Robert Crumb lawsuit "Keep On Truckin' Cafe" musical bakery commercials Sioux City

[@ytubepuppy]

In 1972~1975 I lived in Omaha and played drums in a country band. One of the guys in the band knew the people who owned the Old Home Filler Up and Keep on Truckin' cafe and they booked us in to play for them three or four times. I still have a front bass drum head with their bumper sticker on it.

[@SIXPACFISH]

They don't make commercials like this anymore. When was the last time you were happy to see a new commercial? In Tennessee it was Kerns Bread Company.

[@householdsegard4813]

They even used the same face actors for Mavis and the trucker.

[@morganchatsworthiii9178]

Am I the only one that finds it funny, that someone named Crumb, is suing a bread company?

[@mikeskidmore6754]

William Dale Fried JR and Chip Davis wrote those Commecrials and the Old Home Filler up and Keep on a Truckin Cafe song grew from that .. the commercials came out in the Mid 1970's like 1973 or so

[@billtaylor2405]

Close, but it was William Dale Fries Jr.

[@jamesperley7010]

MMy wife I and several others were extras in Old Home commercials .Bill F was a nice man and enjoyed visiting with us. The Mavis character was in a bad mood when CW dripped her in a dip. She stormed away, and it took a long time to get her to continue. They paid us a dollar for our work.

[@bobwinner8936]

Buck 28 for all that food including tax. Gotta get me to the old home filler and talk to old Mave!

[@jardatulda4170]

R.I.P. C.W.McCall

[@elc1960]

Louis "Chip" Davis was responsible for the music in these commercials. He took some of the money he made from C.W. McCall's "Convoy" single and album and used it to create what he's known best for: the modern classical group Mannheim Steamroller.

[@betagemslostmedia607]

Wow, great info - thanks!

[@smudgealdrin1512]

I would love a go on Mavis.

[@donaldcadwell3911]

Probably mid 80's now...

[@wtkern]

What the heck harm did this do to Robert Crumb? If anything, it helped his brand and promoted his work. It's a pity that this mean-spirited lawsuit could have succeeded in any case. Does anyone else find it appropriate that this guy's name is Crumb? That said, this is brilliant material, thanks for posting it.

[@c.s.p.schofield2202]

The problem is copyright. Crumb had a major revenue stream from “Keep on truckin” posters and other merch, and the way it works is if he didn’t defend it, he would lose it. Lose the copyright, and the revenue stream goes away as everybody and his cousin starts making copycat posters. This is why the NFL is so nasty about people using the term “Super Bowl”

[@wtkern]

Okay, thank you. So, if you don't go after one guy, it negates your right to go after the next, or anyone? I would think that "truckin'", figuratively as a sprightly gait, would be sufficiently different from "truckin'", literally as hauling freight, that letting it go would not have such effect. Maybe a token lawsuit, or an agreement for a small royalty, to protect rights. That said, Bill Fries as an advertising professional should have known he was on thin ice. Great ads, though!

[@TastySurrealBowl]

I can’t believe R. Crumb had any grounds to sue. There’s no conceptual overlap at all between his comic and this tv campaign. “Keep on truckin’ “ are three words strung together. There is so much more going on in Bill Fries’ commercials than just those three words. How maddening that is. Thank you for posting these! If these were culled from 1980’s cable tv archives, are there any others from that period of “Uncle Ernie’s True Adventure Trails”? I’ve posted my collection here: kzbin.info/aero/PLmzx1-lw-rp_9CmnGCWTKD1wq7wyM4l5c Uncle Ernie was a midwesterner who drove all around the country in the 80’s dropping off tapes of his home movies at cable stations which he had edited and narrated to turn his various 8mm films into life lessons for kids. I would love to have more of them come to light from others who surely must’ve saved more of these!

[@vapourtrail7194]

Narrator sounds like C.W. McCall.

[@LogoMan7777]

It is.

[@rapman5791]

CW McCall was his stage name His real name was Bill Fries He just recently passed away at 93 years old 🙏