"The Kid with the Juicy Fruit Smile". Billy was 5 years old when a photographer happened by his farm and took this photo. He was soon a national icon for the apple producing companies. His smile was in magazines and anywhere apples were sold or produ
"The Kid with the Juicy Fruit Smile". Billy was 5 years old when a photographer happened by his farm and took this photo. He was soon a national icon for the apple producing companies. His smile was in magazines and anywhere apples were sold or produ
Billy Ray was my great grandfather's cousin's son.This photo (and the other one like it posted on this site) were taken one summer afternoon on Brushy Mountain in Wilkes County, North Carolina. The photographer after wards sold one of the photos from the series to an apple company on the mountain who used it in many of their ads during the late 50's, 60', and probably though the 70's. It was also used in a printing of a children's Sunday school book, and some other things. This particular one was a newspaper clipping my great grandmother saved. The story my great grandmother heard is that the photographer wanted to pay Billy Ray's family for the photo and did so by sending the young man some new clothes, but the family wouldn't accept them, and sent them back.
