Animés par les Fromageries Bel Créatrices de la célèbre “[La] Vache qui Rit” - Album no. 1 [The Laughing Cow].

Animés par les Fromageries Bel Créatrices de la célèbre “[La] Vache qui Rit” - Album no. 1 [The Laughing Cow].

Lons-le-saunier, France:

Vache qui Rit,

[ca. 1930s].

In 1924, Léon Bel, son of a French cheese manufacturer, changed his company’s logo to a laughing cow, drawn by illustrator Benjamin Rabier (1864–1939). Bel’s marketing savvy encouraged children to acquire printed blotters, book covers, and albums to fill with individual movable cards from Rabier’s menagerie. One set of twelve has pull tabs; another has wheels to portray the comical movement. The Laughing Cow has a large passionate following with many collectibles.

In a bit of nostalgia, I remember arriving in Paris on my honeymoon unable to speak French. As it was lunchtime when most shops were closed, I shyly went into a food store and asked for La Vache qui Rit, the only French food I could pronounce. My husband and I sat on a bench hungrily opening each wedge of foil-wrapped cheese.

Collection of Ellen G. K. Rubin.