Posted on by Phil Strawn

The Green Legacy of Mr. Greenjeans


If you were a kid in the 1950s, then you knew who Captain Kangaroo and his sidekick Mr. Greenjeans were. Their television show was broadcast five days a week in glorious black and white and viewed by millions of kids on tiny television screens. ” Don’t sit too close to that TV, you’ll go blind.” That was the stern warning from every mother, and here we are today, all wearing glasses or blind. How did you expect us to see the Captain and Greenjeans on an 8-inch screen?

The burning question we all had was, did Mr. Greenjeans wear “green jeans?” We were kids, with no color sets, it made us crazy. Was this man green?

A few months ago, I took a shortcut through a Fort Worth neighborhood to avoid road construction and noticed a weirdly dressed man using a hand pump sprayer to paint his yard a deep shade of Kelly green. I stopped and watched him walk from the curb to the house. Long, even strokes coat the brown grass to imitate spring’s favorite color. It was then I noticed his house was green, the cars in the driveway were green, his clothes and skin were green, and a small dog sitting on the porch was also green. What the hell? The man saw me staring and motioned me over.

I parked my car and walked up to the fellow, feeling a bit foolish for interrupting the work of a stranger. I introduced myself and complimented him on his handy work. He thanked me, extended his hand to shake, and said, “names Levi, Levi Greenjeans, nice to meet you.”

” That’s an unusual name, sir. The only time I’ve heard that last name was on Captain Kangaroo, and that was seventy years ago,” I said.

The green fellow laughed and said, ” That’s the family name. Mr. Greenjeans was my pop. My sister and I grew up in a green world, so this is pretty natural for us. Dad’s been fertilizer for a good many years now, so it’s up to me to carry on the family brand.” I agreed; he looked pretty good for an old green guy.

I didn’t want to pry or be too forward, but I asked, ” Sir, what might the family brand be?”

“Call me Levi,” he said. ” You know that song ” The Jolly Green Giant? I wrote it and collect mucho royalties. That Tom Jones song about the green-green grass of home wrote that one, too. The Green Giant food brand, that’s mine; also, copyright infringement made them pay up. Home Depot has a Green Jeans color named after Dad. I get change from that, and I get a shiny penny from YouTube for the Captain Kangaroo videos.” This dude has turned green into green cash.

I am impressed and honored to be in the presence of one of the famous Greenjeans family, but now is the chance to get the answers to my childhood questions. I am afraid of coming off like a six-year-old Duffus, but I asked, ” did your dad wear green jeans and did he have a green face, and was the captain a nice man, and why did he have a big mustache, and did your dad really have a farm? There, I spat it out, and I am an idiot.

Levi chuckled and said, “Dad wore green jeans, and his face was green from stage makeup. The captain, bless his dead heart, was not too friendly. He wore a mustache because, on the first live show, a little kid threw a Coke bottle at him and split his lip; the stash hid the scar, and that’s why he disliked kids. He carried a small cattle prod under his sleeve, and if the kids got too close, he would shock them. Pretty funny stuff to see them jump. And the final answer is yes, Dad had a farm and grew veggies and raised prize-winning Llamas. Recently, my sister Denim planted forty acres of butt-kicking pot that we will sell in our “Mr. Greenjeans Apothecary Co-op in Denver.”

I thanked Levi for his kindness and started to leave when he stopped me. Extracting a green Sharpie from his pocket, he signed his name on the front of my white Eddie Bauer Polo shirt. “Hang on to that shirt, brother. It’ll be worth some cash one day.”

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22 Replies to “The Green Legacy of Mr. Greenjeans”

  1. I think they made shows like Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Greenjeans to discourage children from watching television. I love your stories about yesteryear that trigger reverie.. The one thing that’s just too far fetched to believe is you wearing an Eddie Bauer Polo shirt. You seem more likely to wear a “Go Climb a Rock” T-shirt frayed around the neck. Thanks for the fun read, Phil. 🙂

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  3. I’m with you 100% on paragraphs one and two. It was all downhill from there. LOL!!

    I grew up with Captain Kangaroo, and I mostly remember that he read books to me! No one read books to me, and I loved them all. Curious George stands out as does Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. 🙂

    Great tale, Phil!

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    1. Thanks to ya, John. Yes, it was one of my tallest ones in a while. As a child, I was mystified by the Captain and Green Jeans, I couldn’t grasp the reasoning behind a farmer and a trolly driver on the same show. Howdy Doody was even harder to understand. A cowboy having conversations with a wooden puppet. Thank God, Shari Lewis and Lambchop came along to save the day. I had the Hubba-Hubba’s for Shari.

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  5. As a famous frog said…”It Aint Easy Being Green.” Sometimes I think you might find some certain Texas mushrooms to snack on between stories.

    We had the Captain and Mr Greenjeans in the 70s as well! I grew up on both.

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    1. They were popular, much more so than Howdy Doody and Lambchop. In DFW, we had Mr. Peppermint. He was a tv weatherman turned kids show host, and it was as good as anything produced on the national level. We also had Slam Bang Theater with Icky Twerp, who patterned his comedy after Ernie Kovaks.

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      1. Did the Captain start on Howdy Doody? I read somewhere but I forgot if that is correct.
        I’m watching Icky Twerp right now…some fun stuff.

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      2. Not sure on that one, Max. Icky got the musical apes from the Kovacs show. The man who plays Icky was Bill Camfield, a Channel 11 news guy. He also went on to play Gorgon on Nigtmare Theater. Yea, I loved Icky Twerp.

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      3. I looked it up Phil. I can’t believe I remembered it! He played Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody.
        Thanks for the tip on Bill Camfield…I like Ernie Kovacs from what little I’ve seen him.

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  7. I may be off here so help me out. I recently purchased a pair of green jeans and memories start flowing…I grew up in the 40’s and listened to radio, and remembered a little song about the grass is always greener….. I don’t remember the captain! We didn’t have a tv until much later. Did he start on radio first?

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