Eduard Haas III

Somewhere in my apartment I have a PEZ dispenser with the head of a fighter jet pilot on it. Admittedly it is quite a creepy concept, however, I've seen PEZ dispensers with spiderman, power rangers, the Beatles, and the president on them. Those flimsy plastic candy dispensers with the chalk tasting candy bricks they dispense actually have a history.

Eduard Haas was born in Vienna where his father owned a grocery store. Eduard took part in his fathers store, and took an interest in creating confections, or candy. It could be said that his goal was invent the first altoids, since he sought out pepermint oil to create strong compressed mints. However, what he ended up with were the first PEZ candy. he named his candy after the german word for peppermint, and marketed them as an anti smoking aid. 

Being born into an  a family of entrepreneurs Eduard started coloring his mints, then adding different flavors to the mix. He created light sized dispensers with popular people on top of them, however, originally they were "adult themed" toppers aimed at n older crowed. No Sonic the hedgehog or Micky Mouse just yet..

When Eduard started exporting his trinkets to The U.S. however, he decided to start marketing to children to boost his sales, and thus the start of the cartoon image PEZ dispensers, and the fruit flavors we love so much.

There was no stopping the birth of one of the most annoying kinds of candy ever. Seriously, i could eat a pack of PEz in 5 seconds...

sources: http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/haas.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Haas