Throwback Thursday, Face 9

When Himself was a little fella, his favorite lovey was a chimpanzee named Zippy. Zippy had a rubber face with glass eyes, white baby shoes, and elastic suspenders. Himself liked to put his arms through the suspenders and carry Zippy on his back like a backpack. We all liked to do that.

Several years ago I found Zippy in the Cracker Barrel store. In a fit of nostalgia, I  bought him. He's not quite the same. Himself's Zippy had an ugly not very attractive face. The Cracker Barrel monkey had plastic hands and one of them was holding a banana. Himself's Zippy had plastic hands. He thought the banana was removable, but had gotten lost.

While browsing through an antique store, we found an 8 mm movie reel starring a (live) chimpanzee named Zippy. Apparently, Zippy was discovered by Buffalo Bob Smith, creator and host of the 1950's television show, Howdy Doody. Zippy also appeared on a lot of variety shows of the time like The Ed Sullivan Show. Soon there was a stuff doll dressed in overalls with a tee shirt with Zip across the front, and later other dolls, members of Zip's family.

Himself's Zippy didn't have a personalized shirt. In doing some research, we found another chimpanzee. Apparently, some other company tried to cash in on Zip's popularity and created another chimpanzee named Mr. Bim. No matter that Zippy was a look-alike. He'll always be Zippy to us.