Clown - Poll Parrot Shoes - Advertising Promotional Paper Mask (1940s)

Step right up! This cheerful clown paper mask was a promotional giveaway for Poll Parrot Shoes in the 1940s — a children’s shoe brand famous for its catchy radio jingle, “I’m the Poll Parrot, Poll Parrot, Poll Parrot Shoe!” The company used colorful mascots, advertising characters, and premiums like this mask to cement their brand in the minds of post-Depression and wartime American families.

The mask itself features bold litho printing in vibrant red, orange, and blue, with the brand’s name proudly marked on the reverse. Distributed at shoe stores and through in-store promotions, these masks were never intended to survive, being quickly worn, torn, and discarded by children. Finding one intact more than 75 years later is a small miracle.

Masks like this represent a crossroads of mid-century American advertising, childhood nostalgia, and clown iconography. They’re also a glimpse into the inventive ways brands once competed for loyalty before the age of television and mass media advertising.

Date: 1940s
Promoter: Poll Parrot Shoes (Brown Shoe Company)
Size: 8" x 9"
Rarity: Scarce; most Poll Parrot paper items were ephemeral and seldom survived