Description
Reddy Kilowatt is drawn as a stick figure whose body and limbs are made of "lightning-bolt" symbols and whose bulbous head has a light bulb for a nose and wall outlets for ears. Reddy was created at the Alabama Power Company by Ashton B. Collins, Sr., and debuted March 11, 1926. He was subsequently licensed by some 300 electrical companies in the US and abroad seeking to promote the new technology. He was featured in a 1947 comic book and movie produced by the studio of Walter Lantz. Reddy Kilowatt was a frequent presence in publicity material until energy conservation replaced energy production as a national goal with the growth of the environmental movement and the OPEC oil embargo. He is now rarely seen. In 1998, Reddy was bought by Northern States Power Company, which created a subsidiary, Reddy Kilowatt Corp., to manage the cartoon. That company later created Reddy Flame, a character promoting natural gas.
While Reddy Kilowatt was created as a mascot for investor-owned utilities, a similar character — Willie Wiredhand — was created about the same time for use by rural electric cooperatives and public utility districts (evidently, much to Collins' annoyance). Willie was also a stick figure, but with a lamp socket for a head, an electric plug for legs and feet, and wore gloves similar to those worn by farmers. Reddy's keeper of the time took Willie's owner, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, to court in 1957 over trademark infringement and lost because the court found the two characters distinctly different.
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