Space 1999 was the second live action television production from the fertile imagination of Gerry Anderson. But I don’t want to talk about the show itself – I want to talk about the ice lolly of the show!
Produced by Lyons Maid, the Space 1999 iced lolly was launched in the mid-70’s, and each lolly came with a free card. Here is the wrapper;
It’s that time of year (the Summer!) – the time when all you want to do is eat frozen lumps of flavoured ice on a wooden stick (and don’t you just hate it when you lick the dry bit of the stick at the bottom by mistake?). Ice Lollies are a reflection of the times – it’s true! For instance, it reflects what is popular in culture, like ‘Bionic’ lollies – you wouldn’t sell many nowadays (except to sad sack nostalgists like me), but in the Seventies – form a queue please boys and girls!
As it was in the Seventies, so it was also in the Sixties. This stupendoulsy of-its-time (around 1968) advert for ‘The Wildest Ice Cream Idea Ever’ is courtesy of Lew Stringers blog
and a good find it is too – because if you were searching for a lolly called ‘Kinky’, then trust me, by putting ‘kinky lolly’ in as a search in Google gets you some fruity results, but they don’t relate to anything made by Walls or Ice Cream (and they are NSFW). I remember Kinky as a sticker on the Tonibell ice cream van window during my early years, but cannot recall eating them (I was more of a Lord Toffingham, Dalek Death Ray or Count Dracula’s Deadly Secret fan). It seems that ‘Kinky’ also transcended its Psychedelic Shack-les and was involved in other promotions, like the chance to win your very own hovercraft (which sounds absolutely incredible – and if anyone out there actually owned one, can you confirm what it was like to have a personal kiddie sized hovercraft please?). Anyway, here is the advert, ‘New’ Kinky nestled in between ‘New’ Jumbo and ‘New’ Sky Ray 3 (these names are so awesome – Sky Ray 3 sounds like a series that Gerry Anderson should have made right after Thunderbirds);
Walls’ competitor, Lyons Maid, also had a hippie / psychedelic rival to ‘Kinky’, although it was released in 1973, namely the troubling ‘Freak Out’ (‘troubling’ as in the name ‘Freak Out’ – like, did they spike Lollies in the UK like they spiked the Kool-Aid in the US???). Anyway, at the rather touching ‘KZWP’ site, we have proof of the fact of a lolly named ‘Freak Out’ in the form of a badge;
Check out the visuals! A few slurps on ‘Freak Out’ and your favourite singer (in this case, clearly modeled on Robert Plant) gets a very fiery complexion, with big waves of colour emanating from his head, as his eyes roll back in his head – or maybe his pupils have just…..disappeared….jesus….i’m freakingout…took too many slurps on that Lyons iced lolly……..
The site describes the lolly itself as ‘A strawberry and lemon ice cream marbled together to form a psychedelic pattern on a stick. Price 5p.‘. See the site for yourself here.
On sports day at Longwood Primary School, one of the treats, alongside the fact there were no lessons on that day, was the arrival of the Ice Cream van. Either a blue & white or a yellow & white affair, with the Lyons Maid or Walls logo emblazoned on the back and sides and the various wares advertised with stickers on the serving windows. This symbol of our after school life, at school, was a very pleasant juxtaposition. Whats with the reminiscing? I’m coming to it.
Walls and Lyons Maid were the Lords of Lollies in the Seventies – Funny Face, Funny Feet, Bionic Lolly, Choc-a-bloc, Lord Toffingham, Haunted House, Pineapple Mivvi or, if your folks were particularly skint, a Lemonade Sparkle or Mini-Milk ….
Back to the point! The reason for my reverie is that 2 wonderful blogsites have reawakened my childhood memories of one of the best ice lollies I have tasted, and reminded me of the ice cream vans at sports day. This particular lolly was the one I always asked for after the egg and spoon race – it was called ‘Count Draculas Deadly Secret’, and not only did it have an amazing name, it also had a ‘deadly secret’ – that secret was the blood red jelly centre once you had eaten through the black lolly and white ice cream – aaagggghhhhhhhh!
Here is one of the press adverts, usually seen in comics of the time (around the mid 70’s) courtesy of both the the cobwebbed room and lewstringer.blogspot;
not only, but also……Lew Stringers blog manages to drag a big carrier bag of junk food and drink related advertising goodness back to his site – there’s Cresta (which was up against Corona in a low budget British pepsi vs coke war) amongst other stuff. Does anyone else remember the pop man? He used to deliver Corona pop and you got ‘busy with the fizzy’ stickers and pop bottles in crates…..Anyway, Lew Stringers site is amazing – his blog is a real treat. Here’s the post – but the site is just great in general;
If you look here there’s an old advert for Anglo Bubbly bubble gum from waaaay back.
A request – Can anyone provide me with a link or a picture of a Lord Toffingham lolly wrapper? I remember it being a brown wrapper with a ‘Lord Snooty’ type illustration of a young man wearing a monocle. I would love to see one of those….
By the way, I found this on youtube – did you pass the Corona fizzical???
