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. The Hula had been nothing less than an international sensation, hypnotizing adults and children into rhythmically twisting just to keep a plastic ring from falling to the floor. Tiring of business, Mr. Melin persuaded Mr. Knerr to sell the company in 1982 to the Kransco Group Companies for $12 million. To use this feature, use a newer browser. Wham-O introduced the Hula Hoop in 1958 and was soon producing 20,000 a day. Learn more about managing a memorial . They were more of an old-school company.
Inventors of Your Favorite Products Didn't Always Get Rich hide caption. Rare was the tag line that didn't abuse exclamation marks. Melin retired from the company when it was sold to Kransco Group Cos. in 1982. The ball was uninjured. Retailers in the United States were skeptical, but the two sensed a hit. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. By Melins estimate, the fad started in January 1958 and ended that October. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Sorry! Magic Window (1971), two 30 by 30 centimetres (12in 12in) oval plates of heavy clear plastic, with a narrow channel between them containing "microdium" (glass) crystal sands of varying colors that created complex patterns when shifted. Today, Wham-O is owned by the Aguilar Group, a private investment company, and still markets their trademark products. Headricka veteran who spied on Nazi movements during World War IIpaid college kids to toss the disc on campuses. Melin and Knerr had run a used-car store together in downtown Los Angeles before founding Wham-O. A series of equally ingenious toys including Slip 'N Slide, Silly String, the Hula Hoop and the insanely bouncy Superball would soon follow. He had lived for many years in San Gabriel before his retirement.
Who Invented the Hula Hoop? Joan Anderson Did. - The Atlantic (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.)Mr. 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. ", "Branding in History:Fad and Brand Wham-O", "EXCLUSIVE: ICM Signs Wham-O Toy Company", "Wham-O co-founder Knerr dies at 82 San Francisco Business Times", "Wham-O CEO sues over post-purchase ouster - 8/24/2009 10:01:00 AM - Playthings", "Nostalgia (and Frisbees) in the air at Wham-O", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wham-O&oldid=1127101140, Manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles, Companies based in Los Angeles County, California, Privately held companies based in California, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from January 2019, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from February 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Ads claimed it could make bubbles "as long as a bus". Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Tilted flip curves. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. More importantly, they were actually having as much fun as people thought they were. By 1957, the company had sold several million of the disks.But nothing could compare to the whirlwind force of the Hula-Hoop, which Wham-O introduced the next year. In a testament to his marketing aptitude, the stunt was picked up by local press. By 2006 Wham-O's product line included several groups of related items using licensed brand names.
Introduced Hula-Hoop and Frisbee The Irish Times (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.). Read more:12 WackyProducts from Wham-O You Have to See to Believe.. Melin, who had Alzheimers disease, died Friday in Newport Beach.
You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Ed Headrick looked over the leftover plastic from the Hula implosion and had an idea. In 1955 inventor Fred Morrison began marketing a plastic flying disc called the Pluto Platter. Stingley and the company spent two years trying to create a manufacturing process that would result in a stable ball (prototypes were prone to exploding). You have chosen this person to be their own family member. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. WebArthur Spud Melin has recently died. Over the years, Wham-O churned out 25 million Hula Hoops. He sold the design to Wham-O in 1957. After selling more than 100 million Hula Hoops in 16 months, Arthur Spud Melin and Rich Knerr took a look at their books. Almost certainly not, Vanessa Hudson to replace Alan Joyce as Qantas chief, Covid graduates struggle with teamwork - Deloitte and PwC, Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton quits Google and warns over dangers of machine learning, Permanent TSBs interest income jumps 86% on Ulster Bank deal and rising rates, Ukrainian forces shell village in Bryansk region, says Russian governor. Every toy company has a submission policy, says Walsh, who also designs games. Wham-O would never have seen that success if not for their open-door policy: Anyone could telegram, mail, or show up in person with a toy idea. In the early 1960s Wham-O created the Super Ball, a high-bouncing ball made of a hard elastomer Polybutadiene alloy, dubbed Zectron, with a 0.92 coefficient of restitution when bounced on hard surfaces. Five dozen were ordered by the White House. But Headrick wasn't the only mad scientist on staff.Wham-O had a second secret weapon in Norm Stingley, a chemist who brought them a highly volatile compound his company had been working on. All rights reserved. But Wham-O continued to make other novelties, like Silly String and the Slip 'n' Slide. But as quickly as it started, it was over. ''Spud brought it home and showed it to me,'' Mrs. Melin recalled yesterday. Around 20 million Super Balls were sold that decade, and the NFL named the Super Bowl games after it.[10].
Arthur Kelso Spud Melin (1924-2002) - Find a Grave Memorial There was an error deleting this problem. Wham-O changed the name to Frisbee and began selling the rebranded toy in 1958. Verify and try again. Year should not be greater than current year.
The Men Who Invented Fun: A History of Wham-O Wham-O was also enjoying the creative freedom that came from the plastic injection molding process, a relatively recent innovation in the wooden toy business. "Superball was such a great one. While visiting that continent he saw a little fish that buried its eggs in mud during the dry season. Made of aluminum spars, wood, steel wire and mylar, it was brightly painted to resemble a hawk or owl.
Richard Knerr, co-founder of Wham-O - Santa Rosa Press Democrat The adolescent appetite for dangerous weapons and sporting goods was so large that the two were soon grossing $100,000 in annual revenue. (L to R) Rich Knerr, Fred Morrison, and Arthur Melin. Increasingly, kids were turning less to outdoor play and more toward higher-priced electronic offerings, which meant bigger profit margins for companies. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. WebArthur Spud Melin .
To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Melin, who started toy giant Wham-O in 1948 with his boyhood friend Richard Knerr, died Friday. She didn't know what she was going to do with it.. In the summer of 1958, the craze hit the US, selling 40 million $1.98 hoops and producing $45 million in profits. Smith has 10 children, including a daughter who works as a film producer. "We didn't want it used as a toy, we wanted it to be a sport," Melin said in a 1998 interview with the Pasadena Star-News. The company ended 1958 with losses of $10,000. 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 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. 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 With only network channels to choose from, the odds kids would see ads for the Super Ball were substantial. We didnt want it used as a toy, Melin told the Pasadena Star-News in 1998.
Richard Rich Knerr co-founded the Wham-O company, which specialised in fun products such as Silly String and the Super Ball. Wham-O was the comic book sound effect they assigned to their ball bearings hitting a target, and a good name for a company that specialized in launching projectiles: blowguns, throwing knives, and tomahawks followed.
Wham-O - Wikipedia They were flat broke. In the 1960s they produced a US$119 do-it-yourself bomb shelter cover. Both the Hula Hoop and Instant Fish sprang from Melins interest in other parts of the world. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. Gender Male; Jobs. Additional Sources:The WHAM-O Super Book. Knerr and Melin marketed their products directly to kids, including demonstrating their toys at playgrounds. By 1994, when Mattel purchased Wham-O, the San Gabriel factory was down to a skeleton crew keeping up production of only a handful of products. Arthur Melin, 77, a Promoter of the Hula-Hoop, Is Dead, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/01/business/arthur-melin-77-a-promoter-of-the-hula-hoop-is-dead.html. Initially, Melin and Knerr marketed them on college campuses by word of mouth. TheSlip N Slide, Hacky Sack, and several others were also third-party ideas. Weve updated the security on the site. Melin thought he could sell chunks of egg-embedded mud, instruct buyers to add water, and provide fish to delight the millions. He is survived by his wife and five daughters.
Melin They just did it because they thought it was funny.. 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. His battles with the church arent over, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, Decades of failures leave L.A. County facing up to $3 billion in sex abuse claims, China to scrap PCR test requirement for inbound travelers starting Saturday, Down to our final hill: Ski season (finally) winding down at Big Bear resorts, If Its a Small World isnt the best ride at Disneyland, what is? It was like a new medium, says Tim Walsh, a Wham-O historian and author of The Wham-O Super Book. Wham-O named them for the Hawaiian-dance-like hip rotations needed to keep them aloft.
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