Voice of Jolly Green Giant Dies

BBC News- The American entertainer whose voice boomed out "Ho, ho, ho" in the Jolly Green Giant vegetable adverts for decades has died at the age of 80.

Elmer Dresslar, originally from Kansas, died of cancer, his daughter announced in California where he had been living since his retirement. Dresslar periodically re-recorded the famous jingle and sang a fresh "Ho, Ho, Ho" about 10 years ago. "If nothing else, it put my sister and I through college," said daughter Teri. "He never got tired of it," she added. The phrase, one of the most distinctive taglines in advertising history, was created by Leo Burnett.

A spokeswoman for General Mills, the owner of the Green Giant Company, said Dresslar had been "the most consistent and most frequent voice of the Jolly Green Giant over the years - the one consumers are going to recognise". The figure viewers saw on screen was Keith Wegeman, an Olympic ski jumper.

A navy veteran, Dresslar studied voice in Chicago in the 1950s and by the following decade had carved out a career singing in clubs, on television and in advertising jingles, the Associated Press news agency notes.

He recorded 15 albums with The Singers Unlimited jazz group and appeared on the CBS television show In Town Tonight from 1955 to 1960.

Other jingles he recorded advertised Rice Krispies cereal, Amoco oil, Dinty Moore canned beef stew and Marlboro cigarettes.