Squeak toy:Froggy the Gremlin

The St. Louis-based Brown Shoe Company ranked as an early believer in television's marketing potential and sponsored its own half-hour show, "Smilin' Ed's Buster Brown Gang." Smilin' Ed had made the successful transition from radio to the new medium with his cast of crudely-made puppets-Froggy the Gremlin, Squeaky the Mouse, and Midnight the Cat-and the new show premiered on November 21, 1949. The magic words "Plunk yer magic Twanger, Froggy!" enabled the impudent rubber frog known professionally as Froggy the Gremlin to suddenly appear out of nowhere. Materializing in a puff of smoke and uttering his famous "Hiya kids; Hiya, Hiya!" greeting, Froggy's subsequent antics and smart aleck remarks visibly annoyed the show's host, a jolly fellow known to all as Smilin' Ed McConnell, but always delighted the kids gathered in the adjacent peanut gallery.