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Originally posted by oltheimmer
I don’t ever remember Chill Wills doing commercials for Wolf but he might have. The more recent campaigns, 10 or 15 years ago featured an actor who also did commercials for Houston Lighting and Power here for a long time. There was a write-up about him in the paper many years ago but I can’t remember his name. I’ve seen him also in some B-movies. I don’t think IMDB lists commercial credits [:(]. The guy I’m remembering was not that old; there was a large variety of scenarios – I don’t remember the one in a rocking chair.INSTANT UPDATE: It proved to be a simple matter to search on Dogpile and come up with this guy: Bob Magruder, a Dallas based actor and announcer. Unfortunately there’s no pic and I confess to being a computer illiterate when it comes to playing the sample audio files. His voice print identifies him as ‘the benevolent authority.’
This has brought back a childhood memory of the old guy I would see in Wolf Brand Chili commercials on our old B&W round screen TV in Lindsay, Oklahoma. I’m thinking around 1959 or before because we moved to California in 1960. I don’t remember a rocking chair, but that sounds about right because this was a really old guy. I remember a light-colored cowboy hat, and glasses that seemed a little dark. He always struck me as a guy who might have been a real cowboy. He had a gruff voice. I was told that as a small child I could imitate his voice and pitch line–something like "Neighbor… How long has it been since you had a big, thick, steaming bowl of Wolf Brand chili? (heh heh) Well, that’s too long!", and was asked to do so when all the grownups would get together to roars of laughter.