Did Forrest Gump really invent the Smiley Face?

My dad told this joke:

Guy sees a sign on the dry cleaner's window: "What do you think, pants pressed FREE" So the guy goes into the cleaners, takes off his pants in a small changing room and hands them to the cleaner to be pressed.

Minutes later, the cleaner returns his freshly pressed pants and says, "That will be $5." 

"Are you kidding me?" the man asks, "The sign says "What do you think, pants pressed FREE"

Hands on hips, the cleaner indignantly says,"You didn't see question mark? 'What do you think, pants pressed FREE?' Don't be silly."

So what do you think, Forrest Gump actually invented the Smiley Face?

ForrestGump is fictional, silly.

Actually, Harvey Ball did in 1963. The State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Massachusetts asked him to design something to boost the moral of its employees. He was paid $45 and neither he or the company trademarked it. Finally, in 1999, Ball did apply for a trademark and created the World Smile Corporation to license it. All proceeds of the licensing have been used to improve the lives of children.

Ball was never sorry he made only $45 because, his son said, "he was not a money driven guy. He used to say 'Hey, I can only eat one steak at a time, drive one car at a time.'"

Ball died at 79 in 2001 but the philosophy behind the wished well-being has been credited as representing a shift of focus among some psychologists from mental illness to mental health, from depression and anxiety to subjective well-being, says Smithsonian Magazine.

So what do you say, Have A Nice Day... and pass it on!