Joe - The Gerber Baby?

THE GERBER BABY

This  picture was taken during my first year in 1934. I often wonder what was making me laugh. I was probably very easy to entertain.

But what I remember most about this picture is that an 8”x10” copy of it was hung up on a very large bulletin board in my Grandmother and Grandfather Todd’s (Lala and Far) kitchen for many years. They used to tell me that I was the model for the Gerber Baby’s picture on the baby food jar.

Now, I would think they were probably kidding around with me except that Far & Lala AKA Dr. Joseph Clinton Todd, DD and PhD, Minister in the Disciples of Christ Church and Dean of Indiana University School of Religion, and Emily Robertson Todd, MA and I think PhD, were two of the most serious minded, issue-oriented people that I have ever encountered. They were in stark contrast to Mamaw & Trapper, AKA Dr. Alonso Solon Neely MD, and Elizabeth Gilmore Neely, who were equally serious minded - Trapper about his patients and Mamaw about equal rights, but were robustly interacting with the folks around them and kidded around a lot.

Back to my picture and the Gerber baby picture on the baby food bottles – It could have been my picture because my father (Joseph Robertson Todd) was in the advertising business and I think may have had the Gerber account for a while. Unless one of you can find a 1930 to 40ish Geber's baby food bottle we can never make a careful comparison since they have changed the picture to modernize it. I suppose I could contact the Gerber’s company since they still are in business. But, then again that might modify a nice memory- because I always believed Far & Lala – even today I think, maybe it really was me!

Joe Todd 11/07

From the Gerber website:

In 1928 Gerber held a contest to find a face to represent a baby food ad campaign. Artist Dorothy Hope Smith entered her simple charcoal sketch of a tousled-hair, bright-eyed cherub of a baby with endearing pursed lips. Smith noted that she would finish the sketch if she won. Smith’s drawing competed with elaborate oil paintings, but the judges fell in love with this baby’s face and when choosing it as the winner, insisted that the simple illustration remain a sketch. …..Gerber adopted it as its official trademark in 1931. Since then, the Gerber Baby has appeared on all Gerber® packaging and in every Gerber advertisement. The identity of the baby, however, would be kept secret for 40 years, until 1978.

Mystery novelist and retired English teacher Ann Turner Cook … is the Gerber Baby. She posed for neighbor Dorothy Hope Smith."

According to Wikipedia, in 2011 Gerber was looking for a new Gerber baby and chose a toddler named Mercy. 

Afterthought from Joe – Then again maybe Far and Lala really meant the Gerber Baby picture was the model for the picture my father took of me.