PEZ dispensers have become an indispensible collector's item RELATED VIDEO CNN's Mark Bernheimer talks to leading PEZ experts Windows Media 28K 80K

March 28, 1999
Web posted at: 6:02 p.m. EST (2302 GMT)

MANHATTAN BEACH, California (CNN) -- An Austrian candy man created a sweet in 1927 that he hoped would help smokers quit the habit. But Eduard Haas' invention endured far beyond its intended purpose.

Never heard of PEZ? Hardly possible if you've been around for the last 50 years, since PEZ put heads on its cigarette-lighter shaped dispensers and they took on a life of their own.

Some of those dispensers now command thousands of dollars from collectors who flock to conventions like the PEZ-a-thon in California for the latest in PEZ-mania.

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