Interview with a Pez Dispenser: Bullwinkle
11.30.07By The Dean
I saw Mister Bullwinkle Pez at a Central Illinois antique mall just a few weeks back. He was standing in a glass case at eye level with his price tag turned around so I could not read it. It was placed below its footless brown stem. I asked the store clerk to open the case and let me have a look.
She handed me the little fellow and to my surprise the tag read $300 with no decimal point. While I know some details of the history of this famous candy, having purchased a dispenser or three and replacement packs as a youth, I had no idea that these holders that were invented in 1947 by Oscar Uxa to dispense the candies first formulated in 1927 by Edward Haas and sold as a substitute for smoking, were so expensive to collect.
I wanted to know more about this Bullwinkle and how he got here, so I asked
“Mr. Bullwinkle, tell me about yourself.”
“I was put together in the early 1960’s, well after my early ancestors were suffering from worn springs and broken hinges. I was sent to a penny candy store in Madison, Wisconsin near a grade school, and not far from the University. You know that type of store, run by an old lady with gray hair and big hands. I think she felt a need to sample each product for freshness. She sold all sorts of little goodies, candy bars and ice cream cones. Even some minor school supplies, if you forgot your number 2 pencil.”
“I sat with other Bullwinkles and some other characters left over from previous shipments. A young boy purchased me, stuck me in his corduroy pants pocket and took me to school. I was his constant companion for several weeks going to school, scout meetings and on his paper route.”
“Then one day we were back to the candy store after school and my owner bought a new version, a Batman Pez head with slick molded wings. I knew right away that I was old news. I was relegated to his underwear drawer. Oh, I did go with him again for a few days when Batman had a broken wing, but was back in the drawer after he bought a football player with pennant logo of the Green Bay Packers on the stem. My boy was growing up.”
“I was left behind when he went off to collage. I was with Batman, the football player and several other assorted dispensers including a Mickey with lots of scratches, suffered when my boy kept him in the same pocket with a can opener on his house key ring .”
“So, were you in the drawer till now, how did you get to Illinois?” I asked.
“The boy’s mom finally got the clue that he was not moving back home when he got married. She put me and my brothers at a yard sale. A couple from Northern Illinois was in Madison for a football game at the UW. They came by and wanted me.
They had started a collection that included some from his youth. I spent many years behind the rec room bar in their basement sitting in a holder just made for me and my companions.”
“I was moved with the man’s belongings when they got a divorce, and spent several years in a cold garage, some of my companions that had candy left inside, got chewed up in that garage, and had to be thrown out. That was about three years ago when he finally opened the box to look us over.
He had seen a book on Pez dispensers by Shawn Peterson from Krause Publishing, at a local store.”
“I was sent to an auction. The lady from this booth bid on many of my friends but only won two of us. I knew she really loved me, I cost her $140 plus a buyer’s fee. Now I’m sitting here. Did you want to buy me?”
“No, I have too many collections already. You need a good home.”
“I sure enjoyed living with that couple – they had me on display for all to see, I was their star, with my footless brown stem, and large rack of horns.” Their friends talked of watching the Rocky and Bullwinkle TV show and saw the likeness to the real star of that show. I want to be a star again”
I thanked Bullwinkle for sharing his story. The nice lady that worked in the mall came back to the booth to put Bullwinkle in the locked case. I whispered before I left the booth, “Bullwinkle, you will always be the star.”
