very rare and collectible americana in the form of a vintage diminutive dairy queen exterior porcelain enameled ice cream cone single-sided ad sign. the die cut steel sign remains in very good condition, considering age. the colors remain vibrant. the stamped steel grommets are original and intact. the soft serve formula was first developed in 1938 by j.f. grandpa mccullough and his son alex mccullough. co-owned with herb noble, they went on to open the first dairy queen store in 1940 in joliet, illinois. while the dairy queen is no longer in operation, the building is still located at 501 n chicago st. dq was an early pioneer of food franchising, with the 10 stores in 1941 expanding to 100 by 1947, 1,446 in 1950, and 2,600 in 1955. the present dairy queen logo was introduced in 1959. the company became "international dairy queen, inc." (idq) in 1962. dairy queens were a fixture of social life in small towns of the midwestern and southern united states during the 1950s and 1960s. in that role they have often come to be referenced as a symbol of life in small-town america, as for instance in walter benjamin at the dairy queen: reflections at sixty and beyond by larry mcmurtry, dairy queen days by robert inman, and chevrolet summers, dairy queen nights by bob greene. some of the popular items on the texas menu include the hunger-buster and belt-buster hamburgers. bob phillips, host of the popular texas syndicated television series texas country reporter, was for many years the dq spokesman in texas. dairy queen appears in many small texas towns, such as baird, devine, jacksboro, and hamilton, and in advertising calls its logo "the texas stop sign." the larger sign without lettering was sold long ago. it was an exterior sign that hung from a signpost and/or the building.