Is Alfred Hitchcock the Easter Egg in Films Orginator?

     Easter eggs in media are hidden messages or inside jokes that the targeted audience gets when placed strategically to be noticed by them but are not outright noticeable.  I can't think of when I first started noticing them or even when they initially became trendy to do.  The most prominent ones that come to mind today would be all of Stan Lee's cameos in the Marvel films.  It's something people tend to get excited about when they see them so when did it become a cool thing to do?

     I have been following the Bates Motel series on A&E and decided to rent Psycho since I have not seen it since I was a kid.  I like re-watching things from when I was kid since I am watching it with a better mind set for understanding as an adult.  This was the DVD collectors edition of Psycho so I decided to check out the special features on the disc about the making of the film.  It's a pretty lengthy documentary but one of the most interesting things I found was that Alfred Hitchcock liked to make small cameos in his films.  It's not explained why, but it was something he insisted on and usually did early in the films so he would not distract too much from the story.  Stan Lee usually pops up in the middle of the Marvel films and I think in the comic book culture to notice things like that to connect to the fans is always a cool inside connection.  I wonder why Hitchcock did it though, I also wonder if anyone did it before him and who started the trend if not him?  Psycho was released in 1960 and he had done it in films prior to its release so maybe it was him.

Always wore the black suit.

infamous profile

In Psycho

Don't know if the dogs were his.

 
    I checked Wikipedia and according to them the term was coined by Atari in 1972 for a game released by them that had an "Easter egg" hunt for a widely released game by them.   Hitchcock never called his appearances Easter eggs but the idea is still the same.  Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright films also include a similar concept with the films they make together by including Cornetto ice cream cones in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the upcoming The Worlds End.  Whatever the reasoning or originating idea was to do something like this and make it cool, it is cool to find when you catch them.