Richard D. Trentlage

Richard Dale Trentlage (December 27, 1928 – September 21, 2016) was an American jingle writer. He wrote jingles for McDonald's, the National Safety Council, and V8, but he is best known for the long-running jingle for Oscar Mayer wieners. He graduated from Calumet in 1947.

Career Trentlage later enjoyed playing the banjo ukulele. He went to work in advertising and was employed by large firms that included McCann Erickson. founding Adver/Sonic Productions. In the late 1990s Trentlage was living in Fox River Grove, Illinois and still writing jingles.

In 1962, Trentlage learned that Oscar Mayer was holding a jingle contest for its hot dogs. With the deadline the next day, he wrote: Trentlage's daughter Linda had a stuffy nose at the time of the recording, and Mayer thought that mothers would identify with children who had stuffy noses.

In a 2008 interview he said he was still receiving royalties from the Oscar Mayer jingle, which had helped put his children through college.

Personal life He was married to his first wife, Vivian Youngs, for 23 years and had five children. After divorcing, he married his second wife, Jackie, in the 1980s. His daughter Linda, one of two children featured in the Oscar Mayer jingle, became an educational administrator in Wisconsin.