Vitameatavegamin
Vitameatavegamin is a fictitious health tonic imbibed by Lucy on the 1952 I Love Lucy episode "Lucy Does a TV Commercial". It is stated as an elixir containing concentrated "vitamins, meat, vegetables, and minerals". It promised to help people who are "tired, run-down, and listless".[1]
During filming, Lucy was actually drinking apple pectin out of the Vitameatavegamin bottle. Originally, the Vitameatavegamin was 11% alcohol, according to a rare picture seen here, but for production, it was increased to 23%.[2] Vitameatavegamin was based on various patent medicines and nutritional supplements of the era; examples of well-known real-life elixirs of the sort included Geritol and Hadacol, iron and B-vitamin elixirs formulated in the mid-1940s that were then 12% alcohol.
The fictitious elixir is portrayed on multiple souvenir merchandise from cinnamon-flavored Vitameatavegamin candy, to cookie jars, to crocs.
Vitameatavegamin bottles were also seen in the Our Miss Brooks episode "Vitmin E-4" which focused on the gang at Madison High School bottling and selling a similar health tonic.
References
- ↑ "''The Great Clowns of American Television'', Karin Adir, p.12". Books.google.com. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
- ↑ "I Love Lucy, Lucy Does a TV Commercial | Everything Lucy". Youns.com. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
| ||||||||||||||||||