I would like to endorse a
wonderful hair product that guarantees to keep you from going bald.
The product is Charles Antell Formula #9.
I used a tube of Formula #9 and it worked.
The last time this product
was available seems to have been 1951 or '52. I was twelve years old
and I loved the sales pitch on television, on our 9” black and
white television. I ordered one tube and used all of it.
I have plenty of hair, now, fifty-five years later. My father, grandfathers, uncles and two of my three brothers are bald; but I'm not. I attribute my good fortune to Charles Antell Formula #9. (Of course I know about Gregor Mendel I wrote an article about him.)
I googled Charles Antell and found only two sites; both interesting:
Richard Corliss: “Vagrant time slots would be filled by five-minute commercials for Charles Antell Formula No. 9, a hair product with lanolin. A chorus sang a frantic admonitory jingle ("Why are so many pee-ee-ple/ So rough and tough upon their hair?/ In beauty shops, in barber shops,/ It shouldn't happen to a mop./ Men! Women! You're ruining your hair!"); then a carny-campy pitchman promised follicle salvation through sheep oil. It could have been the first infomercial. If so, damn its eyes, and damn me for somehow remembering those lyrics 50 years later.”
The second site is more
ominous for my beloved hair product:
"As early as 1953, the Utah Supreme Court addressed the conditions under which a foreign corporation was "doing business" in Utah so as to be amenable to suit for any purpose in Utah's courts. In McGriff v. Charles Antell, Inc., 123 Utah 166, 169-70, 256 P.2d 703, 704-05 (1953), our supreme court held that advertising in Utah, plus "something else," could constitute a presence in Utah sufficient to confer general personal jurisdiction over a foreign defendant."
Did my wonderful product get sued for advertising in Utah and get put out of business? Did the suit somehow dispute the product's guarantee to help you keep your hair?
Well, if so, now we know the suit was frivolous.
If there are other 66 year-olds out there who saved their hair with Charles Antell Formula #9, please contact me. Maybe we can resurrect the product.
ATTENTION: The product ingredients were tested in 2006 and the results are here. Photos of the product are here.
The authentic story of this product is told below by Dennis in the comments.