In Search of Mr. Frosty

September 8, 2006 8:51 AM

I am looking for the title, and the comic who may have written, but certainly acted in, a short film about a man's search for the prizes he won as a boy either while selling seeds or ordered from the back of a comic book.

The few things I remember is that the actor runs into Mr. Frosty, the ice cream man famous for those trucks. Mr. Frosty had white hair styled like the soft served ice cream cone. The actor may have been on Saturday Night Live. It is not Chris Elliot, and it is not the famous submarine episode from Get A Life.

posted by Gungho to media & arts (5 comments total)

Boy, this reminds me a lot of an episode of The Adventures of Pete & Pete - the one with Michael Stipe and Mr. Frosty ... but I suspect it's not it ...
posted by jbickers at 9:01 AM on September 8, 2006

I see now I've made a mistake - that show featured Mr. Tastee, not Mr. Frosty ...
posted by jbickers at 9:02 AM on September 8, 2006

I also remember the prize in question was a basketball and backyard basketball hoop. The actor endured a cross country trek to find the long defunct company.
posted by Gungho at 12:26 PM on September 8, 2006

This is Jean Shepherd. I think the book was In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, although it might have been A Fist Full of Fig Newtons.

The book is a collection of short stories interspersed by vignettes of him going through a box of old toys hismom sent him. Each toy reminds him of a story.
posted by plinth at 6:51 PM on September 8, 2006

Well after a lot of searching I finally found it. The comic is Rich Hall, a 3rd generation SNL comic. The short was Vanishing America... and it is Mr. Softee
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091850/
posted by Gungho at 8:25 AM on May 16, 2007