|
One man's candy...
Gary Metro Journal Times, June 23, 1997
At first glance, this cozy spot on the second floor of a Kinzie Avenue home looks like the bedroom one would expect of any 20-year-old college student.
There are pennants from various sports teams. A computer is tucked on a desk below an elevated single bed. Autographed photos of Warren Spahn and Ray Nitschke hang on a wall. Books and manuals and trinkets line the
shelves.
Everything is orderly and ordinary in the room of Andrew DeVuyst, except for the contents of two wooden wall racks. They contain rows, albeit orderly ones, of multi-colored plastic dispensers for the most curious of
candies - the venerable and now valuable PEZ.
 There are blue Smurfs, a white plastic Snoopy, Star Wars
characters, several Santas and even a red-and-yellow model that, when laid on its side, looks like an over-the-road truck.
"I got my first PEZ back in '93," DeVuyst explained. "One of the first ones I got was the Tweety Bird. Then I had to get Sylvester (the cat) to go with it. Then I wanted to get the rest of the Looney
Tunes characters."
DeVuyst is a PEZhead, a collector of the quirky candies, oddball dispensers and other peculiarities. He even wears a red, black and white tie that is decorated with the word, PEZ, which
actually is an acronym based on the German word for peppermint, pfefferminz.
DeVuyst is not alone in his passion for PEZ. There are enough PEZheads nationally to warrant no less than four regional candy conventions yearly, including a PEZ-A-MANIA event in Cleveland,
Ohio, that DeVuyst is anticipating.
Honest.
DeVuyst has picked up quite a few PEZ pieces, more than 100, in recent years. There is a PEZ wristwatch that also dispenses candies. There is a Power PEZ Wheel that flicks the hard candies
outward. And there are silly looking dinosaurs, super heroes like Wonder Woman and the Hulk, along with Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and Fozzy Bear of Muppets fame.
You get the idea.
This is not just a collection of static things hanging on the wall. DeVuyst also explains the allure of PEZ. He knows the lingo and the lore.
The candies that pop forward at the tilt of a plastic head were developed in Austria more than 60 years ago by Eduard Haas. There was just one flavor, peppermint, and the dispensers were
headless, no-frills items that resembled cigarette lighters.
"It was originally a breath mint and it was supposed to help people quit smoking," DeVuyst said. Tons of PEZ facts can be found via the Internet. Though the candy is now produced by PEZ
Candy Inc., of Orange, Conn., it was known well into the 1970s as Haas Food Mfg. Co. The company motto was: "A Treat To Eat In A Puppet That's Neat."
Honest.
If you'd been paying proper attention to PEZ, you would have noticed much media attention has been given to the assorted fruit, grape, lemon, orange and strawberry flavored candies.
An entire episode of "Seinfeld" hinged on a dispenser of PEZ; perhaps a fitting plot for a show that
boasts it's about nothing. PEZ also got major attention in the movie, "Stand By Me," and has been talked-up on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The Late Show with David Letterman" and
"Saturday Night Live."
One of the really odd things about this new-found PEZ power is that the product defies the national trend toward big drinks, big stores and big corporations. The puny little candy is privately owned
and just one person is authorized to give media interviews about PEZ.
That person is Scott McWhinney, the company president. Unfortunately, the prez of PEZ was too busy last week to answer questions, or return phone calls, about the peculiar popularity of PEZ.
DeVuyst has his own theories: 1) People like the taste of the candy. 2) The dispensers are pretty cute.
DeVuyst doesn't know any other Racine-area PEZheads, but suspects they're out there. When he ate a Kewpee's hamburger on the diner's final day, a woman noticed his PEZ T-shirt and told him
about a nephew who also is a collector. While buying the candy in a store, a cashier told him that her sister also was acquiring a cache of PEZ possessions.
It's an easily started hobby, DeVuyst explained.
PEZ costs about a buck, so it's simple to start a collection with current figures and build it annually with new characters. But that's a mighty slow way to build a collection, since just a handful of new
pieces are produced yearly.
There are the aforementioned conventions, of course, and PEZ collectible dealers can be found throughout the country. There also is the basic reference manual of all things PEZ, a book compiled
by Richard Geary of Madison, Ohio. It is titled "PEZ Collectibles With Price Guide," and is published by Schiffer Publishing of Atglen, Penn.
This is a more expensive way of collecting, to say the least.
European-issued versions of PEZ, including the white-bearded old man known as Muselix, can be especially pricey. Old Muselix is hard to find, and he can cost as much as $1,500 per dispenser.
Honest.
DeVuyst doesn't plan to acquire Muselix or any figures in that league - including die-cut Easter Bunnies for up to $500, Bullwinkles for up to $225 or Mary Poppins for as much as $500. But
he'd ultimately like to have a collection of at least 300 pieces.
"That would be sufficiently impressive," DeVuyst said. "The most I've ever spent on one item was The Roadrunner. It was about $20."
He's hoping to acquire a few cartoon super heroes - maybe Thor, perhaps Captain America - during his trip to scenic Cleveland. He's also hungry for the special camaraderie of PEZ people.
"They're really into PEZ," he said. "There is high PEZ support." DeVuyst explained there is no such thing as a typical collector. It appeals to both men and women, in equal numbers, and the
PEZheads range from the very young to the very old. They are occasionally misunderstood by the outside world.
DeVuyst, a mechanical engineering student at GMI in Flint, Mich., occasionally gets a strange look, or an amazed reaction from those who learn he really, really DOES collect PEZ products. Still, he
does nothing to keep his PEZ passion a private matter. DeVuyst carries surplus dispensers in, what else?, a convention tote bag. He offers the candies to his co-workers at Case Corp., his co-op
employer through the work/study schooling of GMI.
Think of DeVuyst as an unpaid, goodwill ambassador for PEZ. He firmly believes almost everyone likes the sugary candies.
Does he actually eat the stuff himself?
"I love the candies," he said. "You just have to lay off it for a while, every now and then."
Honest.
Gary Metro roams Racine County looking for interesting people, places and things. Got an idea for a story? Give him a call at 634-3322, extension 342.
|
