Talk of the Town: Yikes! There’s a tiger in my soup!

“Animal crackers in my soup

Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop

Gosh oh gee but I have fun

Swallowing animals one by one”

�” Sung by Shirley Temple in the movie “Curly Top,” 1935

Seems little Shirley added an animal or two. There were never any rabbits. Monkeys, yes. Lions and tigers and bears, indeed. A jaguar�”now and again. Even a hyena or two, but no “cwazy wabbits,” as Elmer Fudd would say.

Nabisco’s animal crackers are a whopping 106 years old this year. For more than a century, 54 different animals have lived in the Barnum’s Animal Cracker box.

In 1902, animal crackers officially became Barnum’s Animals and evoked the familiar circus time theme.

P.T. Barnum, considered to be one of the greatest self-promoters in history, had absolutely nothing to do with the box that bears his name. He never got a cent for it. That’s according to a spokesperson at the Barnum Museum.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus still doesn’t get a cut, or a licensing fee.

This is what happened: In 1889, Barnum decided to do something truly nutty, a tour of England with his circus. So after his buddy Bailey figured out how, exactly, you get a circus that normally takes up 10 rail cars onto a boat and across an ocean, Barnum’s Animals made their European debut.

The English, meanwhile, had already invented something called animal biscuits. Sensing a marketing moment, several companies started manufacturing animal biscuits with circus packaging and called them Barnum’s. Soon the product migrated across the ocean, where Nabisco’s forerunner, the National Biscuit Co., put them on U.S. store shelves in 1902.

Originally called “Barnum’s Animals,” they became Barnum’s “Animal Crackers” in 1948.

With each generation, there have been some changes in the number and variety of animals caged in that colorful little box.

The now-familiar box was designed for the Christmas season with the innovative idea of attaching a string to hang from the Christmas tree. (When I was young, I carried it like a little handbag, even using it for change after I’d eaten all the contents. I was about 4 years old, but I could make a fashion statement with that box.)

At one time, the imprinted “wheels” bent around the bottom of the box, and the box’s bottom was perforated to allow the wheels to be opened up straight and thus stand the box on its “wheels.”

These five-cent cartons were a big hit and are still so today. (Up until that time crackers were sold in bulk or in large tins.)

Although the circus box has gone through updates and changes over the years, it still remains true to its origin�-�-�”

bright, colorful and fun.

Later, in 1958, production methods changed to improve the crackers’ visual details. Until then animal shapes were stamped out of a dough sheet by a cutter. This produced outlines with little sophistication.

By installing rotary dies, bakers actually engraved details onto each cracker, creating a much more intricate design. The rotary dies are still used today.

Animal crackers seem to a part of everyone’s childhood�- no matter how many years ago that was. They’ve also been written about, sung about and probably dreamed about by millions.

More than 40 million packages of Barnum’s Animal Crackers are sold each year, in the United States and worldwide.

The crackers are baked in a 300-foot-long traveling band oven. They are in the oven for about four minutes and are baked at the rate of 12,000 per minute.

Fifteen thousand cartons and 300,000 crackers are produced in a single shift, using some 30 miles of string on the packages. This runs to nearly 8,000 miles of string a year.

Those bright circus boxes are produced in three colors - red, blue and yellow - with different variety of animals on each.

In 1930, Groucho Marx played hunter Jeffrey Spaulding in “Animal Crackers,” an absolutely hilarious movie, made by Paramount.

As Marx said: “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know. Then we tried to remove the tusks, but they were imbedded so firmly that we couldn’t budge them. Of course, in Alabama, the Tuscaloosa, but that’s entirely irr-elephant to what I was talking about.”

It’s not St. Patrick’s Day yet, but the Arizona Opera League’s Home Tour on March 8-9 is going “green.” In addition to four

exemplary Tucson homes, plus two bonus homes, the league has partnered with the University of Arizona College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture for an eco-fair, which includes viewing solar cars and free parking in the UA garage on Park Ave., Tucson.

Green Valley docents will guide you through one of the homes each Saturday. Tickets for either tour date are for sale at the Green Valley Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce, 625-7575.

Let’s hear it for the Greater Green Valley Arts Council, your guide in our area to classes, music, art, dance, literature, and other cultural events and exhibits open to the public and available to Green Valley and area residents.

The GGVAC was formed in 1986 when the late Green Valley community activist, Paul Green, and his wife were scheduled to attend two cultural events that were happening at the same time. His solution to the problem was to create a community master calendar for the arts. This process lead to the formation of the Greater Green Valley Arts Council.

The GGVAC collaborates with the Tucson Pima Arts Council to fund art residencies in the local schools. It also provides scholarships to Sahuarita High School seniors.

In addition, the “What’s Happening in the Greater Green Valley Area” calendar/newsletter listing art events and exhibits is published monthly and sent to more than 200 businesses and individual supporters.

Approximately 1,500 copies are available to the public from various businesses, the Green Valley Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce, major Green Valley Recreation centers, and the Joyner-Green Valley Library.

A master cultural calendar is updated weekly for the community to preclude scheduling conflicts. Folks planning and art event, exhibit, or lecture can access this calendar to set their dates, allowing them to see any scheduling conflicts or overlap. The master cultural calendar is available from the GGVAC, the local Chamber of Commerce, Green Valley Community Coordinating Council, Valley Presbyterian Church, and KGVY-Radio.

The GGVAC promotes 33 council member groups by listing them in the Green Valley Community Directory and the “What’s Happening in the Greater Green Valley Area” calendar/newsletter.

The GGVAC also advocates the on-going Community Performing Arts & Learning Center at the Pima Community campus in Green Valley.

GGVAC collaborates with the Pima County Arts Council to fund cultural arts residency programs in area schools.

In March of 2007, children in Continental Elementary and Sahuarita Intermediate School were treated to a series of classes in the art and exhilaration of dance. Students learned to “express themselves in movement” and at the same time to respect the ideas of their peers.

Scholarships are provided for Sahuarita High School seniors who have excelled in the arts, but who do not necessarily go into the field after school. These scholarships are based on personal applications and recommendations from the school.

Residency programs, and GGVAC publication/mailing expenses are funded by local business and professional members, individual members, and our member groups.

Scholarships are funded by a few generous member groups and an annual Country Fair White Elephant grant.

All officers and board members of GGVAC are volunteers. The current president is Mary Wehmeyer (625-5012), and vice-president, Jean Davis (625-2623).

Other officers and board members include: Karen Baker, treasurer; Maureen O’Hara, secretary; Patty Bury, Elizabeth Cohen, Lois Starns, Max Terry, Lu Vos, Natalie Weikunat and Donald Weston

They can be contacted for information about becoming a member and contributions.

The Greater Green Valley Arts Council’s (GGVAC) address is P.O. Box 703, Green Valley, AZ, 85622.

GGVAC is looking for both individual and business members. Be a supporter of the cultural arts!

Thanks to Georgia Doubler for this story.

rford@gvnews.com | 547-9740