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this kind of stuff. It helped me better understand the companies and the The most popular lunchbox ever, bar
history of lunchboxes. It’s exciting, and I meet new people along the way.” none: Aladdin’s domed “Disney School
One of those new people was Robert Jones, a former illustrator for Bus,” featuring an array of Disney
Aladdin Industries, and many of its lunchboxes. Now included in favorites. Eventually, nearly
10 million of this design by Robert
Mark Kelehan’s collection: Jones’s original concept art for that 1980 Burton were sold in the 1960s.
Pac-Man lunchbox.

It’s Lunchtime! such in-demand properties as
Star Wars, Peanuts, and Hanna-
Barbera favorites including The
Long before metal lunchboxes added their rattle and clang to the Flintstones. Among the other
sounds of a school day, kids (or in most cases, their moms), found other companies joining in with less
means of lugging those lunches around. At one time or another, folks prolific lunchbox output were ADCO Liberty, Okay
relied on hollow gourds, wicker baskets, oilcloth wraps, or even oiled Industries, Ohio Art, and Universal. From 1950 until 1986, over 200
goat skins. In the 1880s, empty biscuit and tobacco tins were recycled million lunchboxes were sold. (The most popular: the “Disney School
as “lunch pails.” By the turn of the 20th century, metal lunchboxes Bus” from the 1960s, with nearly 10 million purchased.) That’s a lot of
specifically geared for children’s use were marketed. These early peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
lunchboxes, on the order of kid-sized picnic baskets, featured generic
illustrations of (what else?) kids. For most families, however, specifically So Where Did They All Go?
designated lunchboxes were a luxury that bare-bones budgets could ill
afford. The price: $3.50 each (over $100 in today’s money). So, in most
cases, packed paper bags filled school lunchrooms. There are still some new metal lunchboxes on
Although Hopalong Cassidy was the first the market today, although these are intended for
metal lunchbox to take the nation by storm, it collectors, rather than kids-eating-lunch use. The
wasn’t the first metal character box marketed. That phaseout of metal lunchboxes in the mid-1980s
distinction belongs to the “Mickey Mouse Lunch can be traced in part to parental fears (often unsup-
Kit,” which had limited production in 1935. Ads ported) that the boxes were being used as weapons.
for the oval carrier proclaimed that it provided A more likely explanation is that the preferred
“ample room for sandwiches, fruit, cake, and pie, replacements, molded plastic lunchboxes, with all-
for even the most husky child with a big appetite.” plastic “thermos bottles,” were cheaper to produce.
After a short burst of interest though, World War While less likely to bash in heads during a lunch-
II metal rationing meant that it was back to paper room rumble, plastic boxes offered little in the way
bags. Those with an appetite for any characters of artistic appeal. And, as backpacks/book bags
other than Mickey had to wait until the 1950s when became the rampant carryalls for school supplies,
Hoppy and his friends came thundering through even the plastic boxes began to vanish. Smaller and
with their bountiful buffet of appetizing options. softer packaging that could be maneuvered into a
After Aladdin’s salute to Hopalong Cassidy, the backpack without squashing that sandwich became
next King of the Cowboys to saddle up was Roy the norm. The last metal lunchboxes to be mass-
Rogers. The Roy Rogers lunchbox came courtesy produced were 1985’s Rambo from King-Seeley,
of Aladdin’s main competitor, King-Seeley and Aladdin’s Thundercats in 1986.
Thermos (known today as Thermos L.L.C.). In The first character lunchbox, even if Fortunately for collectors, 120 million lunch-
1953, King-Seeley sold 2-1/2 million Roy Rogers not a trendsetter: 1935 ad for the boxes mean there are still plenty around to collect.
lunchboxes. The increased popularity can be traced “Mickey Mouse Lunch Kit,” produced by A recent check on eBay brought up nearly 11,000
to the vivid, full-color lithographed images on Geider, Paeschke & Frey Co.
every side of the lunchbox, starring not only Roy
but also his compatriots Dale Evans and Trigger. (The 1950 Hopalong
Cassidy lunchbox was a single color, with a Hoppy decal on one side.)
By 1954, seeing which way the market winds were gustily blowing,
Aladdin had also switched to fully-illustrated, full-color lunchboxes,
and Hoppy was upgraded. (A later Aladdin innovation: “embossed”
designs, first appearing in the early 1960s, adding a three-dimensional
aspect to the illustrations.)
What popular figures appeared on which lunchboxes were dependent
on licensing, and Aladdin Industries and King-Seeley Thermos duked it
out for each major acquisition. Aladdin acquired the rights to such prizes
as the Disney, Marvel, and Star Trek characters. King-Seeley captured Raising the roof in Riverdale: original
artwork (shown above) for Aladdin’s
Archies lunchbox, 1969. (at right)

“He can find a fire before it starts
to flame!” A cartoon character and a
public service announcement, all in one.
An invitation you can’t refuse: the “Have “Ha-ha-ha-Ha-ha!” Woody Woodpecker Friends or “frenemies?” Tom & Jerry domed
Lunch With Snoopy” domed lunchbox by domed box from Modern Toys, 1970s. lunchbox by MGM, 1982. The box was “Smokey Bear” lunchbox,
King-Seeley Thermos, 1970. The design was also available in red. also available in bright yellow. Okay Industries, 1973.
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