Origin of "happy camper"

I believe it entered popular usage with a comedy TV show called "Hi-de-Hi" that was set in a Butlins-style holiday camp. From memory, a catch-phrase was "Hi-de-hi, happy campers!" but pinning down a definite connection is a bit elusive.

However, "happy campers" on its own became popular in the 1980s which correlates nicely with the Hi-de-Hi show being aired in the 1980s, and the phrase "hi-de-hi happy campers" gets plenty of google hits though none in BNC.

To the references, you can add the use of the exact phrase "He's not a happy camper" nearly 1:45 into the 1947 movie Tycoon, starring John Wayne. It thus predates all television references.

I don't know whether it's accurate, but according to Wiki answers, it's from an episode of the '80s sitcom Silver Spoons, where Ricky goes camping with his grandfather... I also don't know why some are just guessing...it doesn't seem like a phrase sufficiently uncommon to be from, say, a relatively unknown 1885 autobiography. I do know that it's an expression that makes my skin crawl, and instantly brands anyone who uses it in my mind as someone who uses trite, groan inducing, unimaginative cliches. On the other hand, I love the expression "happy as a clam", probably due to its (ironic?) absurdity.

It started in California gold country; they named the town 'Happy camp' because of the gold. It's in northern California by the border on Highway 96.

It is perhaps worth noting that the reference to happy campers in The Autobiography of Lorenzo Waugh, 1883 [ScottM above], is a literal use, and simply a collocation rather than a colloquial idiom. I suspect that the 1913 Everybody's Magazine - Volume 29 - Page 505 is the same.

Likewise, the OED's entry starts with a literal collocation:

happy camper n. colloquial (originally U.S.) a content or satisfied person; also in extended use.Frequently in negative contexts, esp. in not a happy camper.

[1930 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 25 May 1/6 At the meeting of the staff of Camp Shatter, the summer camp of the Blair-Bedford council, Boy Scouts of America, the slogan ‘Every Scout a Happy Camper’ was selected.]

This quote is placed in brackets as it is the literal sense.

The OED first records its use as a colloquialism in

1957 N.Y. Amsterdam News 22 June 34/ ‘I simply want to be a happy camper,’ says ‘Pocahontas’ whose real name is Miss Edna Riley.

Google Ngrams, however, has it suddenly increasing in popularity around 1982.

Back to the literal boy scouts, and in Scouting Sep 1988 there is an advert "Let Nestle-Bleich make you a happy camper" that is a clearly double-entendre, and that by 1988 the extended meaning had been established. It is this that makes me suspect that the Scouts' original 1930 slogan gave rise to the extended use / idiom.

[There is a British article in The Spectator 1958 that makes mention of "the Happy Camper type" but then relates this to people who stayed at British holiday camps.]

There is another 1988 reference but only a "snippet view on Google Books: Travel Holiday - Volume 170 - Page 32

Anyway, the sturdy three-axie rig was holding its own, marching up the snow-covered grades like a happy camper. The only thing left for us to do was to settle back in the cushiony chairs and sofas, help ourselves to the pizza we had picked up ...

This appears to be another transitional stage between literal and extended.

I have looked through all the Google Books entries from 1800 - 1996 and there appears to be an almost certainty that, prior to 1982, the references were literal. (The 1957 entry seems to be a sporadic) There then appeared to be an increase in camping, particularly in the USA, that caused the popularisation of the phrase as an idiom, and that idiom was founded on the 1930 literal meaning and aided by the Nestle-Bleich advert as, after 1988, the numbers of the extended examples increase exponentially.