‘Billie the Brownie’ is part of Milwaukee’s heritage

“Billie the Brownie” is a Christmas character who deserves a little ink. Folks need to know this story, because Billie’s already memorialized in the “National Bobblehead Hall of Fame,” alongside iconic figures like The Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Ebenezer Scrooge.

 

Billie the Brownie was created as a holiday season sprite to help sell toys and other merchandise at Schuster’s Department Store in Milwaukee, Wis., in the early 1920s. 

He was “inspired” by the literary characters who came alive through the writings of Canadian author and poet Palmer Cox.

 

Cox’s “brownies” were little creatures who originated during the Victorian era within the British Isles. Cox’s grandmother told him the Scottish folk tales about the “mischievous but invisible little people” with special talents. Cox wrote his first brownie story – “The Brownies’ Ride” – in 1883 for the popular monthly children’s publication St. Nicholas Magazine.

Nearly 100 more of Cox’s brownie stories were published over the ensuing decades, along with a dozen books. In telling tales of brownies “traveling the world, getting into trouble and trying out new toys and adventures,” Cox created more than 40 distinct characters with unique personalities.

He allowed his little men to be used in the marketing of more than 40 products and even wrote and illustrated some of the ads. A camera developed by Frank A. Brownell for the Eastman Kodak Company in 1900 was named the “Brownie,” because it was an affordable product that enabled children to take snapshots.

 

Meanwhile, Ed Schuster, an immigrant from Bad Driburg in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, had arrived in Milwaukee in 1883 to build the Schuster’s chain of department stores.

He was an innovator, the first American retailer to issue trading stamps in 1891. He rewarded Schuster’s customers who paid for purchases in cash, rather than using credit. 

Shortly thereafter, Ed Schuster introduced an early version of a store charge card called “Budga-Plate.”

 

It followed suit, then, for Ed Schuster to roll out Billie the Brownie as yet another tool to build awareness for the Schuster’s brand. The character evolved from a sprite to a pixie to an elf-like being.

By 1927, Billie the Brownie was featured in Schuster’s annual Christmas Parade in downtown Milwaukee. 

Beginning in 1931, Billie joined Santa on a 15-minute, daily radio show on WTMJ. They chatted about the holiday, read letters from children to Santa (in 1947, 100,000 letters were received) and told Christmas tales.

 Dave Begel, a former newspaper reporter with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, remembers growing up in the 1950s as “an idyllic time to be a child. We didn’t need bike helmets, and we traveled all over our neighborhood, and nobody worried about us.”

 

“There was no Christmas tradition that could match Billie the Brownie,” Begel said. “He was an elf who made his appearance a few weeks before Christmas every year.”

“The show, which came on about 4 p.m. on WTMJ radio, was simple. Billie and Santa…chatted a bit about whether the boys and girls listening had been good. Billie got the report from Santa about how all the work at the North Pole was going.”

“Then came the biggest thing. Billie read letters to Santa sent by children from all over the area. There were thousands of letters,” Begel continued.

“When I was 5 or 6, my brother Danny and I would sit on the floor around the radio and listen carefully as Billie’s voice came out of that radio. My grandmother sat in a chair watching us and smiling.”

“The first time I actually sent a letter, I asked for my own record player. That year the magic took on a new dimension.” Begel wrote. “The show started and Billie said, ‘The first letter today is from little David Begel in Whitefish Bay. David says he’s been a good boy and would like a record player.’”

“It was like a bomb going off in our house. On my feet, I was hollering at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t wait for my mom and dad to get home so I could tell them.”

“Well, for the next five or six years, the story repeated itself. My letter was first, and Danny’s was second. My friends were very jealous. When I was 10 or 11, my mom told us one night that she wanted to talk to me and my brother.”

“I remember this so vividly, it’s like it happened yesterday. ‘Boys,’ she said, ‘I have something to tell you.’”

“She closed her eyes for a second, and I could see her swallow. She opened her eyes and looked at the two of us,” and said: ‘I am Billie the Brownie.’”

“It explained how my letter got read first every year,” Begel said. “It explained why my mom disappeared every afternoon and left us in the custody of our grandmother. It explained why mom and dad helped us write our letter to Santa well before Christmas.”

“And I remember being amazed at my mother, whose name was Carol Cotter,” Begel wrote. “I’m sure lots of little boys are amazed by their mothers. But I’m the only one who had Billie the Brownie for a mother.”

It’s true, Carol Cotter worked in radio. According to the late Meg Jones, a former Journal Sentinel staff writer, Cotter was performing as “a magician’s assistant” in Chicago when she was “discovered.” She had an uncanny ability to mimic a child’s high-pitched voice, and this is what enabled her to break into broadcasting, voicing children’s parts on radio soap operas.

“After Cotter moved to Milwaukee, her skill landed her a job that attracted thousands of fans – including her own children – who never knew her name,” Jones wrote.

“Cotter was the voice of Billie the Brownie for seven years, reading children’s letters to Santa on WTMJ radio every day in the weeks leading up to Christmas.”

She was there for the final show, on Christmas Eve in 1955. Unlike Billie the Brownie, Carol Cotter moved on to television and became a producer of documentaries for national public television.

The rights to Billie the Brownie were acquired by the Gimbels department store when it merged with Schuster’s in 1961. Several attempts to revive the character failed to gain traction in the 1960s and ‘70s.

In 1984, Gimbels donated its Billie the Brownie collection to the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

“Every year, people call or visit to ask about Billie the Brownie,” said Mame McCully, the historical society’s executive director. 

“He was and always will be a part of the magic of Christmas in Milwaukee. He was in the hearts of so many children, and they have passed on those stories from generation to generation.”