Michigan J. Frog first appeared in the 1955 animated cartoon One Froggy Evening about a disheveled construction worker who finds a box in a cornerstone of a 1892 building that was being demolished.

When he opens the box, out pops a green frog that produces a top hat and cane and begins to dance and sing "Hello My Baby" at the top of his lungs.

Seeing the potential for an instant fortune, the construction worker takes the frog to the Acme Theatrical Agency but the frog refuses to perform for anyone except the construction worker.

Frustrated and driven nearly mad at his inability to get the frog to sing for anyone else, the construction worker returns the frog to the cornerstone of a new building (only to be found by another construction worker years later who also sees dollar signs when the frog begins to sing).

Baritone Terrence Monck provided the frog's voice. Artist Chuck Jones later named the frog Michigan J. Frog.

In 1973, film critic Jay Cocks proclaimed that this animated short "comes as close as any cartoon ever has to perfection."

Other songs in the frogs repertoire included:

• "I'm Just Wild About Harry,"
• "Come Back to Erin,"
• "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone,"
• And an original tune written by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese called "The Michigan Rag" which began "Ev-ry-bo-dy's doing the Michigan Ra-a-a-g."