This 1950s Gillette razor commercial is all about shaving cream, baseball players, & smooth young men

It’s important that every man learns how to shave properly. Luckily for those growing up in the late 1940s and early 50s, three Brooklyn Dodgers greats were there to help.

We recently came across a vintage Gillette Razor commercial that first ran in 1948, and it’s the perfect relic from post-war America. The 56-second spot is about men’s facial grooming and baseball.

We can feel… the patriotism.

The ad starts with an energetic broadcaster telling the audience that Dodgers infielder Pee Wee Reese has a “way with rookies and sandlot youngsters.”

“I enjoy helping teenagers start right,” he adds.

Most importantly, that includes maintaining their personal appearance.

“A boy has more self-respect when he’s clean-shaved,” says Pee Wee. “I tell him to use a Gillette razor.”

Perfect!

The bulk of the ad shows Reese and two of his teammates, Roy Campanella and the very handsome Don Zimmer, lathering up (in shaving cream) and moving those blades up and down (their faces) as the broadcaster tells viewers the razors are “light for sensitive skin and most young men.”

In other words, they are smoooooth!

Then again, they are also “heavy for men who like the heft and feel of a regular razor.”

The Gillette razor is whatever you want it to be, baby.

The whole brand screams Americana. The company, which was founded in Boston in 1901, took off during World War I, when the U.S. started shipping Gillette shaving kits to every serviceman.

And so the habit was born: baby boomers used Gillette.

With that history in mind, this ad is actually significant from a cultural sense. It stars Campanella, one of the first Black players to break MLB’s color barrier. Jackie Robinson was the first when he made his debut with the Dodgers in 1947.

One of the legendary stories from Robinson’s rookie season involves Reese, and was dramatized in Robinson’s biopic, 42. It’s believed that Reese put his arm around Robinson during one of the first games of the season, in the face of a hostile crowd in Cincinnati. (An ESPN investigation found the moment probably happened in 1948, Robinson’s second year.)

Years before the Civil Rights Act was passed, Gillette, an All-American company, cast a Black athlete in one of its ads. That’s pretty cool and forward-thinking for the time.

And while the commercial isn’t nearly as homoerotic as, say, a weightlifting video from postwar Britain or 1950s workout video, it’s still noticeable for its emphasis on, well, smooth young men.

Anytime Gillette wants to send three handsome ballplayers over to help us master the razor, just let us know. We’ll be waiting!

While you’re here, watch the trailer for 42 below…