THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408050294
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
DASHINGLY ELEGANT in high hat and monocle, the cast iron peanut has always loomed large in Tommy O'Connor's life.
Close enough to touch on the fence surrounding Planters, the elusive Mr. Peanut stayed just beyond the Suffolk native's grasp.
But all that changed five years ago, when O'Connor purchased his first Mr. Peanut fence post at an auction in North Carolina. He now owns three.
``Every Planters collector wants a fence post . . . so they are pretty hard to find,'' said O'Connor. ``For a long time, I wondered if I would ever find one for sale.
``All of a sudden, I had the opportunity to buy three within 18 months,'' the Suffolk peanut broker said. ``I bought them all. I guess I'm nuts.''
O'Connor, 42, is just one of a growing number of collectors nationwide who are nuts about Mr. Peanut.
For the past 78 years, America has had a love affair with the cheerful goober emblazoned on Planters' products and promotional items.
The public's affinity for Mr. Peanut stretches far beyond his Suffolk roots.
In 1978, Judith Walthall of Huntsville, Ala., enlisted help from Suffolk's Ted LoCascio, who has worked at Planters for 60 years, in organizing a national collectors club, The Peanut Pals.
``A lot of people in this country have a special feeling for Planters,'' said Walthall, who has collected Planters memorabilia for 20 years. ``Perhaps a member of their family worked for Planters or maybe they happened to think Mr. Peanut was cute.''
Whatever the reason, the club that started with just 23 people today boasts more than 750 members in 50 states.
For a $20 annual membership fee, members receive a quarterly newsletter, Peanut Papers. They also are invited to attend the organization's annual national conventions, where they exchange information with fellow collectors.
Waltham got hooked on Mr. Peanut after her daughter started looking for Planters items on family trips to the flea market two decades ago. Her daughter, then 4, thought Mr. Peanut was ``cute.''
Collecting Planters memorabilia can cost as much or little as people want to invest in the hobby, she said.
According to American Country Collectibles magazine, promotional banks manufactured in the 1970s sell for about $5; peanut trays from the 1930s, about $100; and children's painting books issued from the 1920s to the 1960s, about $40 apiece.
But diehard collectors like O'Connor willingly shell out a lot more than peanuts for Mr. Peanut.
For example, a Mr. Peanut ``roaster rider'' - a papier-mache figure that straddled the nut roasters in peanut stores - brought in more than $6,000 when it was auctioned several years ago.
Collectors used to stumble across bargains in flea markets or estate sales, said Jim Abicht, owner of Smithfield Antique Center and an avid collector of advertising materials.
For the most part, those days are gone.
``There's a more knowledgeable world in today's collectors' market,'' Abicht said. ``That eliminates the chance of finding a windfall.''
Just what is available in the way of Planters collectibles is difficult to know, since the company kept few written records on its promotional giveaways.
The Peanut Pals members often turn to former employees and old magazine advertisements for information.
``Planters was smart in its early merchandising of having disposable promotional giveaways,'' Abicht said. ``Consequently, these are valuable today.''
So valuable, in fact, that most local collectors contacted for this story refused to talk publicly about their collections because of security fears.
Judith Riddick, owner of The Peanut Patch, a peanut processing company and gift shop in Courtland, knows the validity of those concerns firsthand.
When her business was robbed about six years ago, only three items were taken: a Planters jar and two Mr. Peanut blinkers - advertising display figures with eyes that blinked.
Riddick discovered the blinkers 12 years earlier while cleaning out an old general store that had been closed more than 50 years.
Although their value was purely sentimental to Riddick, a recent article in American Country Collectibles magazine said blinkers have sold for as much as $2,500 apiece.
``There was a lot of interest in them from collectors of Planters memorabilia,'' Riddick said. ``A lot of people saw and wanted to buy the blinkers.
``We would never have sold them because they belonged to my husband's grandfather,'' she said. ``Whoever took them obviously had seen them in the store and knew exactly what they were looking for.''
Similarly, Planters has battled theft of the 300-pound Mr. Peanut figures that have stood guard on the company's fences for years, said LoCascio, who now runs Planters' factory museum in downtown Suffolk. The company finally solved the problem four years ago.
``Now they are welded on the fence,'' LoCascio said. ``The figures can only be removed with a torch.''
Mr. Peanut was born in 1916, when Anthony Gentile, then a 14-year-old student at the former Thomas Jefferson High School, won a drawing contest sponsored by Planters' founder, Amadeo Obici.
LoCascio said Obici saw immense potential in Gentile's crude drawing of a stick-figure goober dubbed Mr. Peanut.
Obici instructed a New York graphic artist to make Mr. Peanut ``aristocratic'' by outfitting him with a top hat, cane and monocle.
``Those symbols represented success to Mr. Obici,'' LoCascio said. ``He wanted his company's trademark to be successful.
``Mr. Obici was a rather shrewd man . . . and a good businessman,'' LoCascio said. ``I'm pretty sure he would be pleased with Mr. Peanut's popularity today.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo on cover by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Tommy O'Connor, a Suffolk peanut broker, is the proud owner of a Mr.
Peanut scale, among other goober collectibles.
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Tommy O'Connor, who collects Planter Peanut memorabilia, keeps a jar
of goobers on hand for snacks, too.
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
An iron Mr. Peanut fence post is one of O'Connor's prized
possessions. Five years ago, he was able to acquire three of them
at an auction.
A rare Planters Peanut tin is in the O'Connor collection. The
collectibles cost as much or as little as people want to invest.
There's even a Mr. Peanut wrist watch.
Mr. Peanut even captured the sports market - in a jet racer. It's
one of the many items in O'Connor's Planters collection.
You can even light up with a goober. Cigarette lighters, at right,
come in the popular shape.
KEYWORDS: COLLECTIBLES by CNB