Duncan® Yo-yo
Versions of the yo-yo are said to have originated in ancient Greece or even earlier in China, but the first yo-yo craze seized Americans in the mid-19th century when several manufacturers patented improvements to the toy. At the beginning of the 20th century, Scientific American published directions for making yo-yos. But the story of the modern yo-yo began in the 1920s. Filipino bellhop Pedro Flores caught guests' attention by playing with the toy on his lunch breaks at a Southern California hotel. (Yo-yo means "come come" in a native Philippine language.) Flores saw a business opportunity and began manufacturing the toys. Donald F. Duncan - father of the Good Humor ice cream bar - first saw a yo-yo in California in 1928. A year later, he bought Flores out. Duncan's company generated millions of customers by staging contests where yo-yo "champions" could make the toy "walk the dog," "shoot the moon," "rock the cradle," and go "around the world." In the early 1960s, a national television campaign intoned the slogan, "if it isn't a Duncan, it isn't a yo-yo!" High expenses and a trademark protection lawsuit put Duncan personally out of business in 1965, but his manufacturer, Flambeau Products, continued making yo-yos.
Erector® Set
While watching a skyscraper rise in 1911, A. C. Gilbert conceived the Erector Set, an educational toy that encouraged kids to create their own miniature buildings. Unlike its British cousin, the Meccano toy, Gilbert's simple design fashioned sturdy one-inch square girders with just two bolts. Businessmen and industrial psychologists hailed the toy that put play to work and encouraged children's "constructive instincts." A national advertising campaign, the first ever for a toy, in The Saturday Evening Post and Popular Mechanics launched the Erector Set in 1913. In those days, American society did not encourage girls to pursue technical careers. "Hello, Boys!" the ads exhorted heartily, "Make Lots of Toys!" Appearing around the same time as Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys, Erector Sets introduced boys to engineering and the structural principles of modern skyscrapers. Redesigned in 1924, the new basic set encouraged more complex construction. Specialized kits with electric motors included allowed kids to create trains, steam shovels, Ferris wheels, and Zeppelins. Faced with wartime metal shortages in the 1940s, the company introduced wooden sets. In the 1960s, the Gabriel Co. bought the popular toy, but sales slowed in the 1970s. In 1980, the manufacturer discontinued the line.
Etch A Sketch®
French auto mechanic Arthur Granjean tinkered mostly with cars until he invented a mechanical drawing toy that had no batteries or loose parts. He called his creation L'Ecran Magique, the magic screen. Introduced at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1959, the gadget failed to draw much attention. Numerous manufacturers passed over a chance to pick up the new toy, concluding that Granjean wanted too much money for it. However, the Ohio Art Company took a second look and invested $25,000, more than they had ever paid for a license. Ohio Art renamed the toy "Etch A Sketch" and began mass-production later that year. Saturation advertising on television turned the toy into a must-have item for Christmas, 1960, and Ohio Art's factory worked feverishly until noon that Christmas Eve. Etch A Sketch has changed little since then. Static charges hold a mixture of aluminum powder and tiny plastic beads to the inside of a clear plastic screen. Knobs control the horizontal and vertical rods that move a stylus where the two meet. The point scores a line across the screen's reverse side. Experts can draw a curved or diagonal line. Turning the screen over and giving it a shake erases the picture.
Frisbee®
The Frisbee story starts in college. Late 19th-century students at Yale and other New England universities played catch with pie plates (some say it was cookie tin lids) made by the nearby Frisbie Baking Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. They yelled "Frisbie!" to warn passersby away from the spinning discs. In 1948, Walter Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni created a plastic version to sell at county fairs. The airfoil at the outer edge, called the Morrison slope, gives the toy its lift in flight. Hoping to cash in on the fascination with UFOs after the 1947 sightings in Roswell, New Mexico, Morrison called his creation the "Flying Saucer," then the "Pluto Platter." Wham-O founders Arthur "Spud" Melin and Richard Knerr (creators of the Hula Hoop) bought rights to the toy in 1955, and renamed it "Frisbee" in 1958. Sales soared, reaching 100 million before Mattel bought out Wham-O. Early in the 1960s, people treated the flying disc as a counterculture sport. Wham-O's first "professional" Frisbee followed in 1964.
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