Category: History

This category features posts and links about the history of Reddy Kilowatt.

Reddy on Classic Northland Television

Oh man, I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a life-size, live-action Reddy Kilowatt. Check it out, and be sure to watch the video: Once upon a time, Northland TV stations made their own children’s show. The kids who watched those shows are now in their 40’s and 50’s but still fondly remember names […]

Lawyer Makes Case For Interstate Neon

Another Reddy blog mention, this time over at Portland Architecture: But it was another favorite lost to history that Duffy likes best, the “Reddy Kilowatt” mascot for Pacific Power’s downtown office where her father worked, “a little man with lightning bolts for arms and legs, a light bulb for a nose and wall outlets for […]

Did you Know…? Reddy Kilowatt

<sarcasm>Because the ultimate dream of every parent and corporation is to get kids to play with electricity:</sarcasm> Over the years, Reddy has gone above and beyond the call of duty. He has not only warmed the hearts of adult consumers, but also got kids to play with electricity. Emphasis mine.

Who was Walter Tetley?

WFMU’s Beware of the Blog has a great post on Walter Tetley, the man who voiced the Reddy video I linked a couple weeks ago. Walter Tetley was a prolific character actor in the mediums of film, radio, and animation for many years… Walter Tetley had the voice of a pre-pubescent schoolboy. Born with a […]

Reddy Kilowatt @ Bhamwiki

Here’s another Reddy bio over at the Birmingham Wiki. It includes some info I hadn’t seen before, including the fact that the 1947 series of animated cartoons was produced by the Walter Lantz Studio (they also did Woody Woodpecker). One of those Reddy Kilowatt videos is viewable here. The character debuted in promotional materials for […]

Poor Reddy Kilowatt in Time Magazine, 1961

Here’s the first graf of an short article called The Last Switch, published in Time on Friday, June 23, 1961, as a reflection on a 4.5 hour NYC blackout: In popular imagination, the 20th century metropolis is an indestructible giant—all those skyscrapers and subways, all that steel, stone and glass, all that raw, corpuscular power. […]