Maximum Marathon Part 3: Original 1970’s TV Prop Marathon Bars Discovered!

At the end of yesterday’s post, we premiered a never-before-seen Marathon John television commercial.  Today we’re going to share how that spot came to be and how some of the props created for the original 1970’s Marathon TV commercials were discovered and put back into use for the production of CollectingCandy.com’s “Marathon – Quick Calvin”.

Today’s post kicks off with a five minute CollectingCandy.com video segment, which tells much of the story.  Check it out:

[For those curious about my wardrobe in today’s segment, I’m wearing an awesome Glorp Gum t-shirt by artist Brad McGinty.  I’ll be covering Glorp Gum in detail soon, but if you’d like to learn more now – check it out!]

Now that you’ve watched the video (you have, haven’t you?) you know that the initial inspiration to produce the Quick Calvin spot came from my acquisition of some of the cast resin bar props created for the original 1970’s Marathon television commercials.

Original 1970’s Commercial Marathon bar resin prop bars.

These bars were created by commercial producer and master prop-builder Bob Self of  APA Studios.  Notably, Self’s puppet creations have been featured in Washington, D.C.’s, Smithsonian Institution Museum.  His work was included in over 250 commercials for some of the world’s largest retailers such as Coca-Cola, AT&T, Seiko, Nabisco and Toyota, and Pepto-Bismol.  Though Mr. Self had a long career in television commercials, he’s also notable as the man who created the very first puppets for the Mister Rogers Neighborhood program.

After Bob Self passed away, the Marathon bar props from his files as well as a few other candy and product props were sold by his wife to a collector that later passed them on to me (thanks, Ron!).

[Note: After carefully comparing the props to the original three spots it was clear that these examples were not used for the very first Marathon John commercial, but they do match up with those utilized in the other Marathon John commercials that followed.]

Once I had them in-hand, I was struck by the idea that it would be fun to use them in the production of a new Marathon commercial spot.  And that is the beginning of how “Marathon – Quick Calvin” was conceived.   The rest of the story is covered in today’s video segment.

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Here are a few behind-the-scenes shots from the production of Marathon – Quick Calvin.

Having the physical cast resin props meant that we’d need the wrappers to go with them, so I set about to create a set of them based on my 1970’s original:

Behind-the-Scenes – prop wrappers ready to go

With the prop bars and raw concept in hand, I enlisted a pair of filmmakers that I’d worked with before and been friends with for years to help me flesh it out and bring it to life; Michael Turney and Tony Wolf (creators of TheActionRoom.com).  Here’s a shot of myself with Tony – a wonderfully-inventive and fun actor, and a super Marathon John.

Marathon John and Quick Calvin

In this next shot you see me at pretend-work, our director’s hand and our awesome camera.

Behind-the-Scenes our camera

Here’s a snapshot of The Boss, played by Amy Monte, along with me in my Quick Calvin look and bite-out-of-it version of the prop bar.  Amy’s my real-life girlfriend (so she happens to be my real-life boss, too).

Behind-the-Scenes – The Boss and Quick Calvin

When I was figuring out how to create our final animated Marathon scene, I assumed I’d have to do it in post with some kind of digital magic.  But Mike and Tony both felt we could pull it off “old-school”, and they turned out to be correct.

Getting the Marathon wrapper to stick to side of the cubicle proved to be a challenge, but I finally took inspiration from Bill Murray’s Frank Cross character (of Scrooged fame) and just “tried staples”:

Behind-the-Scenes Have you tried staples

I can’t tell you how satisfying it was that we were able to pull off the final Marathon bar animation using an old-school “by hand” method.

Behind the Scenes – Bar animation old-school

You may have noticed that in the opening moment of the “Marathon – Quick Calvin” spot, Patrick Wayne’s Marathon John oversees our effort from a golden frame.  I’d like to think he was our inspiration throughout.

Our Marathon John on-set inspiration

And that’s everything for today’s post, as well as our three-day “Maximum Marathon” coverage.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this in-depth and varied look at one of my all-time favorite confectionery brands.

See you next time!