Sugar Crisp Ad – January 19, 1950

Breakfast cereal is one of my favorite topics on this blog. (I’ve written about Rice Krispies, Rice Krispies Marshmallow Treats, the Rice Krispies Song, General Mills Monster Cereals and Shreddies.)

So naturally, when I saw the ad above for Post Sugar Crisp – which ran in the Lorain Journal on January 19, 1950, 66 years ago today – I knew I had to feature it on the blog. (Another introductory ad that was in the Journal on Feb 9, 1950 is at right.)

Post Sugar Crisp was brand new back then, having been launched in 1949, and featured three bears on the package instead of the beloved Sugar Bear still seen on the Post Golden Crisp box today.

You didn’t know that there were originally three bears? Then read my article all about the history of Sugar Bear, which appears here courtesy of the HKM Grapevine.

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The Bear Facts About Sugar Bear

After more than 50 years, this bear still can’t get enough of that Sugar Crisp!

By Dan Brady

Some advertising mascots spring from the imagination fully formed and go on to promote a product for decades. Other mascots, like Post Cereals’ Sugar Bear, take a little longer to evolve. The story of Sugar Bear’s creation is an interesting one that bears repeating.

In 1949, Post launched one of the cereal industry’s very first pre-sweetened cereals, a sugarcoated wheat puff called Sugar Crisp. It was a spectacular success. Three identical cartoon bears named Dandy, Handy and Candy appeared on the first cereal packages. The bears were featured in magazine and newspaper ads in which the copy used their names to reinforce the cereal’s attributes: “As a cereal it’s dandy! For snacks it’s so handy. Or eat it like candy!”

The three bears created a sensation when they appeared as puppets in some stop action animated TV commercials for Sugar Crisp, convincing some of the rival cereal companies (like Kellogg’s) that they needed some animal pitchmen as well.

As you can see, the original cellophane bag in which Sugar Crisp was sold eventually gave way to a foil-lined box (below) that helped prevent the cereal from solidifying into a sugary brick.

A 1954 box

During the 1950s, the in-house Post creative team tinkered with the design of the bears on the cereal box. There were the original Betty Boop-like bears with large wide heads, as well as another version in which the bears were rounder and hairier. The bears on the cereal boxes seemed to alternate randomly between the two versions throughout the decade.

Eventually Bob Traverse, the commercial artist who worked on all of the Sugar Crisp boxes, got tired of creating layouts with three bears, and conspired to send two of them into permanent hibernation. He gradually reduced two of the bears to a secondary position on the box before eliminating them entirely.

For the next several years, he explored different layouts with the single “Betty Boop” style bear.

A 1963 box

Finally, Traverse and his art director decided to redesign the single bear to look less wimpy. 

The box in 1964

But this new, beady-eyed bear wasn’t quite Sugar Bear yet, even though he appeared in some TV commercials.

It wasn’t until this “new bear” was planned to part of the Linus the Lionhearted TV show that he received a makeover by the advertising agency and became Sugar Bear.

Linus the Lionhearted was a half-hour weekly cartoon that hit the airwaves in September 1964. It featured all of the Post Cereals ad mascots in their own animated adventures, including Linus, who was on Crispy Critters, an animal-shaped cereal; Lovable Truly the postman (from Alpha-Bits); So-Hi (from Rice Krinkles); Rory Raccoon (from Post Toasties); and Sugar Bear.

Sugar Bear was given the personality of a jive-talking disk jockey, as well as a Bing Crosby voice that was provided by nightclub comic Gerry Matthews. The unflappable bear became an immediate hit on the Linus the Lionhearted show, becoming more popular than Linus. 

A 1965 box

Unfortunately, while the show was a ratings success, the lagging sales of the Post cereals did not justify the show’s expense. It continued in syndicated reruns until 1969, when the Federal Communications Commission ruled that children’s programs could not feature characters based on products. This meant the end of the line for Linus the Lionhearted. A few years later, Linus and Crispy Critters were both extinct, but Sugar Crisp continued to be popular.

A box from 1969
(From the Dan Brady collection)

Sugar Bear continued his cereal commercials for decades as the last of the original Post cereal mascots. In the long-running spots, he outwitted characters including Granny Goodwitch, a kindly witch (voiced by Ruth Buzzi of Laugh-In fame), the Blob, a loose-limbed gangster, and a menagerie of bullying foxes, tigers and other animals. 

Sugar Bear enjoyed a brief recording career with the Sugar Bears.

Sugar Bear’s signature tune – “Can’t get enough of that Sugar Crisp” – had to be adjusted a few times: when the addition of extra vitamins changed the name of the cereal to Super Sugar Crisp, and when the name of the cereal was changed to the more nutritionally friendly Super Golden Crisp (strangely, the cereal is still known as Sugar Crisp in Canada).

More than 50 years after his introduction, Sugar Bear is still around. In one of his last TV commercials, he was seen hanging out at a breakfast table with live action husband-and-wife Baby Boomers, nostalgically cajoling them to try Golden Crisp again. He also received a makeover on the box when Post Cereals was spun off on its own.

The current box

Today, Golden Crisp is somewhat of a cereal anachronism, a leftover from a time when Post seriously challenged Kellogg’s and its other rivals. But although his beloved cereal is known now as Golden Crisp, Sugar Bear retains his own sweet moniker.

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Can’t get enough of that Sugar Crisp history? Check out this massive collection of vintage Sugar Crisp commercials featuring our old pal Sugar Bear! There’s one with the three original bears as well.

Introducing Kellogg's Sugar Smacks Cereal – Nov. 1953

November 5, 1953 Lorain Journal ad

Yesterday we were talking coffee. Today – it's cereal.

When it comes to a sweetened wheat puff cereal, did your mom buy Post Sugar Crisp or Kellogg's Sugar Smacks? They're basically the same cereal; Post was there first, with Sugar Crisp (here's the 1950 Lorain Journal ad) and Kellogg's launched their version a few years later.

And above is the ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on November 5, 1953 breaking the news of the new cereal. That's famed Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey circus clown Paul Jung in the ad and on the box.

Another ad ran in the Journal a few weeks later on November 19, 1953.

Here's an oversized box that was part of a store display. It's currently on eBay.

I'm not sure why Kellogg's utilized the circus theme. Fellow clown Lou Jacobs was featured on boxes as well. It made for a fun and memorable visual theme. 

(It's kind of sad that a campaign like this would never fly today. For decades, clowns were seen as lovable childrens' friends. But in the last 20 or 30 years, clowns have become the very symbol of evil and terror, thanks to various horror movies.)

Anyway, when it comes to Sugar Smacks vs Sugar Crisp, I think Mom was in the Kellogg's camp. While I'm too young to remember any clowns on Sugar Smacks packages, I do remember when Hanna-Barbera's Quick Draw McGraw was on the  box (and Snagglepuss was on Cocoa Krispies).

However, after the members of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon menagerie were no longer featured on the boxes, I think we lost interest in many of the cereals – Sugar Smacks for sure. My siblings and I much preferred the Cap'n Crunch lineup from Quaker Oats, General Mills' Cocoa Puffs, etc. Mom did buy a few Post Cereals (mainly Crispy Critters and Alpha Bits).

Today, I almost always have a box of Sugar Crisp Golden Crisp in the pantry. But if Kellogg's put Quick Draw back on the Sugar Smacks Honey Smacks box, I'd give it a try again. But not while the unapppealing Dig'em Frog is on there!

I mean, frogs eat flies. Ugh.

Rory Raccoon Revisited

Remember my post about Kmart's raccoon mascot? Initially, Google AI Overview scoffed at my assertion that the nationwide retailer ever had a ring-tailed critter representing its stores' home improvement offerings. Eventually Google's AI technology saw the error of its ways. 

Well, here's another look at raccoon mascot I've written about before: Rory Raccoon, who represented two Post Cereals over the years.

As noted back on this post, Rory Raccoon was one of the cartoon characters on the Linus the Lionhearted TV show (which my siblings and I watched). You might remember that each character on the show had his own segment and was a mascot for a Post cereal, such as Sugar Bear for Sugar Crisp, Linus for Crispy Critters, Lovable Truly the Postman for Alpha-Bits, etc.

Portion of a box back showing Rory
and the rest of the Post characters

Rory Raccoon initially plugged Post Toasties, the Post equivalent of Kellogg's Corn Flakes. In the commercials, Rory matched wits with C. Claudius Crow, who was always trying to steal the cereal. This setup mirrored the Linus the Lionhearted segments, where the crow concocted various schemes to help himself to Rory's cornfield. 

Here's one of the commercials. That's Jesse White (the Maytag Man) as C. Claudius Crow.

And here's a Rory Raccoon cartoon. This is one of the funnier ones, in which the conflict between Rory and the crow is escalated to actual warfare, with a retired U. S. Army general advising the raccoon in the use of military tactics.

Back when cereal boxes were fun, there was always something interesting on the back of the box. This vintage Post Toasties box had a neat little "How to Draw Rory Raccoon" lesson on the back.

Rory eventually was reassigned from Post Toasties to Sugar Sparkled Flakes, the equivalent of – what else? – Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes.

Apparently the decision was made to get rid of Rory's odd (hunting?) hat. Several boxes featured Rory and his crow adversary in various colorful scenarios (as seem on this flattened box).

Eventually Linus the Lionhearted was pushed off the air by the FCC, who wasn't crazy about the idea of  the cartoon characters on a TV show appearing in commercials during the program. With the cancellation of the program, many of the characters disappeared from the boxes of their respective cereals. There were a few survivors: Sugar Bear (on Sugar Crisp) and Lovable Truly (on Alpha Bits) and Rory Raccoon. As time went on, Rory stayed on the box, but without any headgear.

Years after the TV show ended, Rory was still on the box, but looking rather odd.

Anyway, today most of the Post Cereals that Baby Boomers grew up with are gone: Post Toasties, Alpha Bits, Rice Krinkles, Sparkled Flakes and Crispy Critters (which made a brief comeback in the 1990s sans Linus). 

Only Sugar Bear (on Golden Crisp) survives to tell the tale of a time when the Post Cereals menagerie ruled the TV airwaves and the cereal aisle.

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Good news! The Linus the Lionhearted Show will be coming out this fall (supposedly) on a DVD set issued by MPI Home Video. You can read about its restoration here on the Cartoon Research website.

You can bet I'll be buying the DVD, and eating a bowl of Sugar Crisp Golden Crisp when I watch it!

Post Cereals Ad – March 4, 1964

Post Cereals has shown up as a topic on many of my blog, er, posts over the years.

Why? Mainly for sentimental reasons. My siblings and I used to watch the Linus the Lionhearted show, which featured the Post advertising cereal mascots in their own cartoon segments: Linus (for Crispy Critters); Sugar Bear (for Sugar Crisp); So-Hi (for Rice Krinkles); Lovable Truly (for Alpha Bits); and Rory Raccoon (for Post Toasties). Although we were mainly a Kellogg's family, Mom did buy a few Post cereals from time to time, mainly Crispy Critters and Alpha Bits.

Here's the introduction to the Linus show.

Need proof that I enjoyed the show? Here's a drawing I made of some of the characters back in 1965. (By George, my mother saved almost all my doodles from the time I picked up a crayon.)

Just like my drawing, Linus was overshadowed by his friends on his own TV show

But back in March 1964, the Linus show wasn't on the air yet. It wouldn't debut until September of that year. Perhaps in anticipation of the unveiling of the show, Post Cereals was aggressively marketing its cereals, doing battle with Kellogg's and General Mills.

And here's a good example of its marketing strategy: a coupon good for 12 cents off any two Post cereals. The almost 3/4 page ad ran in the Journal on March 4, 1964.

The ad is kind of neat as it is a roll call of all of the Post cereals at that time and how the packages looked.

Of particular interest is the Sugar Crisp box (below). It had a bear on it, but the beady-eyed bruin wasn't quite the well-known Sugar Bear that we all know.

The box would keep this look for a while even after Sugar Bear debuted on the Linus show. Eventually, the box was redesigned (below) to highlight the most popular character on the show.

Sugar Crisp (now called Golden Crisp, with Sugar Bear still on the box) is one of the few surviving Post cereals from the 1964 ad. Crispy Critters, Post Toasties, and Alpha Bits have all been discontinued. 

Rice Krinkles is gone as well, but was reformulated into the Pebbles cereals – Fruity and Cocoa.

Even though these days I eat a lot of Post Shredded Wheat, as well as Cream of Wheat (since I got sick last month), I still keep a box of Golden Crisp on hand. I guess I'm just a kid at heart.

I buy a box of Post Grape Nuts about once a year. But just like Corn Nuts (which I love), Grape Nuts can be hazardous to your dental health. 

Wheat Honeys and Rice Honeys Ad – March 1956

Do you know the name of the very first pre-sweetened breakfast cereal?

Surprisingly, it wasn’t created by Kellogg’s, General Mills or Post. And you won’t find it on the cereal shelves at your local grocery store any more either. It’s long gone.

It’s generally accepted by cereal historians that the first one that was ‘pre-sugared’ was a regional product called Ranger Joe Wheat Honnies. It was a puffed wheat cereal, lacquered with honey and corn syrup. It was a big hit with kids and sales really took off in the 1940s.

You can read about its history here.

Post Cereals must have been paying attention, because it introduced its own sugar-coated puffed wheat cereal, Sugar Crisp, in 1949. (Click here to visit my posts on Sugar Crisp and all the Post Cereals.)

Meanwhile, Ranger Joe Wheat Honnies was sold to Nabisco, who renamed it slightly to Wheat Honeys and rolled it out nationally along with a sister product, Rice Honeys. 

Below is the introductory ad for both products that appeared in the Lorain Journal on March 1, 1956.

With both cereal variations being honey-flavored, naturally the cereal mascot was a bee. In this case, Buffalo Bee – since TV westerns were very popular at the time. For a while he even appeared in his own comic book.

Wheat Honeys eventually went through a few name and mascot changes before disappearing entirely, getting smacked down by Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks and Post Sugar Crisp. Today Nabisco is completely out of the breakfast cereal business.

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It’s funny, but one of my early 1960s memories was seeing Wheat Honeys on the pantry shelf at our house on W. 30th Street. I remember being intrigued by the pistol-packing bee dressed like a cowboy on the box.

Post Toasties Postscript

On yesterday’s, er, post about Post Toasties, I featured a photo of an early 1960s box of the cereal. If you looked closely on the front of the box, there was a small photo with the caption “RORY RACCOON INFLATABLE TOY.”

Unless you’re a Baby Boomer, you might be wondering: who was Rory Raccoon?

He was one of the members of the cartoon cast of Linus the Lionhearted, a TV show with segments built around all of the main Post Cereals advertising mascots. Cast members and their cereals included Linus (Crispy Critters), Sugar Bear (Sugar Crisp), Rory Raccoon (Post Toasties), So-Hi (Rice Krinkles) and Lovable Truly the Postman (Alpha Bits).

Since we watched the show, we ate the cereals – mainly Crispy Critters and Alpha Bits. I even entered a Post-sponsored contest in which you had to draw Lovable Truly. I won one of the lesser prizes (a Mattel V-RROOM! engine for my bike).

Anyway, here’s a Post Toasties commercial featuring Rory Raccoon.

And here’s a full episode of the original show, with all of the commercials intact. You might want to pour yourself a Jethro-sized bowl of cereal to enjoy while watching it.

Linus the Lionhearted was pretty good show, which my siblings and I watched religiously (which was appropriate since it was on Sunday during part of its run). Unfortunately, it was eventually pushed off the air by the FCC, because the show’s characters appeared in commercials plugging their own cereals – a big no-no.

Anyway, Rory was voiced by Bob McFadden (mentioned here on the blog when he appeared at the Mary Lee Tucker benefit show in 1955). Rory's cartoons featured him protecting his corn field from a wiseguy crow voiced by Jesse White (the original Maytag man in commercials).

Post later moved Rory over to Sugar Sparkled Flakes, the sweetened version of Post Toasties.

Sadly, almost all of the cereals plugged on Linus the Lionhearted are no longer in production, except for Alpha-Bits (which is hard to find) and Golden Crisp (which still has cool Sugar Bear as a mascot).

Low Sales Spell T-H-E E-N-D for Post Alpha-Bits

The final box design

Breakfast cereal is still a staple of many Americans' diets, although according to a recent poll, only about 12% of the public eat it every day.

I'm one of those people. And while nowadays I prefer the geezer cereals (such as Spoon Size Shredded Wheat), every once in a while I enjoy a bowl of the sugary stuff. I'm a kid at heart, you know.

But I recently discovered that one of my old favorites – Post Alpha-Bits – is no longer on the menu. 

A vintage box from the 1960s

How did I find out? In Lorain County, the only store that carried it was Marc's in Avon. But during a recent stop, I noticed it was no longer on the shelves. A trip to the Post website confirmed it was on the roll call of deep-sixed cereals.

As a Tweet from Post explained, "We are sorry to share that Alpha-Bits has been discontinued. Generally our products are discontinued due to lack of demand or to make room for the introduction of new products."

So Alpha-Bits joins another Post favorite – Post Toasties – on the extinct list. 

It may sound strange, but I have nostalgic feelings for Alpha-Bits. Back in 1966, I entered a coloring contest (which I wrote about here) featuring Lovable Truly, the cereal's goofy 'Postman' mascot that talked like Gomer Pyle. My siblings and I regularly watched The Linus the Lionhearted Show, which consisted of cartoons starring all the Post Cereal characters. And on this post, I explained how a commercial for Alpha-Bits was stuck in my brain for more than fifty years! 

Besides all that, Alpha-Bits was a good 'eating' cereal. The pieces were big enough to eat dry and not get all over the carpet. Oh well. 

As a replacement, at the store I picked up a box of Post Golden Crisp (originally known as Sugar Crisp). It's another good right-from-the-box cereal.

Plus I have to do my bit to keep Sugar Bear gainfully employed.

Post Cereals Contest – 1966

A few weeks ago (here), I mentioned that back in the 1960s I had entered a drawing contest sponsored by Post Cereals.

Well, of course I had to dig out my contest entry from storage, and do a little online research about the 1966 competition itself.

As it turns out, it was really more of a coloring contest. On the back of special Post Cereals boxes, a cartoon picture featuring one of the brand’s advertising mascots appeared, surrounded by copious amounts of white space. The idea was that kids would finish the drawing and color it all in.

Here’s the back of a Post Toasties box (courtesy of Ebay) with one of the pictures. This one features Billie Bird, one of the characters (voiced by Carl Reiner) on the Linus the Lionhearted TV show.

As you can see, a Mattel V-RROOM engine is one of the fourth prizes.

Anyway, my entry was from the back of a box of Alpha-Bits. Here’s what the front of a typical box (with Lovable Truly the Postman) looked like at that time.

I’m not sure why, but for some reason I redrew my entry instead of using the one on the box. Mom helped me with the words that I wanted to come out of Lovable Truly’s mouth: “I’m always in a hurry to get my Alpha Bits.”

Here’s my entry.

I have no idea why I made Lovable Truly’s hair blue, or gave him red shoes. I also strongly suspect that I was thinking of Lucky Charms when I drew the big bowl of cereal.

And here's the little note from Post telling me I was a Fourth Prize Winner.

As for my prize, I remember watching Dad fasten the V-RROOM engine to my bike. It was pretty noisy and I don’t think I used it very long.

Here’s what it looked like (courtesy of the online Museum of Vintage V-rroom Collectible Mattel Toys).

And here’s a great vintage commercial for it.

The real winner of all this was actually Post. I’m still eating Alpha Bits (and Sugar Crisp, er, I mean Golden Crisp) more than fifty years later!

New High School for Vermilion – Feb. 1953

Seventy-two years ago this week, Vermilion High School students enjoyed the informal opening of their new high school. (The official opening would take place a few months later in mid-April.)

Above is the front page of the Feb. 21, 1953 Lorain Journal with the story, and a photo showing the kids parading into the new building.

Elsewhere on the page is a very dark photo of a historic marker that was located on Route 10 just west of Oberlin. Today the highway is designed State Route 511. If the monument was still there, I'd pass it every day on the way to work. Unfortunately it's long gone. Vandals removed the tablet in 1969; one local historian told me the boulder is still on the property, but was dumped in the woods at the rear of the lot.

Here's a better look at it (below). I also wrote about it back here and here.

There are several little articles of interest on the page. 

An obituary for Frederick Conradt of Cleveland notes that he was owner and operator of a tavern at 4790 East Lake Road in Sheffield Lake. That was also the address for Dorothy and Elmer Bartel's tavern (which I wrote about here). It turns out that before it was Dorothy and Elmer's, it was Conrad's for more than 20 years. The obituary below (from Jan. 11, 1939) explains that Elmer Bartel was Mrs. Conrad's nephew.

The Log of Lorain mentions that "The nephew of two Lorainites is the "cover man" of the Feb. 28 issue of Collier's magazine and is also pictured in an exclusive feature story about the development of a space suit by the navy and how and where it will be used.

Here's the cover, as well as the inside photo.

Lastly, under the heading "13 Films Available Through Library," we learn that the Lorain Public Library had a total of 43 16mm films available for borrowing. One of the brand new films was Three Little Bruins in a Canoe –a heartwarming and exciting Castle Films classic. Why not enjoy it right now, while you partake of a bowl of Sugar Crisp?