The "Do You Remember These Names From The Past?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a few names and photographs from the past that brought back many memories.  

"The Gerber Baby" as seen on baby food products.

One of the names was "The Gerber Baby" whose face was on most all Gerber packaging and in every Gerber advertise- ment.  I can remember buying baby food and seeing the near-perfect face on every glass jar of baby food.  It was in 1928 that Gerber held a contest to find a face for their baby food products.  

The grown-up baby, Ann Turner Cook.

Artist Dorothy Hope Smith entered her charcoal sketch of a young girl by the name of Ann Turner Cook.  She was a tousle-haired, bright-eyed cherub with endearing lips.  The sketch was picked as the winner and Gerber adopted it as its official trademark in 1931.  The name of the child was kept secret until 1978 when her name was released.  It was the artist's neighbor!  Ann Turner Cook eventually became an English teacher as well as a novelist.  Another name from the past is Jenny Joseph.  You probably will not recognize the name until I tell you that it was her image that inspired "The Columbia Picture Woman".  

The artwork by Deas on left and Jenny Jospeh posing for artwork.

The "Torch Lady" was first seen in 1928 when her image appeared at the beginning of films.  The artist of the "Torch Lady" was Michael Deas who created the oil painting which took two months to complete.  He hired Jenny to be his model for the painting which eventually was digitized and animated.  

1914 British poster on left and USA Uncle Sam poster.

One more image that is recog- nizable to just about everyone in the USA is the image known as "Uncle Sam".  The real person who posed for the artwork done by James Montgomery Flagg was Walter Botts.  It was in 1917 that a WWI recruitment poster featured "Uncle Sam".  

Walter Botts as Uncle Sam

Flagg's famous poster was actually based on the iconic, much imitated 1914 British recruitment poster of Lord Kitchener.  Mr. Flagg said he was going to use his own likeness on the poster, but then decided to use his neighbor, Mr. Botts, who was presented with a commendation for service by President Lyndon Johnson in 1969.  And, do you remember the famous KFC Logo photo that featured Colonel Harland David Sanders.  The Colonel was born on the day of my birth, September 9, but 54 years earlier in 1890.  

Colonel Harland David Sanders aka KFC Colonel Sanders

He was an American business- man who was best known for his fast food chain known as Kentucky Fried Chicken.  After being commission- ed as a Kentucky Colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby, Sanders began to dress the part, growing a goatee and wearing a black frock coat, a string tie and referring to himself as "Colonel".  He later switched to the white suit that he made famous.  He never wore anything else in public for the last 20 years of his life.  He even bleached his mustache and goatee to match his white hair.  

"Leo The Lion"

And, the final name you are sure to remember is Leo the Lion who was a real lion.  Does anyone know that Leo's real name was Jackie?  He was trained by Mel Koontz and was the second lion used for the MGM movie logo.  His roar was heard via a gramophone record during MGM's first sound production of "White Shadows in the South Seas" in 1928.  

Jackie and a frightful Greta Garbo in 1926.  Who wouldn't be afraid?

Jackie appeared in over 100 films including most of the Tarzan films that starred Johnny Weiss- muller.  He was known to have survived several accidents which included two train wrecks, an earthquake and an explosion in the studio and later became known as "Leo the Lucky".  So, how many of the characters I just presented did you know.  Guess it would depend on how old you may be.  For me, I remembered everyone of them, thus my name of "old as dirt" given to me by my grandkids.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.