 Ol'
Rip (died January 19, 1929) was a Texas horned lizard—commonly referred
to as a "horned toad" or "horny toad"—famous during
the Jazz Age which supposedly survived a 31-year hibernation as an entombed
animal. The reptile's name was a reference to American writer Washington
Irving's fictional character Rip Van Winkle.
Following its alleged exhumation from a cornerstone in Eastland,
Texas on February 18, 1928, the lizard became a national celebrity and
appeared in 1920s motion pictures. The same year, a Texas political
delegation led by Senator Earle Mayfield presented the docile lizard
to President Calvin Coolidge at the White House for his inspection.
As a consequence of the creature's fame, horned toads were sold
by the thousands as souvenirs at public events including the 1928 Democratic
National Convention. The ensuing mass capture and export of the horned
toads resulted in the genus abrupt decline in West Central Texas and
prompted an intervention by the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Decades later, the saga of Ol' Rip inspired Looney Tunes scribe
Michael Maltese to write a 1955 animated theatrical short entitled One
Froggy Evening. In the cartoon, a construction worker demolishing an
old building finds an 1897 time capsule inside a cornerstone.The capsule
contains a living toad which is able to sing Tin Pan Alley songs such
as "Hello! Ma Baby" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry".
Above quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ol%27_Rip_the_Horned_Toad
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