Say it isn’t so!

The headline reads: Oscar Mayer dies at 95. I couldn't help but hear the jingle in my head "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer..."

Dateline? Wisconsin. That's where Mayer, retired chairman of the Wisconsin-based meat processing company "died of old age this past Monday," the story said, quoting his wife. The product line his family is known for will continue to bear his name, as he was the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded Oscar Mayer Foods.

There was his grandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, who died in 1955; his father, Oscar G. Mayer Sr., who died in 1965; and now Oscar G. Mayer Jr. Mayer retired as chairman of the board in 1977 at 62, just after the company recorded its first $1 billion year, the online story went on to say. The company was sold to General Foods and is a business unit of Kraft, but the Oscar Mayer legend, and jingle, will likely live on for some time to come.

As a side dish, it should be noted that Richard Trentlage, writer of the famous Oscar Mayer wiener jingle, has donated the banjo-ukulele used to create the "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener…" song to the Wisconsin Historical Museum on Madison's Capitol Square. Trentlage was accompanied by his daughter Linda, who performed on the original recording of the jingle.

Bet you didn't know that Trentlage wrote the jingle in 1962 as part of a contest by Oscar Mayer's advertising agency. "The tune has been a staple of American culture," a Web site said, but all i heard was "... cause everyone would be in love with me..."

Log In | Register as a new member