The Zippo business, the lighter that appears in more than 2,000 films

Appears in superhero movies like X-Men or Batman begins, in musicals like Hairspray and in iconic films like The Godfather, Pulp Fiction or Apocalypse Now. Even, if you look closely, it can be seen in the animated film WALL·E. In more than 2,000 productions, someone takes it out of their pocket, opens it and releases the flame. It's a Zippo, the reusable and wind-resistant metal lighter that over the years has become one of the most recognizable icons of North American pop culture. But it's also a big business: headquartered in Pennsylvania, it has nearly a thousand employees, produces about 14 million lighters each year, and invoices nearly $400 million annually.The company was born in 1932 and, since then, has sold more than 650 million lighters. But how has such a small object managed to become an American symbol? How did it find a place in Hollywood and in pockets around the world? The first spark

The story of it all begins in Bradford, a small town in Pennsylvania, in the early thirties. The businessman George G. Blaisdell lived there. One day he stumbled upon a scene that changed his life: a friend of his was struggling with a bulky, uncomfortable, and impractical lighter. The artifact had an evident virtue: thanks to its protective chimney, the flame resisted the wind well. But it also had defects: it had to be opened with two hands, it broke easily, and it had a rather rudimentary appearance.Blaisdell immediately saw that there was a business idea there. At the end of 1932, he redesigned that lighter and transformed it into a more elegant, robust, and easy-to-use object. He added a rectangular case, a hinged lid, and a mechanism that allowed it to be opened with one hand, but he kept the system that protected the flame from the wind. The first Zippo was born. The new lighter began to be sold in 1933 for $1.95, accompanied by a promise that made it famous: the brand assured the customer that if it didn't work, they would repair it for free. The impulse of war

The definitive push, however, did not reach the shop windows, but the front. With the United States' entry into World War II, in 1941, Zippo stopped manufacturing lighters for the civilian market and dedicated all production to the American army. In those years, the company replaced brass with steel and began to manufacture the black-finished models that are collector's items today.The war did the rest. Millions of American soldiers took the Zippo to the battlefield and, almost without realizing it, turned it into an emblem of the United States. The lighter was small, robust, worked in adverse conditions, and also had a recognizable appearance. For many soldiers, it was not just a useful object, but also a personal, almost intimate, item that accompanied them in the midst of chaos.When the war ended, in 1945, Zippo returned to the civilian market, but it was no longer just any brand. It had ceased to be a simple lighter to become an object laden with narrative. From then on, the company knew how to intelligently exploit this aura: it kept the original mechanism almost intact, reinforced the idea of durability with the "for life" guarantee, and began to invest in advertising and featuring it in movies.From Bradford to Hollywood

After the war, Zippo turned the prestige gained on the front into a great business. During the fifties and sixties, the lighter became popular as an advertising medium, the company refined some details without altering its essence, and the brand gradually made its way into popular culture, from concerts to cinema and television. Meanwhile, the company remained in the family's hands even after the founder, George G. Blaisdell, died in 1978, and continued to expand the business: in the nineties, it bought W.R. Case & Sons and opened its own museum in Bradford. Already in the 21st century, it legally protected the shape of its lighter, diversified products, and in 2010 acquired Ronson, a historic competitor.