Who Is Bibendum?

Did you know that the Michelin Man's real name is Bibendum? There is a fantastic personal memorabilia photos shown at the Bibendum Club site which is what I really like about that site. I envy the collection. It's awesome! Maybe I should move to France. Grin. ;-) Gotta check it out if you like the Michelin Man or more accurately Bibendum.

However, there is no historical information at the Bibendum Club's site. Maybe it's in progress. But if you are interested, you can find historical background in Wikipedia and basics in Stanfords (which is faster to read). They have excellent information and historical account of Michelin including the Bibendum. I can tell you though, this company is ancient! It was established in 1888 by Andre Michelin in France. That's more than a century. Wow, that's a long time for a company from the 19th century.

The image above, "A Votre Sante", is an ad poster from 1888 or 1898 (I got conflict info). The year the company debuted.

* Note: I'm having problems with the last two links. I hope the problem is with those sites, not me. The Stanfords site takes a bit longer, and the VintageArte seems not accessible at the moment. Perhaps it's temporarily down. I'll check it again later.

Links Summary:

Bibendum Club - Private (mostly) Memorabilia
Wikipedia - History
Stanfords - Facts
Vintage Arte - Michelin Posters

Bibendum Club
https://www.bibendumclub.com/Home_Page.html

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin

Stanfords: Michelin Man Revealed Facts
http://www.stanfords.co.uk/articles/did-you-know/bibendum-the-story-of-the-michelin-man,341,AR.html

VintageArte: Michelin Posters (link too long)
http://tinyurl.com/kozoot