Jack Somack acted in amateur productions for many years and didn't
break into professional acting until his fifties. In films, he is
probably best known for his portrayal of the father of Alexander
Portnoy (Richard Benjamin) in "Portnoy's Complaint." But probably his
greatest claim to fame was appearing in the hilarious and highly memorable
"spicy meatball" Alka-Seltzer commercial in 1969. This was really
a "commercial within a commercial." A film crew is trying to make a
10-second spot for a fictitious brand of meatballs. In it, Somack (who
was Jewish) portrayed an actor playing a portly, mustachioed Italian
sitting at a little table in front of a small oven. From his left, his
ample, beaming "wife" places a plate of meatballs in front of him. Jack
is supposed to eat one and say, "Mamma mia, that's a spicy
meat-a-ball!" but something keeps ruining the take. After a string of
blown takes (and meatballs), Jack is reduced to a helpless, dyspeptic
stupor. Cut to a scene of two Alka-Seltzer being dropped into a glass
of water with the appropriate voiceover. Cut back to the meatball
commercial, where the next take seems to be going perfectly, until the
door of the oven falls open with a clang. "Okay," says the director,
"let's break for lunch." This commercial was pulled from the air after
protests from Italian-American anti-defamation groups that the
commercial promoted unflattering stereotypes of Italians.
