Wellbee, the Health Educator's Friend: CDC's 1960s Cartoon Mascot

Wellbee, the personification of good health. CDC.

When CDC was still the Communicable Disease Center, its public information officer, George M. Stenhouse, wanted a public health symbol that every state and local health agency in the country could use. The agency's staff artist, Harold M. Walker, who had once worked in Hollywood as an animator on cartoons such as Felix the Cat, went to his drawing board and came back with Wellbee — a character whose name stood for "wellbeing".

A mascot with a mission

Wellbee made his public debut on March 11, 1962, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A CDC press release two days earlier described him as "a pleasant-faced, bright-eyed, happy cartoon character, who is the personification of good health."

His first job was to promote the Sabin type II oral polio vaccine, in Atlanta and across the country from Massachusetts to Hawaii and Alaska. CDC built a full campaign around him: newspapers, posters, leaflets, radio, television and personal appearances at public health events.

Wellbee in cowboy costume. CDC.

By February 1963, Stenhouse could report to state health educators that "Wellbee, the 'health educator's friend,' had a busy year." He had been especially active in community polio programmes. "He spoke Spanish in New Mexico; he came to life in costume in Hawaii and led a parade." Wellbee also appeared as a puppet and as a costumed mascot, once posing on the field with the Boston Red Sox.

Later campaigns

After polio, Wellbee took on other assignments: diphtheria and tetanus immunization, hand-washing, physical fitness, oral health and injury prevention. A 1964 poster had him urging, "Be Well, Be Clean, Wash Your Hands"; another asked, "Vaccinated? Get a Booster!" At CDC itself, a Wellbee decal on employees' windshields marked their cars in the parking lot.

Wellbee’s hand-washing message. CDC.

CDC's Public Health Image Library holds Walker's original sketch and the campaign posters, and the CDC Museum offers Wellbee colouring sheets.

Sources

• CDC Museum, "Wellbee, the ‘health educator’s friend’"; rewritten in hubnx's own words. Images from CDC.