Today, IHOP celebrates its sixth annual National Pancake Day. Which is the event that this restaurant chain holds each year on March 1st in an effort to raise money for local Children's Miracle Network hospitals.
Copyright IHOP Restaurants 2007 - 2011A DineEquity Brand
"So how does this work exactly?," you ask. Well, if you drop by your local International House of Pancakes today between 7 a.m. & 10 p.m., the nice folks there will happily serve you a complimentary short stack ... and then ask you to make a small donation for a local charity.
Which may seem like a pretty weird way to raise money. But last year on National Pancake Day, thanks to the generosity of its patrons, IHOP was actually able to raise more than $2.1 million for Children's Miracle Network hospitals and other designated local charities. And since they started holding this event back in 2006, the employees of this restaurant chain have raised just shy of $5.4 million. Not to mention giving away more than 10.1 million buttermilk pancakes.
And given that Nancy and I live up in southern New Hampshire, where many of our neighbors are just getting ready for what's supposed to be the best sugaring-off season in decades ... Well, any event that can helps out local charities as well as spurs maple syrup sales is okay in our book.
Which is why - with the hope that today's JHM article might put you in the mood for some free flapjacks - I'd now like to talk about one of the weirder promotional stunts that was ever done at Disneyland Park. Which was the annual Aunt Jemima Pancake Race.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
Now you have to understand that - back in the mid-1950s - Disneyland didn't have all that much money for marketing. Any profits that this theme park managed to pull in, Walt was immediately plowing right back into the place. In his effort to expand Tomorrowland, adding new show elements to Frontierland and Adventureland, etc.
Which is why the folks who were in charge of promotion at this theme park ... Well, they had to work every angle. Always be looking for new ways to generate free publicity for Disneyland in national publications.
Copyright 1956 Quaker Oats Company.All rights reserved
Which is why - when Mouse House marketers learned in 1956 that the Quaker Oats Company was looking for someplace special to hold the California state final for Aunt Jemima's Pancake Race - they immediately volunteered the Happiest Place on Earth.
"So what's a pancake race?," you query. Well, to be honest, it's just what it sounds like. 1950s-era housewives would run along this predetermined race course wearing an official Aunt Jemima Pancake Race apron as they carried a griddle. And in this griddle was a mostly cooked pancake.
Now where this competition got interesting was that - at several points in this competition -- a ribbon would be strung across the race course. And Pancake Race participants would then have to fill their flapjack up over the ribbon and catch this same pancake on the other side before they could continue in this foot race.
Mind you, Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A. wasn't really the ideal spot to hold a competition like this. I've heard that many participants - while they were racing down the street - would catch a heel in the Main Street trolley tracks and then either fall to the ground and / or drop their pancake. Which is how they wound up being disqualified.
But the upside was ... Those that actually won the California state final for Aunt Jemima's annual Pancake Race were first awarded $100 in prize money. And then they had their picture taken with Aylene Lewis, the actress who played this Quaker Oats trademarked character at Aunt Jemima's Pancake House in Frontierland ...
... before they could then move on the Nationals of these peculiar culinary competition.
Just so you know, though: The Aunt Jemima Pancake Races were a relatively short-lived phenomenon at Disneyland. These amateur athletic events were only staged in the Park from 1957 through 1964. Once Walt Disney Productions was finally able to buy out all of Disneyland's financial partners (chief among these was the American Broadcasting Company & Western Publishing), Walt was finally free to do just what he wanted with his theme park. Which meant staging far fewer stunts to generate free publicity and more time spent creating lasting & permanent reasons for people to come out and see Disneyland. Which is what led to the creation of fabulous new attractions like 1963's The Enchanted Tiki Room and extravagant street pageants like 1964's "Fantasy on Parade".
Which - in a way - was probably the smart way to go. Given that - as the 1960s wore on - Walt Disney Production officials became uncomfortable with the idea of having Quaker Oats' increasingly controversial Aunt Jemima character so closely associated with their theme park. Which is why Aunt Jemimah's Kitchen (i.e. Aunt Jemima's Pancake House was expanded & renamed in 1962) was closed down in 1970. And after a brief retheming, this Frontierland restaurant was then reopened as the River Belle Terrace.
And given that one of the most popular items on the menu today at River Belle Terrace is the Steamboat special. Which is a breakfast combo that features three fluffy pancakes ... Well, we're right back where we started with today's article. With that free short stack which you can get at IHOP today if you just agree to make a small donation to a local charity.
Now please keep in mind that you only have until 10 p.m. this evening to take part in National Pancake Day. During which International House of Pancakes employees hope to give away enough short stacks / bring in enough donations to raise $2.3 million for Children's Miracle Network hospitals and other designated local charities.
So why don't you make like all those housewives who competed at Disneyland back in the late 1950s & early 1960s and race down to your local IHOP? So that you can then help out with this worthy / very delicious cause?
Your thoughts?