wham-o founder goes blamm-o


The man who popularized the iconic Hula Hoop, Frisbee and SuperBall died on Monday at age 82. Richard Knerr, co-founder of the Wham-O toy company, suffered a stroke and died in the hospital.

Richard Knerr and co-founder, Arthur Melin, named their enterprise Wham-O after the sound their first invention, the slingshot, made after it hit its target. They came up with the idea after looking for a way to hurl meat into the air for the training of pet falcons and hawks. Shortly thereafter, kids all around the US had the window-breaker in their hands.

In 1957, Wham-O took the idea of Australian bamboo exercise hoops and used plastic (Marlex) to create their own version of the ring - 25 million dollars worth of Hula Hoops sold in four months.

After that, they bought the rights to a plastic flying disc created by Walter "Fred" Morrison, who called it the Pluto Platter. The design was modified, the product renamed Frisbee and sales took off in 1959.

In the early 1960s, a California chemist named Norman Stingley created the SuperBall, made of an elastomer alloy named Zectron, which exhibited a remarkable 0.92 coefficient of restitution when bounced on hard surfaces. He offered it to his employer, the Bettis Rubber Company of Whittier, who declined interest in it. In 1965, Wham-O bought the rights and with some tinkering sold 20 million of them during the 1960s.

Knerr and Melin were kings of fad, always looking for the latest craze to ride on. In the 1960s, Wham-O came out with a $119 do-it-yourself bomb shelter. In 1962, they sold limbo dance kits and in 1975, after the movie Jaws was released, hawked plastic shark teeth.

Other Wham-O creations include Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, Silly String, Slip 'N Slide and the Wheelie Bar for banana-seat Schwinn Stingray bicycles.

Wham-O came on hard times as the way US children were raised changed:

Toy story

Then again, kids were different in those days--or, at least, their lives were different. Those endless, lazy summer afternoons are increasingly a thing of the past. A recent study by the market research firm Mintel shows that between 1981 and 1997, the percentage of childrens' days considered "free-time" dropped from 40 to 24. Studies also show that, in the past two decades, structured sports participation has increased by some 50 percent; another Mintel report found that in 2003, a whopping 86 percent of boys aged 9 to 11 took part in an organized team sport.

And when kids aren't submitting to a regimen of scheduled activities, they're often subjected to academic exercises in the guise of play. Today's toy industry offers video games designed to teach preschoolers math, electronic "books" that teach reading comprehension, craft kits designed to turn play time into productive time. If Wham-O had a gift for speaking to kids, many toy companies seem to be aiming their pitch directly at parents, selling them on the magnetic idea of achievement.

In 1982, Melin (in ill-health) and Knerr sold their shares to Kransco, a large toy company. Wham-O has been sold three times since. Here's some groovy clips of Wham-O commercials, which was a large part of their sales strategy.



1966 Wham-O Wheelie Bar TV Commercial



Super Ball/Super Elastic Bubble Plastic



Wham-O Silly String

Wham-O equated to fun, albeit dangerous at times, as anyone that's had a fast-traveling Frisbee or SuperBall clunk their head can attest. So here's to Richard Knerr, a man that got rich by never underestimating America's love of fad.

Aimee Mann: SuperBall - 4.87MB

Super Furry Animals: Frisbee - 3.96MB

J. D. Orr & His Lonesome Valley Boys: Hula Hoop Boogie - 6.42MB