Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where
Speaker 1: smart Happens. Hi am Marcia Brain with today's question what
Speaker 1: does PEZ mean? Most people have had Pez candy at
Speaker 1: one time or another as kids, and a surprising number
Speaker 1: of adults are hooked on the stuff as well. It
Speaker 1: turns out Pez was originally intended to be used by
Speaker 1: adults and didn't move into the kid's market until twenty
Speaker 1: five years after its creation. Pez candy was invented in
Speaker 1: nineteen seven by an Austrian food company executive named Edward
Speaker 1: has the Third. The original candy, basically a compressed sugar
Speaker 1: tablet flavored with peppermint oil, was marketed as an alternative
Speaker 1: to smoking. The name came from the first, middle, and
Speaker 1: last letters of the German word for peppermint. Originally, Pez
Speaker 1: came in small tins, but in nineteen Hassas Company introduced
Speaker 1: the first Pez dispenser. The original dispenser was designed to
Speaker 1: resemble a cigarette lighter. To make an appeal to the
Speaker 1: intended market of adult smokers, The company introduced the character
Speaker 1: heads and fruit flavored candy in nineteen fifty two when
Speaker 1: it brought Pez to the United States. The appeal to
Speaker 1: kids was obvious candy that's also a toy. Over the years,
Speaker 1: hundreds of different character dispensers have been introduced and then discontinued.
Speaker 1: The dispenser body or stem has also changed slightly. In seven,
Speaker 1: for example, supportive feet were added to the base so
Speaker 1: that these things could stand up on your desk. One
Speaker 1: way to roughly date a particular PEZ dispenser is to
Speaker 1: check the patent number molded on its side. The main
Speaker 1: numbers on US dispensers are Patent number two million, six
Speaker 1: hundred twenty thousand, sixty one, issued in nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 1: Patent number three million, four hundred ten thousand, four hundred
Speaker 1: fifty five issued in nineteen sixty eight, Patent number three million,
Speaker 1: eight hundred forty five thousand, eight hundred eighty two issued
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four, Patent number three million, nine hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred eighty three issued in nineteen seventy six, and
Speaker 1: Patent number four million, nine hundred sixty six thousand, three
Speaker 1: hundred five issued in nineteen nine. PEZ dispensers are a
Speaker 1: major collector's item today, most likely because of a combination
Speaker 1: of personal nostalgia, the connection to pop culture, characters and
Speaker 1: the limited run on individual dispenser designs. Many individual dispensers
Speaker 1: sell for hundreds of dollars, and a few sell upwards
Speaker 1: of a thousand dollars. Be sure to check out our
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