Wisconsin Life

- Angela: Edgerton is the kind of classic American small town where the past is very present.

It's seen in historic tobacco warehouses, the restored train station, and... here.

[door chimes ring] - John Stout: You are here for the tour, I presume?

– Visitor: Yes, we are.

– Angela: The Sterling North Home and Museum.

– John Foust: Sterling North is known as a Wisconsin author.

He grew up here in Edgerton.

He went on to become the literary page editor and book reviewer at big Chicago and New York newspapers.

But he also wrote almost three dozen books.

- One book sealed Sterling North's literary reputation: Rascal.

– John Stout: In the kitchen, we have Rascal with his sugar cubes.

- Rascal is the charming raccoon who became young Sterling's companion.

The mostly true story resonated with readers when published in 1963.

It went on to sell millions of copies and was made into a 1969 movie.

– John Foust: The people of Edgerton restored this childhood home as a museum because it's the setting of the book.

- John Foust has immersed himself in Sterling North's life and times for a book he's writing on the author and his raccoon pal.

- I think Sterling, when he wrote the book when he was 55 or so, he's looking back on his life.

He's thinking about the fun that he had as a kid.

And, you know, the subtitle for Rascal is "A Memoir of a Better Era."

- An era preserved in the North Home and Museum.

But an unexpected, more recent chapter to Rascal's story awaits visitors upstairs.

- From the Japanese... - Dozens of artifacts speak to the enormous following the little raccoon from Edgerton has in Japan.

– John Foust: He's just kind of a stand-in for cuteness.

– Visitor: Oh, it's a bobblehead.

– Angela: This Japanese version of Rascal is known across the island nation.

Over the years, the museum has amassed a collection of products brought back from visitors to Japan.

They range from dishware to toilet paper.

– John Foust: It's better known to people in Japan than it is people right here in Edgerton.

- Because after the book, after the movie, came the anime.

[cartoon children's voices singing in Japanese] - Child: Here, Rascal!

– Angela: The series Rascal the Raccoon delighted Japanese television viewers when it was first broadcast in 1977.

– John Foust: It did spectacularly well.

They had a 20% share of people watching TV on that Sunday night slot.

- The series would stay on the air for decades and gain a global following.

- Rascal has been translated to German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic.

[speaking in Japanese] - Angela: Giving the world a surprisingly accurate portrait of Wisconsin.

- Foust: In the opening credits, Sterling is riding his bike with Rascal in the basket down to his favorite fishing spot.

And the name of the opening theme song is "To the Rock River."

The animators came here to Edgerton.

– Angela: The animators who traveled from Japan were later followed by tourists.

– John Foust: Japanese families do come here every summer.

– Visitor: They're big Rascal fans.

– Angela: For these super fans, a visit to the Sterling North home must be like entering their beloved anime.

– John Foust: It's a spooky experience to have watched and get a sense for a place, and then, to be able to visit it.

You can stand in the backyard and see the church steeple.

It's all still there.

And it was all what you learned about in the anime.

[speaking Japanese] - Angela: And John contends that Rascal viewers around the world have learned much, much more.

– John Foust: Tens of millions of kids around the world have watched it as their after-school cartoon for four decades now.

I think that the thing that Wisconsin is most known for around the world, beyond beer or cheese, it's a story about a raccoon, Rascal.

[happy cartoon melody]