Sad Flashback-'Crying Indian' Iron Eyes Cody dies

[The Straight Story]

I dunno, just was thinking about him tonight...

'Crying Indian' Iron Eyes Cody dies
Iron Eyes Cody in the Keep America Beautiful ad
January 4, 1999
Web posted at: 8:52 p.m. EST (0152 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Iron Eyes Cody, the "Crying Indian" whose tearful face in 1970s television commercials became a powerful symbol of the anti-littering campaign, died Monday. He was in his 80s or early 90s.

Cody died of natural causes at 1:30 p.m. PST in his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, police spokesman Ed Funes said.

Cody, whose acting credits date back to silent movies and include dozens of films and television shows, was best known for the ads from the group Keep America Beautiful that showed him shedding a single tear as he watched people litter.

He was born in Oklahoma, but the exact date of birth wasn't known. Reference books give various dates, from 1904 to 1915. Based on his credits, his most likely date of birth was 1907.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/04/obit.cody/

[happyslug]

1. Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera DeCorti on 3 April 1904.

"Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera DeCorti on 3 April 1904 in the small town of Kaplan, Louisiana. He was the son of Francesca Salpietra and Antonio DeCorti, she an immigrant from Sicily who had arrived in the USA in 1902, and he another immigrant who had arrived in America not long before her."

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/ironeyes.htm

"Although Iron Eyes was not born an Indian, he lived his adult years as one. He pledged his life to Native American causes, married an Indian woman (Bertha Parker), adopted two Indian boys (Robert and Arthur), and seldom left home without his beaded moccasins, buckskin jacket and braided wig. His was not a short-lived masquerade nor one that was donned and doffed whenever expedient — he maintained his fiction throughout his life and steadfastly denied rumors that he was not an Indian, even after his half-sister surfaced to tell the story in 1996 and to provide pointers to the whereabouts of his birth certificate and other family documents."

Cody died on 5 January 1999 at the age of 94.

[The Straight Story]

5. Cool

You DU folks rock. He was still a cool guy :) I remember those commercials. I organized a neighborhood cleanup crew here and we went around with our wagons cleaning up trash and such.

His image fits today in other ways (ala Iraq)..

[gaia_gardener]

7. I knew he was Italian the minute I saw him

it is true that some choctaws have italian features, but his features are so classically Italian (for the record, I'm attracted to Italians and Choctaws, went to school with a bunch of them, so it is possible that I see a subtle something in the features).

BUT, the commercials were incredibly touching. The first time I saw it, it brought tears to my eyes - and that's when I was very much a user.

[happyslug]

10. His Do Not Litter Commercial and the "Kick the Habit" Commercials

Were two of the most effective public service Ads ever done. Both were done in the early 1970s by professional ad people who designed them using all of the ads techniques developed by Commercial admen since the advent of TV in the late 1940s. Excellent ads and effective.

In the case of the Kick The Habit ads these were paid for as part of Equal Time rules of the 1970s. For every FOUR Cigarette TV ads, the cigarette companies had to pay for one Kick the Habit ads. This was agreed to for the Cigarette companies expected the ads to be typical "Don't Smoke" ads. Instead the group that had won the right to do the anti-Smoking ads received free help from some admen to do the ads. Out of this co-operation came the Kick the Habit ads. These ads were so effective that the cigarette Companies agreed to end their television ads just to keep the Kick the Habit ads off the airwaves.

Cody's anti-littering ads were just as effective, without him saying a word. Those ads ended when the funding for such an ad campaign was killed by the Nixon Administration.

From the Ad Council about these ads:

"During the height of the campaign, Keep America Beautiful reported receiving more than 2,000 letters a month from people wanting to join their local team. By the end of the campaign, Keep America Beautiful local teams had helped to reduce litter by as much as 88% in 300 communities, 38 states, and several countries. The success of the Keep America Beautiful anti-litter campaign led to hundreds of other environmental messages through the years, from many different sources, including the Ad Council."

http://www.adcouncil.org/campaigns/historic_campaigns_pollution/

To see the actual ad see:
http://www.aef.com/02/ad_council/2278


For more on successful public service ads:
http://www.adcouncil.org/campaigns/historic_campaigns/

[Wetzelbill]

2. RIP nascuni RIP

[liberaltrucker]

3. RIP mi amigo

[democracyindanger]

4. I suppose this might be inappropriate, but he was no Native American.

I don't know where CNN got their obit information, but...

Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera DeCorti on 3 April 1904 in the small town of Kaplan, Louisiana. He was the son of Francesca Salpietra and Antonio DeCorti, she an immigrant from Sicily who had arrived in the USA in 1902, and he another immigrant who had arrived in America not long before her. Theirs was an arranged marriage, and the couple had four children, with Espera (or Oscar, as he was called) their second eldest. In 1909, when Espera was five years old, Antonio DeCorti abandoned his wife and children and headed for Texas. Francesca married again, this time to a man named Alton Abshire, with whom she bore five more children.

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/ironeyes.htm

[liberaltrucker]

6. No matter

His portrail of a weeping NA in the 70's ads said it all. Just the opinion of an old fart:-)

[shadowknows69]

8. I have a picture of Iron Eyes stand with my sister and I

from about 29 years ago. Wish I knew where it was.

[democracyindanger]

9. Yeah, I'm an old fart too

I remember watching those spots. It's just funny that CNN proves, yet again, that it's craptacular.

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Well, gee...thanks for busting my bubble.

But the truth is always better than the myth.

[H2O Man]

12. It was an interesting commercial.

Certainly had an emotional appeal. Yet it had a odd history: the non-Indian who ended up with the role "beat out" Jay Lightfoot, who was Indian, because those producing the commercial felt he wasbetter suited for the role than Jay. Also, the commercial was promoted primarily by a couple large corporations who enjoyed the fact that it placed the blame for pollution on individuals, rather than industries.

Yet it remains, in my opinion, the best commercial.