Do you know where in Red Bank the above photo was taken?
Send your answer (or best guess) to [email protected] by noon, Thursday, June 26. We’ll reveal the location the next day.
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Here’s the answer to last week’s “Where.”
Last week’s photo was a close-up of a super cool rug we have always admired while waiting in line at the main Red Bank Post Office at 171 Broad Street Red Bank, NJ 07701.
It bears the image of Mr. Zip, a cartoon character developed by the US Postal Service to promote the use of zoning improvement Plan or ZIP codes in 1963, according to a history page on the US Postal Service web site.
It continues with some cool Mad Men details:
“However, the figure originated several years earlier. It was designed by Harold Wilcox, son of a letter carrier and a member of the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency, for use by Chase Manhattan Bank in New York in a bank-by-mail campaign. Wilcox’s design was a childlike sketch of a postman delivering a letter. The figure was used only a few times, then filed away. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company acquired the design from the Cunningham and Walsh agency and kindly made it available to the Post Office Department without cost. Post Office Department artists retained the face but sharpened the limbs and torso and added a mail bag. The new figure, dubbed Mr. ZIP, was unveiled by the Post Office Department at a convention of postmasters in October 1962. Mr. ZIP, who has no first name, appeared in many public service announcements and advertisements urging postal customers to use the five-digit ZIP Code that was initiated on July 1, 1963. Within four years of his appearance, eight out of ten Americans knew who Mr. ZIP was and what he stood for.
With the introduction of the nine-digit ZIP Code, or ZIP+4, in 1983, Mr. ZIP went into partial retirement. His image still was printed on the selvage of some sheets of stamps, but that practice ended in January 1986.”
That post may be outdated, because it looks like Mr. Zip is making a comeback, as he now has his own Youtube channel featuring animated videos teaching kids (and adults, we suppose) how to use the postal service.
“Where” Hall of Famers Bill and Judy Fraser wrote in with memories of 5-digit Zip code being introduced and Mr. Zip selling it to the nation.
Thanks to those who wrote in.
Kate Brannan, Cathy Costa, Bill and Judy Fraser, The Colmorgen Kids, Cecelia Freda, Dave Henry (now living on Cape Cod), Louis Rivera, Joe Schweers, Adele Murphy, Christopher Havens, Jean Kelly, Chuck Stern,
I hope I got everyone. Please email or text me immediately if we missed you at [email protected] or 848-331-8331. Your sharp eyes and hustle should be properly rewarded.
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