DO YOU REMEMBER?

The story of Iron Eyes Cody is a rather fascinating one. With a solitary tear dripping down his cheek as he mourned the increasingly polluted land around him, his image served as a catalyst for modern environmentalism and encouraged many to do their part in helping to clean up the growing litter problem. A champion of Native-American causes, an actor that appeared in dozens of films, he is without doubt the single most recognizable Native -American face in modern culture. Of course, there’s just one little tiny detail, a seldom -mentioned tidbit of information that somewhat clouds the history of this iconic character – he wasn’t really an Indian. Let’s first take a look at the iconic commercial that started it all, from the early 70s

More after the break

The son of Italian immigrants, Iron Eyes Cody came into this world in 1904, born in Louisiana and given the name, Espera Oscar de Corti. Although his father would eventually desert the family and move to Texas, Espera and his brothers would soon follow. Always an avid admirer of the Native-American culture, he realized that being an Indian might help him get his foot in the door in Hollywood. He changed his last name to Cody and moved west, with aspirations of the big screen. He began dressing in full Native American garb, including moccasins and a longhaired wig, and began to describe his heritage as part Cherokee, part Cree – conveniently leaving the Italian part out.

He found work almost immediately in tinsel town and its seemingly endless production of cowboy films. In 1925, he appeared in the Cecil B. DeMille film, The Road to Yesterday and would go on to appear in over a hundred others over the next six decades. He also made appearances on the television shows Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Rawhide.

But all of these roles paled in comparison to the exposure and recognition he was afforded by his memorable 1971 commercial for the non-profit group, Keep America Beautiful, a community improvement and educational organization. The ad featured a fully garbed Cody, paddling his canoe past billowing smokestacks and floating pollution before setting foot on land.