True or False:

1. The first Laundromat in America opened in the Bronx in 1948, creating such a stir that police had to be called to restrain curious crowds.

2. The Jolly Green Giant first appeared in 1925, but didn’t turn green until a decade later.

3. The yellow Happy Face became popular in the late 1950s after the N. G. Slater Company began making Smilie buttons in 1957

4. It was Thomas Jefferson who was first served French fries in the White House; French fries were an exotic European novelty believed to have originated in Belgium.

5. Betty Boop, the curvaceous cartoon star of the 1930s with the cutie-pie-voice and huge eyes, had her face modeled after singer Helen Kane and her body after Mae West.

(Answers provided below)

1. True / 2. True / 3. False; the Happy Face first became popular in 1971; the N.G. Slater Company began making Smilie buttons in 1969 / 4. True / 5. True

©Lori S. Anton