Classic Commercials That Bring You Back in Time to Growing Up in Greater Danbury

I was talking to my co-worker Tom, we both grew up here in Western Connecticut in the 70's and 80's, and we started singing classic TV commercials to each other. I broke out with "The Hip Hooray and Ballyhoo! The Lullaby of Broadwayyyy", and he came back with "Adventure is in our naturrrre."

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If you were born after 1990, you may have no idea that we're singing the classic jingles of New York's Milford Plaza and Catskill Game Farm. God, those commercials were inescapable back in the day. There were so many memorable jingles and characters in advertisements back then, before everything was sanitized in front of focus groups and video editing was easy.

So, for those who were around during this beautiful time, here's a few classic commercials that you definitely saw if you grew up in Western Connecticut.

The Westchester County Fair was held at the Yonkers Raceway until 2003, but the banjo picking lives on forever on YouTube, Enjoy.

The "Beautiful" Mt. Airy Lodge was located in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, and they marketed the hell out of the Tri-State area for years. The hotel was closed in 2001, and demolished to make way for the "Beautifuller" Mount Airy Casino Resort.

Who could forget Jerry Carrol screaming "INSANE" at you 50 times a day? Not me. Crazy Eddie stores flamed out in the late 80's when owner Eddie Antar served more than 6 years in prison in the early 90's after being convicted of racketeering charges. You gotta hand it to them though, they were attention grabbing.

This was one of my favorites. The Milford Plaza was located at 700 8th Avenue in Manhattan, it still is, but it's now known as Row NYC Hotel. Milford Plaza Hotel existed until 2009 and then it was sold a couple and extensively renovated. Such a catchy song, and the images of Manhattan nightlife made me want to get to the city every time I heard that jingle.

Catskill Game Farm was open until 2006, and it is now operated as The Old Game Farm, where you can enjoy the abandoned 200 acre property, over 100 buildings, and most of the former cages for the thousands of animals that used to be there.

Finally, this jingle is burned into my brain. "Milforrrrrrrd....Milford Amusement Center, we've got the fun!" God I loved that place, it was located on the Post Road in Milford and we used to take the trip down Route 8 with our $20 ready to convert into quarters, play skee ball, Donkey Kong, JR. and Zaxxon for hours. What a great place it used to be. It changed owners and names, and was known as Smiles until 2011. Now in 2022, 1770 Boston Post Road is home to Bowlero Milford, still a fun place for families.