This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Instead of counting a fortune, Wham-O was sitting on inventory they wouldnt clear for years. After all, the ball was unharmed. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. When Hasbro tried to buy Wham-O in 1982, Melin and Knerr were responsive. Edit Jobs Section. So they marketed abroad, first in Europe, then everywhere, although Japan banned them as lewd, and the Soviet Union called them "an example of the emptiness of American culture". All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. 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. The elephant was unloaded and the delivery truck left. Soon, crowds of teenagers rotating their hula hoops were featured in Life magazine and on the Dinah Shore Show. The adolescent appetite for dangerous weapons and sporting goods was so large that the two were soon grossing $100,000 in annual revenue. They just did it because they thought it was funny.. The panel were stumped by the chief painter at the White House. 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. Increasingly, kids were turning less to outdoor play and more toward higher-priced electronic offerings, which meant bigger profit margins for companies. It was like a new medium, says Tim Walsh, a Wham-O historian and author of The Wham-O Super Book. Year should not be greater than current year. Richard Knerr, a businessman who brought joy to millions of children around the world, died on Jan. 14 from complications of a stroke. 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. Mr. Melin was right, though. Arthur Melin, the co-founder of Wham-O, which introduced fads like the Hula-Hoop and lasting diversions like the Frisbee, died on Friday at a care center in Costa Mesa, Calif. You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. Arthur Melin | | The Guardian Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? 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. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. Wham-O, in fact, hired students to sell Frisbees on campuses until it could get distribution in stores. We didnt want it used as a toy, Melin told the Pasadena Star-News in 1998. Their first major development was a buy-in - the Frisbee. Made of aluminum spars, wood, steel wire and mylar, it was brightly painted to resemble a hawk or owl. Oops, something didn't work. Guest panelist John Payne identified the inventor and manufacture of the Hula Hoop. Failed to delete memorial. They thrived in a time kids functioned outside, with hits like the Frisbee prompting people to break a sweat. For about a year in the 1950s, the company markets their sporting goods under the name WAMO. The Hula had been HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Along with his wife, Melin is survived by five daughters, Linda, Sally, June, Carol and Della; one brother, Tom; and 11 grandchildren. 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. Inventors of Your Favorite Products Didn't Always Get Rich Both the Hula Hoop and Instant Fish sprang from Melins interest in other parts of the world. 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. TIME reporter Allie Townsend picks the 100 most influential toys from 1923 to the present. Pottery! 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 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. [28] If Spud and I had to say what we contributed, Knerr said, it was fun. He reportedly has a net worth of $5.6 billion. 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-handed tennis racket with an adjustable handle. "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. Spudwas the quiet, kind of brainy idea man and more introverted, says Lori Knerr, Richs daughter. The Original Hula-Hoop Girl, Now 94, Is Still At It - Vogue Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hula-hoop-patented, Marvin Miller elected first full-time MLB Players Association executive director, Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler hits #1 with Ballad of the Green Berets, Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson begins, Jim Morrison is charged with lewd behavior at a Miami concert. 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. 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? Arthur Melin, the co-founder of Wham-O, which introduced fads like the Hula-Hoop and lasting diversions like the Frisbee, died on Friday at a care center in Costa Mesa, Calif. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Services are being planned in Newport Beach on Tuesday. Melin and Knerr had run a used-car store together in downtown Los Angeles before founding Wham-O. (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.)Mr. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. 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. Wham-O - Wikipedia Arthur Kelso Spud Melin (1924-2002) - Find a Grave Memorial Most of all, the two were able to get away with something rare in the cutthroat world of toys: they had fun. WebThe hoop has been a popular children's toy for thousands of years, and the introduction of the Hula Hoop in 1958 by the Wham-O toy company has been documented by sociologists as one of the biggest fads ever to take hold in America and one of the most significant events of the time. Within four months, 25 million hoops had been sold, according to Wham-O, and hooping was an integral part of American youth culture. But nothing could compare to the whirlwind force of the Hula-Hoop, which Wham-O introduced the next year. Were it not for a chemist and a former World War II spy, things might have stopped being fun. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. 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. Bookbinding! Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Family members linked to this person will appear here. But Wham-O continued to make other novelties, like Silly String and the Slip 'n' Slide.Tiring of business, Mr. Melin persuaded Mr. Knerr to sell the company in 1982 to the Kransco Group Companies for $12 million. The enormous popularity of the Hula Hoop was short-lived and within a matter of months, the masses were on to the next big thing. This Day in History CB Rank (Person) 1,575,211. Mr. Melin became active in conservative causes like immigration reform, but continued to pursue inventions. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. Save . Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. The two stayed on as consultants for several years, but it wasnt the same. In 1948 they formed the WHAM-O Manufacturing Company in the Knerr family garage in South Pasadena. This account has been disabled. When a ball dreams, it dreams it's a Frisbee," they said. There was an error deleting this problem. TheSlip N Slide, Hacky Sack, and several others were also third-party ideas. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. Wham-O also benefited from the relative economic sense of advertising nationally. How Much People Earned From Their Iconic Inventions - Insider In the 1960's, the company says, it sold 20 million SuperBalls until it dropped the product. This is a carousel with slides. Other companies began making their own versions, and within four months Americans were spinning 20 million of the hoops and organizing national competitions. Try again later. But Melin and Knerr didnt seem wired for conventional products. But they wanted to see what they could do with it.. In 1957, an Australian visiting California told them offhand that in his home country, children 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. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. Even in the face of abdominal injury, no one could resist the Hoop. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! 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. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. 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. Greatest toy invention in years! ad copy blared. How much did a Hula Hoop cost in the 1950s? idswater.com Travel broadens one, it is often said, and it certainly gave Melin ideas. Knerr was also quoted in 1997 as saying the name came from a comic strip called Mr. Tilted flip curves. 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. Knerr and Melin left behind a considerable legacy in the toy world. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. Try again later. Hula Hoop - pgpedia.com But when the products hit, it made up for the lean years. Nevertheless, the public of all ages also adopted them, buying more than 100 million Frisbees in 30 years. Over the years, Wham-O churned out 25 million Hula Hoops. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. version made of colorful plastic tubing. However, his most famous offspring happens to work in the football industry. 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. In 1958, they renamed it the Frisbee, either because that was the phoneticisation of the trade name as heard by Knerr on a college tour, or after Mr Frisbie, a US comic strip. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. Unlike their contemporaries at Mattel or Hasbro, Melin and Knerr didnt have to navigate a corporate obstacle course. Knerr and Melin devised a test of an early version of the hula hoop in 1958 by holding demonstrations at parks. On this day in 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 company's co-founder, Arthur "Spud" Melin. Sorry! 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. 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. Rare was the tag line that didn't abuse exclamation marks. 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. After two years of development, its tendency to fly apart was overcome and its 92 per cent recovery rate realised for the springy Superball. By the summer of 1958, the Hula-Hoop, and its many imitators, took the nation by storm. 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 Wham-O Bird Ornithopter (1959) sold in a large cardboard box, ready to fly. COSTA MESA, California, Jun 29, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- 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. In the summer of 1958, the craze hit the US, selling 40 million $1.98 hoops and producing $45 million in profits. His net worth is estimated at $200 million, per Celebrity Net Worth, though its not clear how much of that is due to his creation of the Snuggie. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. If Headrick firmed it up and added ridges to make it more aerodynamic, they might have something. 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. hide caption. 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. GREAT NEWS! Melin and Knerr showed entrepreneurial spirit early on. Arthur Spud Melin - Crunchbase Person Profile All rights reserved. All Rights Reserved, Hula Hoop promoter Arthur Spud Melin dies. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27070295/arthur-kelso-melin. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. Around 20 million Super Balls were sold that decade, and the NFL named the Super Bowl games after it.[10]. The oft-told story behind the origin of the Hulu-Hoop is the tale of two childhood buddies named Richard Knerr and Arthur Spud Melin, the founders of Wham-O, who first heard of kids gyrating hoops around theirs waists for fun when a visiting Australian mentioned its popularity back home. There is a problem with your email/password. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. When the two became interested in falconry in their early 20s, they crafted a slingshot to shoot food into the air to train their birds. 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. Old ones were retired, for a few years or permanently, as their popularity waned. 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. It gave us the opportunity to do it."[29]. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Mattel Inc. bought the company in 1994. (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.). Their projectile launcher was a home-made version of one of man's oldest weapons, the slingshot. Wham-O took a fair share of wild swings in the marketplace. WebRichard Knerr and Arthur Spud Melin, founders of the Wham-O Company, are the architects of the biggest fad of all time the hula hoop! They were all about fun," recalls Richard's son, Chuck. She didn't know what she was going to do with it.. Melin passed away in 2002; Knerr, in 2008. After selling more than 100 million Hula Hoops in 16 months, Arthur Spud Melin and Rich Knerr took a look at their books. Millions of rings sat in piles like gargantuan wrist bracelets. Knerr and Melin marketed their products directly to kids, including demonstrating their toys at playgrounds. (It was also 1958, before the advent of more sophisticated distractions.) 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. All the funny product namesFling-a-Ring, Zip Zap, Water Weiniehad been exhausted. Please try again later. "Then their barber recommended they put an ad in a magazine and try mail order," he says. He gave company officials an impromptu lesson in how to use a rattan hoop imported from Australia. And in answer to a music and dance fad of the era, it also marketed Chubby Checker Limbo sets. 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. died this week after suffering a stroke in California. Shortly thereafter, the company had another huge success with the Frisbee. Head to one of these 8 L.A. spots for the perfect spring paddle. By 1957, the company had sold several million of the disks. Failed to delete flower. 2015: StallionSport Ltd. and InterSport Corp. acquire global rights to Wham-O Inc. 2018: Wham-O partners with Smacircle LMT ltd. to introduce Smacircle S1, an e-bike. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. WebIn 1948, he co-founded the company Wham-O with Arthur Melin (nicknamed "Spud"). Your Scrapbook is currently empty. Because of its enduring popularity, the Hula Hoop was inducted into 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. 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. Whatever the truth, in 1948 two ex-army pilots adapted the principle, and, in 1951, one Fred Morrison used war surplus plastic to produce the Rotary Fingernail Clipper, later known as the Flyin' Saucer. Arthur Melin, the co-founder of Wham-O, which introduced fads like the Hula-Hoop and lasting diversions like the Frisbee, died on Friday at a care center in Costa Ed Headrick looked over the leftover plastic from the Hula implosion and had an idea. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. If they liked an idea, it could be implemented immediately. 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. 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. 3 1 greengrenades To be the man, you gotta 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved, 12 Wacky Products from Wham-O You Have to See to Believe, 12 WackyProducts from Wham-O You Have to See to Believe. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Melin was right, though. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? They had no corporate ego, willing and happy to allow inventors like Springley and Morrison to pose with their creations. He was 82. Their first product was the Wham-O Slingshot, made of ash wood, which Knerr and Melin promoted by holding demonstrations of their own slingshot skills. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. Melin Wham-O began selling the disc they called the "Pluto Platter" two years later before modifying it and renaming it the "Frisbee.". ", Ben Martin/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. [6][7] 25 million were sold in four months, and in two years sales reached more than 100 million. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. I once asked Rich Knerr about stuff like the Mr. Hootie egg rake, Walsh says. Wham-O was also responsible for a few ideas that did not etch themselves into popular history as indelibly as the Frisbee, the Hula Hoop or the Superball. 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. 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. 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. (modern). For about a year in the 1950s, the company markets their sporting goods under the name WAMO. Youd never see a company making both toys and weapons now. Ed Sullivan (2 It became the biggest toy fad in modern history. Richard Knerr, co-founder of Wham-O - Santa Rosa Press Democrat Their research and development team consisted of their kids. Wham-O changed the name to Frisbee and began selling the rebranded toy in 1958. Early on, they tried some other, ill-fated endeavors. A series of equally ingenious toys including Slip 'N Slide, Silly String, the Hula Hoop and the insanely bouncy Superball would soon follow. He suggested they start making the toy at Wham-O, the San Gabriel-based company he had started with his childhood friend, Richard Knerr. Try again. 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. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. They branched into other sporting goods, including pellet guns, crossbows and daggers. He was 77 and had Alzheimer's disease. In the toy business, we aspire to create fun for people. There was a problem getting your location. Headricka veteran who spied on Nazi movements during World War IIpaid college kids to toss the disc on campuses. But as quickly as it started, it was over. Smith has 10 children, including a daughter who works as a film producer. See the article in its original context from. The domestic size sold 20 million. Melin is survived by his wife, Suzy; five daughters; a brother; and 11 grandchildren. All rights reserved. When the rains came, the eggs hatched and fish emerged overnight. 1948: WHAM-O founded. The next year it was refined and reintroduced as the Frisbee. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. 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. Wham-O began selling the Hula Hoop a short time later and eventually would sell 25 million of them. Richard Knerr (19252008[2]) and Arthur "Spud" Melin (19242002[3]), two University of Southern California graduates who were friends since their teens, were unhappy with their jobs and decided to start their own business. 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. Wham-O, Melin and Knerrs California-based amusements company, had set up so many factories and rolled out so many Hulas that the surplus of inventory robbed them of profits. Indeed, throughout their careersMelinandKnerrrefused to becomecorporate suits, forever hunting for things that made them smile.