ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
SOURCE: PAUL BROWNFIELD KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
David Welch's ``A Pictorial Guide to Plastic Candy'' defines a Pezaholic as ``a collector who has reached the point of no return.
``If Pezaholics cannot find a needed item once a week,'' he writes, ``they assume a rigid, upright position and tilt their heads back.''
Linda Kuykendall, 48, seems to have the habit under control. True, she is sitting in a suspiciously upright position as she talks about Pez in her office at Coastal Carolina University. But that alert manner probably has more to do with her self-described ``Type A-plus'' personality than Pezaholicism.
``You know how everyone would like to go up to the trunk in their closet and pull out toys from their childhood?'' Kuykendall says. ``That's what this is like.''
``This'' is Pez collecting, which the professor of speech and theater began doing in 1993. The moment - the Pez epiphany, if you will - happened when Kuykendall was sitting in a meeting at a corporate office. The meeting, she says, was being led by a ``really high-stress woman.''
``Her assistant takes out this Pez dispenser and says, `Time for a Pez break.' Everyone laughed, and I thought, how great. That night I went out and bought a Mickey Mouse Pez at Wal-Mart.''
Today, she's up to 118 of them, everything from Mickey Mouse to Mr. Ugly to one of the earliest models - a circa 1954 Pez that looks more like a lighter than a Pez and doesn't have a head. For the record, her favorite is the policeman Pez, but there's also Garfield Pez, Smurf Pez, Disney Pez, Pez in the shape of trucks.
The collection has grown to the point that Kuykendall is having James Gross, who builds the sets for Coastal's theater productions, make her a special display case.
Think she's gone a bit daffy? Kuykendall, referring to a stamp collection she also has, admits she's got this collecting thing in her soul.
But in her Pez fixation she is not alone. There are two Pez conventions each year - one in Sunnyvale, Calif., the other in Cleveland. There's a Pez newsletter. Pez books. Pez online.
But before going too deeply into the whole Pez aura and why fully mature adults collect, let's get a few Pez facts straight:
Pez is not an American creation - it was invented in 1927 in Austria (Pez is an abbreviation of the German word for peppermint: pfefferminz). Pez didn't hit the States until 1952.
Pez initially bombed in the United States, when it was made to resemble a Bic lighter. Then character heads were added (among the first was a full-bodied Santa Claus) and boom - instant karma.
Among the rarest of the Pez are two in the Crazy Fruits family, the pear and the pineapple. If you have one, put this newspaper down and jump for joy.
Dispensers with feet are probably not as valuable as Pez without feet. That's because feet were not added to the dispensers until sometime in the 1980s, thus giving collectors a reference point for the age of a dispenser. To Pezaholics this is known as ``the `Feet' vs. `No Feet' Controversy.''
Kuykendall insists she's not into collecting for the money (some, like the Psychedelic Eye, are valued at $300). She gets them where she can find them - through catalogs, from dealers, through word-of-mouth. The most she's spent on one is $60, for a Popeye.
``My colleagues love it,'' she says. ``They think it's fun. No one says, `Good God, Linda, what are you doing?' I get that on other issues, I can assure you.''
Her office affords a lovely view of a man-made lake, the stately E. Craig Wall School of Business in the far distance. This tranquil, collegiate scene contrasts sharply with her office decor, which is perhaps best described as ``late-American Pez'': Pez dispensers on her bookshelf, the walls covered in framed Pez ads.
But wait a minute - Kuykendall is a theater and speech professor. Where are the books on method acting by Stanislovsky? Where is the framed black-and-white drawing of some great orator?
The Pez motif makes her office a less intimidating place for students, Kuykendall says.
``The truth is, if you're a Type A personality, it's difficult not to come across as intimidating. I personally think faculty members' offices need to have levity and lightness.''
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: KRT. To collect 'em is to love 'em. Pez dispensers comeby CNBin a host of familiar characters. color.