Elsie the Cow, Borden's Dairy Darling

Elsie's introduction to polite society began in 1936 as the leggy pin-up cow for a Borden Dairy advertising campaign. Hoping to elevate the company's public image after a run of "milk wars" had left consumers skeptical, Borden placed a series of ads featuring cartoon cows, including Elsie, in physician's journals across the country. The ads were a hit, the doctors were smitten, and they soon began requesting reprints to hang on their office walls. A pin-up girl was born.

According to Elsie lore, as the campaign expanded, an ad caught the eye of a clever radio copyrighter. He penned a radio spot for Elsie, which was read on the air by network commentator Rush Hughes during a show sponsored by Bordens. The commercial included a letter from Elsie:
"Dear Mama,
I'm so excited I can hardly chew. We girls are sending our milk to Borden now!
Love, Elsie"

The public was charmed, and fan mail began pouring into the station. Elsie and Hughes began corresponding regularly on the air, and print ads started to appear in national publications such as The Saturday Evening Post and Life Magazine. Elsie was a bonfide bovine big shot.

In 1939, the New York World's Fair was the ultimate window to "the world of tomorrow." Conceived as a way to pull the country out of the doldrums of the Great Depression, it was a highly creative mix of spacey new architecture and high tech marvels. It's ultra modern Trylon and Perisphere buildings were the avant garde symbols of the future.

Borden's contribution to the fair included an exhibit of its "rotolactor", a state-of-the-art milking carousel that automatically milked 150 cows on a 360 degree rotation. The Borden's staff had been thoroughly trained to answer questions about the mechanical marvel, but they weren't prepared to respond to the crowd's most frequent query: which one of the cows is Elsie?

The pivotal task of selecting an actual Elsie was relegated to a college student from Kansas named Jim Cavanaugh, employed by Borden to tend to the herd. An astute assessor of bovine assets, the young Cavanaugh eyed a pretty 950 pound Jersey girl from Brookfied, Massachusetts named "You'll Do, Lobelia," and crowned her the real Elsie.

Like a timid chorus girl plucked from the chorus line to headline the show, Lobelia's life changed overnight. Smartly attired in an elegant blue blanket, the new star spent the remainder of the fair as the new embodiment of cow celeb, as millions of fairgoers filed past, hoping to catch a glimpse of the real Elsie.

What followed is a story familiar to any young starlet: a frenzy of parties, the flash of the photographer's cameras, the hordes of reporters. New York's Seventh Regiment sponsored a "Bovine Ball" in Elsie's honor. She dined at hotspots like The Stork Club and 21, hit parties in all the posh hotels. The quiet country girl from Brookfield, Mass. had taken New York by storm, supporting important charity causes and WWII relief funds along the way.

It wasn't long before Hollywood took notice of the new meat, and Elsie hit the silver screen. Hollywood came calling in the summer of 1940, when Elsie was offered the role of a lifetime, every ingenue's dream. She was to play the part of "Buttercup" opposite Jack Oakie and Kay Francis in RKO Picture's "Little Men."

But Borden had other plans for Elsie, including the role of main attraction at the 1940's World's Fair, to be held again in New York. RKO's initial advances were spurned, but eventually a compromise was reached: Elsie would do the picture, and her husband Elmer would fill in at the fair.

Hollywood and Elsie were made for each other, like apple pie and ice cream. Jack Oakie greeted his new co-star with a kiss as she deboarded the train. A reception at the Ambassador Hotel was followed by a big bash at legendary Ciro's, where the starlet accepted and then munched on a bouquet of orchards and proclaimed them delicious. Of course, by then Elsie was eating for two; she was soon to give birth to the newest member of the Borden family. After a whirlwind tour of the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco, Elsie took some time off to await the much anticipated arrival of baby Beulah.

"Little Men" was the screen debut of both Elsie and baby, as Beulah had accompanied her mother to the set before the little calf could even toddle.

Back in New York, at the 1940's World's Fair, Elsie's hubby was doing his best to fill her high heels. The set had been redecorated to reflect the needs of a husband on the loose-poker parties included. Elmer's red long-johns were prominently displayed, an Esquire magazine was in plain view. Every family man in America could relate. While Elsie could bat her big brown eyes and charm a crowd, Elmer could make them laugh.

After filming ended, Elsie returned from Hollywood to the fair with baby daughter in tow, and the little family set up housekeeping in a spotless new stall, complete with crib and booties (in sets of four) for Beulah.

Elsie and family would go on to tour the country and personify the wholesome goodness of Borden products for decades to come. She was a symbol of home and family through WWII, the fabulous fifties, the turbulent sixties and beyond. And through it all, Elsie would always be the most recognized and beloved Jersey girl in the country.