1908: Behold The Amazing Billiken

Wishing you happiness and luck

In the 1950s a young lady I’d one day call Mom transferred from Indiana University to SLU. This converted her from a Hoosier to a Billiken, just like that. I would never have understood the implications if I hadn’t lived here myself. In St. Louis-speak, it was an upgrade.

Florence Pretz, on the other hand, was an early 20th Century art teacher and illustrator in Kansas City. She claimed to have dreamed a gnome-like creature, and named it “Billiken” after the litany of characters in an 1896 poem entitled Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People” by Canadian poet-laureate Bliss Carmen.

O Mr. Moon,
We're all here!
Honey-bug, Thistledrift,
White-imp, Weird,
Wryface, Billiken,
Quidnunc, Queered;
We're all here,
And the coast is clear!
Moon, Mr. Moon,
When you comin' down?

This chubby, point-headed imp was patterned after the Chinese god Joss, who, like Billiken, was the god of “things as they ought to be.” Florence Pretz was issued a patent for the creature in 1908, and she marketed it as “the god of things as they ought to be.” 

It was meant to be held as a good luck token, or received as a gift for twice the luck. Oddly, the best fortune one could get from a Billiken would be gained only when someone else stole it.  

Florence sold her marketing rights to a Chicago company that churned out all sorts of related tchotchkes. In fact, the company renamed itself the Billiken Company. Much unauthorized merchandise was sold as well. As the teddy bear was a reference to President Roosevelt, the Billiken became associated with rotund President William Howard Taft, further popularizing both.

The flightless Billiken takes off

The Billiken became a worldwide fad. Florence gave up her teaching gig, moved to Chicago, and devoted herself to illustrating stories of Billikens for Canada West magazine. Banks, statues, dolls, plates, pickle forks, candies, and salt and pepper shakers poured into popular culture.

Songs like The Billiken Rag were created. Here’s a bit of “Billiken Man” from E. Ray Goetz:

Once a fat man went a-swimmin,
 From the surf he tripped, 
 He was flirtin’ with some women, 
 When his new suit ripped. 
 As he sat down in the sand,
 He said “Billikens don’t stand.” 
 I’m a Billiken Man, oh, a Billiken Man. 
 

The craze soon faded from popularity, then memory, and is today only found in the lower 48 States as the mascot for St. Louis University. However, thanks to souvenir Billikens made for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, the likeness caught on among Eskimo carvers on the Alaska coast, where you can still buy figurines carved from native materials. 

Billiken mania crossed the Pacific to Japan, where it grew so popular that a shrine was built in Osaka. Still popular today, visitors to various Japanese sites rub his prominent feet for good luck.

The local connection

An idol dedicated to “the way things ought to be” might seem like a stretch for a Jesuit institution, but it’s been embraced over the decades at St. Louis University. It really does seem an appropriate aspiration for one to go through college with.  

The next time you happen to pass the bronze idol in front of Chaifetz Arena, give those feet a little rub and do some wishful thinking. If it doesn’t change the world, it might help SLU get a little deeper into March Madness. 

Thanks to research sources, including:

Chalkboard Champions teaching blog; March, 16, 2019, at https://chalkboardchampions.org/st-louis-universitys-billiken-man-originally-created-by-art-teacher-florence-pretz/

Patent application from http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html

KBIA 91.3FM blog; Char Daston; October 25, 2017; https://www.kbia.org/post/how-did-billiken-become-saint-louis-universitys-mascot#stream/0

Eric Grundhauser for the always enlightening Atlas Obscura, from April 26, 2016; https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-billiken-is-much-more-than-the-strangest-college-mascot

The late Dorothy Jean Ray wrote an amazingly researched history of the Billiken for the Alaska Journal; Winter,1974. It can be found at The Church of Good Luck website; http://www.churchofgoodluck.com/Billiken_Lore.html

The entire poem Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People, by Bliss Carman available at http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=2645