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The Pez candy was created by Austrian Eduard Haas in 1927, as a mint for adults trying to quit smoking (Pez is the abbreviation of peppermint in German: PfeffErminZ). Character heads were added to Pez dispensers in 1952.
Pez-lover Gary Doss has most of them, ordered in neat rows in his Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia. Rarities in his collection include a 1952 Mickey Mouse (possibly the first character head), Mary Poppins, a 1963 astronaut, and one of only ten make-a-face Pez dispensers (these Mr. Potato Head-like dispensers were recalled and crushed because the small parts posed a choking hazard). Doss keeps another Pez rarity off the shelf—a counterfeit Hitler dispenser, one of 50 or so hand-painted and sold by mail until Pez lawyers cracked down.
Museum of Pez Memorabilia
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