{"product_id":"vintage-1950s-jerry-crate-label-watsonville-ca-boy-dog-treasures-gifts","title":"Vintage Jerry Brand Crate Label 🐕 — 1950s T.O. Tomasello Co. Watsonville California Produce, Boy \u0026 Fox Terrier Dog","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWho Was Jerry? 🐕 Vintage 1950s Crate Label, T.O. Tomasello Co., Watsonville California\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9 1\/2\" x 7\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/so8MoGQXR1w\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA laughing boy, a wire fox terrier, and one of the last paper labels a Watsonville farm family put on its produce boxes before cardboard cartons ended the trade.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the Jerry Brand label of the T.O. Tomasello Co., packed and shipped from its main office in Watsonville, California, in the 1950s. It measures 9 1\/2\" x 7\" ~ and was never pasted on a box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Label\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA circle of pale blue sky at the top holds a grinning, rosy-cheeked boy in a white sailor collar striped with red, pressed cheek to cheek with a scruffy wire fox terrier whose tongue is out. Beneath them JERRY stands in fat gold three-dimensional block letters, with BRAND in red. PRODUCE OF U.S.A. is lettered in pale blue at the upper right. At the bottom, ribbon banners read \"Packed and Shipped by T.O. Tomasello Co., Main Office, Watsonville, Calif.,\" beside a red-and-yellow shield bearing the letters T and T. Everything sits on a deep navy ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back is blank, with the front showing through the paper in mirror image: JERRY reads backwards and the boy's face and the banners can be made out in the sheet. There is minor corner wear, which shows from the back rather than the front.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label names no crop. Other Tomasello labels were made for tomatoes and vegetables, while Jerry promised only American produce and a boy with his dog.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHow Old It Is\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a 1950s label, from the final decade of the paper crate label.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Tomasellos of Watsonville\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Packed and shipped by\" is the signature of a grower-shipper, a Pajaro Valley firm that raised a crop, graded and packed it in its own sheds, and sent it to market under its own brands. T.O. Tomasello Co. ran a whole family of them: Jerry, the fighter-plane Dominator, the bold Tri-X and TOT.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe family's own story runs through the valley's farm institutions. The Tomasellos were a Watsonville farm family of Italian heritage. Joseph J. Tomasello was born in Watsonville on December 8, 1935, the son of Antonio Tomasello and Mary Crosetti Tomasello. He went to Bellarmine College Prep and Santa Clara University, married Lori Triolo in 1959, served in the Army from 1960 to 1962, and then worked in the family farming business for forty years. He sat on the board of the Western Growers' Association and was president of the Salinas Valley Grower-Shipper Association in 1972 and 1973.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Wire Fox Terrier\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wire fox terrier was developed in England by fox-hunting enthusiasts and was not a popular family pet until a wire fox terrier named Skippy played Asta, the scene-stealing dog of Nick and Nora Charles, in The Thin Man in 1934. Skippy went on to After the Thin Man, The Awful Truth and Bringing Up Baby, the breed's popularity soared, and a brand of canned dog food was named Skippy after him and carried his likeness on its own label for years. Hollywood lore, from Myrna Loy herself, has it that he once bit her during filming, and his trainers, Henry and Gale Henry East with Frank Weatherwax, kept the actors from playing with him between takes so he would stay on task.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe same breed was already a star across the Atlantic. Snowy, Tintin's faithful companion, first appeared in 1929 in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Hergé named him Milou, the nickname of his first girlfriend, Marie-Louise Van Cutsem, whose father disapproved of the young artist; the English translators chose Snowy partly because it fit in the speech balloons. Albert Einstein kept a wire fox terrier named Chico, Thomas Hardy one named Wessex, Rudyard Kipling one named Vicki, and King Edward VII one named Caesar. By 2019 the breed had won Best in Show at Westminster fifteen times, more than any other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Pajaro Valley When Jerry Was Printed\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWatsonville had been Apple City at the start of the century, with a million trees on 14,000 acres by 1908. By the time this label was printed, berries and row crops were taking over. Driscoll's, founded in Watsonville in 1904 by Dick Driscoll and Ed Reiter as the Banner Berry Farm's Brand, named its first great strawberry the Banner for the big berry printed on the banner of every crate. In 1944 the Strawberry Institute of California was formed, and a variety its breeders crossed in 1946 was released in 1957 after ten years of work, better for shipping and later in the season.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe people who picked those crops changed with the war. Japanese families of the Pajaro Valley were sent to internment camps in 1942, and that same year the Bracero Program began bringing Mexican farm workers north on contract. By its end in 1964 it had issued 4.6 million contracts in 24 states, the largest guest worker program in United States history, promising a minimum of 30 cents an hour, decent housing and food. Its end came as the United Farm Workers rose under César Chávez, and the fight over farm wages that followed changed California agriculture for good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Last Decade of the Paper Label\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaper labels on produce boxes started on the West Coast in the 1880s, when growers began shipping east on the transcontinental railroads and needed their brands to stand out in markets a continent away. Printers used stone lithography until 1920 and offset presses after. World War II drained the crate makers' workforce and the printers' metal, and cheaper cardboard cartons with the brand printed straight onto the box replaced the wooden crate and its pasted label. By the end of the 1950s the trade was over, and what survives is the unused stock, like this Jerry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMuseums and libraries now keep whole collections of these labels, and collectors seek them out to preserve the history of the farms and families that printed them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eQuestions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWho packed Jerry Brand produce?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eT.O. Tomasello Co., the Watsonville grower-shipper named on the ribbon banners.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhen was the Jerry label printed?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1950s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat kind of dog is on the Jerry label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA wire fox terrier, the breed made famous by Asta in The Thin Man and by Tintin's Snowy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat size is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e9 1\/2\" x 7\" ~\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHas it been used?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo, it is unused. Minor corner wear shows from the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere is Watsonville?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the Pajaro Valley of Santa Cruz County, California, just inland from Monterey Bay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-tot-crate-label-watsonville-ca-cute-baby-1940s-treasures-gifts\"\u003eVintage 1940s Tot Brand Vegetable Crate Label 👶 — T.O. Tomasello Co, Watsonville CA — Cute Baby Produce Art\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-dominator-crate-label-1940s-wwii-amazing-p51-mustang-watsonville-ca\"\u003eVintage 1940s Dominator Brand Tomato Crate Label ✈️ WWII Fighter Art, T.O. Tomasello Watsonville CA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-dominator-crate-label-1950s-wwii-amazing-p51-mustang-watsonville-ca\"\u003eVintage Dominator Brand Crate Label ✈️ WWII Fighter Art, T.O. Tomasello Co. Watsonville California\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43620471832808,"sku":"VAG-7911072268520","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4054772424_8ijx.jpg?v=1785357582","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1950s-jerry-crate-label-watsonville-ca-boy-dog-treasures-gifts","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}