Nostalgia Sunday – Old ads are more fun

November 15, 2009 - 6:43 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Movies, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

tal_manIf we are to learn anything from Mad Men, it’s that advertisements are most fun and best viewed in retrospect. We look back in “What were they thinking?” wonderment at the positioning of certain products. For example, here’s a slideshow of Israeli advertisements from yesteryear – including one for Osem’s Bamba as a crispy late-night party snack – a far cry from it’s primary role today as the ultimate teething toy.


Or this one, for Elite powdered instant coffee. Although it employs a completely archaic production method, “Cafe Ness” is still being consumed happily by millions. Or thousands. Or at least by me.

Here’s something you don’t see every day – an advertisement for cigarettes! With actual smoking!

And to close, an ad featuring the Yarkon Bridge Trio (Shlishiyat Gesher HaYarkon) — Benny Amdursky, Yehoram Gaon and Arik Einstein racing around town and touting the wonders of Tadiran’s new-fangled electronic devices.

As you watch, bear this in mind: TV in Israel was black & white until 1980, broadcasting was limited to one commercial-free station until 1993 and ads were shown only in movie houses.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Happy Birthday Arik Einstein!

January 4, 2009 - 11:59 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Art, Israeliness, Life, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

Arik Einstein turned 70 this week. Were it not for the war, this would have been front page news. Not only because it is an occasion for celebration but because in this land of the perpetual diminutive, where everyone goes by their childhood nickname, people find it hard to believe that Arik – singer of songs, cultural icon, survivor of the Sixties and the Tel Aviv bohemia – is entering his seventh decade. If that is so, and Arik is getting old, what does that mean the rest of us?

The English-language Wikipedia entry for Arik Enstein is a rather poor version of the far more comprehensive Hebrew one, but still manages to give the reader a sense of the breadth of his career. The son of an actor, he got his start in the Nahal Brigade entertainment corps, after being demobilized he joined the legendary Batzal Yarok entertainment troupe (together with Chaim Topol, Gila Almagor and others), then the Yarkon Bridge Trio (with Yehoram Gaon and Benny Amdursky), who were so hip, they covered a Beatles song! But if you really want to know what their music sounded like and how Israel looked like at the time, this clip is best:

Read more

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Nostalgia Sunday – Sallah Shabati

November 30, 2008 - 11:55 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

If you don’t know the film Sallah Shabati then go out and rent it right away because you don’t know Israel. Yes, that’s how strongly I feel about it. Go, go, go out and get it now.

Okay, are you back? Good. Without giving away anything of the plot, Sallah is a film about the immigrant experience and although Israel has changed since 1964 when the movie was made, there are certain constants of Israeli society that humorist Ephraim Kishon put his finger on 44 years ago which still remain the same – bureaucracy, cronyism, societal divides, JNF tree plantings – all the things from which great humor is derived.

The film stars Haim Topol – who went on to have a successful international careers, as well as a very young Arik Einstein, an equally young Gila Almagor and a host of other well-known Israeli actors. It won two Golden Globes and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category.

Now, the Cameri Theater is reviving the highly successful musical version of Sallah, which first premiered at Habima in 1988. It promises to be good. Here’s the movie version of Sallah’s big number, “Mashiach HaZaken.”

And a clip from the 1988 stage version starring Zeev Revah.

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