The Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, Minnesota

The Jolly Green Giant is a symbol of the Green Giant food company of the United States, appearing as a smiling green-skinned giant wearing a tunic, wreath and boots made of leaves. In 1973, JGG teamed up with "Little Green Sprout", the diminutive young green giant. Created by Leo Burnett, the Giant first appeared in advertisements in 1928; the name originally came from a variety of unusually large pea called the "Green Giant" that the company canned and sold.

Portrayal

Len Dresslar, born 1925, provided the voice of the Jolly Green giant in television commercials, saying only "Ho, ho, ho."^[1] Dresslar was also a successful as a jazz and popular music singer in Chicago entertainment circles. Despite being over 6ft (1.82m) tall, Dresslar never portrayed the Giant in TV commercials. The figure viewers saw on screen was Keith R. Wegeman, an Olympic ski jumper and father of soap opera actress Katherine Kelly Lang from The Bold and the Beautiful.

The original televised Jolly Green Giant was nothing more than a puppet that, through the use of stop-motion animation, stalked through the "valley" and said little more than "fo fum fi fe" (perhaps a reference to the fable Jack and the Beanstalk). The commercial, which first aired in 1953, was deemed too scary for younger viewers and the puppet was discarded. The next commercial featured several different animated elves (similar to the Keebler elves) working in a "factory" around the valley while Keith Wegeman (shown in far-away shots) stood over the area, chanting the now-famous "ho, ho, ho" phrase.

Statue

In 1978, the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota paid $43,000 to erect a 55-foot (16.8 m) fiberglass statue of the Jolly Green Giant to commemorate the linking of the east and west sections of Interstate 90. It was permanently erected on July 6, 1979. The statue attracts over 10,000 visitors a year.

Jolly Green Giant in popular culture

• The mascot became so well-known that the name came to be used for other sorts of things that were large and green in color.
• The HH-3E rescue helicopters that the United States Air Force used during the Vietnam War were called Jolly Green Giants, while the larger HH-53 helicopter received the nickname "Super Jolly Green Giant."
• The green superhero monster, The Incredible Hulk, is often described in jest as "The Not-So-Jolly Green Giant."
• There is a large billboard of the Green Giant in Le Sueur, Minnesota, with the Green Giant's companion Little Green Sprout (though trees are in the way).
• In an oft-replayed bit from The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson is dressed as the "Little Green Sprout" and is standing between the lower legs of the Giant. He looks up and says, in his "Art Fern" voice, "Ho-ho-ho, Jolly Green Giant! Show us your Niblets!" whereupon he is showered with gigantic kernels of corn. He then looks up and mouths an obscenity at the Giant while the audience roars.
• In the film Full Metal Jacket Crazy Earl says, "We are jolly green giants, walking the Earth with guns."
• The giant was the subject of several questions on the popular 1970s game show Match Game.
• In the film Demolition Man the "Valley of the Jolly Green Giant" song is heard while in a Taco Bell restaurant.
• The Kingsmen, the Royal Guardsmen, and several other groups recorded songs titled The Jolly Green Giant.
• In the film Ghostbusters 2 After bringing the Statue of Liberty to life, Bill Murray's character says "Keep kickin' Libby. If you make this work, we'll pop for a weekend in Vegas with the Jolly Green Giant!"
• In Martin Bashir's documentary about Michael Jackson, Jackson was shown to have a Jolly Green Giant statue and sung the signature theme song. This was later spoofed in British comedy sketch show Bo Selecta.

References

1. ^ Washington Times, October 25, 2005.

External links

• History of Green Giant
• Lyrics and more info on the song
• Video of the very first Green Giant commercial

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