When I was a youngster and Lionel Electric Trains were considered the high tech toy products of the day; around the holiday season I recall several TV Commericals. Many can be found on You Tube but the one called The Wonderful World of Trains was the most memorable. It was a long commerical that used Marionette puppets to tell a story to a boy that woke up in trainland.
It can be found here and I enjoy it to this day: https://youtu.be/Pttd51TkVyg
I'm a bit too young to have seen that when it was a commercial, but caught it as part of a 2 pack (probably VHS) offering from one of the train video companies (I forget if it was McComas or maybe another vendor). It was bundled with that "Joe McDoakes" short. Both were lots of fun to watch.
As for remembering, I can only say one. I remember seeing the Lionel commercials for the L.A.S.E.R. train in the very early 80's, probably during Saturday morning cartoons. That and possibly some Johnny Cash commercials (think those existed in the late 70's?) were probably the only 2 Lionel Train commercials on TV in my lifetime.
-Dave
It's an odd thing, I was born in 1953 and don't remember us never having a TV set, but I also don't remember ever seeing any Lionel ads.
I do remember Captain Kangaroo having a Lionel layout and his running it during some show segments. I've tried and failed to find the Captain's layout on YouTube, but no luck. I suppose those old show video masters are long gone.
Needless to say, by the time the L.A.S.E.R. set was being advertised or the Johnny Cash Lionel commercials aired I was long done with Saturday morning cartoon shows.
The only commercials I ever saw were the bits and pieces highlighted on the TM "History of Lionel Trains" VHS tape I've had for years. You can thank(blane?) the Helios 21 ad for the way I now pronounce "Lie-uh-nell".
Same me, different spelling!
I believe Lionel commercials were done using Hall of Fame baseball player Joe Dimaggio and later country musician Johnny Cash. There is a long list of famous people that had model train layouts including Frank Sinatra, Tom Hanks, Warren Buffett and Michael Jorden. I don't believe that any were ever featured in model railroad publications.
Rocker Rod Stewart has a large HO layout, I think it's been featured in "Model Railroader" magazine but I'm not sure of that.
Yul Brynner was a big American Flyer S gauge fan.
Frank Sinatra's layout was covered in a "Classic Toy Trains" article a year or so ago, maybe more. It was also covered in a TM video, along with Tom Snyder's and Mandy Patinkin's.
Joe DiMaggio was the star of a Lionel-sponsored TV show back in the early 50's. It didn't work out that well as I recall, Joe wasn't really comfortable in front of the camera (He hadn't yet developed the poise he had in those "Mr. Coffee" commercials I'm sure many of us remember) and it showed, so the show didn't last too long. It soured J. L. Cowan on television, so for the remaining years he was the boss he kept Lionel ads in print media.
I remember seeing Warren Buffett's traveling BNSF layout that goes to big trade conferences in some publication, don't remember which, but his home O gauge layout's never been featured anywhere as far as I know. Same with Michael Jordan.
Sinatra's layout was covered posthumously many years ago. Neil Young's has been shown as well, thankfully, not posthumously.
Johnny Cash Christmas 1976: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jf6aQfTTPA
Johnny Cash Christmas 1976, Trains-N-Truckin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwW_fldeM-U
A compilation including those plus some from the 2000's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I9VP7AVNqM
A segment from Pawn Stars showing Johnny Cash's own 260E: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs3ua6ZpcIA
Lionel Clubhouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTVP0ITCiy4
Great stuff here too, including a 2 minute edit of Lionel Clubhouse that probably ran as a stand alone ad and a Gilbert ad for All Aboard sets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i54dh0HWcoc
Nice Links!
I guess I was wrong, I was of course also alive for the bank and alarm clock commercials from the early 2000's, I just either never saw them or I forgot about them. (I have the alarm clock (as well as the wall clock that had a train that ran around it's perimeter on the hour), knew about the bank, but don't remember if I ever saw the commercials back then)
I didn't see the L.A.S.E.R. anywhere in those links (apologies if I missed it). Here is a link to that commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhURhaIRdqI
I've got one of those Lionel alarm clocks, but I only used it as an alarm clock once. When it went off at "Zero-dark-thirty" it was so loud it almost gave me a heart attack! Then I fumbled around in the dark with Lady Firestorm roaring "SHUT THAT &@#% THING OFF, NOW!" It upset the dog too!
I just use it as a clock now. Keeps good time though!
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