Otus the Head Cat
M&M’s spokescandy got start in Arkansas.
Dear Otus, My 4-year-old daughter is convinced that there are such things as giant talking M&M’s. She saw them on TV and obsesses over the yellow one. She says he’s “troubled.” — Sherry Ellis, Pine Ridge
Dear Sherry,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and a further pleasure to reassure you that she will grow out of it.
Meanwhile, as with all myths and legends (even those behind mass marketing) there is always a grain of truth. And the M&M’s tale has a fascinating Arkansas connection.
It’s a tale as old as Cain and Abel — a tale of greed and jealously in which the seeds of animosity, resentment and invidiousness bore the inevitable bitter fruit of acrimony, tragedy and retribution.
It was in early 1941 before the United States entered World War II when the Mars Candy Co. of New Jersey introduced what was to become America’s favorite candy.
M&M’s they were called (named for company executives Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie) and its candy coating allowed soldiers to carry chocolate without it melting, The candy came in a variety of colors — brown, purple, red, green, orange and (the most favorite) yellow.
Mars immediately began radio commercials and hired comedian and Pangburn native Mort Lauck as the voice of the yellow M&M. He was an instant hit.
It was a heavy blow on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Mort fell victim to the “Yellow Peril” prejudice that swept the nation.
Suddenly, in a cacophonous blur of xenophobic fervor, all things yellow were shunned. Mort raged silently against the fickleness of his fate.
It took years of therapy, but Mort slowly recovered. For the initial TV campaign in 1954, M&M gave Mort another shot — and a co-star.
Joining the team was Mort’s old vaudeville partner Murray Goff, originally from Searcy. Murray was hired as the voice of the red peanut M&M and took the country by storm with a popularity that rivaled Milton Berle.
In the beginning, Mort was thrilled. He had his old buddy by his side and the two became inseparable. Some say the lovable duo were the prototypes for Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street fame. Still others see an odd-couple symbiotic harmony that inspired Neil Simon’s Oscar and Felix.
Lucrative commercial endorsements and television contracts made the pair household names and independently wealthy.
Older readers will recall the early black and white commercials showing Mort and Murray diving into a pool of chocolate to get their trademark coating. But it wasn’t long before the first ominous signs of discord appeared.
Due to his larger size and peanut center, Murray gradually became more popular than Mort. The red peanut M&M was soon seen at all the trendy candy in-spots without his little yellow buddy.
It was during these years that the purple M&M fell into disfavor and was unceremoniously replaced by tan. An ugly precedent had been established. Mort, increasingly jealous and seething, began to plot his revenge. He had never really forgiven Murray for surviving unscathed the “Red Menace” years of Vietnam.
Why had he suffered so during the xanthophobic years when Murray, who was as deeply red as the most rabid Communist, sailed through without a blemish?
The devil’s work had begun. Mort surreptitiously spread the tale that there was something wrong with Murray’s red food coloring (amaranth). Fear gripped a nervous nation and the Mars company pulled red from the mix in 1976.
Murray was devastated. For 11 years he lived a meager existence in an old RV in a remote corner of some Mars property in north-central Pennsylvania. There he plotted his comeback and dreamed of the day he would be allowed to rejoin his fellow assortment.
Finally, in 1986, a new red dye was declared safe and Murray was allowed back. He never realized the involvement of his old pal Mort, but he sensed the little yellow fellow was harboring a dark secret. Things were never quite the same between them and they remained estranged.
A broken Mort retired to Hot Springs Village in 1987 and died in 1998. Murray lived with his daughter outside Ojai, Calif., until his death in 2002.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you there are now six M&M spokescandies — tan, red, yellow, green, blue and brown.
Disclaimer
Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail: mstorey@arkansasonline.com