Skip to main content

Long Live Mr. Whipple

In all the hullabaloo of the Thanksgiving holiday, I neglected to acknowledge the passing of Dick Wilson, the actor who played Mr. Whipple for more than twenty years. Mr. Whipple was the star of an ad campaign for Charmin toilet paper, and in a 1978 survey, he was the most-recognized American after Richard Nixon and Billy Graham.

Actors who specialize in commercial work are often dismissed as less than serious about their craft, but Wilson once said, "The kind of pictures they're making today, I'll stick with toilet paper." By "sticking with toilet paper," the man was able to work twelve days a year for an annual salary of $300,000. Beat that.

In honor of Dick Wilson's place in pop culture, here are a couple of his earlier commercials.

Comments

dive said…
Robyn, that's hilarious!

I've never seen him before, but I must admit I'd far rather watch him than Nixon or Graham!
Mrs. G. said…
I loved Mr. Whipple and his refusal to squeeze the Charmin. Thanks for the tribute.

Popular posts from this blog

Cindy Loo Who In October

What is it with people and Cindy Loo Who? Of my last one hundred blog hits, forty have been direct visits from regular readers, and fifteen have been as a result of people searching for "Cindy Loo Who," the little pixie from Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas . A couple of years ago, I posted an image of the original Seuss illustration as compared to the TV cartoon image, and for some reason, that post is bringing in the crowds, relatively. Maybe it's the weather. It isn't even November yet, and already we've had frost and have had to dust off our winter coats. When it gets cold like this, I start to think about Christmasy things like listening to Nat King Cole and decorating the tree. It's ironic because I am offended when retailers start pushing holiday stuff early, but I don't mind my own private celebrations. When my sister and I were much younger and still living with our parents, we would pick a day in July, close the curtains to darken the ...

The Ultimate Storyteller—in Life AND in Death

I wrote about The Autobiography of Mark Twain in yesterday's edition of Small Town Newspaper. You can read it here , if you want. This is the photograph I had in mind while I read Clemens' dictations. He really was a masterful storyteller, even when rambling on about the poorly designed door knobs in Florence or in describing the Countess Massiglia, who he described as a "pestiferous character." About her, he said, “She is excitable, malicious, malignant, vengeful, unforgiving, selfish, stingy, avaricious, coarse, vulgar, profane, obscene, a furious blusterer on the outside and at heart a coward.” And I laughed out loud.