Kids and lunchboxes … they go together like, well, peanut butter and jelly, don’t they? Most folks of a certain age probably remember how important the search for just the right box was back in their school days.
But they’re not just for kids anymore — lunchbox collecting is a popular hobby, with many selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
The first true kids’ lunchbox appeared in 1902, shaped like a picnic basket and adorned with pictures of kids at play lithographed on its side. Adding to its convenience a couple of years later was the thermos, invented to keep beverages hot or cold until lunchtime.
But it wasn’t until 1950 that the lunchbox really came into its own, thanks to the marketing genius of the Aladdin Company. Metal lunchboxes were made for durability, but that also meant they wouldn’t often need replacing, which was hardly good for business. What was good, even great, for business was a bright-red box embellished with a decal of TV cowboy Hopalong Cassidy, which appeared on store shelves just in time for back-toschoolers to snap up over half a million units in a single year. Two years later, a Tom Corbett, Space Cadet box proved an even bigger hit.
But Aladdin probably was sorry after it turned down Roy Rogers’ request for a lunchbox bearing his likeness, claiming that “one cowboy is enough.” The more accommodating American Thermos company designed a lunch tote featuring fullcolor illustrations on all sides instead of a single-face decal, and sold more than 2 million in 1953 alone.