There have been many mice in my life growing up…whoa, hold on a minute, let me clarify that. There have been many cartoon mice in my life (does that sound any better? : \). The most famous of these mice was good ol’ Mickey Mouse, and we can’t forget his girlfriend Minnie, that muscle bound Mighty Mouse, Jerry from Tom & Jerry fame and one very fast mouse, Speedy Gonzales.

The above list however, doesn’t include one other mouse, he was a foreigner, Italian to be exact and he was a television personality that I remember watching on the Ed Sullivan Show and his name was Topo Gigio. Topo Gigio was a 10 inch tall, foam puppet that took 4 people to bring to life, 3 people to make the puppet move and 1 for the voice.

Before he received fame on the Ed Sullivan Show, Topo Gigio debuted on Italian television in 1959 and in the early 1960′s, was the lead character of a children’s puppet show on Italian and Spanish television.

Topo Gigio would appear on the weekly Ed Sullivan show from the 1960′s until Ed Sullivan’s last show in 1971. After Topo Gigio concluded each of his weekly skits with host Ed Sullivan, Topo Gigio would always conclude with the line, “Eddie, kiss-a-me goo’ night!” (in his Italian accent), just before he hopped into his bed.

For more details on Topo Gigio, visit wikipedia.com:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topo_Gigio