PEZ is one of the only brands in the world that are not famous for their products, but rather how they package it. Just by showing you a goofy little neon-colored dispenser with a cartoon head on top, you automatically know that it is PEZ.
Originally invented in 1927, in Austria by a man named Eduard Haas III and intended to be used as an anti-smoking device, it was originally not packaged in the containers we know and love it for today- that wouldn’t happen until 1949.
The PEZ company didn’t even come up with the design themselves– a man by the name of Oscar Uxa invented it in 1948 and showed it off at the World’s Fair in Vienna in 1949, where PEZ decided to use it. It took three more years for PEZ to expand into the U.S. Market, when they set up their American distribution plant down in New York City in 1952. The very same year, the United States approves patent 2.620.021 to the PEZ company for their dispenser design. In 1955, due to declining sales of dispensers, the PEZ company added the very first heads on their dispensers– a robot and
Santa Claus. The new heads are a hit, and PEZ discovers people like the heads more than the candy. In 1958, PEZ negotiated a deal with King Features Syndicate, who owned the famous comic character Popeye at the time, and Popeye became the first licensed character to appear on a PEZ. PEZ didn’t abandon non-licensed characters, though. PEZ Boy and PEZ Clown (official name: PEZ Peter) debuted in the 50’s while PEZ Girl was introduced as a love interest in 1958. In the ’60s, 70’s, and 80’s, PEZ had some strange candy flavors such as flowers, chlorophyll, and licorice.
PEZ finally established a manufacturing plant in America during the year 1973, in Orange, Connecticut. In 1984, PEZ Europe added feet to the classic PEZ design, to help them stand up on their own. PEZ America did the same starting in 1987 In 1991, PEZamania was started in Mentor, Ohio, and is held annually to this day.
In 1993, Forbes featured a PEZ dispenser on the cover on one of its magazines, and in the 1990’s PEZ brought back the original Peppermint flavor from its 40+ year hiatus, along with producing some limited edition “classic” PEZ dispensers. In the 90’s, PEZ was also featured on hit comedy Seinfeld, with Kramer holding up a Tweety-Bird PEZ dispenser.
In 2000, PEZ made a plushy PEZ dispenser (named “Fuzzy Friends”). Pez began manufacturing limited edition sets in 2005, with the very first one being Star Wars-themed. Recently, PEZ has slowed down on adding characters to the PEZ family. Marilyn Monroe, Baby Yoda, The Mandalorian, and the WaWa Holiday Truck are recent additions to their catalog. Today, PEZ is a brand recognizable worldwide, and can appeal to pretty much anyone!
Our very own Mr. Tim Host, admissions director and freshman counselor actually collects PEZ machines himself! I took the liberty of interviewing him.
How did you start collecting PEZ?
“It sort of happened to me. In the late 80’s, I traveled to Canada, and while I was there, I went to a huge candy store. They had this huge PEZ collection on the wall, and so I bought a Witch PEZ and a Donkey PEZ as a memento. Fast forward a few years, and I was teaching English at Ursuline. To decorate my desk, I put the PEZ machines on it, and the students saw it and ran with it, and began gifting them to me. About 90% of the PEZ machines in my office were given to me by my students.”
Besides the Donkey and Witch, are there any PEZ machines that are special to you?
“The ones I get from students are always amazing to get, because it shows that they respect me enough to go out of their way to get the PEZ for me. So really all of the student given PEZs are special to me for that reason. However, a really cool one I got from a student was this Notre Dame PEZ. A few years back, one of my students became student body vice president at Notre Dame, and they brought me this PEZ in person. It was nice to see that even in college, he remembered me and gave me a token of his gratitude. I think knowing that I made a lasting impact on someone, even when he was a Junior in college, made the PEZ so special.”
In 1987, PEZ began adding feet onto their PEZ designs to more easily see what year the PEZ was manufactured in, and to help the PEZ machine stand up on its own. Do you have any PEZ machines that pre-date this addition?
“The original PEZ Donkey that I got didn’t have any feet, and I also have an original design PEZ that also doesn’t have any feet. They’re both valued at about $150.”
As you probably know from collecting this much PEZ, the normal flavors consist of Orange, Grape, Strawberry, and Lime. Did you ever get any wacky flavors, such as Licorice, or Flower?
“I once got a Vanilla Cupcake flavor. I don’t really care about the flavors that much, because I don’t like the candy.”
What PEZ would you say that you are given most often?
“I have a bunch of College Football Logo PEZs, because that’s what students that went off to college would mainly send me. There was a “trend” for a couple of years that students going off to college would send me one of their schools. I get a lot of Halloween, Christmas, and Easter PEZs too.”
How did you end up in possession of the giant PEZs on your back wall?
“I was traveling in Delaware about 25 years ago, when I saw it in a store, and I got it. Whenever my family goes on their family road trip, they always pass through a place called Froggy’s, which carries them, so whenever they go on a road trip, they send me a giant PEZ.”
Also on the back wall, the mascots of PEZ: PEZ Boy, and PEZ Girl. Where did you get those two?
“A while back I went to the Museum of PEZ in California, and I got them from there.”
When Haas III originally invented PEZ, the idea of it being a marketable toy for children and a collection item for adults probably never crossed Mr. Host’s mind. The story of PEZ and the impacts it leaves on us continues to echo throughout, even in our Jesuit community.
Stay tuned to The Roundup for more community news!
