Children’s story helped promote use of Vicks VapoRub

Once upon a time…and nearly 100 years ago in 1925…there lived a pair of elves named Blix and Blee, who lived on a hill under the shade of a jub-jub tree. 

They came to life one day, compliments of the Vick Chemical Company of Greensboro, N.C., which published a 16-page children’s picture book titled “The Story of Blix and Blee.” 

The publication was distributed free with any purchase of Vicks VapoRub salve. The product was advertised as a cure-all for an array of respiratory ailments. 

The rhyming story was designed to be read aloud by parents to children who were under the weather to add a measure of comfort and speed their recovery – along with the application of VapoRub, of course. 

The author and illustrator are not identified, but the full-color renderings are treasured by collectors. 

The impish elves Blix (rhymes with Vicks) and Blee live in a large, empty blue VapoRub tub. 

The storyteller says Blix and Blee are hale, healthy and robust, partly because their bedtime is half past six…and they doze right off breathing in the medicinal vapors that linger inside their Vicks jar home. 

Paraphrasing most of the rest of the story: The elves have never had a cold, a chill of any kind or even an ache of illness. 

Solomon, a wise old owl who has benefited himself from the medicinal advice and care offered by the elves, suggested that Blix and Blee install a radio, so folks with colds could let them know when they needed the elves to come to the rescue, bringing their tubs of VapoRub. 

Soon after their radio was operational, a late call came in awakening them. A boy named Dick had a cold, and it was worsening that night; his little nose was stuffed up tight. His mother found the boy’s chest had a rattling sound. 

He sneezed, coughed, choked and cried. His folks were terrified. Medicine in a spoon was pushed aside. Dick simply would not “open wide.” How to stop the cough, ease the pain and make their little boy well again? The family needed help quick to save young Dick.

 

Blix and Blee ran as fast as fairies and hopped up on the boy’s bed. They told the lad that there’s magic in the nice, blue VapoRub jar “to stop your cold and make you grin, because you only rub it in. No swallowing from a spoon or a cup. You just lie quiet there and smile, and we will rub a little while.” 

Vicks was the fix. The vapor rose and began to reach Dick’s stopped up nose. The sniffling stopped and gone was that rattling sound. Dick was feeling warm and nice and was getting better fast when the doctor arrived at last. 

The doctor told the family that no kiddies ever like to take a nasty dose of bitter pills and never will. Simply remember that for colds, or cough or croup like Dick’s, there’s nothing else so good as Vicks.

 The doctor advised grown-ups to pattern after the good elves and learn to use Vicks on themselves. 

Meanwhile, Dick fell pleasantly asleep and soon was locked in slumber deep. The elves disappeared from the scene in a flash, leaving behind their jar of Vicks and a note, “compliments of Blee and Blix.”

 

Although the Vicks elves were never to be heard from again, they have retained a loyal following.

 

VapoRub is observing its 130-year anniversary in 2024, as the flagship Vicks product “invented” by Greensboro pharmacist Lunsford Richardson in 1894.