jingles dredge up memories of the Valley in the 50's! The flashback included the aroma of Lysol, the school janitor's best friend, at Bret Harte School...where the late summertime included special screenings from that cartoon factory down Hollywood Way, Disney Studios. Great fun! Thanks!
"...low overhead, low overhead." Now, I'll spend the rest of today trying to get THAT our of my head...
I'm 54, so came in at the tail end of Robert Hall. For me, it was Campbell's Soup commercials, which KHJ airchecks from both 1966 and 1975 show were a staple for at least a decade. "Back to School time, mom," lots of phrases like "hearty."
Ken:
I don't remember the back-to-school jingle, but I do remember hearing the other one when I was a kid in your old stomping ground of Syracuse. (I'm 61.) I remember hearing "low overhead -- low overhead" over and over with no idea what it meant. Matter of fact, I remember hearing the whole jingle over and over.
And this might be why, whenever I hear the opening bars of Les Paul and Mary Ford's "How High the Moon," I've always felt a little creeped out.
I grew up in Buffalo, NY and we had several Robert Hall stores. The old jingles weren't ringing any bells for me, until it got to the "When the values go up, up, up" one. Then WOW! Talk about a buried memory -- suddenly I was singing right along.
It's funny to see all those stores that look like they're out in the middle of nowhere - and the parking lots are empty. That's really Los Angeles in the 50s - "Acres of Free Parking!"
I don't remember that first jingle, but as soon as I saw the words "Robert Hall" on your post, the second jingle cued up in my brain and started to play. In Culver City, there was a Robert Hall immediately next door to Temple Akiba... strategic planning for the bar mitzvah market, dontcha think?
I didn't remember those ads but we had a store near my home in Orange NJ - & of course now I will be humming the fershlugginer ads today!
Robert Hall was the least of it for me. There was the Jerry Lewis Telethon (have they *ever* found a cure for Jerry Lewis?), the Miss America Pageant, and TV Premiere Week. For us Catholics there was also the Feast of the Assumption, a Holy Day of Obligation, which fell on 15 August. If anybody ever makes a list of Top Six Favorite Holy Days of Obligation, that one is guaranteed to be at the bottom.
Back to school stuff has been out for a while. On Friday saw big Halloween displays in multiple retailers.
For me it is walking into Wall-Mart and seeing all the school supplies on a special isle up front. I actually feel nauseated, but not because I dreaded school myself when I was a child---I dreaded sending my children back each year. I felt as if I was sending them into a world of unfairness and unkindness, and I had no control over it.
Growing up in Texas in a slightly later era, I don't have the negative connotations that you do. But I am a record collector and jingle industry veteran, so I LOVE these spots! You've got Les Paul and Mary Ford, doing their space-age thing with multi-tracked guitars (oddly enough, you thought it was kitschy and outdated when you were a kid, but when it was recorded, it was beyond cutting edge recording technology). And because of the donut format, lots of instrumental space for the local announcers to talk over (that they blessedly don't in this original mix). Thanks for posting this, although I'm sure my reaction to hearing it is the polar opposite of yours. I think if you don't have negative childhood memories and still don't like this, it disproves your claim that you are not a robot.
I remember the commercials and didn't mind them at all. They were bouncy and clever. Robert Hall clothes, however, are another matter. I always associated them with the kind of suits Clark Kent wore. BTW, when the great blackout of New York hit in 1965 (I think) I was sitting in a car across the street from a huge Robert Hall store in White Plains, NY. The entire store front was glass and seeing their florescent lamps go off one at a time, but quickly, will always be my sharpest memory of the disaster.
There was a Robert Hall in Midland, Michigan. My folks bought me a suit there when I was high school in the 70s, thus the gray in striped ensemble included lapels the width of one of the store's parking spaces. Also, a scoop front vest with three of four buttons at the bottom. Coke spoon not included.
RIP horrible suit. Let the arms of some random landfill offer you their eternal embrace.
"pinstriped"
I couldn't help but recall Eddie from Zachary All Clothing on the Miracle Mile. Talk about ubiquitous commercials?Aa YouTube commenter refers to him as "the Cal Worthington of suits."
The sizes came in "Cadet, Extra Short, Regular, Long, Extra Long and Portlies." Eddie Nalbandian and his inescapable Zachary All ads were the Men's Warehouse of the 60's and 70's. He did those ads until 1995!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMs2k5L1jWI
Arrrgggh!!! You just brought some very unpleasant memories. But also some good laughs, so I forgive you.
I didn't get all the mass media back-to-school reminders because I lived in a part of the country where school started in early August. I could never understand as a kid why I'd always see back-to-school stories on the evening news around Labor Day. "We've already been in school for a month!"
2nd version of Robert Hall ad, with different lyrics. "High quality. economy."
I'm a Boomer but it wasn't so much the Robert Hall commercials (although now that friggin' "when the values go up up up" jingle is going to be an ear worm today) but NBC that gave me that feeliing of dread. I miss the big deals the networks made of the new season, the way you do Ken, but NBC would use a countdown. "10 days till NBC week, 9 days till NBC week, etc." Never failed to take some of the anticipation and joy out of the new season.
OTOH, though I've never had kids, the Staples "It's the most wonderful time of the year" always makes me laugh.
old charlie Callas joke.
Guy walks into a bar with a coat with a long sleeve and no left arm visible.
Bartender says gee that's too bad, let me buy you a drink. Where did you get that?
Guy says "Anzio 1943"
Second guy walks in with a coat with a long sleeve and no right arm visible.
Bartender says gee that's too bad, let me buy you a drink. Where did you get that?
Guy says "Korea 1952"
Third guy walks in with a coat with two long sleeves and neither arm visible.
Bartender says gee that's really too bad, let me buy you a drink. Where did you get that?
Guy says "Robert Hall $$19.99"
Robert Hall commercials and hot weather made me nauseous and moody about going back to school. First few days of school were spent sweating on my notebook paper. Who is Robert Hall and why did he do that to us?
I used to date an accountant named Janet who worked for Robert Hall in Manhattan. I think she eventually went bankrupt, too.
After hearing the first jingle, I thought they were going to bust out a Christmas special.
I always thought Robert Hall was a local New Jersey store - had no idea that it was a national thing. My least favorite back to school commercial is the "most wonderful time of the year" one. And it's disgusting that there are already Halloween decorations in the stores before labor day.
I know what you mean. I am 52 and these ads make a pit in my gut!
I really hated the later seasons of The Jeffersons when they moved to Sunday nights because the theme song reminded me that I hadn't done my homework yet.
I'm from Los Angeles, born 1956...never heard of this store. :D We brought most of our school clothes from JCPenneys, Zodys, Fedco etc.
My father was Robert Hall Clothing's first employee when its President, Mr Ellenberg, asked my dad to help manage to moving of clothing between two NYC locations in 1937. My Father was an employee of Old Oaks Country Club where Ellenberg was a Member. Dad became the manager of all warehousing and shipping (38th and 8th ave NYC) of some 435 stores when he retired (and removed all his pension funds) in 1972. Robert Hall (under different names) went defunct in 1977 and all pension funds etc disappeared shortly before that. :>)
I was just discussing Robert Hall with the hubs over dinner and decided to Google to find out what happened to them (liquidation) and came upon your blog.
And yes, I'm with you, I hated hearing that jingle as well when I was younger because I knew that summer was almost over.
I grew up in NYC during the early 60s and wasted my summer youth in the playground, watching TV (I had my own TV at age 8) or listening to AM radio, either WMCA or WABC.
I didn't realize this was a national chain, even today despite traveling around the country courtesy of the Air Force. Since my folks didn't shop there nor did I see any on my travels, I ad assumed they were local.
Listening to the jingles brought back bad memories of summer being over. Despite that, I appreciated the walk down memory lane, no matter how depressing it was. :-)
Yes I share your thoughts totally about all the things that reminded me of school on Monday morning and how much I despise that throughout my childhood watching The Ed Sullivan Show at 8 p.m. on Sunday night started my depression anything that reminded me of going back to school was a total nightmare for me it seemed that the happiest day of my life during the school year was the last day of school before summer vacation there was this wonderful feeling that summer would last forever but oh boy how fast the summer went in before I turned around it was that first week of September which was enough to make me suicidal as a retired adult everyday just to wake up in total freedom in my retirement and not have to deal with what we all have to put up with going to school as children xmplay wonderful feeling
Those stores disappeared in my part of the country when I was in grade school which was fine with me. No doubt saved me from some razzing from classmates. Not from older people, though. In 1978 I got a job in a motorcycle parts shop. The owner called me "Plain Pipe Racks." Apparently that was one of the taglines from the RH ad campaigns....a reference to their 'no glitter' store displays. I am sure lots of kids got some ragging because of those stores. At one point there were nearly three pages full of Robert Halls in the local phone book....people, not businesses.
-Rob Hall Santee CA
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