LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - AUGUST 8, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio As many folks know, in 2017, a museum in Buffalo, acquired a Jell-O wagon on the television show “American Pickers.” The wagon had been found in a barn in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana and the story of its discovery and the subsequent purchase by Jim Sandaro of Buffalo’s Pierce Arrow Museum, was featured in two episodes of American Pickers. When folks in LeRoy learned about it, there was a big effort to buy it from Jim and bring it to LeRoy, but it was already a done deal. We still receive calls from folks wondering if we have the wagon. Actually, Jim had contacted me before he bought the wagon, to find out what I knew about Jell-O wagons, and we had quite a bit in our files. There were several photographs and a couple of stories about the salesmen who traveled throughout the country selling America’s Most Famous Dessert. Jim sent me many photos of the wagon and eventually when he acquired it, he invited me, to see it in a warehouse in Buffalo before it was put on exhibit. It truly is a museum piece, and although the seat is a replacement and there is something strange about the wheels, it’s original condition makes it a very valuable piece. My ardent wish, is that it is never restored and remains in original condition. The Jell-O wagon that was moved to the Jell-O Gallery a couple of weeks ago, was not Jim Sandaro’s wagon, rather it was the wagon that was built for my horse, JMF Found One Beaman, so we could compete in the commercial divisions in carriage driving competitions at Walnut Hill in Mendon. The wagon was built in 2005 by Willi Greene of Ohio. Although I knew that the original Jell-O wagons were pulled by pairs, I had to have the wagon made for a single horse. It was much shorter and scaled for a horse that was only 15.2 hands high. Willi Green had built many wagons and stagecoaches, and had a large collection of wagons in his barn. He even told me that he had seen an original Jell-O wagon once. (I have often wondered if he saw the wagon that is now in Buffalo when it was in Louisiana.) Willi built a new box but put it on old running gear. Of course, the question was what color should it be painted. At the time, all I had were black and white photographs, so I didn’t know the original color. I decided on bright red with yellow trim. We knew the design of the advertising on the wagon, so that wasn’t difficult, but it would have to be painted and lettered by hand. Willi knew an Amish man, who traveled from carriage shop to carriage shop to hand paint stripping and he was pretty sure he could paint the Jell-O box for us. We just didn’t know when he could do it and the first show was the first week in August. Luckily, I got a call from Willi that the wagon was finished, and John Skivington, who had been helping us with the horse shows, found a large enough enclosed trailer and we headed out to Columbus. The wagon was just a little too tall, so John had to tie the springs down so it wouldn’t hit the roof, and we turned around and headed back to LeRoy. A couple of days later the new Jell-O wagon was in the show ring, competing against a milk wagon, a butcher’s cart – pulled by a mule, a beer wagon, a fish fly tying wagon, and a veterinary wagon. There were three classes. One was a turnout class. One was a performance working class and one required a series of tasks, such as backing up, fanning the horse to one side and then the other, dropping off a passenger, and handing the reins to someone else. Always during one of the classes, the Jell-O Wagon would be inspected by the judges. The back doors would be opened, facing the audience, so everyone could see inside. The back of the wagon was always stocked with boxes of Jell-O and dishes of Jell-O which were shared with the judges. (After all, the beer wagon always had samples of beer.) Usually our friend John Skivington would drive the Jell-O wagon, and much to the chagrin of his wife, he would always smoke a cigar. The one great story of one of the men who worked on one of these wagons, mentioned that “the driver was an old circus man. He wore a derby hat on the side of his head, and was known to chew tobacco and smoke a cigar at the same time.” John skipped the tobacco chewing part, but always enjoyed the cigar. It became a tradition at the horse show, that when the Jell-O wagon was in the show ring, that my daughter and I would be in the audience, sharing Jell-O shots with our friends. The Jell-O Wagon and Beaman won many ribbons in the commercial class and won the championship in the trade division in 2008 and 2013. Beaman was retired when he was 26 and the wagon was stored in my barn. Sometimes it would be taken out and brought up to town for display during the Oatka Festival. But it became time to decide what to do with the wagon, and so when my son was home a couple of weeks ago, we took the wagon apart. Took the box off the running gear and put it on the trailer for one last time, and drove it up to the Gallery. We had to take the wheels off to get it in the back entrance, and a couple of guys from the Little League who were practicing that day, helped carry the wagon into the basement of the Academic Building, where the Jell-O wagon is now on permanent display in the transportation exhibit. We hope folks come to see it this summer. The Jell-O Wagon Comes to the Historical Society