In 1877, three elfin brothers named Snap, Crackle, and Click Krispie went to work for John Harvey Kellogg at the Battle Creek Sanitorium. They began in Colon Irrigation, but dedication and enthusiasm soon earned them promotions to Therapeutic Massage. They worked as a team, three on one. Guests of the Sanitorium were amused and delighted by the antics of these sprightly young masseuses. An audience of robed clients, in deck chairs, took turns on the massage table, their backs forming the stage upon which the Krispie brothers demonstrated a unique blend of massage, dance, and slapstick comedy. They were the star attraction.

Snap, Crackle, and Click were gaining widespread recognition when Charles William Post visited the Battle Creek Sanitorium in 1893. Post believed that Click Krispie was the true star of the show and offered him a lucrative contract to leave his two brothers and work for the Post company. This caused a bitterness that, to this day, no amount of added sugar can completely assuage.

Snap and Crackle decided the show must go on. They recruited their younger brother, Pop, to replace Click. They worked harder than ever. It was Pop's good fortune to join the team soon after John Harvey Kellogg introduced popular new breakfast cereals, including corn flakes and what soon became known as Rice Krispies.

Thus began the Golden Age of cereal mascots. One might see Tony the Tiger having drinks with the Trix Rabbit, Sugar Bear and Jack Kerouac emerging from a jazz spot wearing dark shades, and of course, Snap, Crackle, & Pop making an impromptu appearance at a nightclub after filming wrapped on their latest TV commercial for Rice Krispies.

Sadly, drink took its toll on Click Krispie. Stage hands noticed milk disappearing from bowls faster than usual, and Click was sometimes unable to perform, dazed and sluggish from triptophan. Due to his unstable reputation, Post replaced him at the last minute by the Honeycomb Kid. Click died penniless on the cover of a generic snack pack box.

After years of success, tragedy struck the Krispie brothers again when Pop suffered a stroke and was no longer able to perform in TV commercials. It is generally believed that Pop had always tried to compensate for being the young new-comer.

"He always stayed in the milk as long as it took," said Snap. "He popped the loudest and longest."

To which Crackle rejoined, "Oh, Snap!"

Snap and Crackle briefly replaced Pop with veteran cereal mascot, Captain Crunch, but to their audience, it just wasn't the same. They called it quits in 1972. The characters we now know as Snap, Crackle, and Pop are computer generated; mere animated caricatures of the original brilliant Fathers of All Cereal Mascots.

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