The Tazewell-Orange.com Blog: Lil Abner Salutes Orange Crush

As some of you may know my blog post named “Those thevin’ varmints: the imitators of Mountain Dew” I briefly conveyed the story of Nugrape’s Kick-A-Poo Joy Juice which owed its name to the Li’l Abner comic strip, and the creator of that strip, Al Capp. The thing is Kick-A-Poo Joy Juice wasn’t Al Capp’s first venture into soft drink promotion. In fact it was nearly fifteen years prior when Li’l Abner, via Al Capp, announced that Orange Crush was “th’ offishul drink of Dogpatch”. Information on this Orange Crush promotion was almost non-existent until my coming into possession information from the records of the Marion Bottling Company at a bottle show.

Al Capp created his Li’l Abner Comic strip in 1934. The strip is based in the backwoods Kentucky town of Dogpatch, and the main characters are the lovable hillbillies who live in this town and their adventures. The lead character is Li’l Abner, the “Ideel red-blooded American”, and is constantly being romantically pursued by Daisy Mae, which Li’l Abner apparently is oblivious to. By 1950 Capp’s readership had reached 50,000,000 daily readers, and had even created Sadie Hawkins Day which is celebrated by dances where the traditional gender roles are reversed and the women ask the men to the dance. In fact my high school still held a Sadie Hawkins Day dance when I was attending back in the early 90’s. That’s a long run for something based on a comic strip that had stopped being produced in 1978.

As you can see Orange Crush were quite happy to sign the deal with Al Capp in July of 1950 to have Li’l Abner, and the rest of Dogpatch, KY, to promote the soft drink to their fans. Within ten days of the signing of the deal, the Chicago Beverage Company, who held the Chicago Orange Crush franchise, created a thirteen week half hour television show named “Crushable Jones’ Jubilee” which was being filmed on location in a studio at the 1950 Chicago Fair. Crushable Jones was a character specifically created by Capp just for this promotion, and he was basically a hillbilly in a soda jerk hat and a horrible wig which I would bet my life was bright orange. The show was shown on WGN-TV in Chicago which had just hit the airways in April 1948.

The August 1950 edition of Orange Crush’s in house magazine O-C News has a drawing on the cover with Li’l Abner bent over to talk to Crushy, Orange Crush’s mascot, and informing him that he has just received his Dogpatch citizenship papers. In fact the whole issue is devoted to the deal with Capp and announcing that “Orange Crush hitches to a star”. The company even produced special cartons decorated with Li’l Abner characters and designed to resemble log cabins. Of course advertising was a huge part of this campaign which took the form of posters, twenty five different full page ads in Li’l Abner comic books, and premiums to be given away.

Today the most common surviving premium from this promotion are the fake tattoos featuring Li’l Abner characters, and the envelope they came in which features many of the characters around the table praising Orange Crush. These can be found on ebay at any given time and are often mistaken as being from the thirties. From the looks of the photo from the O-C News there were so many more premiums to be had including inflatable bop figures, comic books, rubber balls, ear muffs, character statues, glasses, clocks, stuffed animals, posters, lamps, and even latex masks. As the ad shows you could get one “offishul dogpatch” rubber mask for only fifty cents with six Orange Crush bottle caps. The offerings were for Daisy Mae, Li’l Abner (as seen worn by one of the actors on Crushable Jones’ jubilee to creepy effect), Lonesome Polecat, and the Wolf Gal.

As to what became of the promotion, or how long it lasted, there just isn’t much information. One thing I do know is that it lasted long enough for a second toned down version of the bottle carrier to be created. But like most promotions, the Orange Crush Li’l Abner one came and went. The remainder of the 1950’s went pretty good for Al Capp and his creation. In 1956 a Broadway musical was created from the comic strip, and eventually in 1959 a feature film was based off that musical. Al Capp retired in late 1977 due to advancing illness, and died on November 5, 1979 of emphysema at 70. His legacy will live on through his character Lil’ Abner and all of his Dogpatch pals.