Jolly Green Giant

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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.^{[citation needed]}

Portrayal

The original Jolly Green Giant from 1953.

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 Katherine Kelly Lang.^{[citation needed]}

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". The original jolly green giant portrayed himself as a giant that not only was green, but also jolly, this because green was his favorite colour and he was also a nice guy to be around. 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 soon-to-be-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, at 43°39′02″N 94°5′46″W / 43.65056°N 94.09611°W / 43.65056; -94.09611 (Jolly Green Giant statue (Blue Earth, Minnesota)). The statue attracts over 10,000 visitors a year.

The 55 foot statue of the Green Giant in Blue Earth was the idea of Paul Hedberg who owned local radio station KBEW. During the summer Hedberg interviewed travelers going through Blue Earth on U.S. Highway 16 for his popular radio program called "Welcome Travelers". At the end of each traveler interview Hedberg presented guests a sample of Green Giant corn and peas which had been canned in the local Blue Earth Green Giant plant. A common theme arising in interviews was a desire to "see the Green Giant".

In 1977 Hedberg contacted Thomas H. Wyman, President of Green Giant, to see if the company would allow a statue of their corporate symbol to be erected along the new Interstate 90 in Blue Earth. Wyman granted permission under the condition that funds for the project were raised locally. Hedberg approached ten local businessmen with the idea and asked for $5,000 each; within a week the $50,000 had been donated.

The Green Giant Company worked with the statue builder, Creative Displays of Sparta, Wisconsin, to ensure accuracy in the depiction. One concern was that the Giant had never been shown from behind on television.

The Green Giant statue arrived in Blue Earth via flat bed truck on September 21, 1978 and was actually erected on the 23rd. The Giant was hoisted in a sling by a 65 foot crane in the north roadside rest area along I-90, where he overlooked the official opening of I-90 at a point where east met west, marking I-90's completion and representing a 3,028 mile nonstop route from Boston to Seattle.

The statue was placed in its present, permanent location on July 6, 1979, a mile south of I-90 on U.S. Highway 169. It is estimated that 10,000 people a year visit the statue. The pedestal is accessible by steps, and the statue is maintained by the city, which cleans the giant at least once a year and adorns it with a red scarf around his neck during the Christmas Season.

Jolly Green Giant in popular culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (August 2009)

• The mascot became so well-known that the name came to be synonymous with anything 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."
• The green superhero monster, The Incredible Hulk, is described in jest as "The Not-So-Jolly Green Giant."
• On the CD Andy Warhol From Tape: Sounds of His Life and Work, there is a recording of Andy visiting a Gristedes supermarket in which Andy and a companion speak about how they love the image of the Jolly Green Giant.
• There is a billboard of the Green Giant in Le Sueur, Minnesota, with the Green Giant's companion Little Green Sprout.
• On The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson dressed as the "Little Green Sprout" in a skit.
• 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 restaurant.
• The Kingsmen, The Royal Guardsmen, and several other groups recorded songs titled The Jolly Green Giant.
• On The Electric Company, Phillip as Orange Giant was portrayed by Jim Boyd did a commercial a parody of Green Giant. The women sang the song, "In the Valley of the Jolly, (ho, ho, ho) Orange Giant!" He flubbed his line by saying differently like, "He, he, he", "Hi, hi, hi", etc. Whenever he goofed with his line, the women sang "Orange Giant" when the song was out of tune.
• In the film Ghostbusters II 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.
• Ludacris references the Jolly Green Giant in his song "Coming 2 America" on the album "Word of Mouf"
• In an episode of The Simpsons called "Lost Verizon", Marge Simpson mentions that she has to buy peas on installment and gets a final notice bill from the Jolly Green Giant.
• In the film Full Metal Jacket, Crazy Earl says "We are jolly green giants, walking the Earth with guns."
• In the 2007 sci-fi/fantasy novel The Unreals, by Donald Jeffries, the Jolly Green Giant has a brief cameo.^{[citation needed]}
• In the collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. by Sherman Alexie, the main character is preparing Green Giant mushrooms in the chapter A Drug Called Tradition.
• In the 1992 comedy film Wayne's World, Wayne Campbell asks the bouncer at the bar which bands were playing tonight, he replies "The Jolly Green Giants" and the "Shitty Beatles", the members of the "Jolly Green Giants" were dressed up as the Jolly Green Giant.
• Green Giant made a cameo appearance as a sleeping Giant in a British cartoon, The Dreamstone, in the episode 'The Jolly Bird!'
• In episode 19 (Find the Monkees!) of the television series The Monkees (TV series), one of the Monkees rival bands are called The Jolly Green Giants, featuring all the band members dressed up as the character.
• The Jolly Green Giant starred in a 2005 Mastercard commercial Icons along with 9 other mascots from other companies (including General Mills own Pillsbury Doughboy and Count Chocula) having dinner.

Footnotes

References

• GreenGiant.com: History (official company site)

External links

• Songfacts.com (lyrics)
• YouTube.com: First Green Giant commercial