Moo & Oink was a Chicago, Illinois-based meat company and wholesaler that started at 35th and Calumet Avenue by Joe Lezak around the 1930s. Barry joined Joe, Harvey Lezak and Elliott Levy in 1972 and Barry Lezak joined in 1973. The company came alive as the 7th generation took over and it was the start of Barry Levy's Storybook Career. He traced the family's roots back to 1856 in Russia. There were many relatives that went into the meat business from that family. Calumet was started by a 4th Generation family member. They sold different southern games back then as well as pork, chicken, beef, and lamb. They specialized in soul food restaurants and BBQs. It outgrew the 35th location and moved to 3831 S. Halsted in the 1960s. They were mostly serving BBQs and Soul Food Restaurants back then, but the younger generation loved the face-to-face contact with the retail customers. "I love a crowd" was often heard by customers on busy days. As the wholesale was growing, the newly started retail was taking off with a marketing plan that was completely "out of the box". It was about 1976 the company ordered the mascots Moo & Oink and the company went into orbit. Anyone that saw or heard about the mascots Moo & Oink immediately referred to Calumet as Moo & Oink. At Calumet's first Bud Billiken Parade in the pre-mascot era, employees held signs that said "clap for catfish, "whistle for ribs", "scream for chicken wings" and more. After the parade, the advertising manager's secretary Lillian Bassett started a poem with the signs included. They worked on it and turned it over to DJ, businessman, a commercial editor, and more, the late Richard Pegue. About 5 months later he returned with a finished version of a commercial "looped" for the next Bud Billiken Parade. (Update: today it's January, 2022, about 40 years after Richard delivered our jingle I had a message from Pierre b Johnson, the former lead vocalist for 21st Century that he was the voice of our popular jingle. It was a nice surprise and answers the question I've heard many times over the years, "who sang the commercial?") It was one of the early Rap commercials for a business. When the Moo & Oink float first went down Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd you could hear folks singing the jingle as it was printed