inez bregant

John G. Woodward wasn't the first to use little people in advertising, but may well have contributed to what became a popular trend for the next couple of decades.  Buster Brown shoes had adopted a comic strip character as their advertising image a few years earlier and hired little people to play Buster in tours around the country.  This came at the time when the trend was to introduce novelty into advertising to attract consumer attention in what was becoming the highly competitive world of marketing.  Woodward's approach was different in that the company treated the Bregants with respect.  What the company called "the lightest weight and best proportioned couple in the world" were photographed in adult poses and portrayed as sophisticated, unlike Little Oscar the Chef of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile or Sunshine Bakers promoting "the cutest midgets you ever saw." 

The Bregant's custom-made home was restored by Preserve Council Bluffs and is open for tours.  Find more information about the house: https://sites.google.com/thehistoricalsociety.org/pcb/home/bregant-house

Seeking a safer occupation following an rail yard accident that cost him the tip of a finger, John G. Woodward began work at a Council Bluffs candy store. He eventually bought it, and grew the company into the largest candy manufacturing operation in the West.  In this podcast, Richard Warner of the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, traces the history of the company, including the claim they were the inventors of the Butter Brickle flavor and that Omaha's Blackstone Hotel was the first to use this to make Butter Brickle ice cream.  The podcast also explores possible reasons such a successful company would close so suddenly, what happened to their recipes, and their advertising icons, Jean and Inze Bregant, Council Bluffs "little people."   Read more and see some photos with the Historical Society's History Online story: https://sites.google.com/thehistoricalsociety.org/woodward-candy/ufo