William Black was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who sold nuts in stores in the theater district of New York City. In 1926 he opened his first nut store on Broadway and 43rd Street and called it Chock Full ONuts. His business started to grow and eventually William Black opened up seventeen more nut stores in the New York City area. But when the Depression started to hit New York City hard, people could no longer afford the luxury of buying shelled nuts. So William Black smartly converted all of his nut shops into lunch counters selling coffee and sandwiches(but he decided to keep the same nut store name of Chock Full ONuts for his new coffee shops.) The new Chock Full ONuts sold cheese sandwiches made of cream cheese and chopped nuts on dark raisin bread that cost a nickel and also included a cup of coffee too. When coffee prices rose in the 1950s, William Black and other restaurant owners tried to hold the 5 cent cost by watering down their coffee. But Black soon broke ranks with all of the other shop owners by raising his price and announcing that he just wouldnt compromise the quality of his coffee. In 1953 the Chock Full ONuts coffee brand was introduced to supermarkets and was an immediate success. Business was booming and retired baseball star Jackie Robinson joined Chock Full ONuts as a Director of Personnel. By the 1960s the chain had 80 coffee shops in the New York City area alone. Hygiene was important in the Chock Full ONuts stores too as sandwiches were advertised as untouched by human hands. Employees were actually taught to use tongs to assemble the sandwiches. But the biggest selling point for Chock Full ONuts always remained their excellent coffee. Finally a very famous advertising jingle solidified the image of the quality of Chock Full ONuts coffee. This very simple but catchy jingle made coffee sales skyrocket. It was composed from a song written by a man named Bernie Wayne and sung by William Blacks wife. This very memorable ad jingle was played on radio and TV for over 20 years: Chock Full ONuts is that heavenly coffee Heavenly coffee, heavenly coffee Chock Full ONuts is that heavenly coffee Better coffee a millionaires money can buy https://youtube/watch?v=s_ypBhZUXGk Bert Parks(born Bertram Jacobson) became an American icon as the host of the annual Miss America Contest from 1955 until 1980. Parks was the son of Aaron Jacobson, a Jewish merchant who had emigrated to the United States in 1900 from Latvia and his wife Hattie Spiegel Jacobson, the daughter of immigrants from Austria-Hungary. Bert Parks was known for his upbeat personality and his ability to put all of the Miss America contestants at ease. The pageant reached its finale every year when the new Miss America was crowned and Bert Parks sang the shows signature song(which was written by Bernie Wayne.) There she is, Miss America There she is, your ideal The dream of a million girls who are more than pretty can come true in Atlantic City For she may turn out to be the Queen of femininity There she is, Miss America There she is, your ideal With so many beauties she took the town by storm With her all American face and form And there she is Walking on air, she is Fairest of the fair, she is There she is - Miss America https://youtube/watch?v=sbCgT-YbphI The song Blue Velvet was originally recorded and performed by Tony Bennet in 1951 and reached number 16 on the top 100 hit parade. However the most popular recording of the song was performed by Bobby Vinton. It reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 21, 1963 and remained there for 3 weeks. Blue Velvet was written by Bernie Wayne. She wore blue velvet Bluer than velvet was the night Softer than satin was the light From the stars She wore blue velvet Bluer than velvet were her eyes Warmer than May her tender sighs Love was ours Ours a love I held tightly Feeling the rapture grow Like a flame burning brightly But when she left, gone was the glow of Blue velvet But in my heart therell always be Precious and warm, a memory Through the years And I still can see blue velvet Through my tears Bernie Wayne was born Bernard Bernie Weitzman in Paterson, New Jersey in 1919. He became a very accomplished award winning composer who wrote over 1,000 songs including Blue Velvet and Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside. Bernie Wayne also wrote songs for Elvis Presley and several Broadways musicals too. He also wrote three of the most familiar melodies in American light music -- Vanessa, The Magic Touch, and Port-Au-Prince. Bernie Wayne earned a total of 11 Gold Records. He also served as the artist and repertory director for 20th Century Fox Records where he produced the soundtrack recordings for such notable movies as Zorba the Greek and Patch of Blue. But two of Bernie Waynes best known pieces of work were not hit songs at all but instead will remain part of Americas pop culture forever: the Miss America theme song Here She Is and the iconic commercial jingle Chock Full ONuts is the Heavenly Coffee So lets all celebrate the life of our fellow Patersonian Bernie Wayne by listening to Bobby Vinton sing his song Blue Velvet on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. And lets also never forget to celebrate all those heavenly years we enjoyed living in Paterson NJ too. https://youtube/watch?v=DeLBkoW1-Ow
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 12:55:45 +0000
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