Facebook Blurb # 6 – The Old Black

When Marvel’s “Black Panther” debuted in 2018, the film about the world’s first black superhero was a massive blockbuster, shattering box office records to become the year’s second highest earner worldwide. Stan Lee’s and Jack Kirby’s fictional T’Challa, powerful king of African nation Wakanda, first came out in the “Fantastic Four” issue # 52 in July 1966, and the movie made history as the first superhero motion picture to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Film.

But was T’Challa really the first character to don the Black Panther ensemble? The evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

In 1928, Proctor & Gamble developed a chocolate powder to supplement the vitamins and minerals in milk for Mexican children. Originally christening it with the eponymous brand “Choco-Milk,” P&G created, in 1958, the animated character of “Pancho Pantera,” a strong, bold and brave young boy, to promote and advertise it. “Pantera” is, of course, Spanish for “panther,” and not unexpectedly, the emblem of a black panther is seen on his chest. Pre-dating the Stan Lee character by eight years, Pancho WAS in fact the first Black Panther.

And in 1943, United Press war correspondent Robert La Rue Stewart arrived in Manila to cover the WWII hostilities in the Pacific theatre. Staying on after the war’s end, he then established the radio and television network Republic Broadcasting System (RBS) at a studio on the fourth floor of the Calvo Building along Escolta, a marvelous Beaux Arts structure designed by Fernando Ocampo in 1938. Eventually to become GMA 7, RBS aired American syndicated programs – “Combat,” “The Flying Nun,” “Mission:Impossible,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” – all mainstays of our daily television fare in the 1960s. We were also introduced to cartoon shows like Popeye, Gumby and Harveytoons. Stewart also produced the first live children’s TV show, “Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club,” and if one were fortunate enough to be a member, one received a membership card with a secret code typed at the back. Two sidekick puppets helped out with the show – Spanky and Pancho – and it was only natural that “Pancho Pantera” Chocomilk, already exported to the US and distributed locally, be a major sponsor.

In the 1963 print ad below, “Pancho Pantera’s” super powers include making children taller, healthier and stronger, decidedly less Herculean faculties than the Black Panther’s, but arguably more constructive and rewarding.