Back in the mid 1930's, there were over 100 Corn Flake cereal manufacturers. It was a simple product to make & very profitable. The problem for Post cereal & other cereal manufacturers was that the cereal flakes were indistinguishable, from one manufacturer to another. The only way to differentiate the Post brand from the imitators was to decorate the box. Post hired an animator and he was paid over 1 million dollars a year, during the Depression, to draw cute cartoon figures, which were put on the cereal boxes. That animator was Walt Disney. He used that money to start his empire.

As a side note, Post actually "borrowed" the idea of cereal flakes, without payment, from Dr. Kellogg & his brother W. K. Kellogg. Post was the first to market cereal flakes to the public. Post was a customer of Dr. Kellogg at his health sanitarium, where the flakes were first made, by mistake.

I like Disney characters but I love Hanna Barbera characters. Sure, the Disney characters are artistically far superior, but the Hanna Barbera characters are funny & fun to be around. They came into your house, via the TV set. The same could be said about Warner Brothers characters, in my humble opinion.

Post was using Disney characters, to decorate their boxes. Years down the road, Kellogg's would use Warner Brothers & Hanna Barbera characters, as their cereal box mascots.

Getting back to Hanna Barbera, one of my favorites is Snagglepuss, the cowardly lion (HEAVENS TO MURGATROID.....EXIT, STAGE LEFT.) His tag line was fantastic and Daws Butler, who was the voice artist, did a fantastic job of making Snagglepuss "human." Yes, I will repeat myself, HUMAN. All of the Hanna Barbera characters were considered friends, to the millions of children who loved to watch their antics. One of the MAJOR reasons was because of the incredible skill of the voice artists. The ability to make an animated drawing into a living being took incredible skill.

The full name of Snagglepuss wasn't  "Snagglepuss the Cowardly Lion," but he was cowardly. Most of Hanna Barbera characters were parodies of other Pop Culture icons. Golly Gee Whiz, what cowardly lion was Snagglepuss the parody of? Oh, I can't think of anything. Click your heels, three times & maybe you & I will think of it.

Snagglepuss was a cereal mascot for Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies. Besides having your "friends" on the TV set, you can also have them at your breakfast table. COOL.

Here are three unused cereal box flats (never folded into a box) with Snagglepuss. The cereal box flats are available to be purchased from TV TOY MEMORIES

COCOA KRISPIES CEREAL BOX - CAPTAIN KIDD


COCOA KRISPIES CEREAL BOX - PECOS BILL
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COCOA KRISPIES CEREAL BOX - VALERIE DOLL



Here is a Cocoa Krispies commercial with Snagglepuss, from the 1960's. I hope you enjoy.











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