August 9, 2024 • 39 mins
Morgan White Jr. filled in for Dan Rea.
Topher Ellis is a breakfast cereal historian. He joined Morgan to discuss the best part of a "complete" breakfast.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
Topher Ellis is a breakfast cereal historian. He joined Morgan to discuss the best part of a "complete" breakfast.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZY, Boston's
news video.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thank you Madison. This is my last night filling in
for Dan Ray. This is my fifth show. I started
last Thursday, then I did Monday, Wednesday, Yesterday Thursday, and
now today Friday. And today's show will be a bit
more light than I have done this week. And we're
(00:28):
going to start off today the way it should be.
Started off with Breakfast Cereal. Maybe you heard the conversation
Bradley Jay and I were have in the other day
and somehow we get on the subject of Captain Crunch
and I had to teach Bradley about Captain Crunch's crew,
Brunhilda the only female of the crew, and Alf and
(00:49):
Dave and Carlisle and Sea Dog. They were all in
those commercials from the mid sixties. Now, yeah, I remember
these things. But the man who is better at remembering
all of those commercials and history woven through Breakfast Cereal
(01:10):
since the early nineteen hundreds up to present, is here,
mister Tufer. Ellis and Tofa wrote a book called the
Great American Cereal Book, amongst others. Tofer welcome back. It's
been a.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
While, it has been thank you very much. I'm glad
to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, I'm glad to have you. And did I get
Captain Crunch's crew front center and accounted for? Of course
you did. And I even remember. I'm not playing trivia
with you. I know better, but I'm just going to
ask you if you remember Sea Dog's cereal.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yes, that was the Nilli Crunch on the nose, on.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
The nose, because they've they've had several Captain crunch varieties.
And I remember when Crunchberry's was a seasonal cereal for
several years and it became so popular they just had
to make sure you could get it any month of
the twelve months of the year.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yes, absolutely, with the Crunchberry Beast from Crunchberry Island in
the Sea of Milk.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You see the stuff that you can do just stuff
the top of your head. I am impressed. Tell people
how you got into breakfast cereals.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Ah, Well, as a kid, I had two brothers and
we all liked This was in the early sixties, so
that was kind of the heyday of having prizes inside
boxes of cereal and we would all fight for the
privilege of getting the prize in the bottom of the
box and so we would have quite a few different
(03:05):
boxes of cereal at home and taking turns and who
gets the prize.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I remember tricks had the Whirligig, which was basically a
propeller on something akin to a swizzle stick, and you
put it between your hands and you just quickly rubbed
your right hand fast against your left hand, and that
(03:33):
thing would fly all the way up to the ceiling
and rotate back down to the floor. I don't know why,
but that thing just captivated my attention.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
There was no That's clearly one of the fun prizes
in side. Back in the day, one of my favorites
was the spoon Sitters, Yes, the winning of the poohspoon
Sitters or the spoon men, for these nice plastic characters
that you can always play with, but they would also
sit on your spoon, or they would kind of sit
(04:06):
on the hands inside your bowl.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You mentioned you mentioned we need the pool, and you're
just setting me up to take a golf shot straight
down the fairway. We need the pool, we need the
Pooh Caddlio Bear has a prize for you. That was
the jingle for you, WENI the pool spoon Sitter from
(04:33):
the Bisco I could have done the whole thing, but
I I try to restrain myself when I catch myself
going off in a tangent of singing one of these jingles.
And is your great American serial book still available?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
It's not currently in print, but folks have found that
occasion occasionally on eBay or used copies on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Okay, and that's not the only book that you have written.
What others have you written?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Psh, No, that's that's it. There was a there was
a pre quoll to that called Milking that Crazy Cow. Okay,
he's really lucky to find that one out there that
was different press. Outside of that, we got the serial.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Website, all right, And I want you to tell the story.
I'm going to take a break in about a minute,
but how people, everyday people could own property in Alaska
thanks to a breakfast cereal. Every time you tell that story,
I just love hearing it. And I'm going to invite
(05:47):
people to call in. If you have a vague memory
of a cereal or its commercial, but you're not one
sure of the details, give us a call six one, seven,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine
ten thirty. It's a guarantee that Toufort will help your
(06:10):
memory and fill in the blanks and talk about the
fact that Yogi Bear used to be on a cereal
from Kellogg's called Okay's, or that there was from Ralston
Purina a cereal called Freakis which I loved that cereal
in the nineteen seventies. And I even got some of
(06:32):
the stuff that you could send away for t shirts
and other things somewhere. I still have patches from Freakys cereals.
They lived in a freaky tree. So if you want
to call in and talk about Freaky's or Kellogg's Okays
(06:54):
or Captain Crunch or Tricks or what have you, I've
got demand for your car station. Here he is, mister
taufer Ellis. And on that note, let me take my
break here on Nightside, Dan Ray is off. He'll be
back on Monday. I'm Morgan filling in and Nightside comes along.
(07:16):
Whether Dan is here or not. Time and temperature eight
point fifteen eighty one degrees.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Now back to Dan Way Live from the Window World
Life Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Dan has been off for over a week, but he
will be back on Monday. I'm Morgan. Been proud of
the BZ fabric. Oh good grief since the mid nineties,
and tonight we're talking about breakfast cereals. And before I
take some calls that are already cued in line, by
the way, there's a line available if you want at
six one, seven, two, four, ten thirty, eight, eight, eight,
(07:55):
nine to nine ten thirty is there for your use
as well. This is a true story. Tofer Elis, who
is my serial historian, is here and he's going to
tell you how you could have by buying a box
of cereal, wound up owning land in Alaska tofa taken away.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Thank you. Back in the mid fifties, Quaker Oaths was
punted in a radio show called Start Impressedon of the Yukon,
and they wanted to promote that show, so they went
out and purchased nineteen point one one wilderness acres in
the Yukon Territory, divided up those parcels into one square
inch tracks, created a Fox certificate essentially a deed of
(08:41):
land called the Klondike Big Inch Land Deed, and they
made those available through Quaker puffed wheat, Quaker puffed rice
and Muppets treaded wheat. Essentially the idea was, hey, wow,
maybe your parcel, your parcel, your one inch parcel might
(09:01):
have that golden nugget in it. And so in nineteen
fifty five they just started distributing those deeds. They were
really pretty. You can find them on eBay, probably for
between ten and twenty bucks, but demand was so great
they were running two and three ships to get these out. Originally,
you had to send in a box top to trade
(09:22):
in for a deed, but as the Ohio Securities Division
ruled that Quaker couldn't trade a square inch of Yukon
for a box stop unless they received the state license
for the sale of foreign land, Quaker eliminated that aspect
of other and started sticking them in boxes. So they
(09:42):
ended up doing about like I mentioned, about twenty one
million deeds. And then in about nineteen sixty five, the
Klondike Big Inch Land Company dissolved and allowed as Yukon
Land to revert back to Canadians government because of non
ponment of thirty seven dollars and twenty cents in taxes.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Aw, now did your friend get together? So everybody in
your neighborhood put their piece together, and now they were
something of a conglomerate amongst themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
There were some of that going on. Absolutely. There was
a fella who acquired three square inches and donated those
as for use as a national park. There was one
guy that went all over the United States collecting deeds.
He finally ended up with eighty of those deeds, which
amounted the seventy five square feet, and he wrote to
a Quaker to see if he couldn't consolidate his holdings
(10:41):
in the one hunk, and he said he preferred land
close to the water and as quiet as possible. There
was one other fellow that officially succeeded from Canada. His
three square inches be a letter. And then there was
one of the There was one of the fellow that
sent a bunch of toothpicks to a Quaker asked him
to put a fifth round his property.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Now that's creative. That's creative. Tell you what. We've got
some people that have called in and let's first go
to Lowell and speak to Ryan. Ryan, I bet you
have a question for tofa.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, guys, hey, I appreciate the blast in the past.
And uh talking about the prize in the box of
cereal coming from three other brothers. It was. I can't
tell you what the breakfast table looked like. Fighting for
the prize.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, name name one instance, be specific.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Uh. There was something in the bottom of the tricks
and I forget what it was, but it was like
we fight, fight to get it.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Tricks had tiddley winks at the bottom, a little cup
with a variety of tiddley winks, a number of Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I'm sorry the tricks I thing you were talking about
when you spun it in your hands and went flying
up in the air. Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
A whirligig.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
The whirligig the reason I'm calling you guys if I
my memory correct, what I remember some box that you
could cut out the box and it was a record.
You could play it on a record player.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Oh, yes, we've talked about this to.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Fa Am I am I correct or not?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You're one correct tefer tell them all about it.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yes, Post had a number of those boxes on Sherman
I think was one. I know some of those names
are coming.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The Monkeys, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson, five, the Monkeys, the Archies.
At various times on the backs of alphabets and sugar
Crisp cereal. You had a real forty five record.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, you know, I really thought I was going crazy,
but said, I got to call these guys and see
if they recall it, because I remember putting it out
and put it, put it on the on the record
player and listen to it.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Absolutely, but it wasn't healthy for the needle on your record.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Player, right right.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
I mean it wasn't the top quality.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No it was not. But you could play Sugar Sugar
by the Archiees as you ate your alphabets covered with sugar,
all right.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I just wanted to make confirm I wasn't going crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
You were not going crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Gentlemen, Thank you so much and keep it up. I
love the blast in the past.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Ron, thank you for the call. We appreciate your comment.
Good night, enjoy your weekend. Let's go, Let's go to
San Francisco tofur and speak with my buddy David. So
David and San Francisco. Welcome to Night's side.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Thank you, borian as A, Hello, Toper, Hello, Nassy, Hello Gray, Hello, Cora,
Hello Tody Ohio. On first saw war is I want
to thank you very much for ford be the opportunity
to shot with Bradley.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Oh, no problem.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
That just made week. His spirit just really raises me.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And uh, he's a very popular personality from the history
of BZ and periodically I bring him back.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yes, he's uh, we're all radio buddies, and he just
like really, uh, we're about the same age, so we
have to save uh, you know, counterculture experiences.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And he and I got into a conversation about Captain crunch.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Ah. So you guys were talking to them. Remember who
wrote this song, Red rubber Ball?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Who wrote it for the Circle? Yeah, uh, I don't know,
but we're talking about breakfast cereal tonight.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
I know this is just a side for you, Paul Simon.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Oh okay, thank you, okay.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And I was just above a bowl of cereal before
What's school the boy as a child as uh, we
all did Rice Christie's or poor Flakes, and always had
a banata and sometimes I had it with chocolate bill Okay,
I remember those uh packs of small small boxes of
(15:12):
cereal usually comes like eight or tens of packs right
cut on the dot. It would be lot with waxed
paper and you actually make the cereal in the box.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes you could.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
About those.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Uh yeah, let to let to fore.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Tell you about the variety packs go ahead to for Oh, yeah,
there are.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Any number of them, uh, from the different companies, and
as he mentioned the you know they typically with your
snack pack where you have a little box would be
half an ounce or so you you're great, You cut
it open on a kind of an H shape and
pull back the two wings. Yeah. You pour pour milk
directly into the box itself and then eat directly out
(15:59):
of the box. Typically had varieties that included all your
favorite sugary cereals and you can still buy them today
and anyone between six and six and.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah, do you remember they were Rice Christie's and I've
had the court Flakes tross the place.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Kes Kelloggs did theirs. Every company had their General Mills
had theirs.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, and we got Kells right natural a raisin brand. Yeah,
and I think Cheerios is one of them too.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
No Cheerios would have been in the big G package.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Okay, okay, and uh, well that's about it, all right.
Trivia question if your mind.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Well, you're already led with one, leve with one, and
I you're closing with one. What's the question.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Do you know where the term of uh ivy league
came from?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yes? I do, Roman numeru four.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
You're big, old man. You're good. You are so good.
Well call and have a great week, everybody.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
David, you take care. Byebye, And I've got about thirty
more minutes with TOFA to talk breakfast cereals. I'm about
to take a break. Maybe we'll throw a hit a
news in there if you want to call in, as
the previous two callers did. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty eight eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty TOF
(17:33):
is here and as you can tell, he can answer
any question, at least the one so far dealing with
breakfast cereals. And it may take you back to when
you were in the fifth grade in the sixties, or
you were in junior high in the fifties, or maybe
as recent as just two weeks ago, when you're going
(17:56):
down the aisle in the supermarket and you saw uh
a box of your favorite cereal and you said, I'm
gonna buy it for all times sake. You do that,
you give us a call here on nights side. This
is w b Z time and temperature eight thirty and
it's now seventy nine degrees.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Oh bed behind a Greek stream.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Sunday, the boss.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
We call them my curious spell it right.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But weird.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I really have to see.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
My name is gumble green smell.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
This is my game.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I know more than you do it, so I'm pretty goody.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I always do what's right and my freaking serious because
it's not a lot of Minday you.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Do, I'm gonna have funky, rinky cereal is part of
your good breakfast.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Then there's a brave freaky especially Mark Boxers.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It's Night Side with Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Rob and I are just reminiscing about all these cereals
in our past, and that's what we're doing for the
rest of this hour. I've got to for Ellis, who's
looked upon as a serial historian, and he's already told
us the story about you could have owned property in
Alaska thanks to puffed wheat and puffed rice quaker out cereals.
(19:49):
And I've got another call, so let's take a phone call,
and then I've got some more things to talk about,
specifically with Taufer Douglas. Welcome. Are you calling from Douglass
or is your name Douglas? Hello, Yes, you're on the air.
(20:12):
Not anymore, You're not on the air called back in
and toft, let's talk about the battle between Cisp and
Quake and how that just galvanized kids to be on
one side or the other.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Okay, you're talking mid sixties. They back in the day.
These were Jayward drawn characters, and yes, sure has a good,
good series of these, and it was I feel like
those ads went on forever because there was constant battle
between Cuisp and Quake. Cuisp had a kind of a
(20:52):
plat flatterer or fossor shaped serial Quake had. He was
a minor, so he had a little nugget shape cereal, Yes,
basically the same cereal, just different shape, and they battled
to be the guy who is going to be the
most popular. Quisp. I was a Quisp guy, was too.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I was a Cisp guy. And Quake. I think the
you pour milk in and it would become orange because
of the nuggets giving off that type of flavoring.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Look, yeah, there was kind of a corn meal that
was causing that. Okay, that was the merry ingredient and
that was causing that that flavoring coloring of your milk.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Okay, and I'm giving Rob credit. He and I during
the commercial break, we were talking about the monster cereals
by General Mills, and I asked him to name all five.
Not only did he name all five, he told me
(22:01):
about a newer one, number six. Do you want to
rattle off the five monster cereals for the listeners?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Originally we had Crank and Berry, Count Chocola Boolberry, and
then came along Fruit Brute, Yummy Mummy.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
For whatever reason, General Mills was like, the count Yummy
Mummy is a a monster ceial. I've got no idea why,
but officially it's not. And then most recently they've introduced
a DJ character. Their name's not coming to me quickly.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Rob, tell me Caramela. Thank you, Caramela. And I remember
the controversy because there were and this is long before
the LGBTQ conglomerate of people. They felt that fruit Brute
(23:03):
was an unfair representation of a gay character. Now, there
was nothing outwardly noticed by me about Fruit Brute being gay,
but people complained about that and they pulled the cereal.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Okay, well that's news to me. I never considered them gay,
and I wouldn't have picked up on that anyway. I
don't think me either. Well, we're talking fruit fruit though.
I do think it's interesting that a box of fruit
grout showed up in pulp fiction. Yes, and also in
(23:45):
reservoir Dogs.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, I remember it in pulp fiction. Tay, what, let's
go back to the phones this time. We're going to
go to Beverly, mass and speak to Joline. Joline.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I'm Morgan Hellotova.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Thank you for calling.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
I love the subject. I'm in my seventies now, but
in the eighties, when my children were young, they knew
that treat cereals such as frosted flakes or tricks right only,
and basically they only ate at breakfast time, playing cheerios
or something like corn flakes. And I started saving my
(24:27):
cereal boxes and I would buy throughout the years. Oh
my gosh, I must have walk over one hundreds, and
guess what my favorite one is, weedies. I just don't
know what flavor it is.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
What's your favorite?
Speaker 5 (24:44):
There was an Oracle cereal.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yes there was, and that that's from the days where
real people got on cereal boxes or personalities from the
world of TV and movie these like see three pos
and mister t Yes and ercle cereal was the real thing.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
It might have been we used to play a sport.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Nocle was not an athlete.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
I didn't think so. But I had more fun with
those cereal boxes. As the kids grew up, we played
a candy Land game with them on a big rainy day,
set out about fifty of the It would just be
the front of the boxes and in a in a bucket.
(25:39):
I would put the the tops of them, like for instance,
cereios would be a yellow box top and then the
face of the box itself would go on the floor. Okay,
And the kids would just throughout the house, in the kitchen,
through the living room floor upstairs, and they would make
(26:02):
a candy Land game. And each kid would draw a
box top from the plastic bag of the bucket, and
they would go forward until they reached that particular cereal box,
and just by candy Land. Sometimes you'd have to go backwards.
We'd put two or three yellow cheerio boxes out and
(26:27):
maybe just one of a less popular one. I'd have
fewer of those.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Weren't you a creative interactive mother?
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Oh my gosh, it got me to so many rainy days.
You wouldn't believe. It's like, oh, you'll talk about they're
in their thirties and forties, and I'm betting.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
They would tell their friends when they went to school
the next day about the fun they had with them
on playing these games.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
I would bring that to my church and after Sunday
school we would play sometimes a shorter version of that
while they're waiting for their parents to get out of
the Sunday for episodes Stairs.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
To thank you for sharing that. Thank you very very much.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
It was fun. I love your show, Morgan, thank you,
thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Good night, Cheleen To. Can people see a website of
something that you do updating the information on cereals?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yes, yes, good. The name of the site is tofa's
Great American Serial Guide.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And what will they find If they go to the
Serial Guide, they.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Will find pictures and information on Oh wow, over seventeen
hundred different cereals and serial characters.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
One of them is Percolos, which your last caller was
referring to. That is when they came out about nineteen
ninety one, based upon family Matters. Steven Erkle character A flavor,
by the way, was banana and strawberry.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
That's a good combo. I've tasted that combination in the
past and well, I never bought a box of ercolos
did not interest me, But good grief did. Julie White
strike it rich with that character. For people who don't
(28:29):
know about the history of Steve Erkele. It was meant
just to be a single episode with this weird kid,
and the popularity of his appearance on Family Matters led
to him becoming part of the cast. And it's almost
(28:49):
like the Doctor Smith character of Lost in Space. He
became he Steve Erkele, the driving force behind people watching
it every week, and that happened. Yeah, all right, I've
got another break to take. If you want to call in,
(29:10):
I'll give you about another twelve to fifteen minutes left
with my buddy right here. I've had many a time
on Beezy Air to for Ellis and I hope you're enjoying.
Taufer and I are taking you back in your memory
to when you were a kid getting ready for school
and spoon into the bowl woofing down your favorite cereal
(29:34):
here on night Side Time eight forty five seventy nine degrees.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Now back to Dan ray My from the Window World
Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Dan Is off.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
He'll be back on Monday, I promise. My guest is
mister tefer Ellis, and Tofer, I've got a treat for you.
I used to love this commercial when it came on
and Raw was able to find the audio clip to it.
So buckle up and get ready for a spoonful of
New Country corn flakes. Rob, you count crete cards, tag.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
You can Greek cards. They won't well when you par
on me. Oh they want bug when they are their
double toes Brisbane gold General Man next General where they
show you put rick card drags, you cut rick cards,
(30:37):
come to the corn some of the three wagging that
they won't know when you bar on.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
The double bout the corn flag maybe rhyme.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
So buy our card leg You can't drink card bag,
You can't creek card bags. Please buy our card bags.
You can drink card wags. You cut Greek card bags.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
See Rob can see that commercial. I have to remember
it tofor Did that ring a bell for you? It did?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And what's interesting is that moo at the end. I
believe it was actually a wooster hatching from an egg,
yes and mooing right yes.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And they had a couple of I guess site gags
throughout that commercial. I think it was a pig that
went buck buck bark as a chicken wood and it
was a very creative commercial back in the late sixties.
I don't think the product lasted. They were trying to
(31:49):
compete with Kellogg's corn Flakes, they being General Mills, and
you know, Kellogg's corn Flakes still was king. I don't
even think Kellogg's cornflx is number one, two or three anymore?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Are they relative the corn Flekes? They still are, But
you're right, the Country corn Flkes was General Mills attempt
to take market share in that area and they failed.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
So let's talk about some of the people, real and
fictional that wound up on a cereal box. We talked
about last break Ercolo's and I think I brought up
mister T Cereal C three pos. Are there any other
I'll say, individuals, whether they were real a fictional that
(32:37):
come to mind that adorned a cereal box?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Oh wow, you can go on for a long time
on a lot of the characters, like you'll be there
in the Hanna Barbera group, a lot of the different
characters coming out of the Deward Studios. We mentioned qu quit.
But they're also, of course the Huangaroo, Captain Krunt and
(33:04):
that whole lineup on with a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
That was rast as well.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes we can. We could probably do characters all night long.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I was telling Rob you mentioned there are seventeen hundred
examples of breakfast cereals from bygone days. I said, we'll
be here to October. We started playing bits and pieces
of all of these things. But if I'm not mistaken,
the top three cereals, and this might be as old
(33:38):
as five years ago, and not in any particular order, Cheerios,
frosted Flakes, and honey nut Cheerios are one, two and three.
Do you agree that they are still the top three
or has that top three changed?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Those are probably in the mix. Anytime you've got a
lot of spin offs like the like the Cheerios, right,
you're going to capture a lot of market share.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Corner Flicks of course has the number of spin offs.
Captain Crunch has a couple. Uh that's there anywhere. Everyone
know what they'ven the top ten, but things such as
trying to come up with and Rea's puffs. They they've
been having a pretty good push. But I don't know
if they've made made top ten. Uh, they've been doing
(34:34):
a lot of work on the grocery although, changing their
box up and things like that. Yeah, I wouldn't doubt
for the kid type of cereals that you've nailed it right.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Real quick. Tell the story about the fourth Rice Krispy Elf,
who isn't around anymore.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I love that one. And everyone's familiar with Snap, Crackle
and Pop who came out in the Map, of course,
came out thirty three. Pop was nineteen forty one. Crackle
was also forty one. But in the mid fifties they
came out with a fourth brother and his name was Powell,
and he was supposed to represent the energy that the
(35:18):
ceial came out with. And basically he wrote around on
a He had a sort of a I would call
it a World War One type helmet, but he went
around on some type of spaceship type vehicle was his
way again and around. He never never made it to
a box, but he may have appeared in a few commercials.
(35:41):
We haven't found any that we can prove that got out,
but we have seen commercials and concept.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Dark And why do you think Pow just never caught
on with the American public.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Well, it could be more that it didn't catch on
with the marketing VP there. So those folks really have
a lot of pull on the early on the early
looks on these things. And if you know, something happens,
maybe the budget wasn't there, Maybe that particular VP didn't
like what that represented. Uh, it just doesn't get doesn't
(36:16):
go any further along.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Now if people want to, I'll have to give you
a website again. But if people want to write to
you or do people see the website write to you
and ask you questions and exchange ideas and concepts about Cereal,
tell them how they do it.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Okay, Well, there are tribal contact areas on my website
which is Cofer's Practice Serial Character Guide, and you'll you
can easily find my contact information there, and yes I will,
I will reply to you and give you my best
answer to whatever question you've got.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
All right, And you mentioned how valuable the piece of
land from puffed rice and puffed wheat for the Yukon was.
I think you mentioned twenty bucks If you can find
one of those real fast, I only have about ninety
seconds a show to go for this hour. Give people
(37:18):
another item that has value that came in a cereal
box from back in the day.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Okay, well, I'm going to jump back on the spoon sitters.
Those are going for the spoon sitters. There were three
of them in different sizes, and they had several different colors,
and they were also came out from the Bisco and
they were like spoonmn and the spoon men themselves will
(37:48):
range anywhere from I don't know. I don't think I've
seen them for less than fifteen bucks, as much as
sixty to one hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
The antenna is to intact little antenna has a way
of just breaking off really easily. So it's tough to
get a really good conditioned version of those three. And
each one has what the youngest one has just one
little antenna, the second one has kind of a double
antenna up the middle, and the third one has kind
(38:15):
of a triple antenna. Okay, like I said, they kind
of break off.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Well TOFA, I want to thank you for coming on.
As you can tell, everybody still has cereal in their
heart from back in the day, and I'll have you
on again. Maybe you're on the holidays and we can
talk about holiday based cereals. And on that note, you
enjoy your weekend, Okay.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
I appreciate it. Fun as always, Thank you, take.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Care ta for all. Right, next hour, we're going to
talk about porch performances in Watertown. You'll try it without
my tongue in the way. You'll hear more about that
after news here on WBZ. Time and temperature eight point
fifty eight seventy nine degrees
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZY, Boston's
news video.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thank you Madison. This is my last night filling in
for Dan Ray. This is my fifth show. I started
last Thursday, then I did Monday, Wednesday, Yesterday Thursday, and
now today Friday. And today's show will be a bit
more light than I have done this week. And we're
(00:28):
going to start off today the way it should be.
Started off with Breakfast Cereal. Maybe you heard the conversation
Bradley Jay and I were have in the other day
and somehow we get on the subject of Captain Crunch
and I had to teach Bradley about Captain Crunch's crew,
Brunhilda the only female of the crew, and Alf and
(00:49):
Dave and Carlisle and Sea Dog. They were all in
those commercials from the mid sixties. Now, yeah, I remember
these things. But the man who is better at remembering
all of those commercials and history woven through Breakfast Cereal
(01:10):
since the early nineteen hundreds up to present, is here,
mister Tufer. Ellis and Tofa wrote a book called the
Great American Cereal Book, amongst others. Tofer welcome back. It's
been a.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
While, it has been thank you very much. I'm glad
to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, I'm glad to have you. And did I get
Captain Crunch's crew front center and accounted for? Of course
you did. And I even remember. I'm not playing trivia
with you. I know better, but I'm just going to
ask you if you remember Sea Dog's cereal.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yes, that was the Nilli Crunch on the nose, on.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
The nose, because they've they've had several Captain crunch varieties.
And I remember when Crunchberry's was a seasonal cereal for
several years and it became so popular they just had
to make sure you could get it any month of
the twelve months of the year.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yes, absolutely, with the Crunchberry Beast from Crunchberry Island in
the Sea of Milk.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You see the stuff that you can do just stuff
the top of your head. I am impressed. Tell people
how you got into breakfast cereals.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Ah, Well, as a kid, I had two brothers and
we all liked This was in the early sixties, so
that was kind of the heyday of having prizes inside
boxes of cereal and we would all fight for the
privilege of getting the prize in the bottom of the
box and so we would have quite a few different
(03:05):
boxes of cereal at home and taking turns and who
gets the prize.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I remember tricks had the Whirligig, which was basically a
propeller on something akin to a swizzle stick, and you
put it between your hands and you just quickly rubbed
your right hand fast against your left hand, and that
(03:33):
thing would fly all the way up to the ceiling
and rotate back down to the floor. I don't know why,
but that thing just captivated my attention.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
There was no That's clearly one of the fun prizes
in side. Back in the day, one of my favorites
was the spoon Sitters, Yes, the winning of the poohspoon
Sitters or the spoon men, for these nice plastic characters
that you can always play with, but they would also
sit on your spoon, or they would kind of sit
(04:06):
on the hands inside your bowl.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You mentioned you mentioned we need the pool, and you're
just setting me up to take a golf shot straight
down the fairway. We need the pool, we need the
Pooh Caddlio Bear has a prize for you. That was
the jingle for you, WENI the pool spoon Sitter from
(04:33):
the Bisco I could have done the whole thing, but
I I try to restrain myself when I catch myself
going off in a tangent of singing one of these jingles.
And is your great American serial book still available?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
It's not currently in print, but folks have found that
occasion occasionally on eBay or used copies on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Okay, and that's not the only book that you have written.
What others have you written?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Psh, No, that's that's it. There was a there was
a pre quoll to that called Milking that Crazy Cow. Okay,
he's really lucky to find that one out there that
was different press. Outside of that, we got the serial.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Website, all right, And I want you to tell the story.
I'm going to take a break in about a minute,
but how people, everyday people could own property in Alaska
thanks to a breakfast cereal. Every time you tell that story,
I just love hearing it. And I'm going to invite
(05:47):
people to call in. If you have a vague memory
of a cereal or its commercial, but you're not one
sure of the details, give us a call six one, seven,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine
ten thirty. It's a guarantee that Toufort will help your
(06:10):
memory and fill in the blanks and talk about the
fact that Yogi Bear used to be on a cereal
from Kellogg's called Okay's, or that there was from Ralston
Purina a cereal called Freakis which I loved that cereal
in the nineteen seventies. And I even got some of
(06:32):
the stuff that you could send away for t shirts
and other things somewhere. I still have patches from Freakys cereals.
They lived in a freaky tree. So if you want
to call in and talk about Freaky's or Kellogg's Okays
(06:54):
or Captain Crunch or Tricks or what have you, I've
got demand for your car station. Here he is, mister
taufer Ellis. And on that note, let me take my
break here on Nightside, Dan Ray is off. He'll be
back on Monday. I'm Morgan filling in and Nightside comes along.
(07:16):
Whether Dan is here or not. Time and temperature eight
point fifteen eighty one degrees.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Now back to Dan Way Live from the Window World
Life Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Dan has been off for over a week, but he
will be back on Monday. I'm Morgan. Been proud of
the BZ fabric. Oh good grief since the mid nineties,
and tonight we're talking about breakfast cereals. And before I
take some calls that are already cued in line, by
the way, there's a line available if you want at
six one, seven, two, four, ten thirty, eight, eight, eight,
(07:55):
nine to nine ten thirty is there for your use
as well. This is a true story. Tofer Elis, who
is my serial historian, is here and he's going to
tell you how you could have by buying a box
of cereal, wound up owning land in Alaska tofa taken away.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Thank you. Back in the mid fifties, Quaker Oaths was
punted in a radio show called Start Impressedon of the Yukon,
and they wanted to promote that show, so they went
out and purchased nineteen point one one wilderness acres in
the Yukon Territory, divided up those parcels into one square
inch tracks, created a Fox certificate essentially a deed of
(08:41):
land called the Klondike Big Inch Land Deed, and they
made those available through Quaker puffed wheat, Quaker puffed rice
and Muppets treaded wheat. Essentially the idea was, hey, wow,
maybe your parcel, your parcel, your one inch parcel might
(09:01):
have that golden nugget in it. And so in nineteen
fifty five they just started distributing those deeds. They were
really pretty. You can find them on eBay, probably for
between ten and twenty bucks, but demand was so great
they were running two and three ships to get these out. Originally,
you had to send in a box top to trade
(09:22):
in for a deed, but as the Ohio Securities Division
ruled that Quaker couldn't trade a square inch of Yukon
for a box stop unless they received the state license
for the sale of foreign land, Quaker eliminated that aspect
of other and started sticking them in boxes. So they
(09:42):
ended up doing about like I mentioned, about twenty one
million deeds. And then in about nineteen sixty five, the
Klondike Big Inch Land Company dissolved and allowed as Yukon
Land to revert back to Canadians government because of non
ponment of thirty seven dollars and twenty cents in taxes.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Aw, now did your friend get together? So everybody in
your neighborhood put their piece together, and now they were
something of a conglomerate amongst themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
There were some of that going on. Absolutely. There was
a fella who acquired three square inches and donated those
as for use as a national park. There was one
guy that went all over the United States collecting deeds.
He finally ended up with eighty of those deeds, which
amounted the seventy five square feet, and he wrote to
a Quaker to see if he couldn't consolidate his holdings
(10:41):
in the one hunk, and he said he preferred land
close to the water and as quiet as possible. There
was one other fellow that officially succeeded from Canada. His
three square inches be a letter. And then there was
one of the There was one of the fellow that
sent a bunch of toothpicks to a Quaker asked him
to put a fifth round his property.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Now that's creative. That's creative. Tell you what. We've got
some people that have called in and let's first go
to Lowell and speak to Ryan. Ryan, I bet you
have a question for tofa.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, guys, hey, I appreciate the blast in the past.
And uh talking about the prize in the box of
cereal coming from three other brothers. It was. I can't
tell you what the breakfast table looked like. Fighting for
the prize.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, name name one instance, be specific.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Uh. There was something in the bottom of the tricks
and I forget what it was, but it was like
we fight, fight to get it.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Tricks had tiddley winks at the bottom, a little cup
with a variety of tiddley winks, a number of Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I'm sorry the tricks I thing you were talking about
when you spun it in your hands and went flying
up in the air. Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
A whirligig.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
The whirligig the reason I'm calling you guys if I
my memory correct, what I remember some box that you
could cut out the box and it was a record.
You could play it on a record player.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Oh, yes, we've talked about this to.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Fa Am I am I correct or not?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You're one correct tefer tell them all about it.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yes, Post had a number of those boxes on Sherman
I think was one. I know some of those names
are coming.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The Monkeys, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson, five, the Monkeys, the Archies.
At various times on the backs of alphabets and sugar
Crisp cereal. You had a real forty five record.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, you know, I really thought I was going crazy,
but said, I got to call these guys and see
if they recall it, because I remember putting it out
and put it, put it on the on the record
player and listen to it.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Absolutely, but it wasn't healthy for the needle on your record.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Player, right right.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
I mean it wasn't the top quality.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No it was not. But you could play Sugar Sugar
by the Archiees as you ate your alphabets covered with sugar,
all right.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I just wanted to make confirm I wasn't going crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
You were not going crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Gentlemen, Thank you so much and keep it up. I
love the blast in the past.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Ron, thank you for the call. We appreciate your comment.
Good night, enjoy your weekend. Let's go, Let's go to
San Francisco tofur and speak with my buddy David. So
David and San Francisco. Welcome to Night's side.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Thank you, borian as A, Hello, Toper, Hello, Nassy, Hello Gray, Hello, Cora,
Hello Tody Ohio. On first saw war is I want
to thank you very much for ford be the opportunity
to shot with Bradley.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Oh, no problem.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
That just made week. His spirit just really raises me.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And uh, he's a very popular personality from the history
of BZ and periodically I bring him back.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yes, he's uh, we're all radio buddies, and he just
like really, uh, we're about the same age, so we
have to save uh, you know, counterculture experiences.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And he and I got into a conversation about Captain crunch.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Ah. So you guys were talking to them. Remember who
wrote this song, Red rubber Ball?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Who wrote it for the Circle? Yeah, uh, I don't know,
but we're talking about breakfast cereal tonight.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
I know this is just a side for you, Paul Simon.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Oh okay, thank you, okay.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And I was just above a bowl of cereal before
What's school the boy as a child as uh, we
all did Rice Christie's or poor Flakes, and always had
a banata and sometimes I had it with chocolate bill Okay,
I remember those uh packs of small small boxes of
(15:12):
cereal usually comes like eight or tens of packs right
cut on the dot. It would be lot with waxed
paper and you actually make the cereal in the box.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes you could.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
About those.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Uh yeah, let to let to fore.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Tell you about the variety packs go ahead to for Oh, yeah,
there are.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Any number of them, uh, from the different companies, and
as he mentioned the you know they typically with your
snack pack where you have a little box would be
half an ounce or so you you're great, You cut
it open on a kind of an H shape and
pull back the two wings. Yeah. You pour pour milk
directly into the box itself and then eat directly out
(15:59):
of the box. Typically had varieties that included all your
favorite sugary cereals and you can still buy them today
and anyone between six and six and.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah, do you remember they were Rice Christie's and I've
had the court Flakes tross the place.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Kes Kelloggs did theirs. Every company had their General Mills
had theirs.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, and we got Kells right natural a raisin brand. Yeah,
and I think Cheerios is one of them too.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
No Cheerios would have been in the big G package.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Okay, okay, and uh, well that's about it, all right.
Trivia question if your mind.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Well, you're already led with one, leve with one, and
I you're closing with one. What's the question.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Do you know where the term of uh ivy league
came from?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yes? I do, Roman numeru four.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
You're big, old man. You're good. You are so good.
Well call and have a great week, everybody.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
David, you take care. Byebye, And I've got about thirty
more minutes with TOFA to talk breakfast cereals. I'm about
to take a break. Maybe we'll throw a hit a
news in there if you want to call in, as
the previous two callers did. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty eight eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty TOF
(17:33):
is here and as you can tell, he can answer
any question, at least the one so far dealing with
breakfast cereals. And it may take you back to when
you were in the fifth grade in the sixties, or
you were in junior high in the fifties, or maybe
as recent as just two weeks ago, when you're going
(17:56):
down the aisle in the supermarket and you saw uh
a box of your favorite cereal and you said, I'm
gonna buy it for all times sake. You do that,
you give us a call here on nights side. This
is w b Z time and temperature eight thirty and
it's now seventy nine degrees.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Oh bed behind a Greek stream.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Sunday, the boss.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
We call them my curious spell it right.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But weird.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I really have to see.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
My name is gumble green smell.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
This is my game.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I know more than you do it, so I'm pretty goody.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I always do what's right and my freaking serious because
it's not a lot of Minday you.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Do, I'm gonna have funky, rinky cereal is part of
your good breakfast.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Then there's a brave freaky especially Mark Boxers.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It's Night Side with Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Rob and I are just reminiscing about all these cereals
in our past, and that's what we're doing for the
rest of this hour. I've got to for Ellis, who's
looked upon as a serial historian, and he's already told
us the story about you could have owned property in
Alaska thanks to puffed wheat and puffed rice quaker out cereals.
(19:49):
And I've got another call, so let's take a phone call,
and then I've got some more things to talk about,
specifically with Taufer Douglas. Welcome. Are you calling from Douglass
or is your name Douglas? Hello, Yes, you're on the air.
(20:12):
Not anymore, You're not on the air called back in
and toft, let's talk about the battle between Cisp and
Quake and how that just galvanized kids to be on
one side or the other.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Okay, you're talking mid sixties. They back in the day.
These were Jayward drawn characters, and yes, sure has a good,
good series of these, and it was I feel like
those ads went on forever because there was constant battle
between Cuisp and Quake. Cuisp had a kind of a
(20:52):
plat flatterer or fossor shaped serial Quake had. He was
a minor, so he had a little nugget shape cereal, Yes,
basically the same cereal, just different shape, and they battled
to be the guy who is going to be the
most popular. Quisp. I was a Quisp guy, was too.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I was a Cisp guy. And Quake. I think the
you pour milk in and it would become orange because
of the nuggets giving off that type of flavoring.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Look, yeah, there was kind of a corn meal that
was causing that. Okay, that was the merry ingredient and
that was causing that that flavoring coloring of your milk.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Okay, and I'm giving Rob credit. He and I during
the commercial break, we were talking about the monster cereals
by General Mills, and I asked him to name all five.
Not only did he name all five, he told me
(22:01):
about a newer one, number six. Do you want to
rattle off the five monster cereals for the listeners?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Originally we had Crank and Berry, Count Chocola Boolberry, and
then came along Fruit Brute, Yummy Mummy.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
For whatever reason, General Mills was like, the count Yummy
Mummy is a a monster ceial. I've got no idea why,
but officially it's not. And then most recently they've introduced
a DJ character. Their name's not coming to me quickly.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Rob, tell me Caramela. Thank you, Caramela. And I remember
the controversy because there were and this is long before
the LGBTQ conglomerate of people. They felt that fruit Brute
(23:03):
was an unfair representation of a gay character. Now, there
was nothing outwardly noticed by me about Fruit Brute being gay,
but people complained about that and they pulled the cereal.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Okay, well that's news to me. I never considered them gay,
and I wouldn't have picked up on that anyway. I
don't think me either. Well, we're talking fruit fruit though.
I do think it's interesting that a box of fruit
grout showed up in pulp fiction. Yes, and also in
(23:45):
reservoir Dogs.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, I remember it in pulp fiction. Tay, what, let's
go back to the phones this time. We're going to
go to Beverly, mass and speak to Joline. Joline.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I'm Morgan Hellotova.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Thank you for calling.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
I love the subject. I'm in my seventies now, but
in the eighties, when my children were young, they knew
that treat cereals such as frosted flakes or tricks right only,
and basically they only ate at breakfast time, playing cheerios
or something like corn flakes. And I started saving my
(24:27):
cereal boxes and I would buy throughout the years. Oh
my gosh, I must have walk over one hundreds, and
guess what my favorite one is, weedies. I just don't
know what flavor it is.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
What's your favorite?
Speaker 5 (24:44):
There was an Oracle cereal.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yes there was, and that that's from the days where
real people got on cereal boxes or personalities from the
world of TV and movie these like see three pos
and mister t Yes and ercle cereal was the real thing.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
It might have been we used to play a sport.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Nocle was not an athlete.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
I didn't think so. But I had more fun with
those cereal boxes. As the kids grew up, we played
a candy Land game with them on a big rainy day,
set out about fifty of the It would just be
the front of the boxes and in a in a bucket.
(25:39):
I would put the the tops of them, like for instance,
cereios would be a yellow box top and then the
face of the box itself would go on the floor. Okay,
And the kids would just throughout the house, in the kitchen,
through the living room floor upstairs, and they would make
(26:02):
a candy Land game. And each kid would draw a
box top from the plastic bag of the bucket, and
they would go forward until they reached that particular cereal box,
and just by candy Land. Sometimes you'd have to go backwards.
We'd put two or three yellow cheerio boxes out and
(26:27):
maybe just one of a less popular one. I'd have
fewer of those.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Weren't you a creative interactive mother?
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Oh my gosh, it got me to so many rainy days.
You wouldn't believe. It's like, oh, you'll talk about they're
in their thirties and forties, and I'm betting.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
They would tell their friends when they went to school
the next day about the fun they had with them
on playing these games.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
I would bring that to my church and after Sunday
school we would play sometimes a shorter version of that
while they're waiting for their parents to get out of
the Sunday for episodes Stairs.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
To thank you for sharing that. Thank you very very much.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
It was fun. I love your show, Morgan, thank you,
thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Good night, Cheleen To. Can people see a website of
something that you do updating the information on cereals?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yes, yes, good. The name of the site is tofa's
Great American Serial Guide.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And what will they find If they go to the
Serial Guide, they.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Will find pictures and information on Oh wow, over seventeen
hundred different cereals and serial characters.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
One of them is Percolos, which your last caller was
referring to. That is when they came out about nineteen
ninety one, based upon family Matters. Steven Erkle character A flavor,
by the way, was banana and strawberry.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
That's a good combo. I've tasted that combination in the
past and well, I never bought a box of ercolos
did not interest me, But good grief did. Julie White
strike it rich with that character. For people who don't
(28:29):
know about the history of Steve Erkele. It was meant
just to be a single episode with this weird kid,
and the popularity of his appearance on Family Matters led
to him becoming part of the cast. And it's almost
(28:49):
like the Doctor Smith character of Lost in Space. He
became he Steve Erkele, the driving force behind people watching
it every week, and that happened. Yeah, all right, I've
got another break to take. If you want to call in,
(29:10):
I'll give you about another twelve to fifteen minutes left
with my buddy right here. I've had many a time
on Beezy Air to for Ellis and I hope you're enjoying.
Taufer and I are taking you back in your memory
to when you were a kid getting ready for school
and spoon into the bowl woofing down your favorite cereal
(29:34):
here on night Side Time eight forty five seventy nine degrees.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Now back to Dan ray My from the Window World
Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Dan Is off.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
He'll be back on Monday, I promise. My guest is
mister tefer Ellis, and Tofer, I've got a treat for you.
I used to love this commercial when it came on
and Raw was able to find the audio clip to it.
So buckle up and get ready for a spoonful of
New Country corn flakes. Rob, you count crete cards, tag.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
You can Greek cards. They won't well when you par
on me. Oh they want bug when they are their
double toes Brisbane gold General Man next General where they
show you put rick card drags, you cut rick cards,
(30:37):
come to the corn some of the three wagging that
they won't know when you bar on.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
The double bout the corn flag maybe rhyme.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
So buy our card leg You can't drink card bag,
You can't creek card bags. Please buy our card bags.
You can drink card wags. You cut Greek card bags.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
See Rob can see that commercial. I have to remember
it tofor Did that ring a bell for you? It did?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And what's interesting is that moo at the end. I
believe it was actually a wooster hatching from an egg,
yes and mooing right yes.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And they had a couple of I guess site gags
throughout that commercial. I think it was a pig that
went buck buck bark as a chicken wood and it
was a very creative commercial back in the late sixties.
I don't think the product lasted. They were trying to
(31:49):
compete with Kellogg's corn Flakes, they being General Mills, and
you know, Kellogg's corn Flakes still was king. I don't
even think Kellogg's cornflx is number one, two or three anymore?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Are they relative the corn Flekes? They still are, But
you're right, the Country corn Flkes was General Mills attempt
to take market share in that area and they failed.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
So let's talk about some of the people, real and
fictional that wound up on a cereal box. We talked
about last break Ercolo's and I think I brought up
mister T Cereal C three pos. Are there any other
I'll say, individuals, whether they were real a fictional that
(32:37):
come to mind that adorned a cereal box?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Oh wow, you can go on for a long time
on a lot of the characters, like you'll be there
in the Hanna Barbera group, a lot of the different
characters coming out of the Deward Studios. We mentioned qu quit.
But they're also, of course the Huangaroo, Captain Krunt and
(33:04):
that whole lineup on with a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
That was rast as well.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes we can. We could probably do characters all night long.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I was telling Rob you mentioned there are seventeen hundred
examples of breakfast cereals from bygone days. I said, we'll
be here to October. We started playing bits and pieces
of all of these things. But if I'm not mistaken,
the top three cereals, and this might be as old
(33:38):
as five years ago, and not in any particular order, Cheerios,
frosted Flakes, and honey nut Cheerios are one, two and three.
Do you agree that they are still the top three
or has that top three changed?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Those are probably in the mix. Anytime you've got a
lot of spin offs like the like the Cheerios, right,
you're going to capture a lot of market share.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Corner Flicks of course has the number of spin offs.
Captain Crunch has a couple. Uh that's there anywhere. Everyone
know what they'ven the top ten, but things such as
trying to come up with and Rea's puffs. They they've
been having a pretty good push. But I don't know
if they've made made top ten. Uh, they've been doing
(34:34):
a lot of work on the grocery although, changing their
box up and things like that. Yeah, I wouldn't doubt
for the kid type of cereals that you've nailed it right.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Real quick. Tell the story about the fourth Rice Krispy Elf,
who isn't around anymore.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I love that one. And everyone's familiar with Snap, Crackle
and Pop who came out in the Map, of course,
came out thirty three. Pop was nineteen forty one. Crackle
was also forty one. But in the mid fifties they
came out with a fourth brother and his name was Powell,
and he was supposed to represent the energy that the
(35:18):
ceial came out with. And basically he wrote around on
a He had a sort of a I would call
it a World War One type helmet, but he went
around on some type of spaceship type vehicle was his
way again and around. He never never made it to
a box, but he may have appeared in a few commercials.
(35:41):
We haven't found any that we can prove that got out,
but we have seen commercials and concept.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Dark And why do you think Pow just never caught
on with the American public.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Well, it could be more that it didn't catch on
with the marketing VP there. So those folks really have
a lot of pull on the early on the early
looks on these things. And if you know, something happens,
maybe the budget wasn't there, Maybe that particular VP didn't
like what that represented. Uh, it just doesn't get doesn't
(36:16):
go any further along.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Now if people want to, I'll have to give you
a website again. But if people want to write to
you or do people see the website write to you
and ask you questions and exchange ideas and concepts about Cereal,
tell them how they do it.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Okay, Well, there are tribal contact areas on my website
which is Cofer's Practice Serial Character Guide, and you'll you
can easily find my contact information there, and yes I will,
I will reply to you and give you my best
answer to whatever question you've got.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
All right, And you mentioned how valuable the piece of
land from puffed rice and puffed wheat for the Yukon was.
I think you mentioned twenty bucks If you can find
one of those real fast, I only have about ninety
seconds a show to go for this hour. Give people
(37:18):
another item that has value that came in a cereal
box from back in the day.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Okay, well, I'm going to jump back on the spoon sitters.
Those are going for the spoon sitters. There were three
of them in different sizes, and they had several different colors,
and they were also came out from the Bisco and
they were like spoonmn and the spoon men themselves will
(37:48):
range anywhere from I don't know. I don't think I've
seen them for less than fifteen bucks, as much as
sixty to one hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
The antenna is to intact little antenna has a way
of just breaking off really easily. So it's tough to
get a really good conditioned version of those three. And
each one has what the youngest one has just one
little antenna, the second one has kind of a double
antenna up the middle, and the third one has kind
(38:15):
of a triple antenna. Okay, like I said, they kind
of break off.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Well TOFA, I want to thank you for coming on.
As you can tell, everybody still has cereal in their
heart from back in the day, and I'll have you
on again. Maybe you're on the holidays and we can
talk about holiday based cereals. And on that note, you
enjoy your weekend, Okay.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
I appreciate it. Fun as always, Thank you, take.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Care ta for all. Right, next hour, we're going to
talk about porch performances in Watertown. You'll try it without
my tongue in the way. You'll hear more about that
after news here on WBZ. Time and temperature eight point
fifty eight seventy nine degrees
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