Nevertheless, the public of all ages also adopted them, buying more than 100 million Frisbees in 30 years. In fact, the company was named for the spectacular When the rains came, the eggs hatched and fish emerged overnight. An hour later, Knerr had the elephant returned to the circus. cemeteries found in Corona del Mar, Orange County, California, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. All Rights Reserved, Hula Hoop promoter Arthur Spud Melin dies. This account has been disabled. Headricka veteran who spied on Nazi movements during World War IIpaid college kids to toss the disc on campuses. Unlike their contemporaries at Mattel or Hasbro, Melin and Knerr didnt have to navigate a corporate obstacle course. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. A group of investors then bought Wham-O back from Mattel in 1997 for about $20 million and relaunched many of its best-known toys, including the Slip 'N Slide. John Daly asked the gentleman if First Lady, Mamie Eisenhower, oversaw the interior decorating of Ed Sullivan (2 According to Ripleys Believe It or Not, in April 2004, a performer at the Big Apple Circus in Boston simultaneously spun 100 hoops around her body. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. ", Ben Martin/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images. March 5, 1963: the Hula Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented by the companys co-founder, Arthur Spud Melin. In 1982, Spud Melin and Knerr sold Wham-O to the Kransco Group for $12 million, but Spud Melin kept up his interest in gadgets - at one point, he patented a two Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Today in History: March 5, 1963. Instead of counting a fortune, Wham-O was sitting on inventory they wouldnt clear for years. Humans have been hula hooping for hundreds of years. They bought a saw at Sears, Roebuck & Company on a monthly payment plan, set it up in a garage and began making and selling slingshots. Guest panelist John Payne identified the inventor and manufacture of the Hula Hoop. [6][7] 25 million were sold in four months, and in two years sales reached more than 100 million. Wham-O co-founders Arthur Melin (left) and Richard Knerr try out their toy company's Hula Hoop, a plastic version of a rattan hoop popular in Australia. The Hula Hoop, a hip-swivelling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented by the companys cofounder, Arthur Spud Melin. Costa Mesa, Orange County, California, USA. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Richard A. Johnson, author of the book American Fads, declared the Hula Hoop the undisputed granddaddy of American fads. No sensation has ever swept the country like the Hula Hoop, he wrote. He gave company officials an impromptu lesson in how to use a rattan hoop imported from Australia. But I said, 'You can't put that on television. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. About 600,000 were made. New products were developed for tryout periods. Pottery! A giant promotional specimen accidentally dropped from a 23rd-floor hotel room window, rebounded 15 floors and destroyed a parked convertible as it fell again. Knerr and his partner, Wham-O co-founder Arthur "Spud" Melin, specialized in fun, with the Hula Hoop, Slip 'N Slide, Silly String and Super Ball, entertaining countless At first, they focused on sporting goods, rather than toys, but they kept an eye out for unusual items like boomerangs and crossbows. version made of colorful plastic tubing. The California native was a teenager when he befriended Arthur Spud Melin outside a Pasadena movie theater. Anyone, anywhere, could submit an idea to them and potentially get a royalty deal. Wham-O changed the name to Frisbee and began selling the rebranded toy in 1958. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. We have set your language to Ads claimed it could make bubbles "as long as a bus". ''He said it would be huge. WebIn 1948, he co-founded the company Wham-O with Arthur Melin (nicknamed "Spud"). Failed to delete memorial. 2019 TIME USA, LLC. Wham-O's initial success was a result of its founders' insight. Knerr and childhood buddy Arthur "Spud" Melin started a slingshot-selling business in 1948 in Pasadena and called their company Wham-O after what they said was There was no one like Melin or Knerr sitting over a drawing board and trying to come up with an outlandish product. Mr Knerr, who retired when he and company co-founder Arthur Spud Melin sold Wham-O in 1982, Richard Knerr who invented the Hula Hoop and the Frisbee. They began demonstrating the toy in parks and on television, and the fad quickly went viral. Wham-O first tried to sell the disk as the Pluto Platter, an attempt to cash in on the country's fascination with unidentified flying objects. They just banned Elvis Presley's hips from the Ed Sullivan show.' Try again later. But they hit the big time when Walter Frederick Morrison walked in with a toy flying disk, marrying the 1950s furor over UFOs and a game played by Yalies tossing empty pie tins from the Frisbie Baking Co. in Hartford, Conn. Wham-O began selling the plastic disks in 1957 as Pluto Platters. Melin and Knerr showed entrepreneurial spirit early on. They also offered mail-order sporting goods, such as pellet guns, crossbows and daggers. 1997: Wham-O becomes independent again when an investment group purchases it from Mattel, January 2006: Wham-O is sold for ~ US$80million to, 2008: Wham-O introduces the EZ Spin Foam Frisbee Disc, a soft foam version of the Frisbee, 2009: Wham-O sold to investment firm The Aguilar Group. Edit Overview Section. It became Wham-O's long, slow seller, with its own plant in San Gabriel, California, taking off in the 1960s as a counter-cultural exercise, the toy of hippies and of guys trying to impress their girls with Frisbee flips - "Flat flip flies straight. There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. Retailers in the United States were skeptical, but the two sensed a hit. GREAT NEWS! By the end of the 1970s, Wham-O had settled into a strange sense of complacency. Melin retired when Wham-O was sold to Kransco Group Cos. in 1982. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Headrick was in charge of sifting through ideas, of which one in a thousand might be viable enough to pursue. A toy maker from Australia gave Mr. Mullin and Mr. Knerr a wooden exercise hoop used in gymnastics classes. Knerr and childhood buddy Arthur "Spud" Melin started a slingshot-selling business in 1948 in Pasadena and called their company Wham-O after what they said was the sound a slingshot made when it hit something. Bubble Thing (1988), a flexible plastic strip attached to a wand, which was dipped in soap solution and waved through the air to create giant soap bubbles. He was 77. Tiring of business, Mr. Melin persuaded Mr. Knerr to sell the company in 1982 to the Kransco Group Companies for $12 million. Melin and Knerr started with slingshots and named their mail-order company after the sound a slingshot made when its projectile struck a target. Arthur Melin | | The Guardian Soon, crowds of teenagers rotating their hula hoops were featured in Life magazine and on the Dinah Shore Show. Love, Spud., An hour later, she sees Dad and another man from work walking up her driveway, Knerr says.Then this fake delivery truck arrives, Suzy couldn't see what it was. But not before Melin and Knerr wound up radically reinventing the concept of having fun. 1948: WHAM-O founded. At first business was slow and the pair struggled to get by on just a couple dollars a day but gradually the orders were pouring in. He was 77 and had Alzheimer's disease. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. Wham-O also benefited from the relative economic sense of advertising nationally. The Frisbee was reintroduced in the late 1950s, this time as an athletic endeavor. But when the products hit, it made up for the lean years. Mr. Melin (pronounced muh-LIN) once bought a truckload of oysters from Texas in hopes of starting a raw bar in California modeled after those he had seen in New York. For about a year in the 1950s, the company markets their sporting goods under the name WAMO. See the article in its original context from. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. The ball became so popular that football's biggest game, the Super Bowl, was a pun on it.. And when the novelty products missedlike the "Mr. Hootie" egg rake, meant to help users pluck out bits of egg shell from a cracked eggat least Melin and Knerr managed to amuse themselves. The company ended 1958 with losses of $10,000. Failed to report flower. For about a year in the 1950s, the company markets their sporting goods under the name WAMO. With his business partner, Richard Rich Knerr, he successfully marketed the Frisbee, as well as several other joyful additions to human silliness, such as the Hula Hoop, the Slip N Slide and Silly Putty. Within six months, they sold 7 million Superballs. Then, in 1958, Wham-O toy company founders Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin saw the potential in the humble hoop and began to mass-market a 40-in. (L to R) Rich Knerr, Fred Morrison, and Arthur Melin. The Frisbee was originally marketed under a different name, the Pluto Platter, in an effort to capitalize on Americas fascination with UFOs. ''Mr. Both the Hula Hoop and Instant Fish sprang from Melins interest in other parts of the world. She didn't know what she was going to do with it.. The childhood friends formed WHAM-O in 1948, as college students, when they began making and selling slingshots in a garage. Mr. Melin (pronounced muh-LIN) once bought a truckload of oysters from Texas in hopes of starting a raw bar in California modeled after those he had seen in New York. Arthur Spud MelinAmerican Role Model - Corsini Consulting Melin and his wife, Suzy, became aware of children in Australia and elsewhere around the South Pacific playing with a bamboo or rattan ring by swinging it around their hips. Just why Melin and Knerr changed the disks name to Frisbee in 1958 remains debatable. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. Soon, Wham-O was producing 20,000 hoops a day. Millions of rings sat in piles like gargantuan wrist bracelets. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. But I think this country gave us more than we gave it. They were flat broke. Nonetheless, Hula-Hoops remain the most extraordinary US global imposition - travelling faster in two years than Coca-Cola in decades. Potato Heads can be worth from $200 to $695 dollars. They knew if they spent the money, theyd see a return on their investment, Walsh says. Compared by many to be two sides of the same coin, Merlin and Arthur's relationship was at the heart of the show. While the hula hoop never went away, it has had a bit of a revival in the past five years with popular hoop fitness classes. Arthur Who Invented the Hula Hoop? Joan Anderson Did. - The Atlantic Please reset your password. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. Every toy company has a submission policy, says Walsh, who also designs games. See more:12 Wacky Products from Wham-O You Have to See to Believe., That wouldnt fly in todays toy world. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. Learn more about managing a memorial . They branched into other sporting goods, including pellet guns, crossbows and daggers. READ MORE: The History of Must-Have Holiday Toys. (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.)Mr. They had no corporate ego, willing and happy to allow inventors like Springley and Morrison to pose with their creations. In the height of the Cold War, when families were building backyard bunkers to live in following nuclear attack, Wham-O marketed Do-It-Yourself Fallout Shelters for $119. They tried to sell their birds to enthusiasts, but got more interest for the shot, which they named Wham-O, for the sensation felt when it hit the target. The name Wham-O was meant to evoke the noise a slingshot made.At first, they focused on sporting goods, rather than toys, but they kept an eye out for unusual items like boomerangs and crossbows.Early on, they tried some other, ill-fated endeavors. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. Please try again later. While visiting that continent he saw a little fish that buried its eggs in mud during the dry season. Initially, Melin and Knerr marketed them on college campuses by word of mouth. It did not sell well, but Morrison demonstrated it to Wham-O in 1955, as the pluto platter; Spud Melin and Knerr bought the novelty for $1 million (plus lifetime royalties for Morrison), and marketed the toy as the Fling Saucer. Other companies began making their own versions, and within four months Americans were spinning 20 million of the hoops and organizing national competitions. The ball was uninjured. In 1965, while Hula Hoops were still rolling out the door, Melin and Knerr introduced the Superball, a small rubber ball with an exceptionally high bounce invented and patented by chemist Norman H. Stingley. Spud Melin's genius saw the potential, and, after prototype trials with Pasadena children, manufactured, with Knerr, a hollow cylinder in light, durable polyurethane. The cause was Alzheimer's disease, his wife, Suzy, said. In an era dominated by toymakers who had been around for decades, Wham-O innovated or acquired revolutionary ideas: the Frisbee, Slip N Slide, Super Ball, Silly String, and dozens of novelty items, all bearing their unique brand aesthetic. You can always change this later in your Account settings. Thanks to a savvy marketing campaign, 25 million hoops were sold within a few months of the product's launch; the hula hoop craze was off and looping, with kids all over America spinning hoops around their hips and waists. Recalled in 1978 after it caused the deaths of two children, having sold approximately 2.5 million units. Smith has 10 children, including a daughter who works as a film producer. Fewpeople in the history of fun can have had such success as Arthur (Spud) Melin, who died on June 28th aged 77, the co-inventor of the Hula-Hoop and manufacturer of the Frisbee, the Superball, the Hacky Sack and a long inventory of wheezes. Today, Wham-O is owned by the Aguilar Group, a private investment company, and still markets their trademark products. To use this feature, use a newer browser. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Frisbee grew so popular that associations and canine variations became commonplace; the Navy experimented on them to see if they could keep flares in the air longer. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. March 5, 1963: the Hula Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented by the Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). In the 1960's, the company says, it sold 20 million SuperBalls until it dropped the product. Melin retired from the company when it was sold to Kransco Group Cos. in 1982. Richard Knerr - Wikipedia Left strictly to their own sensibilities, items like the Bowmatic bow-making machine and the Super Foam Machine probably wouldn't have kept the lights on. You can even hire a personal hula hoop trainer. According to company legend, a visiting Australian casually mentioned to Spud Melin how, back home as a kid, he had rotated a rattan, or bamboo hoop, around his waist in gym class. Melin Melina and Knerr were inspired to develop the Hula Hoop after they saw a wooden hoop that Australian children twirled around their waists during gym class. By 1957, the company had sold several million of the disks.