Tag: Brand Names

Victor Hugo

RICHARD: Wonderfully. They’re spoiling me rotten. [takes Emily’s hand] Emily got me the most beautiful humidor. It’s from 1917, and was owned by a lieutenant in World War I.

TRIX: You know, your father had a humidor that was owned by Victor Hugo. I still have it if you’d like it.

RICHARD: Well, I’d love it [drops Emily’s hand]

Victor-Marie Hugo (1802-1885), French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career spanning more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the greatest French writers of all time. His most famous works are The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).

Victor Hugo was a keen smoker, even saying that “Tobacco … converts thoughts into dreams”. I presume he smoked cigars, although it seems pertinent to mention that Victor Hugo is a famous brand of cigars. Is it possible that Richard’s father actually owned a humidor that was made by the company, I wonder? It seems much more likely.

Richard always seems to choose his mother over Emily. Even after he tries to show Trix what a thoughtful gift Emily has chosen for him, he drops her hand and says he’d prefer to have his father’s humidor instead. He can be very hurtful to Emily, and shows her no loyalty when it comes to Trix.

Six Flags

LUKE: So, how did the four dinners work out? You guys must feel more stuffed than you’ve ever been.

LORELAI: I don’t know. Is this more stuffed than the great Six Flags hot dog consumption of ’99?

Six Flags is an amusement park corporation founded in the 1960s in Arlington, Texas, and headquartered in Manhattan. It has 27 theme parks in the US, Canada, and Mexico, more than any other amusement park company, and has more than 30 million guests each year. The name Six Flags refers to the flags of the six nations which have governed Texas over the years – Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the USA, and the Confederate States of America.

The nearest Six Flags to Lorelai and Rory is Six Flags New England, in Agawam, Massachusetts. It is just north of the Connecticut border, about an hour’s drive away. They went to the theme park in 1999, possibly during the summer vacation, when Rory was nearly 15.

The Glad Man

DEAN: You know, when all this happened with you and me and Rory, I figured I’d just stay out of everyone’s way, that that would be easiest. But now, I’m looking at you and I’m thinking, I’m gonna run from him? The Glad Man.

I think Dean is referring to “The Man from Glad”, a mascot for the Glad Products Company, which specialises in trash bags – as a dig at Jess for taking out the garbage. The mascot is a white-haired man in a white suit who arrives to save housewives from domestic challenges, with the help of spy paraphernalia, as a nod to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Nordstrom’s

LORELAI: Oh, wow, it’s a piano player.

EMILY: That’s Brad. I found him at Nordstrom’s.

LORELAI: Was he on sale?

Nordstrom is a luxury department store headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and a second Nordstrom’s shoe store opened in 1923. The growing Nordstrom Best chain began selling clothing in 1963, and became the Nordstrom full-line retailer that presently exists by 1971.

There is a Nordstrom at Westfarms Mall in West Hartford.

Kirk’s Medicines

KIRK: Oh, nothing, just a little scratch.

LORELAI: Looks like a big scratch. Wow, Bactine, Neosporin, Mercurochrome – what’s with all the pharmacologicals?

Bactine: an antiseptic treatment containing lidocaine anaesthetic, first marketed in 1950.

Neosporin: broad spectrum antibiotic cream containing anaesthetic, approved for use in the US in 1971.

Mercurochrome: a topical antiseptic with a dye which stains the wound bright red. First developed in 1918, its distribution in the US was halted in 1998, due to concerns about it containing mercury. Somehow it is still available for sale in Stars Hollow in 2002! It is now manufactured in the US without any mercury.

Trojan Man Commercial

PARIS: Don’t say anything to Madeline or Louise about this ….

RORY: But they’re your best friends.

PARIS: Theoretically, yes, but the second I mention a guy they’re gonna both start singing the theme from the Trojan Man commercial, and I just can’t take that, okay?

Trojan, a brand of condoms first manufactured in 1916. About 70% of condoms sold in the US are Trojan brand. Their commercials in the 1990s and 2000s had a rousing song with a chorus of, “Trojan Man, Trojan Man, Trojan Man”.

McDonald’s Apple Pies and Ho-Hos

LORELAI: And out of nowhere, Kirk comes dancing by, waving a McDonald’s hot apple pie in the air and of course Ho-Ho lunges for the pie and drops my hand and that was it. Kirk wins, I’m out. I’m gonna get that Ho-Ho someday.

McDonald’s fast food restaurants, previously discussed. They have had hot apple pie on their dessert menu since 1968. Until 1992, the apple pies were deep fried, but are now baked.

Ho-Ho, previously discussed.

Lorelai’s story reveals that Kirk is not above fighting dirty in order to win the dance marathon. He had great foresight to bring a McDonald’s apple pie with him to the marathon, and kept it hot (?) by some arcane means.