Man has been eating lunch since time immemorial. And you might think that the portable lunchbox like you carried to school in the 50's, 60's, or 70's would have been just as ancient. But you would be wrong.
In 1950, Nashville, TN-based Alladin came up with a concept that they felt just might have potential, especially in light of the fact that the largest generation of six-year-olds in history were about to enter school for the first time: a metal box/vacuum bottle combination just the right size for a kid to carry his/her lunch to school in. And seeing how metal lasted forever, and a steady supply of new customers was needed in order to do future business, what if they put a TV character's image on the box and bottle? That way, new TV shows would create demand for new lunch boxes!
I couldn't find any names connected with that idea, but rest assured, even Don Draper has never possessed that kind of genius.
Those original Hopalong Cassidy lunchboxes were an immediate smash success, and a tradition was born for not just Boomers, but all kids of the 20th century: a perfect-sized case that a kid would proudly lug to school and back, festooned with colorful pictures.
The metal lunch box for kids was actually born in 1935, a company called Geuder, Paeschke and Frey creating a lithographed box with Mickey mouse's image on it. But it took postwar prosperity, TV, and the addition of a Thermos bottle for the concept to become a craze.
OK, not an actual "Thermos" bottle, but that's what the ubiquitous containers have come to be generically called. In fact, it was Thermos who decided to jump into the lunchbox fray in 1953 with their own Roy Rogers version. And it, too, was a staggering success, the kid-sized lunchbox kit increasing the company's overall sales revenue by 20% that year.
The companies didn't waste any time getting more TV and movie characters onto the store shelves. And more manufacturers jumped into the lucrative market. By the late 50's, there were ten or so different brands of lunch boxes. One of these was Ohio Art, who used lunchbox profits to develop a new toy: the Etch-a-Sketch. I am astounded to realize that I have not yet written a piece on the artistic toy, stand by for that one.
It was brilliance beyond brilliance. Besides filling a utilititarian need, new TV shows came out every fall, so there would be a continuing demand for more and more lunchboxes. Life was good.
The thing is that they were built to last forever. The quality of the metal kept getting better and better. By 1962, designs were embossed onto the boxes, replacing the flat graphics. The Thermos bottles didn't fare so well, though. The first thing to go was the plastic cap, frequently left on the table in the cafeteria. Next, the bottle itself would fall victim to gravity, and dropping a loaded box might cause the bottle's glass liner to shatter. However, the box itself would soldier on, eventually being sold at a yard sale, or perhaps being tossed into an attic, to be rediscovered and put on eBay in the next century
An alternative to the rectangular models came along a bit later. It mimicked the classic lunchboxes that our fathers lugged to work twenty years earlier. The kid's model originated, once again, with Aladdin, in 1957. It was expensive paying for the rights to use TV and movie characters, so Alladin decided to make miniature versions of the blue-collar's model, decorated with more generic (and cheaper) graphics. The depicted Disney schoolbus model was the single largest-selling lunchbox of all time, some nine million units! Other dome-tops bore the likenesses of VW buses. Additionally, many were decorated with pirates, spaceships, cowboys, and other inexpensive kid magnets.
Lunchboxes reigned supreme throughout the 60's. The glass vacuum bottle was replaced during that decade with a plastic foam-insulated version that was more durable. But that was the last plastic improvement.
As the 70's started rolling along, overprotective mothers became concerned that their kids were carrying potential weapons to school. Lawsuits began to be filed, wussy legislators jumped on the bandwagon of the dangers of evil metal, and the manufacturers began feeling the heat. Starting in 1972, plastic and vinyl lunchboxes became the norm, and they were, in a word, crap.
The plastic would fade and crack, the vinyl would tear, but oh, how lucky we were to be protected from that vile steel. The popularity of the school lunchbox began to fade.
Alladin continued to make a limited amount of metal boxes, the last one celebrating Rambo in 1985. In 1998, they got out of the lunchbox business altogether. Thermos continues to make them, though, even metal ones! However, they must be careful marketing them, because obviously, one of the most horrible hazards a kid can face is being plunked in the head by a fellow student possessing that most heinous weapon of mass destruction, the metal lunch box.
Comments (7)
Hi Ron, glad you're back.
Cheers Ronald
Posted by Ronald | June 12, 2011 2:19 PM
Posted on June 12, 2011 14:19
The Apricot Tree Restaurant, along I-5 in California has a massive (thousands) lunchbox collection on the walls.
Located at the Panoche Road exit, 34 miles south of the CA-152 interchange, and 30 miles north of the Rt 33/Rt 145 Interchange.
Great breakfast or lunch spot.
Posted by Ed Greenberg | June 12, 2011 4:40 PM
Posted on June 12, 2011 16:40
I totally remember those wonderful metal lunch boxes. I recall a plaid one, and later, a Barbie lunchbox. Thanks for the memories!
Posted by Cindy L | June 12, 2011 7:48 PM
Posted on June 12, 2011 19:48
Kudo's to all who can remember the the specifics of their lunch boxes, alas, I can't. I do remember sending my daughter off to the first grade with a bright red plaid metal lunch box and matching thermos. If I still had it, I would carry it myself to work;)
Posted by Roberta | June 12, 2011 7:57 PM
Posted on June 12, 2011 19:57
In southern Maine, lunch boxes were very uncool by Junior High in 71 and probably before that, too. But they were common in stores still at that time, though not as much as they had been. The 60s were great for lunch boxes and bubble bath soap that came in cartoon characters shapes and faces, such as Hanna Barbera cartoons and others such as Alvin the Chipmunk. In my parents’ cellar are Mighty Mouse, Alvin, Squidley the Squid or Octopus and maybe another I do not recall at the moment.
I had a baseball lunch box in 71, but after that first time at school, no more. I usually ate the school lunch anyway, except on days I did not like the meal.
We had a lunch box of a Space Sci Fi movie made possibly by Disney where the astronauts have to get rid of stuff to get off the moon. It was supposed to be state of the art Sci fi effects and realistic looking in its time, like Kubrick’s 2001 was in 68.
I wonder why S Maine seemed so anti-box so early. Brown bag lunches were the cool way. I guess much of the rest of the country still liked them. We went home for lunch in Elementary school so we never needed lunch boxes then. By 3rd (67) grade for me, and my younger brother, we were the very 1st latch key kids in our area. In 68, we were joined by another family of 3 kids and a divorce mom. We were real trend setters, ya know.
My mother was among the 1st to get a job since my father had “problems” that had interfered with employment for a year so we were nearly the only ones in 67, besides divorcees and widows who had a working mom. Some went to work in the 70s and more each year. But we did so out of necessity. Many later went as it was a good way to get extra income until they started adjusting pay so that 2 incomes now became a necessity to survive.
So lunch boxes died in the 70s or early 80s, I assume in other areas. And many other things changed and/or died. Like humanity compassion, equity, stability.
But what is cool is seeing all those collections of lunch boxes and soap containers. They are a sort of reminder of what was and what was not. We should never forget how it was. Already, history is being rewritten and re-planned and soon, our day and age will be forgotten. I would go so far to say that a great change to come will turn the world upside down and nearly anything reminding us of the past will be destroyed like a good old fashioned book burning. The movies, the artifacts, the books and magazines, and much more.
Can’t happen? Won’t happen? Oh, I hope you are all right, but stranger things have happened in the past and what we see already does not forebode well for humanity. Sorry to depress you all so much tonight but . . . been having some interesting discussions around and the consensus seems to be pretty unanimous in my direction of thinking.
Twas a beautiful time. I’ll quote a few beautiful lines from a song of a beautiful group recording beautiful music. You can tell me who did it and what it was called.
Time it was and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I had a photograph
Preserve your memories, they’re all that’s left you
Posted by Scott I | June 12, 2011 11:33 PM
Posted on June 12, 2011 23:33
@Scott: Bookends Theme, from Simon & Garfunkel's 1968 album Bookends.
My first lunchbox was like the school bus lunchbox shown in this article. The handle broke and my dad replaced it with a piece of an old leather belt, which I loathed. And I had a green Tarzan lunchbox. Great memories...
Posted by Dave | June 13, 2011 9:31 PM
Posted on June 13, 2011 21:31
@ Dave
Obviously a S & G fan! Too easy, huh? You got it!
Posted by Scott I | June 14, 2011 6:57 PM
Posted on June 14, 2011 18:57