Here's an ad from the back of LITTLE LULU 1956. It's for a Monsanto-Sponsored "Win a Trip to Disneyland" contest. Yes! MONSANTO! Its cash value: $2,000. What is that in today's money? A LOT!
The gimmick was that you would have to finish a poem about Monsanto Plastics' toys which, I would guess, were full of lead paint and red dye #3, then you could win "Five Family Trips and 1010 other exciting prizes in Monsanto's Easy Jingle Contest!"
The new toys of plastics are my favorite kind
Their bright colors make them easy to find
They're smooth and they're tough -- as real as can be
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Let me know if you want to come up with a last line, just for fun.
Monsanto had a relationship with Disneyland from the beginning, sponsoring an exhibit called the Hall of Chemistry. The contest may well have been part of the deal.
ReplyDeleteIn 1957 the Monsanto House of the Future opened at Disneyland; and later they sponsored the Adventure Thru Inner Space ride (the one where a giant microscope shrinks you). For the latter, the Sherman brothers wrote a chipper song celebrating Monstanto's efforts titled "Miracles From Molecules".
My last line doesn't scan any better than any of the other three!
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