Today's quiz comes to us from Scott Williams, the reclusive clown historian and chronicler of international dead-squirrel sightings, from his secluded home in the untamed Maryland wilderness. Scott's challenge is as follows:
In 1963, Bozo the clown's TV show was cancelled, and McDonald's restaurants -- which had had some success advertising on the Bozo show -- decided to get their own clown. The man who had last played Bozo suggested the name Ronald McDonald, and was the first to play the burger-shilling clown.
Who was that man, and, for extra credit, why was he fired?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a Franklin Mint reproduction of the original "burgerschilling" coin used to purchase "Ein Grosse Mac" in 19th-century Hamburg, Germany (at that time located in southern Illinois). No Googling or frantically thumbing through your copy of Fast Food Nation, please. One guess per comment, but comment as often as you like. Scott himself will adjudicate the competition.
Dick Cheney; because he was gay.
Posted by: bootsy on June 6, 2003 10:48 AMDick is indeed a Bozo, but no.
Our man is perhaps somewhat less well known than the VP, though he's seen on TV and in public far more often. And had it in fact been DC, VP who was the first RMcD, he may have been fired for the same reason as the real first RMcD.
It hasn't anything to do with sexual preference, though.
Posted by: Scott on June 6, 2003 11:03 AMHeh. "Quit buggering the hamburglar and pack up your stuff, Dick." This would also be a great answer to the question "why does the Grimace grimace."
While I have the floor, I want to share my idea for a gameshow -- Jerk Jeopardy. The only real change from Trebek's show would be in the phrasing of the questions. "Who the hell is Dick Cheney?", for instance.
Posted by: Scott on June 6, 2003 11:09 AMI just want to go on record as saying that I support the Vice President in his expression of his sexuality, and I've always found Grimace sort of narrow-minded.
Posted by: BT on June 6, 2003 11:19 AMHere it is noon without much activity. My questions don't tease, they stop outright, like an elephant gun, like Tom Swift's electric rifle. Except a TASER might actually leave 'em twitching.
Time for an arch hint, is it?
Though Bob Dylan may say he's irrelevant, our man is known to TV viewer from ages 8 to 80. Hell, even from ages 1 to 100.
Posted by: Scott on June 6, 2003 12:02 PMBob Hope.
Posted by: Rory on June 6, 2003 12:24 PMAn RHS-worthy answer, Mr. Rory! No hints yet please, Mr. Scott! We can do it! Let's see. It's 1963, and we know "tasers" is awfully close to "taters," plus what burgerwalla doesn't like freedom fries with that? Therefore you can only mean the original Mr. Potato! It's Dan Quayle, innit!
Not Hope, not Quayle.
Our man's girth
Is what caused him to fail
Laissez-le gros temps
roller. Est-ce que
Chef Paul Prudhomme, n'est?
Guessing in rhyme, this is fun
But Chef Paul, alas, is not the one
Ed McMahon?
I have no idea how to spell his last name...the Publisher's Clearinghouse guy, he was Johnny Carson's sidekick.
Posted by: sara on June 6, 2003 01:41 PMWillard Scott
Posted by: teenidol on June 6, 2003 01:49 PMTeenidol reads the Wall Street Journal, or is just very versed in Willardalia. In any case, he's knocked this guest-hosted Wombat quiz out of the park and into the history books.
Yes, Willard was canned for being portly. Not because of what it might imply about eating a McD's (look at the ass on Grimace, for the love of Pete), but because in expanding so that they had Ronalds on the ground in many cities, the McD's honchos didn't want the challenge of matching Willard's build with every hire. So they went for a skinny Ronald instead.
Posted by: Scott on June 6, 2003 02:00 PMAn american idol before his time, really. Pretty cheeky using your kin in a guest answer!
Posted by: bootsy on June 6, 2003 02:03 PMI wish I could attribute clown knowledge to the WSJ.
Let's just say, as Sun Tzu said, "Know your enemies as yourself."
OK, I made that up.
Posted by: teenidol on June 6, 2003 02:03 PMTeenidol is close. Sun-tzu actually said:
"When on the flanks the army encounters ravines and defiles, wetlands with reeds and tall grass, mountain forests, or areas with heavy, tangled undergrowth, you must thoroughly search them because they are places where an ambush or spies would be concealed."
But the thought is more or less the same.
Great quiz, Scott!
Posted by: BT on June 6, 2003 02:10 PMWho the hell is Sun-tzu?!
Posted by: Scott on June 6, 2003 02:28 PMOo, oo, I *knew* this one, and I've only arrived after everyone has packed up and gone home. He talked about it 10 years ago (15?) to Bob Costas on his show Later.
I have *got* to get less work done.
"What in the hell is The Art of War?"
Posted by: Jonathan on June 6, 2003 03:00 PMI think Sun-tzu was a later Ronald McDonald or something.
>> "What in the hell is The Art of War?"
Absolutely nothing! Say it again...
>> "When on the flanks the army encounters... be concealed."
Goddammit! That's the last time I let some pushy bookstore clerk convince me to get the abridged version. I guess your copy is probably more than 49 pages.
Posted by: teenidol on June 7, 2003 04:01 PMI knew this one too, and I want to make up for my missing the quiz by being pedantic.
Willard Scott suggested the name Donald McDonald, and somebody for McDonald's changed it to Ronald.
Posted by: boxjam on June 8, 2003 06:44 PM