Transcription
Irene
The MOTHER’S OATS BABY Gives A Slide Show
3-18-77.
Dear Family,-
Yesterday was the climax - the reward of two weeks of home-work preparing for the BIG SNOW - and now I am in for several days of “let-down” on the uninspiring job of getting things back in order again. Yesterday it took three trips to get all of my equipment over to Stan Hywet and set up, and to day [sic], xxxxxx after another 3 trips, it is all back home again, but not put away. Before I get started on that job and the other jobs you’ll be hearing about, I must write this Family Letter “while the iron is hot” - while the excitement of it all is still with me. Judy and Anne performed as my very necessary assistants (I can’t run my five-projector show without an assistant on each side of me to keep the projectors unloaded, ready for me to insert the next pair of slides). Jeannie, Uncle Pen and Aunt Irene were in the audience, so they saw the show. But for the members of the family who saw the show and who did not see the show, the background story is important, so here goes:
The background dates back to 1893 when Mother had some portrait photographs taken of me, some in my pajamas and some partially nude with a leopard skin properly draped around me. When I was old enough to remember what was told to me, the story of how I became the Mother’s Oats Baby was registered in my memory bank somewhat as follows: Uncle Lute, who was Secretary of the Seiberling Milling Company (organized by John Frederick Seiberling, my staunch Republican grandfather), thought the semi-nude photo was so cute it would make a good trade mark for the company’s main product, Mother’s Oats. Mother at first refused to let her darling boy be commercialized as the MOTHER’S OATS BABY, but Father sided with Uncle Lute, and Mother finally consented. In 1901 grandfather’s company merged with The Great Western Cereal Company (Uncle Lute continuing as the Secretary and with my baby photo continuing as the Mother’s Oats trade mark). In 1912 the Quaker Oats Company absorbed The Great Western Cereal Company and continued using my picture as the trade mark for their Mother’s Oats. Years later they adopted a picture of a child looking over his mother’s shoulder as the new trade mark for Mother’s Oats (Uncle Lute did not go over to Quaker Oats in the 1912 merger, otherwise he would have fought strongly for keeping the original Mother’s Oats Baby as the permanent trade mark).
About a week before the date of my slide show, Ken Nichols told the above story and more in his column, closing with the following: “The trademark, reproduced here, showed a ‘good boy’ who ate Mother’s Oats, and a cigar-smoking urchin who didn’t. Naturally, Willard was the good boy.” (Then came one of Kenny’s typical “punch lines” to close with a snap) – “Anyway, the price for what Willard will show at Stan Hywet is $1.50.” Well, in the remaining 6 days before my show, I found out how popular Kenny’s column is, for each day I had friends, casual acquaintances and even many strangers comment to me about my MOTHER’S OATS BABY role. The widely read publicity Kenny gave me stirred up new interest in my show, with the result that I had a record breaking [sic] attendance. I had spent about half of the morning and the fore part of the afternoon getting all my equipment set up - my special 12-ft. screen that I designed and had made to order by going to the screen factory in Chicago and presenting my specifications to the superintendent and then working with the foreman, my special projector stand which was made to order according to my design, my five projectors, each with a different focal length lens which had to be adjusted according to the five different “croppings” I would be using, and then my special MOTHER’S OATS BABY display, including two of Annie’s T-shirts. About mid-afternoon I went home for my usual nap, then a shower and shave and an early supper and back to the Carriage House before 7:00. To my surprise, quite a few “early birds” arrived shortly after 7:00, and by 7:45 all the seats were filled and they were bringing in extra chairs and placing them way off to the sides and into the aisles. The people who thought they were arriving in plenty of time - 10 minutes early and 5 minutes early - were out of luck: STANDING ROOM ONLY.
More tomorrow, WTranscriber
Cindi RokeLanguage
English