[2] The company is best known for its nautical spokesperson, the Ty-D-Bol Man, who piloted a boat inside the toilet tank in TV commercials from 1968 to 1984.
[3] In 1960, O’Hare sold Ty-D-Bol Chemical to its other executives for less than $100,000; independently he pursued an assortment of inventions - various detergents, a swimming pool chlorinator, a water softener.
[4] Revlon briefly owned the company (as well as a shoe polish maker and a minority stake in Schick) as part of a diversification attempt which it quickly abandoned.
[10] The 1992 "Ty-D-Bol Spring Cleaning Report" commissioned New York-based public opinion polling firm Research & Forecasts to ask 1,006 American adults “if they had the power to throw out what exists and start all over again", what would they choose?
[11] As a 1995 winning entry in the Washington Post Style Invitational (Week 121), Russell Beland of Fairfax, Virginia proposed "A useless product: New, lemon yellow Ty-D-Bol".
Nattily attired in a captain's hat, blazer, and turtleneck, he piloted a toilet tank-sized boat in TV commercials from 1968 to 1984.
[14] Mark Matheisen's film credits include roles in Forrest Gump, Plan B, A Walk in the Clouds, and Ocean Tribe.
He sang calypso, threw tiny lemons, and was a favorite topic for Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, Carol Burnett, and George Carlin.
"[15] Decades after the televised ad campaign ended, the character continues to serve as a symbol of the excesses of the advertising industry.