Me in all my youth and handsomeness (well, sort of) back in the late 1950s.
I've 'ad a lot of queries from folk over't years about an early Esso Blue commercial I appeared in. It may even 'ave been the first one they ever showed, but I don't rightly remember. Anyway, in this ad back in the late 1950s, I'm answering the phone and folk keep askin' for Joe, to which I replies that I'm not Joe, I'm the Esso Blue dealer. It's the famous tongue-tied ad I spoke about before.
Anyway, in the end, Joe phones up an' asks me if there've been any calls for 'im.
Why, folk 'ave often asked me, am I apparently not called Joe in that particular ad?
Well, it's because the Esso Blue ad agency 'adn't got all their ideas together, and at first I was anonymous - just a dealer. So, they picked the name "Joe" as the name of the bloke bein' asked about by people phonin' the Esso Blue dealer (me) and then him phoning at the end of the ad.
Joe is my name, of course, and the ad director said it were a "nice, down to earth, proletarian name", whatever one of them is, so I that's the name they used for the unseen bloke in that ad.
Later, they decided to use my name on the ads, which is Joe as well, of course, and that's when the confusion comes in when folk see the early ad.
They were heady days.
But they sometimes made me feel I didn't know whether I were on me 'ead or me 'eels.
JOE x
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