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Billy Bass Adoption Centers

Am I the last one to hear about this?

Little Rock, AR isn’t just home of the McKinnis branch o’ B.A.S.S. Apparently it’s the location of the world’s first (meaning there’s more than one) Billy Bass Adoption Center. More from here:

> The Billy Bass Adoption Center, located inside the Flying Fish restaurant in Little Rock, is a place where hundreds of the once ubiquitous novelty item have gone to die – or to sit in perpetuity, tacked to a wall, re-imagined as a new kind of novelty.

> You’ve seen them before. The head-swinging, Bobby McFerrin-singing Big Mouth Billy Bass is probably owned by at least one of your neighbors or relatives. They received it as a gag gift in the late 1990s or early 2000s when its popularity skyrocketed.

> A southern Cajun restaurant, the Flying Fish opened in 2002, a year when the Big Mouth Billy Bass was still pretty popular, a year when most people probably weren’t yet ready to part with their fish. But Shannon Wynne knew they would grow old fast, so she came up with the idea to retire the toys by hanging them on the walls of the Flying Fish….

> Now more than 300 of the Billy Bass fish decorate the walls – and even hang from the ceiling – at the restaurant. The idea has become a staple of the Flying Fish, which is opening additional restaurants around the south. When a new location opened its doors in Dallas in 2004, the owners had already hung eight fish on the walls.

> “Almost all of them are brought by women,” one Flying Fish owner told the Lone Star Outdoor News. “Most of them ask us to please get this out of their attic or garage or house, and they all tell us, ‘If he comes looking for it, don’t tell him it’s here.’

Which Reminds Me…

Have wondered from time to time how much coin was made on that whole Big Mouth Billy Bass thing. And who was the crazy genius who thought it up.

Must have made some bucks, judging from the fact that they are/were everywhere, and this, from the article: “There were several copycat toys released after the success of the Big Mouth Billy Bass, including animatronic singing versions of catfish, lobsters, rainbow trout, and even a Great White Shark.”

Copycats probably mean Billy made lots of dough. Not sure about Louie, though, who sounds like he’s from Jersey:

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Brody Broderick

    December 22, 2011 at 10:45 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L-ikHb7mJA

    Gotta check this one out too…

    • Rich Arnold

      December 29, 2011 at 7:38 am

      OMG!!! That had me rolling on the floor Brody! You made my day!

  2. Jonny Schultz

    December 22, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    Plus the staff all wear Strike King hats – how sweet it THAT!?

  3. Chad Keogh

    December 22, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    Since the bass never leave, you’d think it should be called the Billy Bass Retirement Center… Bass check in, but they don’t check out.

  4. Rich Arnold

    December 29, 2011 at 7:42 am

    When my son, now 14, was around 4 he saw Billy Bass in the mall and fell in love with it. Every time we would go there, he had to go into the store and he would line several of them up and push the buttons to get them all singing. Then he would dance in front of them and sing along. It usually drew a small crowd. I wish I had an Iphone back then with video camera. I could threaten to post it on Facebook when he forgets to take out the trash!

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