Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Visits Lorain and Avon Lake – September 1959

Here’s a portion of an ad for Sparkle Market announcing the arrival in the area of Little Oscar and the Oscar Mayer Wiener Car (or Wienermobile) at the two local stores. The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on September 2, 1959.

It would have been nice if the Journal had covered the event with a photo, but it frankly must not have considered it newsworthy, as there was none to be found in the pages of the paper.

So who was behind the wheel of the wienermobile that day?

There were four different men who played the iconic Little Oscar role during that time period, traveling around as a goodwill ambassador for the company and handing out Wiener Whistles. Each was based out of a different part of the country.

There’s no way of knowing for sure, but it’s entirely possible that George Molchan, one of the best known Little Oscars, visited Jay’s Sparkle on Oberlin Avenue and the Sparkle Market in Avon Lake. His home was in Indiana, and he worked out of the Chicago area. (The other Little Oscars had home bases of Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Madison, Wisconsin. )

Molchan loved playing the character, and did it for twenty years. He was so identified with Little Oscar, that when he retired in 1987, Oscar Mayer retired the Little Oscar character as well.

Anyway, here’s a photo of one of the Oscars during a visit from that same time period to give you an idea of what the stop in Lorain looked like.

These days, Oscar Mayer has six different wienermobiles covering the country and the company is always recruiting new drivers (known as “hot-doggers”). Read what it’s like to drive the iconic vehicle here.

And here’s the link to the wienermobile’s page on the Oscar Mayer website.

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During the 1950s, there were many versions of Little Oscar illustrations in the Oscar Mayer ads. Overall, he seemed to be evolving from a pointy-eared elfin character (much like Snap, Crackle and Pop) to more of a regular guy.

Here's a sample from 1959.

Ad from the Van Nuys News, Oct. 8, 1959

Ad from the Daily Herald, June 4, 1959

Ad from the Atlanta Constitution, July 30, 1959

Ad from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 18, 1959

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Gee, I sure write a lot about hot dogs. Earlier this summer, I featured Little Oscar’s competitor, Frankie, here.