1

The Gerber Baby - Gerber Baby Food

For decades, parents opening a jar of Gerber baby food saw the same sweet, sketched baby face staring back. But almost nobody knew who that baby was.

In 1928, the Fremont Canning Company, later Gerber, held a contest for a new advertising image. While most artists submitted elaborate paintings, Dorothy Hope Smith entered a simple charcoal sketch of her four-month-old neighbor, Ann Turner Cook. The judges loved the sketch exactly as it was and told Smith not to finish it. Because model releases weren’t standard at the time, rumors about the baby’s identity spread for years, with names ranging from Elizabeth Taylor to Humphrey Bogart. Cook stayed quiet for decades, partly to avoid attention, before revealing the truth around the sketch’s 50th anniversary in 1978. She later became a teacher and a mystery novelist. She remained remarkably private despite being one of America’s most recognizable advertising (baby) faces.

2

The Trix Rabbit - Trix Cereal

Every Saturday-morning kid knew the routine: the Trix Rabbit would create some ridiculous disguise, get dangerously close to the cereal, and then hear those four familiar words: "Silly rabbit, Trix is for kids." But the rabbit wasn’t even Trix’s first mascot.

When the cereal launched in 1954, a flamingo appeared on the box. The rabbit arrived five years later as a hand puppet created by writer Joe Harris, who also came up with the famous slogan. For years, General Mills deliberately kept the rabbit from eating Trix, believing it sent the wrong message about instant gratification. An astonishing 99 percent said the rabbit deserved a bowl, so he finally got his taste in 1980, although it has remained a rare event. In 2016, the company held a nationwide search for a real rabbit to appear on limited edition boxes. A two-pound Holland Lop bunny from Houston named Cinnabun won the honor.

3

Chuck E. Cheese - Chuck E. Cheese

The next time a Chuck E. Cheese birthday brings back memories of flashing arcade lights and tokens, remember that the restaurant almost had a much stranger name.

Nolan Bushnell, who co-founded Atari, wanted a family restaurant where people could eat pizza and play arcade games. For his mascot, he thought he had ordered a coyote costume — but got a rat costume instead. Bushnell embraced the mix-up and initially planned to call the chain "Rick Rat’s Pizza." Fortunately, his business partners stepped in and vetoed the idea, pointing out that marketing a rat-themed restaurant wasn't the best way to sell pizza to families. He settled on Chuck E. Cheese, partly because the alliteration reminded him of names like Mickey Mouse. The first Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre opened in San Jose, California, on May 17, 1977. After filing for bankruptcy in 1984, the company merged with rival ShowBiz Pizza Place, creating the chain that is beloved today.

4

Cap’n Crunch (a.k.a. Horatio Magellan Crunch) - Quaker Oats

Back in the 1960s, a TV commercial showed a bowl of cereal waiting, and a cartoon ship called S. S. Guppy sailing across the screen, commanded by a captain with a giant jaw. That’s Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch.

Quaker Oats hired the animation studio behind Rocky and Bullwinkle to draw a mascot in 1963, and writer Allan Burns, who later went on to co-create The Mary Tyler Moore Show , based the captain on the fictional British naval hero Horatio Hornblower. But the name came from a much simpler place: Quaker wanted a cereal that stayed crunchy even in milk. More interestingly, the Cap’n’s crew, young sailors named Alfie, Brunhilde, Carlyle, and Dave, were named using the first four letters of the alphabet so kids could remember them easily. And here’s the twist: even though he’s a Captain, his uniform only has three stripes, which technically makes him a Commander. In any case, 60 years later, he hasn’t earned a fourth stripe, but has gained America’s love.

5

Charlie the Tuna - StarKist

If you hear "Sorry, Charlie" and think of a cartoon tuna desperately trying to get canned, you’re not alone.

In 1961, copywriter Tom Rogers created Charlie for StarKist, basing the character’s beatnik personality, beret, and thick glasses on his real-life friend Henry Nemo, a musician known for his hip style and slang. In TV commercials, Charly was always trying to prove he had "good taste." He painted pictures, dressed like an intellectual, and offered cultured opinions to get StarKist’s attention. Instead, a hook would appear with a sign saying "Sorry, Charlie," because StarKist wanted tuna that tasted good, not tuna with good taste. The joke became part of everyday language. Charlie’s distinctive Brooklyn voice came from actor Herschel Bernardi, who played him for more than two decades. Though the character faded from advertising in the 1980s, StarKist brought him back in 1999.

6

Lucky the Leprechaun - Lucky Charms

If you grew up pouring a bowl of Lucky Charms, you probably remember chasing down every last marshmallow shape before the oats disappeared. That cereal, and its green top-hatted mascot, came from a fairly ordinary lunch break.

In 1963, General Mills product developer John Holahan was looking for a new use for the company’s cereal lines. Inspired by his own favorite candy, Circus Peanut, he chopped some up and mixed them into Cheerios. The result became Lucky Charms, and on St. Patrick’s Day 1964, an animated leprechaun originally called L.C. Leprechaun introduced the cereal to the country in a splashy, expensive ad campaign. But the mascot’s reign wasn't entirely uninterrupted. In 1975, General Mills tested swapping him for a gentle, absent-minded wizard named Waldo, hoping a friendlier character would appeal to kids. Although Waldo tested well with focus groups, he couldn't match the leprechaun's charisma, and General Mills scrapped the national rollout to let Lucky reclaim his pot for good.

7

Woodsy Owl - U.S. Forest Service

If an elementary school assembly in the 1970s included a lesson about littering, Woodsy Owl may have been part of the show. Created by the U.S. Forest Service with artist Harold Bell, Woodsy emerged from the environmental movement surrounding the first Earth Day in 1970.

He officially debuted on September 15, 1971, when Agriculture Secretary Clifford Hardin introduced him in Washington, D.C. His famous message, "Give a hoot, don’t pollute," became so recognizable that Congress passed the Woodsy Owl Act in 1974 to protect his name and image from misuse. Over time, Woodsy’s message expanded beyond littering to conservation and environmental responsibility, eventually becoming "Lend a hand, care for the land." Alongside Smokey Bear, he remains one of America’s best-known government-created characters, with more than five decades of classroom posters, songs, and public-service campaigns behind him.

8

The Quaker Man ("Larry") - Quaker Oats

The round-faced man wearing a wide-brimmed hat on a Quaker Oats canister has been around for generations. Many assume he is William Penn, the Quaker who founded Pennsylvania. He isn’t.

Quaker Oats registered its trademark in 1877, describing it simply as "a figure of a man in Quaker garb." The company chose the image because Quakers were associated with honesty, integrity, and purity, qualities the brand wanted attached to its oats. Officially, the man never had a name. Unofficially, people inside the company have reportedly called him Larry for years, although nobody seems to know exactly where the nickname came from. He has also had several faces over the decades.

9

Slats, Jackie and Leo the Lions - MGM Studios

Anyone who has watched a classic MGM movie knows that roar. But the famous lion mascot actually began with a college connection.

In 1916, advertising executive Howard Dietz needed a symbol for Goldwyn Pictures, a studio that would eventually become part of MGM. Dietz had attended Columbia University, whose mascot was a lion and whose fight song included the words, "Roar, Lion, Roar." He borrowed the idea. The first MGM lion, Slats, appeared in 1924, but there was a funny problem: movies were still silent. Slats never actually roared for audiences. That changed in 1928 when Jackie became the first MGM lion whose roar could be heard on film after synchronized sound arrived. Since then, seven different lions have played the role. The most familiar, simply called Leo, debuted in 1957 and remained MGM’s symbol for more than six decades, making him one of the longest-running mascots in entertainment history.

10

The Burger King - Burger King

Long before the unsettling Burger King mascot began appearing in commercials, the character was simply a cheerful drawing sitting above a restaurant sign.

The first version appeared in 1955 above Burger King's original Miami location, seated on what the company called a "burger throne." He remained mostly decorative until the early 1970s, when an animated version began appearing in children's commercials. Then came the strange version many longtime viewers remember. In 2003, an advertising agency reportedly found an oversized Burger King helium-balloon head for sale on eBay. That discovery helped inspire the silent, giant-headed King who suddenly appeared beside beds , in doorways, and even around celebrities. In 2015, he joined Floyd Mayweather’s boxing entourage in a stunt reportedly costing Burger King $1 million. The company officially retired that version of the King in March 2026, ending a bizarre chapter of the brand’s mascot.

1

Early childhood

Image: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Despite being born into a prominent family, Eleanor Roosevelt’s childhood was not easy. She became an orphan when she was still very young. Her mother, Anna Hall, passed away in 1892, and her father died in 1894 from injuries sustained during a suicide attempt.

Following these tragic events, young Eleanor was left in the care of her maternal grandmother, Valentine Hall, before she was sent to a school for girls in England at the age of 15.

2

Family ties

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Eleanor had presidential connections way before her marriage to FDR. Her father was Elliott Roosevelt, the younger brother of former President Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in turn, comes from a different branch of the Roosevelt family. The family was divided into two distinct clans, both based in New York, each with its own unique culture. Franklin belonged to the Hyde Park Roosevelts and was Theodore Roosevelt’s fifth cousin, while Eleanor was Theodore’s fifth cousin once removed .

Theodore was very fond of his niece and treated Eleanor like a daughter. In fact, in 1905, just a few months into his second term, the president gave her away at her wedding to Franklin D. Roosevelt. There’s nothing like keeping the name in the family!

3

American Red Cross volunteer

Image: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From a young age, Eleanor Roosevelt was actively involved in volunteer work. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, women’s roles shifted dramatically. For Eleanor, this meant volunteering with the Red Cross and visiting wounded naval soldiers.

During her husband’s presidency, in the midst of World War II, Eleanor would inspire others to join the Red Cross and help raise funds to improve care and assistance for soldiers and their families. In August 1943, she even embarked on a month-long journey through the South Pacific to visit hospitals and infirmaries on military bases and ships.

4

An adventurous First Lady

Image: National Portrait Gallery, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Despite being an introvert, Eleanor Roosevelt was an adventurer at heart. She liked to travel and throughout her life practiced different sports. What did Eleanor consider the happiest day of her life? The day she made the field hockey team at her private school!

During the 1930s, she became close to American aviator Amelia Earhart . The pilot took the First Lady on a flight from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore in 1933 and even inspired Eleanor to apply for her own pilot’s license. After Earhart vanished during her attempt to fly around the world, Roosevelt told reporters, "I am sure Amelia’s last words were ‘I have no regrets.’"

5

Women's advocate

Image: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States, Eleanor redefined the role of the First Lady. Unlike her predecessors, she led a very active political life, participating in a multitude of events advocating for women's rights.

For example, before FDR’s presidency, female journalists were often excluded from media events at the White House. Eleanor helped reverse this injustice by hosting a series of women-only press conferences . This courageous and revolutionary act eventually pressured newspapers to hire more female reporters and helped Eleanor win over female voters on behalf of her husband.

6

Newspaper columnist

Image: Douglas Chandor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Did you know Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a syndicated newspaper column for 27 years? From 1935 until her death in 1962, Roosevelt penned six articles a week about her political views and personal life.

Simply titled "My Day," the column featured her thoughts on hot topics such as prohibition, Pearl Harbor, and Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt. In all that time, Eleanor missed only a single week's worth of deadlines after her husband died in 1945.

7

Civil rights activist

Image: National Archives at College Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Eleanor Roosevelt was notably more progressive on civil rights than her husband. During the era of segregation, the First Lady became a crucial ally to the African-American community .

For example, she regularly invited African-American guests to the White House, breaking established protocols. In 1938, she even attended the inaugural meeting of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare in Birmingham, Alabama. On that occasion, after learning that segregationist policies prohibited white and African-Americans from sitting together at public functions, Eleanor protested. "They were afraid to arrest her," one witness recalled.

8

J. Edgar Hoover's public enemy

Image: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Because of her support for civil liberties and promotion of social programs, Eleanor Roosevelt was labeled a communist by the most conservative wing of American society. She was especially unpopular with J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, which viewed her as a threat to the status quo.

In fact, the First Lady was the subject of one of the largest single FBI files, totaling around 3,000 pages . She publicly criticized Hoover’s abusive tactics, calling them "Gestapo-ish."

9

The first influencer

Image: Evert F. Baumgardner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1959, Eleanor Roosevelt made a surprising appearance in a TV commercial that helped popularize margarine as a preferred spread in America.

Her endorsement of the product not only had a significant impact on consumer choices but also earned her a substantial income of $35,000. As evidence of her commitment to social causes, Eleanor used the earnings to purchase 6,000 care packages for families in need , providing critical support and assistance.

10

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Image: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1946, President Harry S Truman appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as the U.S. representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council. In this influential role, she played a key part in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Along with 50 other members, Eleanor worked tirelessly to establish a comprehensive framework that protected and upheld the fundamental rights and dignity of individuals worldwide. Her dedication to this important endeavor marked a significant milestone in the advancement of human rights on a global scale. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains, without a doubt, one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s greatest legacies.

1

Abraham Lincoln

Political life usually comes with a few disappointing election nights. Long before he was memorialized on Mount Rushmore, Abraham Lincoln spent decades collecting setbacks.

He went into business with a partner in Illinois in 1833 by purchasing a general store. Known as the Berry and Lincoln store, the enterprise failed due to poor sales, leaving him in debt for years. He ran for the state legislature and lost. He served in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War in 1832 and was demoted from captain to private. Over the following years, he ran for office again and again, including two unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate, and lost most of them. Regardless of that, he kept showing up, and in 1860, he won the presidency and went on to guide the country through the Civil War and end slavery. Friends who knew him in his Illinois years later said what stood out most wasn’t his brilliance, but how he never let defeat be the last word.

2

Elvis Presley

Picture a then-unknown Elvis Presley in 1954, long before the jumpsuits, sold-out arenas, and screaming fans. He was only 19 and still trying to figure out where his unusual blend of country, blues, and rhythm and blues belonged.

Elvis had just released his first single and was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, a stage that represented the pinnacle of country music. He sang a rockabilly-tinged version of "Blue Moon of Kentucky," and the traditional Opry crowd, expecting straight bluegrass, gave him little more than polite applause. According to Opry lore, talent director Jim Denny told him afterward that he wasn’t going to make it as a singer and should go back to driving a truck. Elvis was so shaken that he reportedly cried the whole drive home to Memphis. He never performed at the Opry again. But two years later, "Heartbreak Hotel" hit number one, and Elvis Presley became one of the best-selling solo music artists in history, forever known as the King of Rock and Roll.

3

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison struggled in the classroom. By the age of 12, he was partially deaf and easily distracted , and after only three months, in 1854, Nancy Edison, his mother, took charge of his education at home after a teacher sent him home with a note calling him "too difficult to teach." Much of his learning came at home through reading, experimenting, and satisfying his endless curiosity. As a young man, he also had trouble finding the right fit in the working world. Popular accounts say he was fired from two jobs because employers considered him unproductive. None of that matched what came next: Edison became an extraordinarily prolific inventor and eventually held 1,093 U.S. patents. His work included the phonograph, improvements to electric lighting, and motion-picture technology.

4

Lucille Ball

If you watched I Love Lucy , you know Lucille Ball was capable of turning a simple household mishap into complete comic chaos. But as a teenager, Ball was not yet the performer who commanded a room.

As a young woman, Lucille Ball enrolled at the Johnny Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts in New York in 1926, at the age of 15, hoping to become an actress. Her instructors weren’t exactly encouraging. She was reportedly considered too shy and too timid for the stage and was advised to consider a different line of work entirely. She spent years afterward modeling and taking small, unremarkable film roles, far from stardom. Ball eventually found her footing not in dramatic film but in comedy and television, where her fearless physical humor became her signature. In 1951, she co-created and starred in I Love Lucy with then-husband Desi Arnaz, and it became one of the most successful sitcoms in television history.

5

Henry Ford

Buying a new car today can make it easy to forget how experimental the automobile business once was. Around the turn of the 20th century, companies started and collapsed, and Henry Ford was one of those business owners who had to reinvent himself more than once.

Ford’s first venture, the Detroit Automobile Company, launched in 1899 and folded within two years , undone by vehicles that were too expensive and too slow to build. His backers pushed him out. He tried again with the Henry Ford Company, but it ended the same way, with investors losing patience and Ford losing control of the business bearing his own name. By 1902, he had two failed automakers behind him and no company at all. For the third time, in 1903, Ford started again. This time, he focused on building one dependable, affordable car and figuring out how to produce it faster than anyone thought possible. That car was the Model T, and the assembly line method he built around it didn’t just save Ford Motor Company; it changed how the entire world manufactures goods.

6

Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s weird to think that one of history’s greatest orators struggled in a classroom. But that’s exactly where Martin Luther King Jr.’s path began.

As a first-year student at Crozer Theological Seminary in the late 1940s, King took a course in public speaking and received a grade of C , a modest mark for a young man who hadn’t yet found his voice. He kept working at it throughout seminary, refining the cadence and clarity that would later define his preaching. Within a decade, that same voice was leading the Montgomery bus boycott and delivering the "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands of people at the March on Washington in 1963, becoming one of the most recognized voices of the 20th century.

7

Oprah Winfrey

Considering how controlled news anchors’ expressions used to be, Oprah Winfrey’s early career sounds almost like a casting mistake.

In 1976, a 22-year-old Winfrey moved to Baltimore to co-anchor the evening news at WJZ-TV. The fit was rocky from the start. Her delivery was warmer and more emotional than the traditional hard-news style the format called for, and station management eventually pulled her off the anchor desk, with one producer reportedly calling her unfit for television news. It could’ve ended her career in broadcasting entirely. Instead, WJZ moved her to a struggling daytime talk show called People Are Talking . There, freed from reading headlines in a flat, detached tone, Oprah’s natural warmth turned into her greatest asset. The local talk show became the blueprint for The Oprah Winfrey Show , which ran for 25 years and made her one of the most influential media figures in American history.

8

Colonel Harland Sanders

Imagine reaching 65 and deciding that instead of settling into retirement, it’s time to travel around the country trying to convince restaurant owners to serve a recipe. Harland Sanders made exactly that decision.

By his mid-sixties, Sanders had lived through a string of failed jobs and businesses , and the small Kentucky restaurant where he’d perfected his fried chicken recipe closed after a new highway diverted its traffic away. Broke and living on a modest Social Security check, he decided to take his recipe on the road, driving from restaurant to restaurant and offering to share it in exchange for a small cut of sales. As the legend goes, he heard "no" more than a thousand times before a restaurant in Utah finally said yes in 1952. That handshake deal became the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. Within a decade, hundreds of KFC restaurants dotted the country, and the white-suited Colonel Sanders (who died in 1980 at age 90) became one of the most recognizable faces in American food.

9

Stephen King

You’ve probably read Carrie , or watched It , but before he became a household name in modern terror, Stephen King was a young writer trying to get his work published.

In the early 1970s, King was teaching high school in his home state of Maine and writing in his spare time, often in a trailer with his wife and young kids nearby. He wrote a novel about a bullied teenage girl with telekinetic powers, but after around 30 rejection letters from publishers, he gave up on it and threw the manuscript in the trash . His wife, Tabitha, fished the pages back out and encouraged him to finish it, believing in the book even when he didn’t. That story became Carrie , published in 1974. It launched King’s career and eventually sold millions of copies, kicking off a body of work that would make him one of the most successful and prolific authors in American history.

10

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)

You may think publishing more than 50 books was easy for Dr. Seuss. But back when he was known as Theodor Geisel, his work got rejected dozens of times.

In the 1930s, Geisel wrote and illustrated a whimsical children’s book called And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Publisher after publisher turned it down, reportedly around 27 of them, saying it was too different from anything else on the market. As the story goes, Geisel was walking down a New York street, manuscript in hand and ready to give up, when he ran into an old college acquaintance who happened to work at a publishing house and offered to take a look. That chance meeting led to the book’s publication in 1937. It launched Dr. Seuss’s career, which would go on to include classics like The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham , beloved by generations of kids and their grandparents alike.

11

Frederick Smith (FedEx)

Today, overnight shipping is so ordinary that a package arriving the next morning (if not on the same day) barely raises an eyebrow. In the 1960s, reliably moving urgent packages overnight across the country was a very different proposition.

In 1965, as an undergraduate at Yale, Smith wrote an economics term paper describing a delivery service that would route urgent packages through one central hub by plane rather than relying on passenger airlines. His professor wasn’t convinced the idea was practical and marked the paper with a C. Smith went on to serve in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, but the idea from that paper never left him. In 1971, he founded Federal Express, built exactly around the hub-and-spoke concept he’d once sketched out for a grade. FedEx now moves millions of packages a day across the globe, and Smith spent the rest of his life running the company he first imagined as a 21-year-old college student.