[BC] you really needed to know this, right?

[Reader]

A Reader Asks: I loved the discussion about Wilkins coffee in
the Q&A last week. I grew up in the Washington area and
watched those spots for years.

More Washington ad and media trivia: Long before NBC brought
him to New York to be the "Today" show weatherman - and an
omnipresent national product spokesman for countless
advertisers - Willard Scott was the weatherman on WRC-TV,
Channel 4, owned by NBC. And before he did that he was our
local Bozo the clown, doing both the kiddie TV show and
making appearances at the openings of new McDonald's
restaurants in the area, long before the brand created its
own clown icon.

A: (Stuart Elliott)

It turns out, dear reader, that the history of Ronald
McDonald is a tangled tale indeed. McDonald's describes
Willard Scott as portraying the character in Ronald's first
TV appearance in 1963. And Mr. Scott, in his memoirs, writes
that he created Ronald.

But by most accounts, Ray Rayner, who played Bozo the clown
on the Chicago TV station WGN, made the first TV appearance
as Ronald, on a live show. Mr. Scott is credited with being
the first person to play Ronald in prerecorded TV
commercials.

According to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, a Los
Angeles clown named George Voorhes created the character's
look and costume, for a performance at a McDonald's
restaurant in the Los Angeles area. Among the fascinating
trivia about the character is that Ronald initially wore a
hat made from a food tray.