The Art of Not Applying Myself

(I'm back. Have been busy working on my newest site, framedbyfaith.com)

Thanks to the internet I have, after almost 30 years, discovered that Norman Jonsson was NOT the creator of Tony the Tiger and the Jolly Green Giant.  Which goes to show how much attention I was paying to him and his training of me. I did discover, however, that he was the lead advertising guy for those two characters, along with other commercials, such as Franco American spaghetti and Allstate.

As I mentioned before we had met at church, and I seem to remember that he and his wife sang in our choir. Lois and I visited their home several times, and I personally spent many hours in his basement because he had agreed to help me with a senior project, producing a 60-second commercial for Judson College.

In said basement he proudly shared with me a number of photographs and reel-to-reel footage of the commercials he had produced, along with interesting stories about their development. He said that the original Jolly Green Giant valley was created in a 12 X 12 room, and the "giant" himself was actually a 13 year old boy.

He showed me outtakes of the Allstate commercials and dug out the castle prop from the Franco-American spaghetti commercial, where an unknown hand sets down a giant can of spaghetti in front of the castle. Norman also demonstrated his skill at sketching, painting and lettering. In only a few minutes he could create amazing results in a cartoon, a name or a drawing.

Norman explained to me that he didn't come by his skill easily. He said that, while some are truly gifted artists, others can achieve the same level of expertise by a lot more work. In his early days Norman had avidly practiced at sketching, taking blank paper and pencil with him wherever he went, including church, at bus stops and while going out to eat. He began at the Disney studios by sweeping the floor and helping out with odd jobs --- for free!

Even while I was studying with him, Norman would be called away to do commercials, even though he was officially retired. One was a Pampers commercial, where he filmed a number of babies and interviewed several mothers at the nearby Schaumburg Mall.

I share all this to say that I couldn't take full credit for my senior project because Norman did a lot of the grunt work. Sure, I worked on the story board, and I arranged for students to participate and got the necessary waivers signed. But the actual technical work, Norman did. He filmed. He edited. I picked background music, and recorded the voice-over, but Norman put it all together, with split-screen opticals and supers, with little actual hands-on support from me.

The result was a high quality, professional commercial that I was anxious to show to the college president and dean. They were impressed and wanted me to donate it to my alma mater. I wanted money. They said no. I couldn't believe that one of their rich board members wouldn't cough up a few hundred to buy my film. After all, I was a struggling student with wife and kids. So I put the film back in the can and have since lost it. But they didn't get it. And I regret that now.

This was the first of two letdowns I would experience from college. With all that God was teaching me, I was a worse spiritual student than I was as a college senior. What happened after I got my degree was my next disappointment.