By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
This week we’ve been looking back at some of Buffalo’s favorite and best remembered commercial jingles.
So, do you remember where you’ll find the Jolly Little Baker?
That animated little baker spent time on Buffalo televisions from the 50s through the 70s.
As much as the unique, dense rye bread that still sparks life in the palates of Western New Yorkers, our yearning for Kaufman’s rye bread is tied to the fact that the taste is forever linked to that 18-second jingle, permanently implanted in the subconscious of generations of Buffalonians, which many of us could still sing on demand.
MORE: Torn-Down Tuesday: The Kaufman’s Rye Bread sign
Known of course for singing the “Jolly Little Baker” jingle, the pen-and-ink bread maker, wearing a bow tie and pleated chef’s toque was emblazoned on the cellophane wrappers of Kaufman’s various varieties of Rye, pumpernickel, and kaiser rolls.
The smiling chubby little guy would also appear on the pages of the Courier-Express and Buffalo Evening News offering recipes for “sandwiches of the week.”
These sandwiches of 60 years ago, featuring liverwurst, boiled tongue, and sardines aren’t all in line with most modern palettes, but show us what people were putting on their rye bread in 1957.
