August 27, 2009
Ready for more Reddy?
Archived in Anecdotes, Memorabilia || 2 comments | Permalink | Post to del.icio.us
Here’s a quick remembrance of Mr. Kilowatt at a Lorain County Nostalgia site. Ohio Edison was the power company where I grew up (not far from Lorain County, actually).
Since I spend a lot of time in the Lorain Public Library pouring over microfilm of newspapers from the 1950s and 1960s, it seems that almost every day or so there was an ad for Ohio Edison featuring — who else? — Reddy Kilowatt! I even seem to recall even seeing his image on some of the local electric utility buildings, such as up on the Ohio Edison building on Lake Avenue in Elyria Township.
There’s another Reddy sighting here, from a 1968 Cleveland Indians scorecard. Nice.
This is an unofficial web site dedicated to Reddy Kilowatt, the cartoon character that was used as a corporate "spokesthing" for electricity in the U.S. The site features history, news, memorabilia, items for sale and more. Yee-haw!
I have not been able to find anyone that I have met who remembers Reddy Kilowatt. He made quite an impression in my education. Seems like he should still be useful to school children. Glad to find out where he came from. I lived in Michigan and Ohio while growing up and did not know where he came in.
Thanks
I grew up in Lorain and Sheffield Lake, Ohio and remember I had a small lapel pin of him as a small child.
About a year or two ago I search Google for him and no one had anything on him, to day I was reading a FaceBook wall on Lorain and someone mentioned him, so I searched again.