We are all nuts over ’89 immigrant

Hilde G. Lee Daily Progress correspondent
Published: July 1, 2008

On Friday many of us will be celebrating Independence Day. Some may go to a local baseball game and enjoy a bag of peanuts — truly an American tradition.

In honor of Independence Day, I want to tell you about one of the millions of immigrants who came to this country in the late 1800s. He is an example of the many immigrants who had to struggle to make his way in the New World.

The realities of life often proved to be harsh, especially for a young Italian named Amedeo Obici. He came to America at the age of 12, having arrived in New York Harbor in the summer of 1889. He was alone, virtually penniless and totally ignorant of the English language.

His only link to the United States was an uncle living in Scranton, Pa. After several false starts, Amedeo managed to reach him.

He led two lives

As a neophyte American in Scranton, Amedeo Obici led two strenuous lives. He went to school every weekday to learn a new language and complete his education. He also worked long hours after school and on weekends at his uncle’s fruit stand, unloading and carrying crates and selling and delivering merchandise.

After less than a year, he abandoned one of the lives. He quit school because he found it dull and boring. All he could understand was the arithmetic and he knew more of that than the school was teaching.

At first he kept working for his uncle. Then Amedeo left to work for bigger fruit merchants in nearby Pittston and Wilkes-Barre.

In 1896, at the age of 19, Amedeo went into business for himself. He opened a fruit stand in Wilkes-Barre — a fruit stand different from most of the others.  It had a peanut roaster, for which he had paid $4.50.

Roaster woes

However, the trouble with that roaster, as well as all the other roasters of that time, was that it had to be turned by hand so that the peanuts would not burn. Amedeo spent a year developing a device with pulleys that would turn the roaster automatically. He also conceived the idea of salting the peanuts to enhance the flavor and added a chocolate covering to some of the nuts.

Once the automatic roaster was installed and the salting process was perfected, he put up a sign saying, “Obici, the Peanut Specialist.” Customers came from miles around to buy unscorched, salted peanuts and to see the equipment that had produced them.

Amedeo Obici devoted more and more time to the peanut end of his fruits-and-nuts business. In 1906 he abandoned fruits entirely and in partnership with a fellow immigrant, Mario Peruzzi, formed the Planters Nut and Chocolate Co. The company eventually

became part of Standard Brands and ultimately of Nabisco Brands. It marketed not only peanuts — in regular roast, dry roast, salted and unsalted — but other nuts as well.

The Planters Nut and Chocolate Co. was prospering far beyond Amedeo Obici’s fondest dreams. One reason for this dated back to the Civil War. Although the peanut had been available in America since the early 1700s, its popularity was restricted for many years to the Virginia farms where most peanuts were grown.

When both Union and Confederate forces converged on Virginia in the 1860s, thousands of soldiers from all over the nation got their first taste of peanuts. The popularity of these nuts began to grow and spread.

Showman P.T. Barnum also was a factor in the peanut boom. He sold bags of peanuts at each performance of his circus, and as the circus flourished in the 1880s and 1890s so did Americans’ appetite for peanuts.

As a result, by the time Planters started delivering its roasted peanuts and various peanut-based products to the marketplace, the American public was ready and eager to accept them.

The original Planters office-plus-factory was a $25-a-month, two-story loft in Wilkes-Barre. There were eight employees, including the two partners.

In less than a year, the company had outgrown its leased quarters and taken over an entire four-story building. Its product line had expanded to include peanut bars, chocolate nut bars, peanut rolls and walnut bars.

By 1913 not even a four-story building could handle the demand. Another move was necessary — this time to the heart of peanut country. A processing plant for raw peanuts was established in Virginia.  The unit in Suffolk was enlarged several times until eventually it covered 76 acres. Suffolk had become the peanut capital of the world.

Throughout the company’s formative years, partners Obici and Peruzzi constantly were looking for new ways to enhance the popularity of the peanut and to burnish the Planters image. Thus in 1916 they offered a prize for the best sketch suitable for adoption as the company’s trademark.

The winning design, submitted by a schoolboy, was an animated peanut. Later a commercial artist took the peanut figure, added a top hat, monocle and cane, and Mr. Peanut was born.

The debonair gentleman, usually depicted leaning on his cane, legs crossed nonchalantly, soon became the universal emblem for Planters products. He is one of the world’s most familiar commercial symbols.

And it all started with an immigrant — Amedeo Obici who sought freedom and opportunity in the United States.

On this Fourth of July, Allan and I will remind ourselves that freedom is worth fighting for. In my case, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor has a profound meaning to me, as well as the many immigrants who came to this country.

Happy Fourth of July.