The 1960s

Continuing from the 1950s, let's venture onward through time and gaze our peepers at the Swingin' Sixties.

Right off the bat in 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary conducted another expedition to the Himalayas to collect evidence of the creature, fueling the continual Yeti craze that would last the rest of the decade.  To me, the 1960's was the golden age of Yeti depiction.  The Abominable Snowman appeared all over the place, in comics, live-action tv shows, kids cartoons, toys, and book illustrations.

Depictions during this time vary in style and feature, almost as if creators were having fun trying things out. Yeti can resemble any sort of vague, monstrous humanoid.  Hergé's Yeti from Tintin in Tibet is a rare one that stays true to actual sightings: a brown-furred, pointy scalped simian.  During this experimentation phase, it begins to be cemented in the public imagination that the creature is white furred. With the appellation "Abominable Snowman", it became inevitable.

Many argue the 60's was the golden age of American animation as well.  Throughout the decade, kids' cartoons opted to include a Yeti in one of their episodes, starting a trend that continues to this day. Of particular note - Warner Bros. introduced Hugo, an overly affectionate Yeti who loves to hug, drawing inspiration from an unusual place: a literary character  - Lennie Small from Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men.

1960    Radar cover (magazine)
1960    Snooper and Blabber (animation)
1960    Sir Edmund Hillary with sketch (drawing)
1960    Dick Tracy Show (animation)
1960    Popeye (cartoon)
1960    Rocky & Bullwinkle (animation)
1960    Tintin in Tibet (comic)
1961    Abominable Snow Rabbit (animation)
1961    Tales to Astonish (comic)
1962    Radar cover (magazine)
1962    l'Extrême Orient illustration (book) [Not pictured]
1963    Marx Yeti (toy)
1963    Corn flakes commercial (ad)
1963    El Monstruo de los Volcanes (film)
1963    Bolek and Lolek (animation)
1963    Astroboy (animation)

The zenith of Yeti-mania is, of course, Bumble from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.  Everything in the world of Yeti depiction is either Before Bumble (B.B.) or After Bumble (A.B.).  The 50 year-old TV special is still played annually and continues to reintroduce Yeti to the popular imagination of each generation.  Our current ideas about the Yeti as a popular cultural icon - his association with Christmas, his ferocious but ultimately friendly attitude, his disassociation from the Himalayas, and his kid-friendly appeal - are all largely due to Rankin/Bass' Snow Monster.

1964    Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (animation)

Around the same time as Bumble, the Beatles included a man in costume for a sketch for their TV Christmas special. Then, the cartoon Jonny Quest, which drew its inspiration from pulpy radio serials and comics, had its titular hero contend with Abominable Snowmen.  It's revealed by the end that all is not what it seems - smugglers are pretending to be Yeti to scare the locals. This trope, nicknamed more recently "The Scooby-Doo Hoax", will appear again and again.

1964    The Beatles skit (television) [Not pictured]
1964    Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (film)
1964    Magoo (comic) [Not pictured]
1965    Jonny Quest: "Monsters in the Monastery (animation)
1965    Alvin and the Chipmunks (comic) [Not pictured]
1966    Dino Boy in the Lost Valley (animation)
1966    Space Ghost (animation)
1966    Challengers of the Unknown (comic) [Not pictured]
1966    The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (television)
1966    Bhutan Stamps [Not pictured]
1967    The New Adventures of Superman (animation)

All is not what it seems in the 1967 Doctor Who TV episode, "The Abominable Snowmen", where Yetis are revealed to be robots underneath their furry blob bodies and secretly controlled by an alien intelligence.

And comic book super hero Silver Surfer meets a tribe of Yeti in 1968, kicking off a series of star turns in comics throughout the next decade.

1967    Doctor Who: "The Abominable Snowmen" (television)
1968    The New Adventures of Superman (animation)
1968    Mighty Mightor (animation)
1968    Alpine Sleighs (attraction)
1968    Silver Surfer (comic)
1968    Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (television)
1968    Illustration (book) [Not pictured]
1969    Adventures of Jerry Lewis (comic)
1969    French book (book cover)

On to the Seventies...