New Orleans is the only American city I know of that has its own Christmas character. There are competitors – Rudolph, the Grinch, that guy in red, Frosty – that all have global reputations, but in this city the Yule imagery includes a native tiny snowman with wings of holly, holding a peppermint cane and wearing an ice cream cone hat. His name is “Mr. Bingle” and, as he has revealed in song, he brings messages from “Kris Kringle.”
This is the 75th Christmas season of Mr. Bingle’s existence. He was imagined and created in 1947 as a promotional device for Maison Blanche Department store. By 1948 he was ready to take the stage. And what a stage it would be.
The late ’40s into the ’50s were the Baby Boom years as dads to-be returned from THE war. There was a burgeoning industry for selling toys aided by an innovation that was going to change the world’s culture life: television.
WDSU Channel 6 was the city’s first television station and for years it was the sole local window into the world adjusting itself to the discoveries of a post-war population. Each afternoon there were the local news, weather and sports. Squeezed in during the Christmas season was a fanciful Mr. Bingle, who by age one had already landed his own show. During his brief airtime each day, he sang, danced, named dropped his friend Santa and most of all pitched toys sold at Maison Blanche. As the only station in town, his viewership among people watching television, mostly kids, was a healthy 100 percent.
While the adults may have been concerned about the Cold War with the emergence of puppet governments; for New Orleans kids their life interests were focused on a puppet whose strings were pulled by a character named Oscar Isentrout. Just as life was changing so too would Isentrout. Seldom was any change so dramatic. Prior to Mr. Bingle, Isentrout operated a strip tease puppet show in the Vieux Carre patterned after a French business known as the “Poupee de Paris.” (Not that it wasn’t a classy operation or anything. Here you have to use your own imagination. For one of the strip tease puppets a pair of red bulbs would blink as the top part of her costume conveniently fell.)
There is always a chance for salivation. In need of a puppeteer, a Maison Blanche executive turned to Isentrout who designed the marionette, pulled Mr. Bingle’s strings and who sang Mr. Bingle’s songs.
With each passing Christmas season Mr. Bingle became a more familiar figure of the holidays. During his design period, Maison Blanche had run a mascot naming contest for its new creation, but there was no satisfactory submission. Finally, a store executive noticed that Maison Blanche’ initials would fit perfectly with the name Mr. Bingle. Fortuitously, for the sake of poetry, his name also rhymed with Kringle.
Maison Blanche soon realized that it had a hot item with Mr. Bingle and began creating ornaments, clothes and toys in his image.
Then there was the theater work. In addition to his TV show, Mr. Bingle had an appearance each afternoon in one of the Canal Street Maison Blanche’s widows. Kids and parents blocked the sidewalk waiting to see him.
And in case anyone missed the message, a giant papier mâché image of Mr. Bingle was created and fastened to the facade of Maison Blanche each year during the season. Neighboring D.H. Holmes would have Santa, making a live appearance, on a balcony, but it was hard to overlook Bingle next store who had the own star power.
Not even Bingle could delay life’s change. As kids aged many became parents themselves. Businesses change too. Eventually Maison Blanche sold out beginning several transactions leading to the current ownership by Little Rock-based Dillard’s Department Stores. With each change press releases always assured that Mr. Bingle would be safe with his new owners. Forbes magazine even dealt with the situation and assured that the marionette and his empire would survive. Mr. Bingle would not be one of life’s characters marginalized by youth movements. He still maintains his adolescent vitality and those who knew him when they were kids still appreciate him as grandparents, and his jingle probably continues to reverberate through their minds:
“Jingle, Jangle, Jingle, here comes Mr. Bingle…
with another message from Kris Kringle.
Time to launch the Christmas Season,
Maison Blanche makes Christmas pleasin.’
Gifts galore for you to see,
each a gem from… MB.”
Much has happened during Mr. Bingle’s 75 years, but through it he still provides hope and visions of peppermint canes. Most of all, he still makes Christmas pleasin.’
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