Tropic-Ana: The girl behind the logo | Manatee History Matters

We remember iconic logos and jingles from brands over the years. When you see a red bull's eye, you immediately think of Target, or the infamous mouse ears immediately make you think of Disney.

Jingles are similar. The "It's the real thing" campaign from Coca Cola came out before this author was even born, but many will always remember it. A jingle from my childhood that I will always remember is "Give me a break" for Kit Kat bars.

For decades, this same level of brand recognition lent itself to one of Manatee County's largest local industries. In 1951, then Fruit Industries and later Tropicana Products Inc. successfully personified the company like other

companies at the time, such as Speedy Alka Seltzer and the Campbells Soup Kids. They launched Tropic-Ana -- a young, smiling, round dimpled-face little girl with cute bangs.

Tropic-Ana was portrayed as a native of the tropics. She graced the sides of the paper cartons, juice trains, ink pens, and much more advertising paraphernalia. What many may not know is that Tropic-Ana was inspired by a local resident, 4-year-old Christine Keston Pool. As a child, she often played with her friend Billy Burt, the son of Jane Beckley Burt who had been asked to design the new Tropicana logo.

As Jane drew what would become Tropic-Ana as a little girl with a French braid, she realized she was drawing Christine. This led to a short time of fame for the young Christine. She became the embodiment of Tropic-Ana at company parties and special events, as well as an early TV commercial that Christine remembers running in the New York market. Her mother made her costume which consisted of a grass skirt, lei and paper mache bowl and oranges.

Her time as Tropic-Ana was short-lived, when one day she accidently cut off her braid and was no longer Tropic-Ana. Christine Keston Pool recalled in a 50th anniversary Tropicana brochure, "I loved the attention I got. At Tropicana, I was everyone's little girl. But one day I was trying to cut the rubber band that held my pigtail, and ended up cutting the pigtail instead. It was a pretty important part of the Tropic-Ana character, so that was the end of an exciting era for me."

Tropicana had a few other girls dress up as Tropic-Ana over the years. Christine remembers when she was 10 walking out of Montgomery Roberts Department store and seeing another little girl dressed up as Tropic-Ana across the street.

While Christine's time as Tropic-Ana may have been cut short, the logo remained a part of Tropicana for decades. Tin signs of Tropic-Ana often graced the company's Manatee County Fair Booth and parade float. It is even on one of my favorite museum artifacts, which was the subject of a previous Manatee History Matters article dubbed "The Tropicana Suit," a green polyester suit with Tropic-Ana on the jacket.

Years later Tropicana would switch up its packaging and logos to the familiar one from my childhood: the orange with a red-and-white straw poked into it. But Tropic-Ana remains the most beloved of many locals who come into the museum and see our new tin Tropic-Ana sign that used to be seen yearly at the fair.

Melissa Dagenais, curator at the Manatee County Agricultural Museum, enjoys learning the stories behind her favorite objects. She can be reached at Melissa.Dagenais@manateeclerk.com or 941-721-2034.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Tropic-Ana: The girl behind the logo | Manatee History Matters ."