Tuesday . May 13 . 2008
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Hager, Jess A Pittsburgh freelancer hired by Ohio Art to create the art for the Captain Astro and Bond XX boxes. Apparently Hager's original art was given away in the early 1970s to retiring Ohio Art employees. Henry, Don As a Connecticut artist hired by KST, Henry designed the Bullwinkle and Alvin store displays in the early 1960s. His first try at a lunch box came in 1977. After the departure of Nick LoBianco, Henry created the Space Shuttle, Star Wars, the first Empire Strikes Back, King Kong, and The Clash of the Titans kits. Henry, John A Nashville freelancer hired by Aladdin's Elmer Lehnhardt to create art for the Stewardess, Tammy & Pepper, Flintstones, James Bond 0O7, Tarzan, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Pebbles & Bamm Bamm, Drag Strip, Evel Kneivel, Skateboarder, Superman (the movie), and Buck Rogers kits. Hosse, Dan An Aladdin staff artist in the 1980s who created the art for the Thundercats kit. Johnson, Victor Fresh out of law school, Victor Johnson suggested putting the Hopalong Cassidy decal on lunch boxes in the late 1940s. Even though (or because of) he was the son of Aladdin's owner, the suggestion fell on deaf ears until Aladdin hired a new sales manager, Vernon Church. Church recognized the marketing potential of the idea. Retailed in 1950, the Hoppy kit was a smash.
Jones, Bob A Nashville freelancer hired by Aladdin to create the art for the Grizzly Adams, Wonder Woman, Eighteen Wheeler, The Cyclist: Dirt Bike, Disco, Disney's Magic Kingdom, The Dukes of Hazard, The Secret of NIMH, Sport Goofy, Masters of the Universe, and Pac-Man kits. Konetzni, Al [+] View Profile (News Search) As the Disney executive in charge of the Aladdin account, Konetzni came up with the idea for the Disney School Bus kit, which at nine million units, became the biggest selling kit of all time. Konetzni joined Disney's character merchandising division in 1953. Over the next 27 years, he continued to develop ideas for Disney, including a Donald Duck pencil sharpener, Donald Duck play tent, Mickey Mouse record player, Mickey Mouse stained glass lamp shade, and an inflatable Donald Duck "hoppity" toy. What most people don't know however, is that in 1961, Konetzni also sketched out drawings for a Ludwig Von Drake dome kit. For whatever reason, the idea was never realized. The concept for the box was "Prof. Ludwig Von Drake's Traveling Library." See the concept artwork. On Konetzni's retirement from Disney in 1980, Aladdin presented him with a Disney School Bus plaque and a caricature of him carrying that kit by artist Elmer Lehnhardt.
In 1999, Konetzni was awarded the Disney Legend Award. The award, first given in 1987, is awarded to individuals who have made major contributions to the Disney company over the years.
Lehnhardt, Elmer [+] View Profile Elmer Lehnhardt was Aladdin's art director during the 1960s and 1970s and created much of the kit art during that period. He is credited for coming up with the idea to emboss their steel kits in 1962. One of TV's first wrestlers out of Chicago, Elmer Lehnhardt became a commercial artist in the late 1940s with instruction from Haddon Sunbloom, creator of the Coca Cola Santa Claus. His talent for rendering likenesses impressed Bob Burton, who hired him to work at his Chicago studio as a finishing artist. It was there, in the early 1950s, he began finishing Aladdin lunch box art for Burton. When Aladdin moved to Nashville, so did Lehnhardt, acting as a liaison between the company and Burton's studio. In the 1960s, Lehnhardt became Aladdin's art director and worked hard to give Aladdin's box line a competitive edge over KST. Many of Lehnhardt's best boxes showcase his portrait talent and wrestler's sense of surprise (which he often demonstrated during office coffee breaks). These boxes include The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, The Beatles, Batman, Gomer Pyle, Hogan's Heroes, It's About Time, Laugh-In, Rat Patrol, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Dr. Doolittle, The Flying Nun, and Gentle Ben. Perhaps his crowning achievement was the Land of the Giants box, which features his only self-portrait as the spectacled giant "goochi gooing" the tiny Spindrift survivors in the palm of his hand.
Despite partial retirement, Lehnhardt continued to create kit art for Aladdin well into the mid-1980s. He died in 1985. Fortunately, thanks to his foresight and his successors', most of Lehnhardt's original art is under lock and key in Aladdin's archives.
Trained as a fine artist, Lemery's work is highly collectible. Surviving pieces were smuggled out by KST employees who preferred to see them framed rather than end up in a company dumpster.
Leverone, Rinaldo A New York freelancer hired by Nick LoBianco to create art for KST's 1989 Hot Wheels kit. LoBianco, Nick [+] View Profile A New York freelancer, Nick LoBianco created most of KST's kit art in the 1960s and 1970s. His involvement with KST began in 1962 when he was hired by a design studio which had, among many others, the KST account. LoBianco took over the KST account in 1965, when that studio folded. KST never had its own art department, but relied on contracted talent. LoBianco painted his first lunch box, Beany and Cecil, for KST at the age of 22. Comfortable copying cartoon art, LoBianco's artistic style is characterized by static figures pitted against a background patchwork of solid color. The exception to this time-saving style is his masterpiece, the Lost In Space dome. A few of his other kits are Alvin, Captain Kangaroo, Barbie and Midge, The Munsters, Soupy Sales, Flipper, Get Smart, The Green Hornet, Lost in Space, Monkees, The Guns of Will Sonnett, Yellow Submarine, Julia, Cowboy in Africa, Hee Haw, Lance Link, The Partridge Family, Bobby Sherman, UFO, The Addams Family, Kung Fu, and Space: 1999. When short on time, LoBianco often hired other New York artists, such as his brother Peter LoBianco, Jack Davis, and Wally Wood to design or finish kit art for KST. LoBianco's design credits don't stop with lunch boxes. As a favor to a friend at NBC, he designed the Monkees guitar logo in 1966. That same year, Charles Schulz was so impressed with the 1966 Peanuts lunch box that he gave LoBianco responsibility for worldwide Peanuts merchandising. Every incarnation of Snoopy and his brat pack other than the comic strip (which Schulz did himself) actually came from LoBianco's drawing board. Little of LoBianco's original lunch kit art exists today. Other than a few pencil sketches hidden in the artist's own files, KST destroyed all his original lunch kit art in 1986.
Information courtesy The Official Price Guide to Lunch Box Collectibles.
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