Sharon Fiffer
I know of three origin stories for the smiley face.
Number one. According to Google, the man behind the iconic smiley face logo was Harvey Ross Ball. As the story goes, Mr. Ball was hired by an insurance company in 1963 to create a morale-boosting icon for its employees. For $45, Ball whipped up the yellow-and-black smiley face with a wide grin.
Number two. According to a description of a smiley face lamp in a recent MOMA catalogue ($199), the smiley face icon was originally published as a symbol for happy news in the French newspaper France-Soir in 1971. Franklin Loufrani is credited with designing the icon for his column and invited viewers to “Take the Time to Smile!”
Number three. According to my mother, Nellie Schmidt, the smiley face was invented by me, her daughter, in the 1960's when I sent a letter home while on a trip with my grandma and, instead of writing a return address on the envelope, drew a smiley face.
Maybe I did invent it. I don't remember seeing it before I adopted it as my "signature." Perhaps Mrs. Moore, my fifth-grade teacher, had drawn a smile on my spelling test? Or maybe I was simplifying a cartoon face I had seen in one of my favorite Little Lulu comic books? Or maybe like Harvey Ross Ball and Franklin Loufrani, I just wanted to encourage someone to smile back at me.
But my mother wouldn't hear of me sharing credit. Until the day she passed away at 92 years old, she insisted--every time we passed someone wearing a smiley face T-shirt or she saw me sipping from my McCoy Pottery smiley face mug pictured above--that I should be a millionaire for inventing the smiley face. Perhaps it's a blessing that she never encountered emoticons.
Nellie's insistence wasn't exactly complimentary. She was angry about my unrecognized artistry. "You should have done something about that face. You could be rich!"
She was partly right. Also according to Google, the image is worth millions.
So today, August 26, 2023, on the occasion of my mother's 109th birthday, I am doing something about it.
Hear me world! I hereby declare that I, Sharon Schmidt Sloan Fiffer, may or may not be the inventor of the smiley face. Alas, I am not yet a millionaire, but I am still encouraging people to smile back at me.
