[2] Collins asked Dan Clinton, an Alabama Power engineer, to develop the first sketches of the character for the exhibition and related newspaper advertising.

Alabama Power copyrighted Reddy on March 6, 1926, and the character first appeared in print in an advertisement in The Birmingham News eight days later.

[3] In 1933, Collins left Alabama Power to join the fledgling Edison Electric Institute, an association set up to represent investor-owned utilities.

[10] Collins was a strong believer in the capitalist system and he insisted that Reddy would be licensed only to publicly traded, tax-paying utility companies.

[11] Collins was convinced of the importance of delivering his pro-capitalist message to young audiences, encouraging Reddy Kilowatt licensees to launch youth clubs in the late 1940s.

In the middle of the dissent-filled 60s he developed a comprehensive education program to teach young people capitalist economic values.

A supporting slide presentation, aimed at executives, called “Fission, Fertility, and the Future” emphasized the importance of reaching youth during times of social upheaval in order to protect the interests of investor-owned utilities.