“Forgotten Hollywood”- Big Mac is Latest Notable Reader…
Today, at the inaugural Cudahy Book and Literacy Fair, I met one the most iconic television personalities in history… A star so big, there isn’t anyone in this great nation who doesn’t know this giant of the small screen. I’m talking about Mr…
~ RONALD McDONALD ~
Now, I can claim the famous clown as the latest owner of the Forgotten Hollywood Book Series.
He’s a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald’s fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonald-land, and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, Hamburglar, and Grimace. Many folks work full-time making appearances in the Ronald McDonald costume, visiting children in hospitals, and attending regular events. There are also Ronald McDonald Houses, where parents can stay overnight when visiting sick children in nearby chronic care facilities.
The origin of Ronald McDonald involves Willard Scott (left), who went on to become NBC’s Today Show weatherman. He claims to have performed as the Hamburger-Happy Clown in 1963 on three separate television spots. These were the first three small screen ads featuring the character.
At any particular time, there are dozens to hundreds of actors retained by McDonald’s to appear as Ronald McDonald in restaurants and events. However, the company uses only one actor to play the character in national television commercials. The company trains performers to portray Ronald using identical mannerisms and costume, to contribute to an illusion they are one character. Ronald McDonald is second only to Santa Claus in terms of recognition. According to one survey, 96% of all US schoolchildren recognize Ronald.
Various forms of the name — Ronald McDonald — as well as costume clown face persona, etc. are registered trademarks of McDonald’s.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2014 at 2:33 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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