I was really, really little when Captain and Tenille were big. I remember thinking the Captain was the same guy as the Tidy-Bowl Man.
My entire family is laughing about over comment!
Ty-D-Bol Man - The Ty-D-Bowl Company had a very strange nautical spokesperson to advertise the merits of their toilet bowl cleaning product. Precariously balanced in a small boat floating inside a toilet water basin, the Ty-D-Bowl man (wearing a Captain’s hat, blazer and turtleneck) greeted a TV housewife when she lifted the basin lid and proceeded to sell her and the viewing audience on the advantages of his product. This has got to be the worst location any commercial spokesman ever had to live.
Comedian George Carlin once commented on one of his comedy albums “They’re approving some pretty weird things, man. Like the guy in the toilet is pretty strange. Originally, it’s a row boat. Then he got a speedboat. Then he was on a raft with two calypso guy musicians and two bushels of lemons [singing] “We put the lemon in the Ty-D-Bol for you.”
Actors who portrayed the role of the Ty-D-Bol Man included Fred Miltonberg, Larry Sprinkle and Mark Matheisen. TRIVIA NOTE: In 1958 Harry O’Hare Sr. developed Ty-D-Bol, a liquid cleanser/disinfectant for the toilet bowl that is still sold today by Sara Lee Corporation. He also helped pioneer the use of chlorinators to clean swimming pools. O’Hare sold Ty-D-Bol Chemical in 1960 for less than $100,000.
In 1988 at the age of 67 O’Hare developed a new product called the Watergizer, an electro-chemical process that cleans and softens a household’s water supply far better than other systems on the market. It was developed by HOH Water Technology Corp, a Newbury Park firm organized by O’Hare in 1979. In 1991 color consultant James Mandle changed the color of Ty-D-Bol’s toilet bowl cleanser bottle from light blue and green to stark white letters on a dark background. In an 18 month period following the change of color, sales of Ty-D-Bol jumped 40%.
The 1992 “Ty-D-Bol Spring Cleaning Report” asked 1,006 American adults what they would choose if they “had the power to throw out what exists and start all over again.” The winner, picked by 49 percent, was the U.S. Congress. In 1994 Ty-D-Bol Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner -the Blue liquid in a Sanitizing Formula - was promoted as being “the only automatic bowl cleaner so powerful, it goes beyond clean to kill 99.9% of toilet bowl germs with every flush. And it’s the only automatic you can buy that’s registered with the United States E.P.A.”
See also PROPS - TOILETS: “Toilets”
Vanguard of commode sanitation has resigned.
February 11, 1998 San Diego CA After almost 25 years of keeping toilets spotless, Chester Marfield, better known as the Tidy Bowl Man has quit his job.