You may not have recognized him on the street, but he was one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, if only for that one-minute scene. Today is the birthday of Jerry Maren, on this January 24, 1920.
The one-minute scene I am referring to is the grand and auspicious welcome to Munchkinland by none other than the Lollipop Guild.
He was born into this world as Gerard Marenghi. Eventually, his name changed over to what we know, Jerry Maren. Born in Boston, he was the youngest child in a family of twelve. I don’t know why it seems important to me, but his dad worked in a shoe factory. I guess I remember Jerry Maren as much for his shoes in The Wizard of Oz, as I do anything. Another thing about his childhood is that he had a tall family. Four of his brothers were more than six feet tall. I hate to say, but it looks like Jerry got the short end of the stick.
When he was about twelve years old, Maren started taking dancing lessons with one of his sisters. It ended up that he and his dance instructor had an act that they took around the New England area. They were called Three Steps and a Hop. But, by a bit of luck, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer noticed them. The MGM scouts were looking for three little guys who could sing and dance.
And that’s how his career began. Maren received a telegram not long after he had graduated from high school. MGM asked him to come to California to work on a film. They paid him about $100 per week plus expenses.
We all know the glorious scene in The Wizard of Oz. Maren played the green member of the Lollipop Guild. He is the one who handed the lollipop to Dorothy Gale.
He did a lot of things in his career, and I won’t touch on all the films and acts in which he appeared. They are numerous, I’ll tell you. From Hello Dolly to Something Wicked This Way Comes. There was movie after movie for Maren.
But, the thing that was the biggest? He was Mayor McCheese in McDonaldland. Now. I don’t even eat at McDonald’s these days. I bet it has been ten years since I’ve had a Big Mac. It’s not that I don’t like them. It just seems that when I do eat fast food, there is always something besides McDonald’s that I’d rather have.
Anyway. There was a time when I did eat there. And during those youthful years, I loved McDonaldland. In fact, I think McDonald’s needs to drop the whole “I’m loving it” thing and move all its advertising energy back to McDonaldland. That is what the country really needs.
The cast of characters was endlessly good. Of course, in almost every scene, we’d see Ronald McDonald. But there were others who were better. Like Mayor McCheese, of course. We met the Hamburglar, Officer Big Mac, Captain Crook, The Professor, Grimace, and The French Fry Gobblins. I’m sure there were others over the years.
The high jinx was incredible in those McDonaldland scenes. Those commercials appeared at a time when the majority of advertising on TV was annoying and absolutely horrible to watch. “Madge, what am I soaking in?”
But McDonaldland brought the small screen to life. And there, underneath that big cheesy head of Mayor McCheese, was Jerry Maren, running around, head-butting the Hamburglar, and handing out the land’s proclamations. And cheeseburgers.
I certainly never knew that one of the Lollipop Guild guys was doubling as Mayor McCheese. Another one of life’s amazing surprises.
Like 2-for-1 sales. Or finding change in a vending machine.
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“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
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“I know enough of the world now to have almost lost the capacity of being much surprised by anything”
― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
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“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Idler; Poems
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From Munchkinland to McDonaldland, and everthing in between.
