Farfel Hand Puppet Toy
name: label: user
content: Rollins, Hazelle H.
label: designer
content: Nelson, Jimmy
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This felt hand puppet is a toy reproduction of Farfel the dog. The character was created by Jimmy Nelson, known as the "Dean of Ventriloquism." Nelson was a frequent guest on television variety shows and was known for his original dummy named Danny O'Day.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Based on a stuffed animal left on Nelson's piano after a ventriloquist performance in Kansas City, Farfel was named after the Jewish pasta dish, which was a frequent choice on menus in The Borscht Belt of Upstate New York, where many Jewish families from New York vacationed in the summer.
label: Description (Brief)
content: In 1955, Farfel was hired by the Nestle company to star in a commercial selling chocolate candy. The commercials featured the famous jingle sung by Farfel "N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best choc-late", and then Farfel's mouth made a loud snap as he closed his mouth. This became Nestle's trademark commercial for over 10 years.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: Missouri, Kansas City
topic: label: general subject association
content: Puppetry
label: Subject
content: Consumerism
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Puppets
label: See more items in
content: Advertising
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gene and Nancy R. Krupa
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.1085.02
label: accession number
content: 1981.1085
label: catalog number
content: 1981.1085.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: puppet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: felt (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 in x 7 in x 4 in; 40.64 cm x 17.78 cm x 10.16 cm