Hostess Potato Chips and Bobby Vinton

- jim Young

“‘Cause when you’ve got the munchies, nothing else will do.” - Hostess Potato Chip slogan.

What does 1960s Teen Idol Bobby Vinton have to do with an old bag of Hostess Potato chips? Not much really, unless you’re brave enough to venture into my world for a few minutes. 

But first, a disclaimer. The accuracy of this article is almost completely reliant upon my memory, which I sometimes find to be disappointing of late. So please take this trip down memory lane with a grain or two of the salt found on Hostess Potato Chips in the 60s.

In my efforts to vet some of the details in my story, even my research buddy Dr. Google has failed me. For example, my story takes place circa 1965 when I was about 12 or 13. If you look closely you will see the weight claim on the foil bag of Hostess Potato Chips in the picture I have provided is 40 grams.

Canada did not switch to metric weights until 1975, but this was the closest image I could find to what “I” remember Hostess Potato Chips looking like in 1965.

Potato chips in that era were sold in 5¢ bags, 10¢ bags and for the big spenders, big bags that cost 25¢.

Hostess had a promotion around that time in which they offered a free 45 rpm record of your choice if you saved up enough coupons. As I recall (and again Dr. Google failed to provide me with an image of this) the coupon found on the 10¢ bag of potato chips was a picture of a small gold record in the top right hand corner with “2¢” appearing in the middle of the record. The 25¢ bag had the same coupon with a value of 5¢ appearing on it.

The idea was to cut and collect enough of these coupons to add up to the price of a 45 rpm record which was 98¢ at the time. That would be the equivalent of purchasing 49 x 10¢ bags of chips or 18 x 25¢ bags of chips AND 4 x 10¢ bags of chips, or any other similar variation thereof. 

You would then mail these coupons to Hostess with your top 3 choices of a song that was in the current Hit Parade and they would mail you your record.

I don’t remember what my 3rd choice was but my first choice was “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” by Herman’s Hermits. After waiting the required few weeks for delivery, I finally received my 2nd choice of “Mr. Lonely” by Bobby Vinton as Herman’s Hermits was unavailable.

As I was just learning to become a rebellious teen, there's a very good chance my fondness of the song "Mr. Lonely" was inversely proportional to how much my father disliked it.

But there it is and there it was. The first 45 rpm record I owned that started me off on a quest to fill my room with vinyl.

On a separate note, I was beginning to think owning a Herman’s Hermits record was not in my destiny. Later that year I had “The Best Of Herman’s Hermits” album on my Christmas wish list. On Christmas morning I excitedly unwrapped a gift whose wrapping did nothing to disguise it was a record album. It was from my older sister, Leah. I was a little disappointed to discover it was “Summer Days (And Summer Nights)” by The Beach Boys. Leah quickly explained to me that the Herman’s Hermits album I wanted was sold out. In hindsight, The Beach Boys was a much better option anyway.

Suspiciously enough though, shortly after Christmas I noticed that “The Best Of Herman’s Hermits” had somehow joined Leah’s record collection. However, under the universal law that states “whatever an older sibling leaves behind when they move away from home is up for grabs among the remaining siblings,” this Herman's Hermits album is also now part of my record collection.

Promotions and Bobby Vinton aside, Hostess was always my preferred brand of potato chips until they partnered with Frito-Lay (owned by Pepsico) in 1987. Rebranding the name as “Lays” in 1996 the merger all but dropped the Hostess name leaving Hickory Sticks as the only remaining Hostess product.

Yes, my friends… Those were the days.

- 30 -

Thanks to My Shirley for suggesting this article after hearing me tell the tale (for the 100th time) of how I obtained my first record ever.

Do you have some pictures or memories of the proverbial “good old days” that you would like to share? If so, please send them by clicking on this link, Those Were The Good Old Days.