What is the origin of "cool beans"?

What is the origin of "cool beans"? I know some sites (wiktionary) claim it's from the Cheech & Chong 1978 movie Up in Smoke, but I'm talking to people who remember it being used earlier. (USA).

I remember using the phrase in the mid-1980s (elementary school in Maryland) , and I assumed it had to do with Jelly Belly (a gourmet jelly bean company).

The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest attestation for "cool beans" is from the 1985 book Grandpa Ritz and the Luscious Lovelies:

"Oh, wow! Cool beans!" I whispered.

I cannot find where I read this, but I recollect from my college days as a linguistics minor, that it originated from the French-Canadian explorers “cours bien” meaning “the course/path is good.” I can dig it.