? ?
- 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]