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In what is perhaps the greatest example of a Milkshake Duck in recent history, Jackie Vernon, the iconic voice actor behind the beloved Frosty the Snowman character, was recently exposed for having hidden three secret families.
To make matters worse, the one to expose Vernon’s long-kept secret was his own son, David, who revealed the news while talking about his dad on the Nostalgia Tonight With Joe Sibilia radio show.
Jackie Vernon, who played the role in the original 1969 TV special, passed away in 1987 at the age of 63. But David says that he learned shortly before his father’s death that the comedian and actor lived a far different life than anybody knew.
‘Frosty The Snowman’ Actor Lived A Triple Life
There was a woman there with a kid who was older than I was,” David said of meeting one of his father’s other wives prior to his his death. “He was probably in his late teens and a little rough-around-the-edges looking.”
“The woman asked to speak to my dad, and I said my dad’s on the road and he’s not home,” he continued. “Then, I remember she was very firm, she was like, ‘Well then, I want to speak to your mother.’
Hazel, who is David’s mother and woman who he presumed was his father’s only wife, then came to the door.
“So my mom came, and I guess she assessed what the situation was right away. But my mom told me to go upstairs and [she] talked to her,” David shared. “I heard a somewhat heated conversation going on, and then a couple of minutes later, they left.”
“So I had to know. I asked my mom, ‘Who was that?’ And it finally came out that before our family, my dad had been married at least three other times, which I was kind of shocked to find out,” he admitted.
Jackie Vernon Had A Plan For His Third Family
As it turns out, that wasn’t even the worst part.
“From these marriages, he had sons, and he named them all Ralph, after himself, after his original name, Ralph Verrone,” David said. “But he also abandoned all these families, moved on.”
“My mom wasn’t even sure if he’d divorced one of the women or if he was married to another one, but when my parents were married, they had a deal,” he added.
The deal was that if they had children, Jackie would name the girls, while Hazel would name the boys.
“She had sort of gotten this idea that a Ralph was an unloved kid, a kid that was left behind, and she wanted to make sure that I was never going to be a Ralph,” David said. “That’s when I realized that my mom had this plan that he stayed with our family and didn’t abandon us.”
David also revealed details about his father’s battles with drug addiction and depression.”
So, there you have it, kids. The beloved childhood character we all grew up watching was actually, at best, not all that great a person. And at worst, kind of a monster.
Because there can be nothing pure in the world anymore.