Fuller Brush Company - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The Big Bad Wolf disguises himself as a Fuller Brush salesman in Disney's 1933 Academy Award-winning Silly Symphonies version of Three Little Pigs. Other examples include:
• In a 1944 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon titled "Duck Soup to Nuts" starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. At one point in the episode Daffy Duck is hiding underwater from Porky Pig who is playing the role of the duck hunter. Daffy, is found lounging in a hammock at the bottom of the lake, he spots Porky Pig who is wearing an old diving helmet. Daffy Duck is then drawn wearing a hat and holding a salesperson's very large briefcase. Daffy Duck then knocks on Porky's helmet. "Knock, knock!" to which Porky answers, "Who's there?". Daffy then exclaims "It's The Fuller Brush Man!", causing Porky to promptly open his mask, sending a flood of water into the diving helmet which in turn rockets Porky to the surface for air!
• The company also inspired two comedy films, The Fuller Brush Man, a 1948 movie starring Red Skelton and Janet Blair and The Fuller Brush Girl, a 1950 movie starring Lucille Ball and Eddie Albert.
• A Fuller Brush salesman is mentioned in French-Canadian author Gabrielle Roy's short story "Ely! Ely! Ely!", first published in 1979 then in 1988 in the book "De quoi t'ennuies-tu Eveline?"
• The Fuller Brush salesman is mentioned by rock and roots artist James McMurtry in the song Fuller Brush Man. The song appears on his 1995 release Where'd you Hide the Body, released by Columbia records.
• The 1972 song by John Prine "The Frying Pan" from Diamonds in the Rough begins with the line "I came home from work this evening, there was a note in the frying pan, it said cook your own supper babe, I've run off with the Fuller Brush Man."
• The song "Sneakin' Around" from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas(1984) mentions "jokes about the Fuller brush man," presumably of a bawdy nature.
• In a 1987 Episode (on Disc 2 of Disney's DuckTales), Uncle Scrooge (voiced by Alan Young) is fast-talked into letting into his house a Fuller Brush salesman (Filler Brushbill) who proceeds to sell Scrooge and his nephews (Huey, Dewey and Louie) all kinds of junk that they don't need. They discover amongst their purchases first-edition copies of William Drakespeare's plays, one of which contains a note written by Drakespeare hinting at the existence of a "lost play." (from episode "Much Ado About Scrooge").