Gunther's TV Commercial

Jetta's call came in at 9:15 a.m., but I didn't receive it until 9:45 a.m. "Wake up," she said, "The TV ad starts filming at 10 a.m. at Gunther's at 2801 Franklin Avenue Get there quick! I have coupons for free food for everyone!"

Ugh! I rubbed my eyes and got my creaky bones out of bed. That's Franklin Boulevard, not Avenue. Gunther's has gone 70 years without a TV ad, so why does it need one now, and at the gawdawful hour of 10 a.m.? The ways of TV are cryptic. At least it's my own neighborhood, Curtis Park, so I don't have to go far.

The mood at Gunther's was very convivial, and the place was very busy. The crowd was mostly older folks. (Probably to reduce problems related to photo releases, the event was marketed primarily to retirees, so the usual Gunther's crowd of children was all-but-absent.)

I stood in line and watched the filming. At one point, they presented an enormous banana split to a customer, with my face conveniently placed just on the opposite side of the banana split from the camera. The presentation of the spoon was fumbled, however, so it's probably the cutting room floor with that.


I was surprised to learn that the pretty woman on the opposite side of the counter lived in Los Angeles (her slim figure betrayed the absence of ice cream in her normal diet). I asked, "do you know my friend Kelsey? She lives in LA!" She said no (in the same way my father said 'no' when travelling as a GI in Italy in WWII, when people would approach and say "my cousin Vinny lives in Chicago - do you know him?) Then the pretty woman asked, "what are you going to have?" I said, "a Swiss Orange Chip cone!" She commenced on a perfectly whimsical monologue: "a Swiss Orange Chip cone? A Swiss Orange Chip cone!" The camera closed in on her face for reaction shots ("orange" is a good, rotund word to recite on camera).

After a few minutes, the camera crew headed outside. I stood in front of the counter in a state of befuddlement. It slowly dawned on me that, after all that, no one had bothered to take my order for a Swiss Orange Chip cone. I eventually found someone who could fill my order.

A fun time for all! (Except maybe for the absent children.)

[Update: And Jetta now says it was a Lincoln Continental commercial, and not an ice cream commercial at all? It's too confusing! It makes my brain hurt!

Apparently it's some kind of California Lincoln Mercury road trip.]