Amedeo Obici

Amedeo Obici (July 15, 1877 – May 22, 1947) was an Italian-born American businessman and philanthropist. He founded the Planters Peanut Company.

Amedeo Obici was born in Oderzo, Veneto, Italy to Pietro Ludovico Obici and Luigia Carolina Sartori. His father died when Amedeo was seven years old, leaving behind his widow, young Amedeo, another son, Frank and two daughters.

In 1889, his mother's brother, Vittorio Sartori, invited him to come to the United States. The uncle, his wife and two children had earlier emigrated and lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Amedeo was unable to speak English. When he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Le Havre, France in March 1889, his destination was written on a label tied through a buttonhole on his coat. Upon arrival in Brooklyn, New York, he rode a train to Scranton. En route to Scranton, he was misdirected, and got off in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. The people in the train station took him to the fruit store owned by Enrico Musante and Enrico's daughter, Louise (whom he would later marry in 1916), as they too were Italian and could translate and assist.

While the Musantes worked to contact Amedeo's uncle, Vittorio Sartori, in Scranton, Amedeo stayed with the Musantes in Wilkes-Barre. Amedeo then went to stay with his Uncle in Scranton, but later returned to Wilkes-Barre, where he attended classes in the evening to learn English, and worked in the Musante fruit store.

When Amedeo returned to Wilkes-Barre, he worked at the Musante's fruit store, where they had a peanut roaster and a fan that blew the fragrance of the roasting peanuts out to the street to lure customers to buy fruit and peanuts. The time Amedeo spent with the Musantes inspired him to get his own peanut cart. Because roaster ovens were expensive, Amadeo made a rudimentary roaster from parts obtained at a local scrap yard.

To promote his peanut sales, Amedeo devised a promotion. He put one letter of his last name in each bag of peanuts, O, B, I, or C. He inserted only one letter "O" for every fifty bags, and the customers who got the bags with the letter "O" won a gold watch. The watch was an Ingersoll gold-colored watch, which he purchased for a dollar.

Amedeo saved his money, and in 1895, brought the rest of his family from Italy to the United States. With the remaining savings, he also was able to open his own fruit stand and peanut roaster.

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