March 19, 2024 • 41 mins
The Austrian candy brand Pez is perhaps more well-known for its iconic dispensers than for the candy itself. While they may seem commonplace today, these tablet-shaped bricks have a surprising origin story. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the original purpose of Pez: part candy, yes -- but also an innovative way to help Austrians stop smoking.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Big thanks to our super producer, mister
Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm gonna do it right this time, guys, Urah.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
This is one for the peasants and the pezz Philosophers.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ben, you want to sign my Urah?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Actually, can I jump in here? I actually have a
story for Noel. You know, I always listened to it
afterwards because you have to edit it. So I thought
up a nomadic device for you in case you ever
need to figure out. So it's like, uh, ooh, baby, baby,
it's the wild World.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It says it's ooh uh Okay, I don't remember that.
I'll probably never say it again now that I've finally
closed the loop on that. But yeah, we are not
talking about military words of motivation today. We're talking about
something else entirely.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yes, going back to the puns peasants philosophers, the we
talked about some divisive candies quite recently, and we also
arrived at a conversation about an iconic thing pez And
I'm not sure you guys whether the rest of the
world knows what PEZ is. I've traveled pretty widely and
(01:45):
I don't see Pez all the time. But maybe it's
like a sleeper hit candy, you know, maybe it's just
somewhere in the aisle.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I guess I feel like people maybe know the dispenser
is more than they know the candy, and they're like,
what even is that? For me, certainly the dispensers hold
a lot more interest than the candy itself, as I
find the candy to be of that same echelon of
trash candy as like Neco wafers and Smarties.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So here's the thing, and this is very interesting. This
is part of our show today. PEZ has an origin
story that may surprise a lot of people. It may
indeed be ridiculous history. We're going to go to Teresa mckemmer,
writing for Smithsonian Magazine pretty often. Here. Let's give you
(02:31):
one quote, folks. Teresa says, one product hits a perfect harmony,
the Pez dispenser, part character, part candy, and all collectible.
The trinket has delighted kids and collectors around the world
for decades, and yet when Austria and confectioner Eduard Hass,
(02:53):
the third invented pez. He set out to corner an
entirely different marketing. Can I get some dramatic music?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's an entirely different market to be sure? So first
let's introduce us to our main character, the inventor of PEZ,
as you said, Ben Eduard Haas the Third, of course,
indeed his bio from MIT. They don't write bios for
(03:23):
just anyone. He was born near Vienna, Austria, in eighteen
ninety seven and was part of a very enterprising family.
His grandfather, Edward Haas the First, was an actual facts
doctor and had created a new type of baking powder
that was used to make cakes lighter and arier. His son,
Edward Haas the Second, briefly attended medical school, but instead
(03:45):
of going into the medical field, he ran a wholesale
grocery business. Enter Edward the Third, who tries his hand
in mixing up a batch of this baking powder. Because
I guess it didn't really take off. It was just
more of like a pet project of Edward the second
and the hopes that he could sell it as part
of the wholesale grocery operation. He did succeed in his attempts,
(04:10):
which gave him the needed boost of confidence to go
into the confectionery business and to jump in here real quick.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I don't think this source had it in them, but
I think it was different source I was reading. I
think he was like sixteen when he was doing this,
like really young enterprising chap exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, and you know, back in the late eighteen hundred's,
early nineteen hundreds, sixteen is essentially thirty five years old, right,
that's a quick inflation calculation.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
He's a regular Timothy Chame portraying young Willy Wonka.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, it's tough to get into acting, you know, and
we wish Tim the best.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
By Jade, I like young Tim. I'm going to see
him in June too, this evening.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So by the nineteen twenties, we've got this family baking
business right from Austria, and our buddy, Eh the third
takes over managing the company when he turns eighteen, and
he does one of the coolest things you could do
at the time. Takes out some ads in the local newspaper,
(05:16):
which is like posted on social media, and they say.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Look at this.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Are you worried about having to measure all your cake mix?
Forget about it. We've got pre measured cake mix just
for you, and I love that you point out the
mit bio.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, you know, I mean, obviously, pre measured cake mix
is a huge business today, you know, with things like
Betty Crocker, boxed cake, you know, angels, all of that stuff.
So maybe he seemed early to the parties here, because
I guess it wasn't that necessarily that concept that took off,
but something that it led to.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And before we get to that cool story about Betty
Crocker and shelf Stable cake mix in particular, they didn't
need to add an egg. If you buy it now,
you don't need to have an egg. It was entirely
a piece of propaganda, meant to make it feel like
you were cooking because you cracked an egg and put
(06:16):
it into the thing. This is a true story, you
believe you You're right, absolutely, no, that has started with
cake mix, just like Drake started into grassy but he
had so much further to go in.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
The mid nineteen twenty to the top.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And he started from the bottom of
the cake pand a long way to the top. In
the mid nineteen twenties, Hass got peppermint oil from a
local chemist and he said, I'm going to make a
peppermint candy, and the way he pitched it in the
Ridiculous History Universe was something like, not just regular peppermint candy.
(06:59):
It's elevated, it's sophisticated, it's strong and cold pressed.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I'd never heard that term as associated with this kind
of thing. I guess I just think of that as coffee.
But I guess it really is just a particular process
of distilling something into something else. I guess it's not
just a way of making iced coffee. You can do
it with other things to kind of like, you know,
steep something.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I'm picturing I'm picturing a bunch of people sitting around
and going.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Wal we press our pepper mint's hot and he says,
hear me out.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
We're gonna put a lot of sugar in these, and
we're gonna make them tiny tablets, lozenges, pills, and we're
going to also be very mindful about the shape. They're
gonna be a little rounded, rectangular bricks. That way we
could wrap them more easily.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
We talked about this in our Devisive Candy series. The
innovation of individual packaging or machine wrapping is huge for
the game.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And also how a lot of those folks that were
kind of early to market were using pre existing War
era wartime type machines or you know, things that were
already used in pharmaceutical manufacturing to press these tablets. That's
why they look so pill like. But he did just
that and dubbed it PEZ, which is short for a
(08:23):
German word that means peppermin that I'm going to give
a go to. I believe it's fer minz Minza. Well done.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, you gotta get weird with the RS on that one.
The thing is, this guy sends out sort of prototypes,
right demo versions of this to his friends, to his
co workers, and they all love it. They love it
so much that he starts making little packages for it,
(08:53):
little tits, and this this leads to the creation of
food manufacturing corporations Pez Candies, and locally they're a hit.
You know, people are talking to each other in suburbs
of Austria and they're like, you gotta go to Vienna
and when you go, you gotta get the good candy.
(09:15):
What's the good candy? And they're like, well, you know
how we say the resiments. He says, well, just call
him PEZ. You want to be cool, you want to
be a local. And so Hawes, to his credit, knows
he has a smart thing. He knows he's got lightning
in a jar here. So he says, how can I
(09:37):
get pez outside of Austria.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, let's put this lightning in a ten baby, because
ten can be repurposed, you know, like it was still
to this day, alzoid tins are used for guitar picks
and little trink buttons or whatever, sewing kits, things like that.
It's nice to have an extra thing that retains your
branding and then is used for other purposes. So he
(10:01):
creates these. It's very you know, esthetically pleasing little pocket
tins for this candy, and it does gangbusters business at
least in regionally, locally, like you said, hosp wanted more.
You wanted to take it wide. Oh the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
By the way, he's handied these things to his friends, right,
he's like waving his hands and performatively coughing because they
all smoke.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Ah, yes, of course, I mean the Germans. The Germans
loved their cigarettesa as did you know Europeans and Americans.
This was a golden dime for cigarettes. But I believe
to your point been there was enough intel creeping in
data that maybe this wasn't the best thing to do.
And so there was almost like a new ish market
opening up for anti smoking, for quitting smoking cessation. Right.
(10:50):
We didn't have nicotine lozenges or patches, but mints early.
That was an early form of kind of that oral
fixation sort of substitute.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, and in the early days, a lot of the
advertisements concerned breath, like fresh breath smelling better, and you
could see in some of the ad marketing quotes like
no smoking passing allowed, peasy.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
They were on to something, and the idea was that
they could help people, as you said, quit smoking tobacco.
I imagine it was mainly tobacco. And they're coming in
at a very weird time socially, because this is post
World War two. Smoking is very very in it's very
(11:45):
on vogue at this point because everybody's a little bit
fatalistic in Europe, just being honest, and so this guy
is still thinking of these things as just branded peppermints,
and he says, you know, if you're trying to quit,
you might have some sort of oral fixation or some
need to busy yourself with your hands. So he says,
(12:07):
let's give them something else to put in their mouths
in place of a tobacco cigarette, and this is how
we're going to target smokers. There's a bit of Berneze
level calculation here.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. Well, because it's also I believe it stemmed from
the availability of the peppermint oil and also the reputation
that it had as being a bit more of a
medicinal kind of thing because it was only really available
in pharmacies. But it's my understanding the has for this
experiment either like happened into a connect for some peppermint
oil or something, you know, and then was like, let's
(12:49):
make let's make this peppermint oil into peppermint oil and
aid or little tablets that we can sell for the
purposes of smoking cessation. So you have the birth of
the very first flavor of PEZ.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And going back to the cold pressing, want to give
a very important shout out to Sean Peterson, who is
the company historian PEZ Candy Incorporated. Sean points out that
there is a logic, a method to the madness of
cold pressing. To your point, peppermint oil was tricky for
(13:25):
most industrial applications because it evaporated in heat. Cold pressing
changes this. You put the sugar and the various flavoring together,
you literally.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Just smash it.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You just smash that stuff together until it becomes cohesive.
And originally they didn't have the dispensers. They just had
like we're saying, the altoids level metal tins where they
were wrapped in foil. But this was a huge technological
breakthrough for the Peppermint game.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Interesting, so cold pressing really is just kind of like
suspending something in a solution and just letting it kind
of do its thing.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
In the case of pez they just spushed it together.
I cannot speak with any sort of authority about cold
press coffee.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It may well just be a mismatching of terms, and
the cold pressing that I'm familiar with for like coffee
would be a different process. But cold press coffee, oh,
I think it's literally just taking a you know, like
you know, like macerrating coffee grounds in cold water and
then putting it in the fridge and letting it sit
(14:40):
in there. Like I have like a cold press kit
that's literally just like a like a what do you
call it? Like a kind of a narrow carafe, and
then it has this sort of agitator stick that you know,
fits through the top, and you literally just mix it
a lot like you would with a French press, which
you do obviously hot, but instead of it being with
hot water, it's with cold water, and then you just
(15:02):
let it sit in the fridge and then the poor
spout on the carath filters out the coffee grounds. You
essentially just get like cold water that's been steeped in
coffee grounds, but it doesn't require heat. Hmm. Okay, was
that a thing you think that Haas was aware of?
Or I think it might I don't know, like I'm wondering.
(15:24):
It's maybe a conversation for another time, but the history
of cold pressing or if these things are indeed related,
But it does feel like they might well be, because
I think of cold press coffee is a little bit
more of a modern thing. But a lot of times
things that sort of catch, you know, the the zeitgeist,
become in vogue often are things that are old that
just haven't really been and had a resurgent moment. You know.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
My favorite example of that is the UH is the
resurgence of handmade in your favorite local products. Originally most
human things were indeed hand made, So anyway, be cautious
when you go to the grocery store, folks, or your
(16:05):
favorite tobacconist or your favorite candy store. There is a
big psychological question that Haas and his team spend a
lot of time on. They think, well, if we are
replacing smoking cigarettes, shall we not replace everything? Like, we
(16:26):
want to make our new thing as familiar and as
seamless in the world of habit as we can. And
that is why true story. In nineteen forty seven, Haas
and his team designed the pez dispenser on purpose to
look like a cigarette lighter.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Holy crap, that's brilliant marketing. So it's like it's almost
like a comb switchblade. You know, it's sort of neuters
the thing. You know that was like the danger. It
takes the danger out. You know, am I going to
kill you? Orre am I handsome? Or it could be both.
You could technically shank somebody in the neck with a
calm switchblade. You have to have a lot of forward motion.
(17:10):
That's very true. It's awesoint. I had no idea about this,
but it makes perfect sense. It's got that hinge. It
reminds me of like those old classy kind of metal,
more slim cigarette lighters from back in the day. That
would have been gold and maybe something you would have
gotten for retirement, you know what I mean, like these
very very yeah, very classy. So it would have been
(17:32):
a way of even because hell, guys, lighting a cigarette
is also a fixation of its own kind, you know,
just flicking that thing, getting that reaction, hearing that sound.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
The muscle memory, the ritualization. It's kind of like when
people worry at rosaries, right, or count the beads. It's
a it's like a fidget spinner.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
It's like a total fidget spinner. Holy crap, this is brilliant.
So they start with it as you know, this very
recognizable device. When did they slap Shaggy from Scooby Doo's
head on these guys.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Well, that's gonna take a Oh man, I'm ready to
get in nineteen. Oh this is fun. This is not
get through this fun weird stuff, and it's going to
change the way you look at PEZ, who is not
an official sponsor of today's program.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
PEZ should sponsor more podcast stuff. I'm just saying, Yeah,
they'd be great for it, you know? Is it funny though?
How Pez is one of those legacy brands It literally
doesn't have to advertise. Have you ever seen an ad
for Pez ever?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Also, I got to pitch Pez cast You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well branded content, babe. Oh, Mac's too late sponsors Pez
Max is like my arm recovered just for this, for this,
and now I'm literally gonna injured it again by slamming
my fist down on the desk and rage.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So it's nineteen forty nine and they advertise at the
or they start selling these at the Vienna.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Trade Fair and Austrian's Fair type situation practically, yeah, and
they call.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
It pocket article dispensing container, super saxy Austrian name.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, sorry, I know Austrian Germany are not the same,
and I do know that. Yeah, they have a similar vibe.
I've been, I've been adherence to the rules, the little bits,
you know what I mean? You know, nonsense, Yes, enjoyment true,
z Peppa mants is mandatory. Indeed, mandatory enjoyment. I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So they do look like and you can again see
early designs. The very first Pez container does not have
a Scooby doo. Uh Mascot audit. But it looks like
a slim, rectangular cigarette lighter. And they probably based it
on two things. The resemblance to an earlier piece of
(19:54):
technology and the easiest, most efficacious way to package these
peppermint bricks. Right, So they were It's strange.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I assumed the old pez dispensers would have been rat
of some sort of metal substance, But no, they were plastic.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That shocked me a little bit, right, I mean, I
guess we're talking nineteen forty seven, so I guess I
didn't really think of plastic as being as common as
it is now. Is that when did plastic really start
to find its way into mass you know, mass produced products.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
We're talking about plastic, plastic, modern plastic.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Bake light, wasn't it bake light? Yeah? So is this
plast What is this?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
After the Second World War? According to Plain Products, and
then again during the nineteen sixties and seventies, is like
when it really I think started getting.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Very affordable to do things with plastic. I see, okay,
it was it was before.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
It was definitely before the golden age of plastic.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I thought, so, yeah, that's it. So they were sort
of to the to the dance.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Think about it. They're like early adopters. They are too
candy what Apple is to cell phones. You know, they're
they're very it's very sexy. If you want to be
cool in Vienna and abroad, you pull out your PEZ.
And they were originally called pull out.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Your Pez sounds naughty.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The only guy can judge us, or maybe the creator
of PEZ. At first they called these things, uh, you know.
They they sold the container as like an early adopter,
look at this kind of flex.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
But they originally commemoratives, like almost like a yeah. It
was like a promotional, yes.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Promotional perfect. They originally didn't call it just Pez. They
called it Pez drops, and they marketed it as something
that you would buy if you were an adult and
doing well in life.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
It was aspirational, got it. Yeah. The advertisements also touted
the health benefits and they showed you know, happy affluent
couples making out with the caption deliciously fresh breath. You
mentioned another slogan earlier. I believe right, Ben, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
No smoking pezzing allowed. Also got you've got the again.
The parallels with Edward Bernez are amazing here because they
also built a street team. They would have they would
have free samples, cool looking people out in busy squares
or major events. Picture your favorite sports game, there's someone
(22:39):
there handing out free samples of Pez they had. They
had super attractive people in advertisements who'd be like, are
you already pezzing? They were called the Pez Girls. They
were very famous in their time. I would argue we
can also see some parallels with vaping today.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Oh. Absolutely, they took a took a page out of
the old Pez playbook. Right. So this is all of
course in Europe early on, and it's not until the
early nineteen fifties that the Pez candies start to be
available in the United States. But instead of it taking
off as some sort of anti smoking aid, seemed like
(23:23):
kids were super interested in this new fangled Pez stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, we want to give a very special, very important
thank you to Haas the third for not making candy cigarettes,
you know, for going with Pez the tablet over PEZ
the cylinder.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Much more clean cut, much more wholesome.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, and so sales, like you were pointing out, the
whole sales are not amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Just because there's only one demo. It's like just the
kids right, Yeah, it's just the kids.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And at this point, penny candy is still a thing,
so it's like, why am I going to buy my
kid this weird.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Flex, expensive European mint?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Exactly for everybody, uh, for everybody listening along. I want
to describe to you, because we are an audio show,
fellow ridiculous historians. Noel, you had the most beautiful furrow
in your brow. I saw you experiencing that moment where
you're like, weird European mints.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I'm sorry, I know no shade to weird European mints.
I enjoy them every now and again. You know, at
the at the Leadle, you get some in the checkout
at the Aldi or the Legle. There's some some good
ones out there. Like altoids has to be European. Isn't
that Swiss or something? It has to be. It's like
a legacy euro mint. And and I remember a time
(24:49):
where altoids were not as widely available as they are today.
And we're in and of themselves a bit of a flex.
Altoids are like buttered cookies. You know, they're they're better
in the they're better because.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
The ten also ready to be surprised, they're from London.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Okay, well still why the Fisherman's friend the grossest?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, hey, I don't This may not be a story
the Jedi would like me to tell you. But folks,
you can listen back through how Stuff works, and should
you be an astute history student, you will find most
of the old school Stuff podcast had a period where
(25:33):
they had to talk about Altoid's, in particular the history,
the science, how they're made, what peppermint is anyway, you know,
you get in situations, and that's where has found himself
because he was like, what they don't like my fancy
European anti smoking mints, And then his folks got back
(25:53):
to them and he said, well, sir, we apologize. Turns
out only chill like the mints in the United States,
and low and behold, they leaned into that demographic.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Huh what else do kids like? Ben uh, fruity flavors,
cartoon mascots. Perhaps I think you're onto something.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Maybe Anticlaus, Yeah, maybe a Popeye, maybe a cowboy, maybe
a space trooper of some sort.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Make them tasted not like extremely strong anti smoking emnts,
would rather like oranges and lemons strawberries. Perhaps I'm telling
you vapes. It is totally the vape, dude, it's it is.
It is entirely that thing that's wild. Only you know,
(26:50):
we're just peddling sugar here, not necessarily popcorn, long inducing
you know, in inhalables. So by nineteen fifty five, away
full vape on this and they have they have notable
public figures for children branded in the vape, similar to
(27:10):
the way that faster people are gonna come after.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Okay, okay, well, vapes weren't a thing at.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
This now it's very and they were not sure.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
They were not peddling something insidious. They were like, let's
make this candy. Let's make sure we appeal to the kids, right,
just like old dirty bastard said about Wu Tang.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
And so they get for the children, Yeah, they get
the uh, they.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Get the most notable figures for kids in America back
in the day we're.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Talking would have required agreements, would have required licensing, right,
and that's when things get really interesting. Sorry, Yeah, what
are some of the big names that first rolled out
that would have been of the era, Well, Mickey Mouse obviously,
what else. We've got Bozo the Clown, who was massive
both in stature and shoe size and also popularity, and
(28:06):
then of course Casper the Friendly Ghost. So those were
some of the earliest and I mean again, I don't
have the specifics in front of me, but those would
have had to have been marketing agreements between the owners
of that intellectual property and company. I would imagine maybe
that law was less buttoned up as it is today,
and at first they were like, oh, they're gonna love
(28:27):
to be associated with this, but I would imagine they
would have had to at least talk to those, you know,
whoever owned the rights to those characters, because certainly that's
the direction that it went in.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, no kidding, Uh, stay tuned for the ridiculous history
Pez dispensers we're going to do. We're not talking. Well,
maybe you know it's good to dream the year two, Yeah,
the Dare two. Uh. The weird thing about this is
they yet again hit on this amazing moment in the
(28:59):
zeitgeist society and PEZ becomes a pop culture icon. Everybody's
got to have it for several decades. It's kind of
like when you see politicians put a little selfie on
social media and they've got a tidy bottle of hot
sauce there you go.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I keep that thang on me. No stop it, Hillary Clinton,
You're embarrassing yourself. Go home. Well it's like.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
That, but you know, for the world with PEZ, for
the Western world, especially in nineteen seventy three, Pez builds
a candy factory and warehouse. This is a Wonka moment
you were talking about earlier. They build it in Connecticut,
in Orange, Connecticut, and it's entirely to supply the Western
world with Pez. Or excuse me, it's entirely to supply
(29:47):
the United States with PEZ. And now that factory is
still around, they make all the Pez. They make so
much Pez.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You guys, apparently they have the large the world's largest
PEZ dispenser, because of course they do. It was going
to exist. It was going to exist there. Man, they're
a veritable Sackler family of candy distribution. Well they're a
little better than Sacklers. I know. I can't. It's Gallows
(30:18):
humor because it's just so sad. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, and we do Gallows humor because in these economic times.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's tough to afford tears. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
So this factory is amazing though. It is a study
and efficacy. Right now, they make about twelve million tablets.
They call them a little pet bites.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Sorry, that's what Maybe that's what invoked the big pharma
thing for me. The twelve million tablets today. You know,
they got the medicinal background. But no, maybe tell us
a little bit more about what happens to our buddy
haas he did. Yeah he overdosed on pens. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, No,
(31:02):
I'm joking. That didn't happen. He did, though, pass away
in nineteen eighty six, and he did, of course leave
behind a massive enterprise of confectionery sweeties. Pez Candy Incorporated
actually took you know, became the going concern. It was
originally I believe has was his name was in the
(31:23):
name of the company.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, And the innovations to the dispensers continued after his death.
You know how like if you look at one now,
you'll see feet at the base boz can the standout
levelsay case, yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly, you nailed it. And
if you are a Pez collector there are a ton
(31:46):
of Pez collectors, then you're looking at the feet first,
the way people look at shoes. You're you're saying, well,
how can I tell whether this is a vintage Pez?
Dispenser or me reduction.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Same with matchbox cars. We talked about matchbox cars, I
believe in a previous episode. Check that one out there.
You know, that's a very similarly collectible thing where you
can tell what era they came from and looking at
like the wheelbarings or whatever it might be. I think
most people have at some point in their life owned
a Pez dispenser, you know, bought one on a lark
at the grocery store. Checkout Max. You'll be proud to
(32:25):
know that the I have. It's actually in my kids room,
a unopened star Trek. The next generation theme set of
Pez Dispensers, including John Luke Picard as Borg. You guys
are nerds. No, yeah, I didn't know yet a name.
He's in there. The regular JLP is there, and some
(32:47):
of the other hits from that you know era of
the show, which one is JLP John Luke Picard. Oh,
I'm sorry, I took some liberties there to celebrities there.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So this is true, and you have hit upon quite
a potential investment there, Noel, because these Pez dispensers, for
the enthusiast thing self from anywhere for a few bucks
to thousands of dollars, as you found, Max, one of
the most rarefied of pez Dispenser designs is from nineteen
(33:23):
sixty one. It sold for twelve thousand, five hundred US
dollars in twenty thirteen, so that's still kind of twelve
thousand dollars. And then the station like a political like
themed promo branding kind of stuff. Yeah, the donkey of
the which which party?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Is that? Again?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I always forget Democrats. They they had the donkey and
the elephant.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
And originally there was going to be a turkey as
the political mascot back at the Dame Ben Franklin Love
you wanted that.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
To be the bird the national yeah, instead of the eagle. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
But I don't know if it's completely apocryphal, but everyone
would called uh Andrew Jackson a jackass that he liked
it so much that he changed the Democratic Party's symbol
to a donkey.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
That's it is.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
But there's validity to it because he definitely was a jackass. Yeah,
that's true. And also the donkey was a more respected
character in political discourse.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
At the donkey was in the Bible. Man. He ferried U,
Jesus and Mary to whatever the wise men I don't
remember the story.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Alex Jones is zading donkeys these days, speaking of speaking
of biblical terms for donkeys. So oh yeah, so uh
we can. We can go back and forth and explore
so many ins and outs. I think you hit on it, guys.
(34:56):
The branding is what really set pass apart. The candy
itself remained relatively consistent. It was the dispensers that changed.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think there have to be some people out there
that genuinely enjoy Pez for the flavor. But I like
I like it. I just don't like powdery Jockey candy.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
It's mostly nostalgia, yeah, Chris, but my parents would always
get Alex and I Pez Spencer's for Christmas.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Boy is it ever?
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Can I talk about one cool thing I found that
Pez has done in the past for jury So they
have done two seperate one and they did one for
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and they did one for uh,
Prince William and Dutchess Kate, which it was they created
like these Pez Spencer Limited run put up the auction
and all proceeds when one time one was for Make
(35:53):
a Wish Foundation, the other one was for Starlight Children's Foundation.
So basically like, hey, we know you. I want to
collect it, help us help you. You spend a bunch
of money, we'll give it the charity.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So good. I support that.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
I support uh. I support that probo or branding or merchandising,
whatever we want to call it, for charitable causes. And
I'm very, very interested in imagining what Jonathan Strickland aka
the Quister pest dispenser looks like.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
It would look a lot like the Jean Luke Picard
in my Star Wars set.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Is the Jean Luke Pericard different or JPL as you say,
is that different from the locutest? Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah? Cutis? Is he has the Yeah? So what
I'm saying, there's that guy where he's white and he's
got the gear and the eye thingy.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
No, that would be cool though, shine, No, it's a
pest dispenser, you know what I say that not knowing
enough about you know, uh, are there some really mega
bespoke pest dispensers that have moving parts that like like?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Of course, I thought maybe we could up today's episode
by naming a few other pretty pricey pez dispensers that
have sold throughout the years, starting with of course the
political Donkey, as we mentioned, that's the number one, so
maybe we spoiled that one a little bit. But in
nineteen fifties, clear space gun Pez Dispenser also sold in
(37:21):
a year that is unknown for eleven thousand, two hundred
and eleven dollars. And then the Prince Harry and Megan
Markle one you mentioned was also a pretty pricey collector's item,
although I don't imagine that money would go towards the
make a Wish thing. It was just the initial sales, right.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Well, I guess that's the that's the auction it is.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
That was the auction, Okay, So that was the reason
that was so inflated was because it was specifically for
like a once one, one of a kind kind of situation.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I got it, And we want to end with a
PSA fellow ridiculous historians Pez enthusiast as well. If you're
buying a cap in hook Pez dispenser, it needs to
have the soft head.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Oh boy, what does that mean? I'm glad you asked
picturing like as a plushy or something like that. I
don't know how that would work.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
It means it means that they were for a time
in nineteen seventy nine. During the late nineteen seventies, if
we're being honest, for a couple of years, they were
cheaper to produce than the typical plastic model, so there
were a softer petroleum substance. But then in nineteen seventy nine,
(38:34):
same year, the oil crisis hits and it becomes very
expensive to make the soft head Captain hook. So if
you were ever if you ever find yourself in a
PEZ convention and you want to know who knows their business,
look for the person who was just individually squeezing Captain
(38:55):
hook Pez dispenser as avocados. Yeah, like avocado is just
like produce.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Well, I can't imagine these wouldn't be behind glass though,
they wouldn't be letting you squeeze them. But maybe maybe
with gloves on. You know, you could if you did
happen to find one from your squeezings. You couldn't at
about a grand from one of those.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Uh yes, US dollars even today. I also want to
mention you can get a for anybody looking for Halloween ideas.
You could get a Pez container costume, and I think
you can customize it.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, I think we mentioned this off air, But I
mean it is a little bit macab the way the
candies are essentially, you know, dispensed out of the neck
hole of the head. It's you know, the thing goes
all the way back at a very severe disturbing angle,
and then a weird little rectangle of white candy pops out.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Aren't there somewhere they've like sculpted the lower jon office.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yes, and it's like looks like a hinged mouth, like
a yeah, it's like a mouth, yeah, a million percent.
It's weird, but it's one of those things that we
just accept because it's just been It's another example that
we run into all the time with history. Now this
is state of the obvious of like people being first
to market with something. We just grow to accept it,
even if it's kind of weird. So where do we land?
(40:19):
Are we all fans of pez I like to to
Spenser's I think it's cool. Yeah, American kitch, you know, yeah, yeah,
even though it's not Americana from Vienna. Yeah, Americana via Vienna. Yeah,
there we go. That's fine.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Apples are from Kazakhstan, and we say as American as
apple pie.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So rits are probably from somewhere in the levant you.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Know there we go uh with that, We want to
give a big, big shout out to our super producer
mister Max Williams or research associate mister Max Williams, and
our resident Pez model, perhaps non consentually, Jonathan Strickland aka
the Quist.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
No, he would be so on board, he would love it.
Oh yeah, yeah, now that I think about it, I
want to say that at some point he either had
made or someone had made a custom bobblehead of Jonathan Strickland.
It was him, wizard. Yeah, it sounds about right. It
sounds like something he would do. Huge thanks to Chris
Frasciotis Ves Jeck Coates here in spirit, Alex Williams, brother
(41:23):
of Max, who composed this slam and jam in theme
tune that you're hearing right now, big.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Big thanks to aj Bahama's Jacobs. Check out his show
The Puzzler. We got a fellow Ben. He's a real
expert on Badasses of the Week. He'll be joining us
soon and of course grateful thanks to Megacube.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Indeed, we'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Big thanks to our super producer, mister
Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm gonna do it right this time, guys, Urah.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
This is one for the peasants and the pezz Philosophers.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ben, you want to sign my Urah?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Actually, can I jump in here? I actually have a
story for Noel. You know, I always listened to it
afterwards because you have to edit it. So I thought
up a nomadic device for you in case you ever
need to figure out. So it's like, uh, ooh, baby, baby,
it's the wild World.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It says it's ooh uh Okay, I don't remember that.
I'll probably never say it again now that I've finally
closed the loop on that. But yeah, we are not
talking about military words of motivation today. We're talking about
something else entirely.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yes, going back to the puns peasants philosophers, the we
talked about some divisive candies quite recently, and we also
arrived at a conversation about an iconic thing pez And
I'm not sure you guys whether the rest of the
world knows what PEZ is. I've traveled pretty widely and
(01:45):
I don't see Pez all the time. But maybe it's
like a sleeper hit candy, you know, maybe it's just
somewhere in the aisle.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I guess I feel like people maybe know the dispenser
is more than they know the candy, and they're like,
what even is that? For me, certainly the dispensers hold
a lot more interest than the candy itself, as I
find the candy to be of that same echelon of
trash candy as like Neco wafers and Smarties.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So here's the thing, and this is very interesting. This
is part of our show today. PEZ has an origin
story that may surprise a lot of people. It may
indeed be ridiculous history. We're going to go to Teresa mckemmer,
writing for Smithsonian Magazine pretty often. Here. Let's give you
(02:31):
one quote, folks. Teresa says, one product hits a perfect harmony,
the Pez dispenser, part character, part candy, and all collectible.
The trinket has delighted kids and collectors around the world
for decades, and yet when Austria and confectioner Eduard Hass,
(02:53):
the third invented pez. He set out to corner an
entirely different marketing. Can I get some dramatic music?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's an entirely different market to be sure? So first
let's introduce us to our main character, the inventor of PEZ,
as you said, Ben Eduard Haas the Third, of course,
indeed his bio from MIT. They don't write bios for
(03:23):
just anyone. He was born near Vienna, Austria, in eighteen
ninety seven and was part of a very enterprising family.
His grandfather, Edward Haas the First, was an actual facts
doctor and had created a new type of baking powder
that was used to make cakes lighter and arier. His son,
Edward Haas the Second, briefly attended medical school, but instead
(03:45):
of going into the medical field, he ran a wholesale
grocery business. Enter Edward the Third, who tries his hand
in mixing up a batch of this baking powder. Because
I guess it didn't really take off. It was just
more of like a pet project of Edward the second
and the hopes that he could sell it as part
of the wholesale grocery operation. He did succeed in his attempts,
(04:10):
which gave him the needed boost of confidence to go
into the confectionery business and to jump in here real quick.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I don't think this source had it in them, but
I think it was different source I was reading. I
think he was like sixteen when he was doing this,
like really young enterprising chap exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, and you know, back in the late eighteen hundred's,
early nineteen hundreds, sixteen is essentially thirty five years old, right,
that's a quick inflation calculation.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
He's a regular Timothy Chame portraying young Willy Wonka.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, it's tough to get into acting, you know, and
we wish Tim the best.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
By Jade, I like young Tim. I'm going to see
him in June too, this evening.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So by the nineteen twenties, we've got this family baking
business right from Austria, and our buddy, Eh the third
takes over managing the company when he turns eighteen, and
he does one of the coolest things you could do
at the time. Takes out some ads in the local newspaper,
(05:16):
which is like posted on social media, and they say.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Look at this.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Are you worried about having to measure all your cake mix?
Forget about it. We've got pre measured cake mix just
for you, and I love that you point out the
mit bio.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, you know, I mean, obviously, pre measured cake mix
is a huge business today, you know, with things like
Betty Crocker, boxed cake, you know, angels, all of that stuff.
So maybe he seemed early to the parties here, because
I guess it wasn't that necessarily that concept that took off,
but something that it led to.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And before we get to that cool story about Betty
Crocker and shelf Stable cake mix in particular, they didn't
need to add an egg. If you buy it now,
you don't need to have an egg. It was entirely
a piece of propaganda, meant to make it feel like
you were cooking because you cracked an egg and put
(06:16):
it into the thing. This is a true story, you
believe you You're right, absolutely, no, that has started with
cake mix, just like Drake started into grassy but he
had so much further to go in.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
The mid nineteen twenty to the top.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And he started from the bottom of
the cake pand a long way to the top. In
the mid nineteen twenties, Hass got peppermint oil from a
local chemist and he said, I'm going to make a
peppermint candy, and the way he pitched it in the
Ridiculous History Universe was something like, not just regular peppermint candy.
(06:59):
It's elevated, it's sophisticated, it's strong and cold pressed.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I'd never heard that term as associated with this kind
of thing. I guess I just think of that as coffee.
But I guess it really is just a particular process
of distilling something into something else. I guess it's not
just a way of making iced coffee. You can do
it with other things to kind of like, you know,
steep something.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I'm picturing I'm picturing a bunch of people sitting around
and going.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Wal we press our pepper mint's hot and he says,
hear me out.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
We're gonna put a lot of sugar in these, and
we're gonna make them tiny tablets, lozenges, pills, and we're
going to also be very mindful about the shape. They're
gonna be a little rounded, rectangular bricks. That way we
could wrap them more easily.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
We talked about this in our Devisive Candy series. The
innovation of individual packaging or machine wrapping is huge for
the game.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And also how a lot of those folks that were
kind of early to market were using pre existing War
era wartime type machines or you know, things that were
already used in pharmaceutical manufacturing to press these tablets. That's
why they look so pill like. But he did just
that and dubbed it PEZ, which is short for a
(08:23):
German word that means peppermin that I'm going to give
a go to. I believe it's fer minz Minza. Well done.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, you gotta get weird with the RS on that one.
The thing is, this guy sends out sort of prototypes,
right demo versions of this to his friends, to his
co workers, and they all love it. They love it
so much that he starts making little packages for it,
(08:53):
little tits, and this this leads to the creation of
food manufacturing corporations Pez Candies, and locally they're a hit.
You know, people are talking to each other in suburbs
of Austria and they're like, you gotta go to Vienna
and when you go, you gotta get the good candy.
(09:15):
What's the good candy? And they're like, well, you know
how we say the resiments. He says, well, just call
him PEZ. You want to be cool, you want to
be a local. And so Hawes, to his credit, knows
he has a smart thing. He knows he's got lightning
in a jar here. So he says, how can I
(09:37):
get pez outside of Austria.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, let's put this lightning in a ten baby, because
ten can be repurposed, you know, like it was still
to this day, alzoid tins are used for guitar picks
and little trink buttons or whatever, sewing kits, things like that.
It's nice to have an extra thing that retains your
branding and then is used for other purposes. So he
(10:01):
creates these. It's very you know, esthetically pleasing little pocket
tins for this candy, and it does gangbusters business at
least in regionally, locally, like you said, hosp wanted more.
You wanted to take it wide. Oh the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
By the way, he's handied these things to his friends, right,
he's like waving his hands and performatively coughing because they
all smoke.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Ah, yes, of course, I mean the Germans. The Germans
loved their cigarettesa as did you know Europeans and Americans.
This was a golden dime for cigarettes. But I believe
to your point been there was enough intel creeping in
data that maybe this wasn't the best thing to do.
And so there was almost like a new ish market
opening up for anti smoking, for quitting smoking cessation. Right.
(10:50):
We didn't have nicotine lozenges or patches, but mints early.
That was an early form of kind of that oral
fixation sort of substitute.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, and in the early days, a lot of the
advertisements concerned breath, like fresh breath smelling better, and you
could see in some of the ad marketing quotes like
no smoking passing allowed, peasy.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
They were on to something, and the idea was that
they could help people, as you said, quit smoking tobacco.
I imagine it was mainly tobacco. And they're coming in
at a very weird time socially, because this is post
World War two. Smoking is very very in it's very
(11:45):
on vogue at this point because everybody's a little bit
fatalistic in Europe, just being honest, and so this guy
is still thinking of these things as just branded peppermints,
and he says, you know, if you're trying to quit,
you might have some sort of oral fixation or some
need to busy yourself with your hands. So he says,
(12:07):
let's give them something else to put in their mouths
in place of a tobacco cigarette, and this is how
we're going to target smokers. There's a bit of Berneze
level calculation here.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. Well, because it's also I believe it stemmed from
the availability of the peppermint oil and also the reputation
that it had as being a bit more of a
medicinal kind of thing because it was only really available
in pharmacies. But it's my understanding the has for this
experiment either like happened into a connect for some peppermint
oil or something, you know, and then was like, let's
(12:49):
make let's make this peppermint oil into peppermint oil and
aid or little tablets that we can sell for the
purposes of smoking cessation. So you have the birth of
the very first flavor of PEZ.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And going back to the cold pressing, want to give
a very important shout out to Sean Peterson, who is
the company historian PEZ Candy Incorporated. Sean points out that
there is a logic, a method to the madness of
cold pressing. To your point, peppermint oil was tricky for
(13:25):
most industrial applications because it evaporated in heat. Cold pressing
changes this. You put the sugar and the various flavoring together,
you literally.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Just smash it.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You just smash that stuff together until it becomes cohesive.
And originally they didn't have the dispensers. They just had
like we're saying, the altoids level metal tins where they
were wrapped in foil. But this was a huge technological
breakthrough for the Peppermint game.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Interesting, so cold pressing really is just kind of like
suspending something in a solution and just letting it kind
of do its thing.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
In the case of pez they just spushed it together.
I cannot speak with any sort of authority about cold
press coffee.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It may well just be a mismatching of terms, and
the cold pressing that I'm familiar with for like coffee
would be a different process. But cold press coffee, oh,
I think it's literally just taking a you know, like
you know, like macerrating coffee grounds in cold water and
then putting it in the fridge and letting it sit
(14:40):
in there. Like I have like a cold press kit
that's literally just like a like a what do you
call it? Like a kind of a narrow carafe, and
then it has this sort of agitator stick that you know,
fits through the top, and you literally just mix it
a lot like you would with a French press, which
you do obviously hot, but instead of it being with
hot water, it's with cold water, and then you just
(15:02):
let it sit in the fridge and then the poor
spout on the carath filters out the coffee grounds. You
essentially just get like cold water that's been steeped in
coffee grounds, but it doesn't require heat. Hmm. Okay, was
that a thing you think that Haas was aware of?
Or I think it might I don't know, like I'm wondering.
(15:24):
It's maybe a conversation for another time, but the history
of cold pressing or if these things are indeed related,
But it does feel like they might well be, because
I think of cold press coffee is a little bit
more of a modern thing. But a lot of times
things that sort of catch, you know, the the zeitgeist,
become in vogue often are things that are old that
just haven't really been and had a resurgent moment. You know.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
My favorite example of that is the UH is the
resurgence of handmade in your favorite local products. Originally most
human things were indeed hand made, So anyway, be cautious
when you go to the grocery store, folks, or your
(16:05):
favorite tobacconist or your favorite candy store. There is a
big psychological question that Haas and his team spend a
lot of time on. They think, well, if we are
replacing smoking cigarettes, shall we not replace everything? Like, we
(16:26):
want to make our new thing as familiar and as
seamless in the world of habit as we can. And
that is why true story. In nineteen forty seven, Haas
and his team designed the pez dispenser on purpose to
look like a cigarette lighter.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Holy crap, that's brilliant marketing. So it's like it's almost
like a comb switchblade. You know, it's sort of neuters
the thing. You know that was like the danger. It
takes the danger out. You know, am I going to
kill you? Orre am I handsome? Or it could be both.
You could technically shank somebody in the neck with a
calm switchblade. You have to have a lot of forward motion.
(17:10):
That's very true. It's awesoint. I had no idea about this,
but it makes perfect sense. It's got that hinge. It
reminds me of like those old classy kind of metal,
more slim cigarette lighters from back in the day. That
would have been gold and maybe something you would have
gotten for retirement, you know what I mean, like these
very very yeah, very classy. So it would have been
(17:32):
a way of even because hell, guys, lighting a cigarette
is also a fixation of its own kind, you know,
just flicking that thing, getting that reaction, hearing that sound.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
The muscle memory, the ritualization. It's kind of like when
people worry at rosaries, right, or count the beads. It's
a it's like a fidget spinner.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
It's like a total fidget spinner. Holy crap, this is brilliant.
So they start with it as you know, this very
recognizable device. When did they slap Shaggy from Scooby Doo's
head on these guys.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Well, that's gonna take a Oh man, I'm ready to
get in nineteen. Oh this is fun. This is not
get through this fun weird stuff, and it's going to
change the way you look at PEZ, who is not
an official sponsor of today's program.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
PEZ should sponsor more podcast stuff. I'm just saying, Yeah,
they'd be great for it, you know? Is it funny though?
How Pez is one of those legacy brands It literally
doesn't have to advertise. Have you ever seen an ad
for Pez ever?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Also, I got to pitch Pez cast You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well branded content, babe. Oh, Mac's too late sponsors Pez
Max is like my arm recovered just for this, for this,
and now I'm literally gonna injured it again by slamming
my fist down on the desk and rage.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So it's nineteen forty nine and they advertise at the
or they start selling these at the Vienna.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Trade Fair and Austrian's Fair type situation practically, yeah, and
they call.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
It pocket article dispensing container, super saxy Austrian name.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, sorry, I know Austrian Germany are not the same,
and I do know that. Yeah, they have a similar vibe.
I've been, I've been adherence to the rules, the little bits,
you know what I mean? You know, nonsense, Yes, enjoyment true,
z Peppa mants is mandatory. Indeed, mandatory enjoyment. I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So they do look like and you can again see
early designs. The very first Pez container does not have
a Scooby doo. Uh Mascot audit. But it looks like
a slim, rectangular cigarette lighter. And they probably based it
on two things. The resemblance to an earlier piece of
(19:54):
technology and the easiest, most efficacious way to package these
peppermint bricks. Right, So they were It's strange.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I assumed the old pez dispensers would have been rat
of some sort of metal substance, But no, they were plastic.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That shocked me a little bit, right, I mean, I
guess we're talking nineteen forty seven, so I guess I
didn't really think of plastic as being as common as
it is now. Is that when did plastic really start
to find its way into mass you know, mass produced products.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
We're talking about plastic, plastic, modern plastic.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Bake light, wasn't it bake light? Yeah? So is this
plast What is this?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
After the Second World War? According to Plain Products, and
then again during the nineteen sixties and seventies, is like
when it really I think started getting.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Very affordable to do things with plastic. I see, okay,
it was it was before.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
It was definitely before the golden age of plastic.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I thought, so, yeah, that's it. So they were sort
of to the to the dance.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Think about it. They're like early adopters. They are too
candy what Apple is to cell phones. You know, they're
they're very it's very sexy. If you want to be
cool in Vienna and abroad, you pull out your PEZ.
And they were originally called pull out.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Your Pez sounds naughty.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The only guy can judge us, or maybe the creator
of PEZ. At first they called these things, uh, you know.
They they sold the container as like an early adopter,
look at this kind of flex.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
But they originally commemoratives, like almost like a yeah. It
was like a promotional, yes.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Promotional perfect. They originally didn't call it just Pez. They
called it Pez drops, and they marketed it as something
that you would buy if you were an adult and
doing well in life.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
It was aspirational, got it. Yeah. The advertisements also touted
the health benefits and they showed you know, happy affluent
couples making out with the caption deliciously fresh breath. You
mentioned another slogan earlier. I believe right, Ben, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
No smoking pezzing allowed. Also got you've got the again.
The parallels with Edward Bernez are amazing here because they
also built a street team. They would have they would
have free samples, cool looking people out in busy squares
or major events. Picture your favorite sports game, there's someone
(22:39):
there handing out free samples of Pez they had. They
had super attractive people in advertisements who'd be like, are
you already pezzing? They were called the Pez Girls. They
were very famous in their time. I would argue we
can also see some parallels with vaping today.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Oh. Absolutely, they took a took a page out of
the old Pez playbook. Right. So this is all of
course in Europe early on, and it's not until the
early nineteen fifties that the Pez candies start to be
available in the United States. But instead of it taking
off as some sort of anti smoking aid, seemed like
(23:23):
kids were super interested in this new fangled Pez stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, we want to give a very special, very important
thank you to Haas the third for not making candy cigarettes,
you know, for going with Pez the tablet over PEZ
the cylinder.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Much more clean cut, much more wholesome.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, and so sales, like you were pointing out, the
whole sales are not amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Just because there's only one demo. It's like just the
kids right, Yeah, it's just the kids.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And at this point, penny candy is still a thing,
so it's like, why am I going to buy my
kid this weird.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Flex, expensive European mint?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Exactly for everybody, uh, for everybody listening along. I want
to describe to you, because we are an audio show,
fellow ridiculous historians. Noel, you had the most beautiful furrow
in your brow. I saw you experiencing that moment where
you're like, weird European mints.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I'm sorry, I know no shade to weird European mints.
I enjoy them every now and again. You know, at
the at the Leadle, you get some in the checkout
at the Aldi or the Legle. There's some some good
ones out there. Like altoids has to be European. Isn't
that Swiss or something? It has to be. It's like
a legacy euro mint. And and I remember a time
(24:49):
where altoids were not as widely available as they are today.
And we're in and of themselves a bit of a flex.
Altoids are like buttered cookies. You know, they're they're better
in the they're better because.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
The ten also ready to be surprised, they're from London.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Okay, well still why the Fisherman's friend the grossest?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, hey, I don't This may not be a story
the Jedi would like me to tell you. But folks,
you can listen back through how Stuff works, and should
you be an astute history student, you will find most
of the old school Stuff podcast had a period where
(25:33):
they had to talk about Altoid's, in particular the history,
the science, how they're made, what peppermint is anyway, you know,
you get in situations, and that's where has found himself
because he was like, what they don't like my fancy
European anti smoking mints, And then his folks got back
(25:53):
to them and he said, well, sir, we apologize. Turns
out only chill like the mints in the United States,
and low and behold, they leaned into that demographic.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Huh what else do kids like? Ben uh, fruity flavors,
cartoon mascots. Perhaps I think you're onto something.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Maybe Anticlaus, Yeah, maybe a Popeye, maybe a cowboy, maybe
a space trooper of some sort.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Make them tasted not like extremely strong anti smoking emnts,
would rather like oranges and lemons strawberries. Perhaps I'm telling
you vapes. It is totally the vape, dude, it's it is.
It is entirely that thing that's wild. Only you know,
(26:50):
we're just peddling sugar here, not necessarily popcorn, long inducing
you know, in inhalables. So by nineteen fifty five, away
full vape on this and they have they have notable
public figures for children branded in the vape, similar to
(27:10):
the way that faster people are gonna come after.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Okay, okay, well, vapes weren't a thing at.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
This now it's very and they were not sure.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
They were not peddling something insidious. They were like, let's
make this candy. Let's make sure we appeal to the kids, right,
just like old dirty bastard said about Wu Tang.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
And so they get for the children, Yeah, they get
the uh, they.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Get the most notable figures for kids in America back
in the day we're.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Talking would have required agreements, would have required licensing, right,
and that's when things get really interesting. Sorry, Yeah, what
are some of the big names that first rolled out
that would have been of the era, Well, Mickey Mouse obviously,
what else. We've got Bozo the Clown, who was massive
both in stature and shoe size and also popularity, and
(28:06):
then of course Casper the Friendly Ghost. So those were
some of the earliest and I mean again, I don't
have the specifics in front of me, but those would
have had to have been marketing agreements between the owners
of that intellectual property and company. I would imagine maybe
that law was less buttoned up as it is today,
and at first they were like, oh, they're gonna love
(28:27):
to be associated with this, but I would imagine they
would have had to at least talk to those, you know,
whoever owned the rights to those characters, because certainly that's
the direction that it went in.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, no kidding, Uh, stay tuned for the ridiculous history
Pez dispensers we're going to do. We're not talking. Well,
maybe you know it's good to dream the year two, Yeah,
the Dare two. Uh. The weird thing about this is
they yet again hit on this amazing moment in the
(28:59):
zeitgeist society and PEZ becomes a pop culture icon. Everybody's
got to have it for several decades. It's kind of
like when you see politicians put a little selfie on
social media and they've got a tidy bottle of hot
sauce there you go.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I keep that thang on me. No stop it, Hillary Clinton,
You're embarrassing yourself. Go home. Well it's like.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
That, but you know, for the world with PEZ, for
the Western world, especially in nineteen seventy three, Pez builds
a candy factory and warehouse. This is a Wonka moment
you were talking about earlier. They build it in Connecticut,
in Orange, Connecticut, and it's entirely to supply the Western
world with Pez. Or excuse me, it's entirely to supply
(29:47):
the United States with PEZ. And now that factory is
still around, they make all the Pez. They make so
much Pez.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You guys, apparently they have the large the world's largest
PEZ dispenser, because of course they do. It was going
to exist. It was going to exist there. Man, they're
a veritable Sackler family of candy distribution. Well they're a
little better than Sacklers. I know. I can't. It's Gallows
(30:18):
humor because it's just so sad. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, and we do Gallows humor because in these economic times.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's tough to afford tears. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
So this factory is amazing though. It is a study
and efficacy. Right now, they make about twelve million tablets.
They call them a little pet bites.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Sorry, that's what Maybe that's what invoked the big pharma
thing for me. The twelve million tablets today. You know,
they got the medicinal background. But no, maybe tell us
a little bit more about what happens to our buddy
haas he did. Yeah he overdosed on pens. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, No,
(31:02):
I'm joking. That didn't happen. He did, though, pass away
in nineteen eighty six, and he did, of course leave
behind a massive enterprise of confectionery sweeties. Pez Candy Incorporated
actually took you know, became the going concern. It was
originally I believe has was his name was in the
(31:23):
name of the company.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, And the innovations to the dispensers continued after his death.
You know how like if you look at one now,
you'll see feet at the base boz can the standout
levelsay case, yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly, you nailed it. And
if you are a Pez collector there are a ton
(31:46):
of Pez collectors, then you're looking at the feet first,
the way people look at shoes. You're you're saying, well,
how can I tell whether this is a vintage Pez?
Dispenser or me reduction.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Same with matchbox cars. We talked about matchbox cars, I
believe in a previous episode. Check that one out there.
You know, that's a very similarly collectible thing where you
can tell what era they came from and looking at
like the wheelbarings or whatever it might be. I think
most people have at some point in their life owned
a Pez dispenser, you know, bought one on a lark
at the grocery store. Checkout Max. You'll be proud to
(32:25):
know that the I have. It's actually in my kids room,
a unopened star Trek. The next generation theme set of
Pez Dispensers, including John Luke Picard as Borg. You guys
are nerds. No, yeah, I didn't know yet a name.
He's in there. The regular JLP is there, and some
(32:47):
of the other hits from that you know era of
the show, which one is JLP John Luke Picard. Oh,
I'm sorry, I took some liberties there to celebrities there.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So this is true, and you have hit upon quite
a potential investment there, Noel, because these Pez dispensers, for
the enthusiast thing self from anywhere for a few bucks
to thousands of dollars, as you found, Max, one of
the most rarefied of pez Dispenser designs is from nineteen
(33:23):
sixty one. It sold for twelve thousand, five hundred US
dollars in twenty thirteen, so that's still kind of twelve
thousand dollars. And then the station like a political like
themed promo branding kind of stuff. Yeah, the donkey of
the which which party?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Is that? Again?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I always forget Democrats. They they had the donkey and
the elephant.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
And originally there was going to be a turkey as
the political mascot back at the Dame Ben Franklin Love
you wanted that.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
To be the bird the national yeah, instead of the eagle. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
But I don't know if it's completely apocryphal, but everyone
would called uh Andrew Jackson a jackass that he liked
it so much that he changed the Democratic Party's symbol
to a donkey.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
That's it is.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
But there's validity to it because he definitely was a jackass. Yeah,
that's true. And also the donkey was a more respected
character in political discourse.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
At the donkey was in the Bible. Man. He ferried U,
Jesus and Mary to whatever the wise men I don't
remember the story.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Alex Jones is zading donkeys these days, speaking of speaking
of biblical terms for donkeys. So oh yeah, so uh
we can. We can go back and forth and explore
so many ins and outs. I think you hit on it, guys.
(34:56):
The branding is what really set pass apart. The candy
itself remained relatively consistent. It was the dispensers that changed.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think there have to be some people out there
that genuinely enjoy Pez for the flavor. But I like
I like it. I just don't like powdery Jockey candy.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
It's mostly nostalgia, yeah, Chris, but my parents would always
get Alex and I Pez Spencer's for Christmas.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Boy is it ever?
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Can I talk about one cool thing I found that
Pez has done in the past for jury So they
have done two seperate one and they did one for
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and they did one for uh,
Prince William and Dutchess Kate, which it was they created
like these Pez Spencer Limited run put up the auction
and all proceeds when one time one was for Make
(35:53):
a Wish Foundation, the other one was for Starlight Children's Foundation.
So basically like, hey, we know you. I want to
collect it, help us help you. You spend a bunch
of money, we'll give it the charity.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So good. I support that.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
I support uh. I support that probo or branding or merchandising,
whatever we want to call it, for charitable causes. And
I'm very, very interested in imagining what Jonathan Strickland aka
the Quister pest dispenser looks like.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
It would look a lot like the Jean Luke Picard
in my Star Wars set.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Is the Jean Luke Pericard different or JPL as you say,
is that different from the locutest? Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah? Cutis? Is he has the Yeah? So what
I'm saying, there's that guy where he's white and he's
got the gear and the eye thingy.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
No, that would be cool though, shine, No, it's a
pest dispenser, you know what I say that not knowing
enough about you know, uh, are there some really mega
bespoke pest dispensers that have moving parts that like like?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Of course, I thought maybe we could up today's episode
by naming a few other pretty pricey pez dispensers that
have sold throughout the years, starting with of course the
political Donkey, as we mentioned, that's the number one, so
maybe we spoiled that one a little bit. But in
nineteen fifties, clear space gun Pez Dispenser also sold in
(37:21):
a year that is unknown for eleven thousand, two hundred
and eleven dollars. And then the Prince Harry and Megan
Markle one you mentioned was also a pretty pricey collector's item,
although I don't imagine that money would go towards the
make a Wish thing. It was just the initial sales, right.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Well, I guess that's the that's the auction it is.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
That was the auction, Okay, So that was the reason
that was so inflated was because it was specifically for
like a once one, one of a kind kind of situation.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I got it, And we want to end with a
PSA fellow ridiculous historians Pez enthusiast as well. If you're
buying a cap in hook Pez dispenser, it needs to
have the soft head.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Oh boy, what does that mean? I'm glad you asked
picturing like as a plushy or something like that. I
don't know how that would work.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
It means it means that they were for a time
in nineteen seventy nine. During the late nineteen seventies, if
we're being honest, for a couple of years, they were
cheaper to produce than the typical plastic model, so there
were a softer petroleum substance. But then in nineteen seventy nine,
(38:34):
same year, the oil crisis hits and it becomes very
expensive to make the soft head Captain hook. So if
you were ever if you ever find yourself in a
PEZ convention and you want to know who knows their business,
look for the person who was just individually squeezing Captain
(38:55):
hook Pez dispenser as avocados. Yeah, like avocado is just
like produce.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Well, I can't imagine these wouldn't be behind glass though,
they wouldn't be letting you squeeze them. But maybe maybe
with gloves on. You know, you could if you did
happen to find one from your squeezings. You couldn't at
about a grand from one of those.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Uh yes, US dollars even today. I also want to
mention you can get a for anybody looking for Halloween ideas.
You could get a Pez container costume, and I think
you can customize it.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, I think we mentioned this off air, But I
mean it is a little bit macab the way the
candies are essentially, you know, dispensed out of the neck
hole of the head. It's you know, the thing goes
all the way back at a very severe disturbing angle,
and then a weird little rectangle of white candy pops out.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Aren't there somewhere they've like sculpted the lower jon office.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yes, and it's like looks like a hinged mouth, like
a yeah, it's like a mouth, yeah, a million percent.
It's weird, but it's one of those things that we
just accept because it's just been It's another example that
we run into all the time with history. Now this
is state of the obvious of like people being first
to market with something. We just grow to accept it,
even if it's kind of weird. So where do we land?
(40:19):
Are we all fans of pez I like to to
Spenser's I think it's cool. Yeah, American kitch, you know, yeah, yeah,
even though it's not Americana from Vienna. Yeah, Americana via Vienna. Yeah,
there we go. That's fine.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Apples are from Kazakhstan, and we say as American as
apple pie.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So rits are probably from somewhere in the levant you.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Know there we go uh with that, We want to
give a big, big shout out to our super producer
mister Max Williams or research associate mister Max Williams, and
our resident Pez model, perhaps non consentually, Jonathan Strickland aka
the Quist.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
No, he would be so on board, he would love it.
Oh yeah, yeah, now that I think about it, I
want to say that at some point he either had
made or someone had made a custom bobblehead of Jonathan Strickland.
It was him, wizard. Yeah, it sounds about right. It
sounds like something he would do. Huge thanks to Chris
Frasciotis Ves Jeck Coates here in spirit, Alex Williams, brother
(41:23):
of Max, who composed this slam and jam in theme
tune that you're hearing right now, big.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Big thanks to aj Bahama's Jacobs. Check out his show
The Puzzler. We got a fellow Ben. He's a real
expert on Badasses of the Week. He'll be joining us
soon and of course grateful thanks to Megacube.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Indeed, we'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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