JP Patches and Me

When I was a little girl in the late 1970’s I drove down to the KVOS television station in Seattle to appear in a commercial with JP Patches. I got the gig because my dad was the owner of the company that was making the commercial and I remember my “payment” (not that I really needed one) was an Atari video game console and a few games.

I watched JP Patches on t.v. all the time so I was very excited and shy. The commercial was for Maoam fruit chewy candy and JP Patches was dressed up as a magician and he pulled fruit out of his hat. I was the magician’s assistant and I was supposed to hold up a sign but I kept on knocking it over and, eventually, everyone just decided to use one of those takes instead.

Now I have a little girl and I would love to be able to show her a copy of the commercial. Of course, this was before we had home video so I don’t think my dad even received a copy. I sent an email to KVOS and was surprised to receive a reply from someone who was actually on the production crew for the commercial. He remembered it said that KVOS did not have a copy and then, even if they did, the machines that played the old tapes didn’t exist anymore.

So now I’ve emailed JP Patches directly. I went to his website and was pleased to see that Seattle is going to have a JP Patches statue very soon. He deserves it: he’s right up there with Mr. Dress Up, Captain Kangaroo and the Friendly Giant.

I hope he has a copy!