Jolly Jack

QUESTION OF THE DAY—A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE ON SALISBURY’S DOWNTOWN AT CHRISTMAS TIM, BUT WHO KNOWS THE ANSWER?

When cars still rode down Main Street (before the large flower pots and vacant storefronts), one store stood out during the Christmas season as a place for kids to go and gaze at wished-for toys at Christmas. That store was White and Leonard’s in the middle of Downtown. There were all sorts of magical toys we could only imagine might land under our Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

Also before the high-tech ads of today, White & Leonard’s had a very inventive and fun advertising program to promote every kid demanding the toys which were being featured. This advertising was in the form of a WBOC (only t.v. station we had at that time) elf by the name of Jolly Jack, who began each show by jumping and popping out of a large box. The t.v. cameras would frantically try to keep up with him as Jolly Jack would then scamper all over the place opening up boxes and doors, inside of which were all manner of exciting toys which he constantly reminded viewers “you can find right here at White & Leonards”.

The question of the day is: Who played the strange little elf, Jolly Jack on these t.v. shows?

(if you wish to see a video of a long-forgotten Jolly Jack t.v. show, it can be seen at the Downtown Salisbury exhibit at the Nabb Center—it takes you back to a simpler time.)