You know… For kids!
Here is another lost piece of post-war Americana – the wacky inventor entrepreneur. Richard Knerr was one of the founders of Wham-O, which introduced the Hula Hoop, the SuperBall and the Frisbee, among other things.
The only place you’ll see this kind of guy today is on late night infomercials – or getting ready to call on a VC about his new web site. In a big box retail world, it’s hard to imagine the Frisbee even making it past the buyer, much less becoming a large-enough hit that each home would have several.
In the first year, Wham-O sold as many as 40 million hoops; by 1960, 100 million, a mark no other toy had ever reached. After too many households had two or three of the hoops, the fad evaporated, leaving Wham-O marooned on a mountain of tubular plastic. Total profit: only $10,000, a result of business inexperience and millions of unsold hoops.
“We completely lost control,” Mr. Knerr told Forbes magazine in 1982.
The Hula Hoop financial debacle was unusual, however. The company had done, and would do, considerably better on products like the Frisbee, for which it bought the rights, streamlined and named. Brought to market in 1957, the Frisbee became a lasting diversion, and even the basis of competitive sports, some of which Wham-O invented.
Other Wham-O brainstorms included the exceedingly bouncy SuperBall, the Water Wiggly sprinkler, the Slip ’N Slide water slide, the Limbo Game and Silly String, a seemingly endless stream of liquid that hardened after being expelled from an aerosol can, all too often in a child’s hair.
New York Times: Richard Knerr, 82, Craze Creator, Dies
