Robert Taylor’s Coffee Commercial

Around 1960 Robert Taylor and Ursula Thiess made a commercial for Maxwell House Instant Coffee. It ran regularly on his show “The Detectives” and probably other places. The commercial is charming. It starts with Mr. Taylor introducing his ranch and saying “we raise horses here.” He then joins Ursula for a cup of coffee. Mr. Taylor was, in fact, a dedicated coffee drinker and carried a thermos with him onto the set of his films.

Then the Taylors move inside where Ursula explains how to make the coffee. Mr. Taylor takes a sip and says, “some men are just lucky.” Ursula responds “and so are some women.” His expression is priceless.

You can watch the commercial itself on YouTube. But for now, here are some screen shots:

Other coffee moments:

L to R: “Ivanhoe,” “Knights of the Round Table,” “Undercurrent,” with Barbara Stanwyck

L to R: “Quo Vadis,” “Knights of the Round Table”

About giraffe44

I became a Robert Taylor fan at the age of 15 when his TV show, "The Detectives" premiered. My mother wanted to watch it because she remembered Mr. Taylor from the thirties. I took one look and that was it. I spent the rest of my high school career watching Robert Taylor movies on late night TV, buying photos of him, making scrapbooks and being a typical teenager. College, marriage and career intervened. I remember being sad when Mr. Taylor died. I mailed two huge scrapbooks to Ursula Thiess. I hope she got them. Time passed, retirement, moving to Florida. Then in 2012 my husband Fred pointed that there were two Robert Taylor movies that evening on Turner Classic Movies--"Ivanhoe" and "Quentin Durward." I watched both and it happened all over again. I started this blog both for fans and for people who didn't know about Robert Taylor. As the blog passes 200,000 views I'm delighted that so many people have come by and hope it will help preserve the legacy of this fine actor and equally good man.

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3 Responses to Robert Taylor’s Coffee Commercial

ralphm1999 says:

November 29, 2013 at 10:23 pm

Thank you for visiting my Robert Taylor blog and alerting me to your very insightful works here in turn. I will return to read more of your blogs. Whenever I read about some actor I worked with so many years ago, it invariably brings that person back to life with some forgotten action or quirk. Having read your coffee commercial item, I can now recall quite vividly the image of Bob so often sitting, pacing around with a coffee cup in his hands or next to him on a prop especially when we shot outdoor scenes in the coldness of winter nights. 🙂

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- giraffe44 says:
  
  November 30, 2013 at 5:26 pm
  
  Thanks for the comment. I’m retired now so I thought I would do my blog as a labor of love. It’s wonderful to hear from someone who actually knew Mr. Taylor.
  
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  - ralphm1999 says:
    
    November 30, 2013 at 6:36 pm
    
    Bob did not fraternize very much with anyone on the set. His lovely wife Ursula visited the set very often and they would stay together like young lovers. Having been born in Germany and receiving some documents from there, I once asked Ursula to translate them for me which she gladly did immediately and Bob just as politely as he always was waited silently for her to finish. (I had long since forgotten all my German) I don’t mean to imply Bob was stand-offish. He was very friendly with all members on the set and laughed loudly when there were gaffs in the lines during a take. He always said hello to me with at genuine smile the first time we met on the set every day.
    
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