by Pam North
Round -- a basic shape with an infinite variety of uses in toys far
beyond balls, balloons and wheels. Some of the world's
best-known playthings have been circular.
Bamboo exercise rings used in Australian gym classes were the inspiration for the first major fad created and fueled by the latest American power -- television advertising. An Australian firm manufactured wooden ones, and sold them in retail stores, bringing them to the attention of Wham-O, a small California firm. Wham-O whipped up a few wood ones of their own and introduced them at cocktail parties, where, after a few drinks, people enthusiatically took to twirling them. An inexpensive plastic version was subsequently mass-produced in January, 1958, under the trademark Hula Hoop (named after the motion it resembled, the Hawaiian hula dance). The Hula Hoop quickly became the biggest toy craze in history up to that time. Twenty million hula hoops ($30 million worth) saturated the market during the next few months, but by the end of the year the frenzy for the toy began to diminish, and Hula Hoops faded away until a brief comeback in 1965 with the "Shoop-Shoop" Hula Hoop (a ball-bearing had been inserted into it to make a distinctive noise). During its span as a favorite plaything, the Hula Hoop was known for several interesting facts. In Great Britain it was blamed for an increase in back, neck and abdominal injuries. Indonesia banned them as an evil that would stimulate passion, and they were forbidden on Japanese streets. China called them a "nauseating craze," and the Soviet Union proclaimed them "a symbol of the emptiness of American culture." Marathon records were established: the longest whirl (over 18,000 turns by a Boston 10-year-old boy), and the most hoops twirled simultaneously (14 by an 11-year-old Michigan boy). Hula hoops are still around with further improvements such as fringe, twinkling lights and glow-in-the-dark eeriness.
The origin of another popular round toy, the yo-yo, goes much further back in history. The yo-yo is probably the second-oldest toy, predated only by dolls, and is estimated to go back about 2500 years. It is depicted in examples of Greek art from about 500 B.C., ancient Egyptian temple drawings, art of 1765 India, and mentioned in Chinese culture. A version was even used as a weapon in the Phillipines -- one that could be pulled back by the hunter to use again if he initially missed his target. In the 1700s the yo-yo became popular with European aristocracy, and in 1866 the first United States patent was obtained by two Ohio men. Various other patents were filed through 1911, but the yo-yo did not become popular until the 1920s, when Pedro Flores introduced the Filipino version to crowds of American spectators. Donald F. Duncan (inventor of Eskino Pie, Good Humor Ice Cream Truck and successful marketer of parking meters) saw one of the demonstrations, and joining forces with Flores, mass-produced yo-yos in 1929 with an important new feature -- the string was looped around the axle instead of being attached to it This allowed the yo-yo to "sleep," or spin freely at the end of the string instead of only going up and down. Duncan bought out Flores a year later, and began to promote his product with a variety of imaginative campaigns that included linking his yo-yos to Hearst newspaper subscriptions and getting Hollywood stars and famous athletes to be photographed with yo-yos. By 1946, Duncan's new Wisconsin plant was producing 3,600 yo-yos per hour, 24 hours per day, and still all his orders could not be filled. Surprisingly, Duncan's business went bankrupt despite the success of his product. His business failure was attributed to too much expansion and debt, failure to switch to plastic from wood to make the yo-yos, competition from new products (Frisbees, skateboards, etc.), and loss of the word "yo-yo" as a trademark (the term had become generic). Flambeau Plastics bought the right to the name, and although the yo-yo era came to an end in 1965, the toy is still produced with success. Some interesting yo-yo facts are: yo-yos were on the space shuttles Discovery and Atlantis in 1985 and 1992 respectively (this led to the discovery that a yo-yo will not "sleep" in space); the Lego company manufactured yo-yos in the 1930s, but ended up using many of them, sawed in half, as wheels for their toys and trucks; an edible yo-yo was manufactured in the 1900s; the world's record for yo-yoing was 120 hours, set in 1977 by John Winslow of Gloucester, Virginia.
The Slinky, another successful round toy, was inspired by a meter for testing horsepower on battleships. A torsion spring used in the testing meter fell from the desk of marine engineer Richard James, tumbling end-over-end across the floor. James devised a steel formula that allowed a spring to "walk." His initial batch of 400, displayed in 1947 at Gimbel's, sold out in 90 minutes, and another toy classic was born. The Slinky, too, would find itself on a space shuttle flight as a device for the astronauts to manipulate in a weightless atmosphere.
Next week: Something for the girls -- dolls and teddies.
Illustrations to accompany article may be found at:
http://www.spintastics.com/Historyof YoYo.asp
French soldier with sword and yo-yo (midway down page)
http://www.geocities.com/lollophotos/gina71.html
Celebrities such as Gina Lollobrigida enjoyed Hula Hoops
http://www.nevins.net
Boy with Hula Hoop
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/STS51D/10062112.jpg
Astronauts with Slinky on space shuttle Discovery flight.