Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. Their Air Blaster could blow out a candle at 25 feet. 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. Wham-Os Pluto Platter, meant to capitalize on the 1950s obsession with space and flying saucers, had a wobbly motion to it. But when the products hit, it made up for the lean years. Since then, he has been involved in several experimental treatments, Mrs. Melin said, and he has willed his brain to the University of California at Irvine, where he was treated. 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For about a year in the 1950s, the company markets their sporting goods under the name WAMO. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Today, Woodmans net worth is estimated at $800 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, which is actually much lower than his peak valuation of $4.5 billion. 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. 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. Thanks for your help! All Knerr's creations had a way of bringing out the most mysterious aspects of physics, Knerr says. In 1948, friends Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr founded a company in California to sell a slingshot they created to shoot meat up to falcons they used for hunting. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. 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. Its origins are disputed, but seem to have been in empty pie tins from the Frisbie Baking Company, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, tossed around the ivy-league campus of Yale - or Princeton, Dartmouth, Amherst and Middlebury, each of which claims to be its home. The two never publicly commented on the injuries, but for a company that was built on levity, it had to be sobering. 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. ", "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. In the summer of 1958, the craze hit the US, selling 40 million $1.98 hoops and producing $45 million in profits. 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? Water Wiggle (1962), a plastic-enclosed curved nozzle that, when powered by a garden hose, became airborne. [28] If Spud and I had to say what we contributed, Knerr said, it was fun. Resend Activation Email. Their inspiration came from a slingshot they had made while hunting with falcons, which was used to shoot meat up to the birds. The elephant was unloaded and the delivery truck left. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Try again. (modern). 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. Since then, he has been involved in several experimental treatments, Mrs. Melin said, and he has willed his brain to the University of California at Irvine, where he was treated.Besides his wife, he is survived five daughters, Linda Melin, Sally Melin, June Macy-Melin, Carol Denham and Della Peterson; a brother, Tom Melin; and 11 grandchildren. (They couldnt.) Wham-O's first incursion into the mainstream came in 1955, when it bought the idea for a plastic flying disk from a building inspector named Walter Frederick Morrison. We strive for accuracy and fairness. TIME reporter Allie Townsend picks the 100 most influential toys from 1923 to the present. In 1957, Toltoys of Australia brought the concept of the Hula Hoop to Knerr and Melin. You tell us, Chaperone policy back at Knotts Berry Farm due to unruly and inappropriate behavior, I asked people at Coachella how much money they make and if their ticket was worth it. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). The bosses explained that they patented the mechanical principle behind it, the ratio of waist to diameter: "Small hoops or big waists just won't work.". The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. In the 1960's, the company says, it sold 20 million SuperBalls until it dropped the product. WebEd Sullivan (2): Directed by Franklin Heller. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Arthur Melin (27070295)? This inspired Melin to create the .mw-parser-output .vanchor>:target~.vanchor-text{background-color:#b1d2ff}Instant Fish product, an aquarium kit consisting of some of the fish eggs, and some mud in which to hatch them. He had lived for many years in San Gabriel before his retirement. Learn more about merges. Millions of rings sat in piles like gargantuan wrist bracelets. , It was difficult for dad to see his friends health decline, Lori Knerr says. Born in Los Angeles on December 30th, 1924, he and his boyhood pal, later business partner, Richard (Rich) Knerr, studied at the University of South California. The technology allowed them to dream up all sorts of packaged nonsense. 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. Wham-O began producing a plastic version of the hoop, dubbed Hula after the hip-gyrating Hawaiian dance of the same name, and demonstrating it on Southern California playgrounds. He patented a design for a two-handed tennis racket with an adjustable handle.Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Sales skyrocketed, reaching 100 million before Mattel eventually bought out Wham-O. Wham-O also benefited from the relative economic sense of advertising nationally. Knerr once had a baby elephant delivered to Melins wife, Suzy, after Melin went on an African safari without him. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. 2019 TIME USA, LLC. Wham-O's initial success was a result of its founders' insight. (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.). Besides his wife, he is survived five daughters, Linda Melin, Sally Melin, June Macy-Melin, Carol Denham and Della Peterson; a brother, Tom Melin; and 11 grandchildren. By the end of the 1970s, Wham-O had settled into a strange sense of complacency. Drag images here or select from your computer for Arthur Kelso Spud Melin memorial. This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 22:20. Every toy company has a submission policy, says Walsh, who also designs games. Wham-O Inc. is an American toy company based in Carson, California, United States. By 2006 Wham-O's product line included several groups of related items using licensed brand names. He is survived by his wife and five daughters. They just banned Elvis Presley's hips from the Ed Sullivan show.' It gave us the opportunity to do it."[29]. 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.. All the funny product namesFling-a-Ring, Zip Zap, Water Weiniehad been exhausted. 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. By various estimates, 20 million to 40 million were sold that year worldwide.But as quickly as the fad arrived, it ended, when school began, leaving Wham-O with millions of hoops and a $10,000 loss for the year.Wham-O rebounded a few years later with the unusual spring of the SuperBall, made of a compressed plastic known as Zectron. Try again later. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. The California native was a teenager when he befriended Arthur Spud Melin outside a Pasadena movie theater. There was no one like Melin or Knerr sitting over a drawing board and trying to come up with an outlandish product. The two stayed on as consultants for several years, but it wasnt the same. 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. It was a little like excavating for toy gold, but the results were worthwhile: Slip N Slide, invented by an upholsterer, became one of the companys biggest perennial sellers. "I think he proved the American success story. 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. When the rains came, the eggs hatched. Knerr spent his final hours in Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, Calif., after suffering a stroke earlier in the day at his home. Knerr and Melin devised a test of an early version of the hula hoop in 1958 by holding demonstrations at parks. ''He said it would be huge. Wham-O headquarters in Carson, California, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Richard Knerr, 82; co-founded Wham-O, maker of the Hula Hoop and Frisbee", "Super Bowl Owes Its Name to a Bouncy Ball History in the Headlines", "12 Lesser-Known Wham-O Products You Have to See to Believe", "Airgun makers that spawned firearms | Air gun blog Pyramyd Air Report", "Monster Super Gorilla Giant Horseshoe Magnet by Wham-o", "Super Sneaky Squirtin Stick Trademark #73131837, Owner: WHAM-O", "RETRO REVIEW: Wham-O Giant Comics #1 (April 1967)", "MTU Physics Alumni Department History Exhibits BS Degrees", "Get Yourself a Magic Window, just like the popular 70's toy for all ages! 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. They started making slingshots, just for kicks, out of the ends of orange crates, Chuck recalls. Indeed, throughout their careersMelinandKnerrrefused to becomecorporate suits, forever hunting for things that made them smile. 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. 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. Early on, they tried some other, ill-fated endeavors. Richard Knerr, co-founder of the company responsible for turning the Hula Hoop, Frisbee and many other ingenious creations into iconic toys died Monday at age 82. Melin and Knerr started with slingshots and named their mail-order company after the sound a slingshot made when its projectile struck a target. New products were developed for tryout periods. Over the years, Wham-O churned out 25 million Hula Hoops. Both the Hula Hoop and Instant Fish sprang from Melins interest in other parts of the world. Please enter your email and password to sign in. 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. Most of all, the two were able to get away with something rare in the cutthroat world of toys: they had fun. The next year it was refined and reintroduced as the Frisbee. Ben Martin/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images Most wont even look at an idea unless it comes through an agency. The domestic size sold 20m. The next year it was refined and reintroduced as the Frisbee.For years, college students, especially at Yale, had played a game of catch with pie tins (or in some versions of the story, lids of cookie jars) made by the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Conn. Mr. Knerr said in an interview yesterday that the similarity of the name of Wham-O's disk to the name of the student game was a coincidence. Travel broadens one, it is often said, and it certainly gave Melin ideas. Soon, crowds of teenagers rotating their hula hoops were featured in Life magazine and on the Dinah Shore Show. died this week after suffering a stroke in California. The adolescent appetite for dangerous weapons and sporting goods was so large that the two were soon grossing $100,000 in annual revenue. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. Shortly thereafter, the company had another huge success with the Frisbee. Youre never going to see a toy that costs a dollar on television again. The success of the Super Ball and Frisbee largely made up for Wham-Os misadventures with the Hula Hoopwhich, contrary to belief, wound up being a steady seller over time. Five dozen were ordered by the White House. For example, Sea-Doo is a brand of personal water craft owned by Bombardier; Wham-O makes a Sea-Doo line of small inflatable rafts designed to be towed behind watercraft. 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. Kids, with their resistant vertebrae, had an easier go of it than some adults, who suffered hernias and slipped discs. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. He was 77 and had Alzheimer's disease. In a testament to his marketing aptitude, the stunt was picked up by local press. You can always change this later in your Account settings. 3 1 greengrenades To be the man, you gotta For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. "Superball was such a great one. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 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. One of the best relationships on Merlin was between the series' eponymous protagonist and Camelot's king. With only network channels to choose from, the odds kids would see ads for the Super Ball were substantial. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. Hula hooping teens became an iconic image of the 1950s, and the fad grew when Wham-O began manufacturing a smaller version of the hoop for the younger set. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. 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. Other companies began making their own versions, and within four months Americans were spinning 20 million of the hoops and organizing national competitions. You can even hire a personal hula hoop trainer. Rare was the tag line that didn't abuse exclamation marks. You can navigate days by using left and right arrows. 1957: WHAM-O acquires the rights to the Pluto Platter from Fred Morrison and renames it Frisbee. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. Their hobby was breeding falcons, and training them to dive by lobbing meatballs at them on the wing. Knerr was also quoted in 1997 as saying the name came from a comic strip called Mr. 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. Arthur Spud Melin, co-founder of Wham-O Inc., which gave the world such leisure icons as the Frisbee, the Hula Hoop and the Superball--along with such duds as If subjects mastered the swing of it, they got to keep the toy. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Their projectile launcher was a home-made version of one of man's oldest weapons, the slingshot. Wham-O named them for the Hawaiian-dance-like hip rotations needed to keep them aloft. Photo courtesy of Phil Kennedy. Are you sure that you want to delete this flower? But I think this country gave us more than we gave it. Ads claimed it could make bubbles "as long as a bus". Today, Wham-O is owned by the Aguilar Group, a private investment company, and still markets their trademark products. Learn more about managing a memorial . Wham-O, in fact, hired students to sell Frisbees on campuses until it could get distribution in stores. In the 1960's, the company says, it sold 20 million SuperBalls until it dropped the product. But nothing could compare to the whirlwind force of the Hula-Hoop, which Wham-O introduced the next year. Increasingly, kids were turning less to outdoor play and more toward higher-priced electronic offerings, which meant bigger profit margins for companies. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. In 1957, Wham-O, still a fledgling company, took the idea of Australian bamboo "exercise hoops", manufactured them in Marlex, and called their new product the Hula Hoop. [8] "Hula Hoop mania" continued through the end of 1959, and netted Wham-O $45million (equivalent to $418million in 2023[9]). They balanced and complemented each other.. Art (Spud) Melin and Richard (Rich) Knerr had a knack for fun, and an open door for outside inventor ideas. Nonetheless, Hula-Hoops remain the most extraordinary US global imposition - travelling faster in two years than Coca-Cola in decades. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Headrick was in charge of sifting through ideas, of which one in a thousand might be viable enough to pursue. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. All rights reserved. This account has been disabled. 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. cemeteries found in Corona del Mar, Orange County, California, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. He sold the design to Wham-O in 1957. READ MORE: The History of Must-Have Holiday Toys. 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. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Rather, he said, the name came from a comic strip of the era called Mr. Frisbie. Tens of millions of hoops were snapped up, with Wham-O racing to meet demand. They expanded their Wham-O company to the corner of a failed grocery store, then to a factory, and went into pellet guns, throwing knives and boomerangs. Richard Rich Knerr co-founded the Wham-O company, which specialised in fun products such as Silly String and the Super Ball. 1948: WHAM-O founded. But neither Arthur Melin nor Richard Knerr can lay any claim to inventing the thing. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. Its first hit toy, a flying plastic disc known as the Frisbee, debuted in 1957. COSTA MESA, Calif. Arthur "Spud" Melin, co-founder of the toy company that introduced the world to the Frisbee, Hula Hoop and other faddish gems of American pop culture, has died. christy funeral home obituaries, where does pat connaughton live,
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