Betty Brinkley: a frightening FDNY fire safety PSA from 1982
May 30, 2021 15:41:33 GMT
dycaite, GrigioGuy, and 4 more like this
Post by Automaton on May 30, 2021 15:41:33 GMT
I'd like to preface this by thanking Dycaite for the heads-up in the Lost Commercials server.
This PSA was described in a tweet by Phil Nobile Jr. In short: a woman holds up a black-and-white photograph of herself when she was younger. The photograph is blocking her face. She describes how her husband fell asleep in bed with a cigarette, causing a fire that burned down the house and killed her family. She was the only survivor... "I guess you could say I was the lucky one," she says, lowering the photograph to reveal a horribly scarred face - a final twist which terrified audiences.
It sounds pretty horrific, but it also might sound very familiar. What you're probably thinking of (and what I thought of too when I first read Phil's tweet) was the infamous drink driving PSA with Jacqueline Saburido. Subject matter aside, the format and concept are remarkably similar:
What gives me hope that this PSA will be found is that we actually know quite a lot more about it. Check out this New York Times article from April 1982:
A short article from 1977 in the same paper also describes the tragic fire in more detail.
So, we know it began airing around April of 1982. We know it was made/commissioned by the New York City Fire Department (also known as FDNY). We know that it starred a lady named Betty Brinkley. What we don't know is where to find it, but the FDNY certainly seems like a good place to start!
This PSA was described in a tweet by Phil Nobile Jr. In short: a woman holds up a black-and-white photograph of herself when she was younger. The photograph is blocking her face. She describes how her husband fell asleep in bed with a cigarette, causing a fire that burned down the house and killed her family. She was the only survivor... "I guess you could say I was the lucky one," she says, lowering the photograph to reveal a horribly scarred face - a final twist which terrified audiences.
It sounds pretty horrific, but it also might sound very familiar. What you're probably thinking of (and what I thought of too when I first read Phil's tweet) was the infamous drink driving PSA with Jacqueline Saburido. Subject matter aside, the format and concept are remarkably similar:
What gives me hope that this PSA will be found is that we actually know quite a lot more about it. Check out this New York Times article from April 1982:
It will not be easy to watch the New York City Fire Department's new public service message - a message delivered by a woman whose family perished and who was disfigured in a fire that started when her husband fell asleep while smoking a cigarette.
The television spot is supposed to be as striking as the statistic cited by its sponsors: Nearly one-third of the deaths and injuries in residential fires occur in blazes started by smoldering cigarettes, far more than any other single cause.
The television spot is supposed to be as striking as the statistic cited by its sponsors: Nearly one-third of the deaths and injuries in residential fires occur in blazes started by smoldering cigarettes, far more than any other single cause.
The deliberately provocative spot shows a badly disfigured fire victim, Betty Brinkley, whose husband and three children were killed during a fire in their Camden, N.J. home in December 1977. She was severely burned over one quarter of her body and has so far undergone 38 reconstructive surgical procedures.
A short article from 1977 in the same paper also describes the tragic fire in more detail.
So, we know it began airing around April of 1982. We know it was made/commissioned by the New York City Fire Department (also known as FDNY). We know that it starred a lady named Betty Brinkley. What we don't know is where to find it, but the FDNY certainly seems like a good place to start!
