I watched as the man picked up the stiff Mr. Peanut costume from a table in the back lot of the auction house and tried it on for his friends. It was one of those slip-over-your-head-to-sell-a-product costumes you see folks wearing on the side of the highway as advertisement.
Mr. Peanut, though, seemed to have been retired and was advertising only himself.
“This would be a good Halloween costume,” the young man said as he carefully slide it over his head. He was too tall and it was too short to cover him completely, but it did drop down to his waist.
Mr. Peanut wore his trademark monocle, and bore small round openings for his eyes and ears. An open smile on his face was backdropped with a mesh screen just as the other openings. Large holes were cut out on the sides for human arms.
He was not all perfect: Too much use had left a small hole in the mouth and on top of the head. He was also missing the bottom half of his outfit (black tights and spats), along with his cane.
Mr. Peanut is one of the country’s most iconic advertising figures, with a history that dates back nearly 100 years. Planters Nut and Chocolate Company was founded in 1906 in Wilke-Barre, PA, and first bagged its peanuts in see-through containers so folks could see what they were getting, according to the company’s website.
The mascot did not arrive until 1916, when the company sponsored a contest for a logo to define its product. The winner of the $5 prize was 14-year-old Antonio Gentile of Suffolk, VA, who sent in three drawings of a peanut with arms, legs and a cane. His drawings were donated last year by family members to the Smithsonian Institution.
The Mr. Peanut image seems to have been augmented by an African American illustrator named Elmer C. Stoner, who was born in 1897 in Wilkes-Barre. I found conflicting information about who may have enhanced the image: One Wikipedia entry attributed it to a commercial artist named Frank P. Krize Sr., while another entry cited Stoner (wikipedia entries are written by different people). The Planters’ website did not mention Stoner’s or anyone else’s name, most sites mentioned Stoner, and another questioned Stoner’s contribution based on military documents and supposition.
I have written about African American comic-book illustrators during the Golden Age of Comics (which started the advent of “Superman” in 1938) after picking up a print by illustrator and artist A.C. Hollingsworth, but Stoner’s name never came up. He seemed to have been the African American first to find employment as a comics illustrator. The most familiar name in the industry is Matt Baker, who produced popular pin-up0girl-type drawings.
Stoner studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in the early 1920s, and moved in 1922 with his first wife to Harlem, where he became part of the Harlem Renaissance that produced some of the country’s most talented African American artists, writers and thinkers. Moving to New York’s Greenwich Village, the couple opened a gift shop, and for the rest of his life (he died in 1969), Stoner bought and sold buildings that he renovated.
During the 1930s, he illustrated children’s books (which he apparently loved to do) and magazines, including a children’s book for the 1939 New York World’s Fair titled “Seeing the World’s Fair.” He also worked on the diorama “Railroads at Work” at the fair.
During the 1930s and 1940s, he drew for a variety of comic-book publishers, including pencil illustrations in the first issue of the Detective Comics, which became DC Comics; Marvel Comics, Dell Publications, and Street and Smith Comics.
He also illustrated a newspaper comic strip titled “Rick Kane Space Marshal” written by Walter B. Gibson, author of the pulp-magazine character “The Shadow.” During the 1950s, Stoner produced artwork for calendars for Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and produced landscapes and other paintings.
The image of Mr. Peanut was officially introduced in a 1918 ad in the Saturday Evening Post, according to the Smithsonian. The company website ambiguously stated that the it first advertised in the Post in 1918. Another site showed the same ad in what it said was the New Day, CT, newspaper in 1917.
Mr. Peanut’s image was slapped on everything from banks to paperweights to salt and pepper shakers to dolls (and it now has its own collectors’ club, Peanut Pals). During World War II, he sold savings stamps, and during the 1950s he had his first commercial.
As for the costume at the auction, the young man was not the only one thinking Halloween. When it came up for sale, the auctioneer felt it, too.
“I know what you’re gonna be for Halloween,” he said, trying to be cute and drum up interest. The bidding started slow, but by the time it ended, the suit sold for $120 (without the buyer’s premium).
In 2010, a complete costume sold at Stephenson’s Auction in Southampton, PA, for $885 (with the buyer’s premium).
