Saving Mr. Bingle: A New Orleans Christmas Mystery

Christmas has been a difficult time of year for department store manager Haywood Coleman since the death of his only son, but this year promises to be the worst. A corporate takeover jeopardizes the existence of his store and, along with it, the fate of Mr. Bingle, New Orleans’ beloved Christmas mascot.

But a mysterious turn of events propels Coleman into a fight to save the little snow fairy despite it costing him his job, his reputation, and nearly his marriage.

When all seems lost, Coleman teams with a young reporter, Hope Lawson, and they learn the heart-breaking truth about Oscar Eisenberg, the original puppeteer and voice behind Mr. Bingle. Their discoveries fuel a campaign that rallies the entire city. Through his struggle to save Mr. Bingle, Coleman honors Oscar Eisenberg’s memory and makes peace with his own painful loss.

Inspired by true events, Saving Mr. Bingle is a magical story of redemption and faith that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you appreciate the very miracle of life.

ABOUT MR. BINGLE & OSCAR ISENTROUT

The real Mr. Bingle came to life in 1948, when Emile Alline, a window decorator for Maison Blanche Department Store, recruited Edwin H. “Oscar” Isentrout to animate the puppet Alline had created. At the time, Isentrout had been working in a Bourbon Street burlesque club.

Isentrout performed four Mr. Bingle shows a day during the holiday season at his puppet theater in the Canal Street store. Mr. Bingle soon became a fixture on local television, appearing in commercials for Maison Blanche and in his own daily show, which ran from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Isentrout also brought his traveling show to other store locations as well as to hospitals, schools, orphanages, and anywhere else that could use a little holiday cheer.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Isentrout worked with several touring puppet shows in New York and Canada before buying a bus ticket to New Orleans on a whim in 1947.

Isentrout never married, and he died in 1985 at the age of 61 after a long illness. With little money to his name and no family, Isentrout was buried in an unmarked grave in Hebrew’s Rest #3 Cemetery.

Mr. Bingle, however, lives on to this day, thanks to Dillard’s Inc., which purchased Maison Blanche in 1998, and continues to celebrate this unique New Orleans tradition every holiday season.

In 2005, after the initial printing of Saving Mr. Bingle, proceeds from the sale of the book went to the Oscar Isentrout Memorial Fund, which purchased a tombstone for Isentrout’s unmarked grave. As a result, the memorial is now in place in Hebrew’s Rest #3 Cemetery in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans.

A portion of proceeds from additional sales of Saving Mr. Bingle are helping preserve the popular Mr. Bingle display in City Park of New Orleans’ Celebration in the Oaks.

Read the full story and find other stories by Sean Patrick Doles, including All Saints Day: A New Orleans Football Mystery, at www.neworleansstories.com.