Knerr, Walsh says, had sellers remorse right away. It became Wham-O's long, slow seller, with its own plant in San Gabriel, California, taking off in the 1960s as a counter-cultural exercise, the toy of hippies and of guys trying to impress their girls with Frisbee flips - "Flat flip flies straight. Year should not be greater than current year. One of the best relationships on Merlin was between the series' eponymous protagonist and Camelot's king. In 1955 inventor Fred Morrison began marketing a plastic flying disc called the Pluto Platter. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. They were all about fun," recalls Richard's son, Chuck. 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.He was 77 and had lived in Irvine, Calif. Ed Headrick looked over the leftover plastic from the Hula implosion and had an idea. [28] If Spud and I had to say what we contributed, Knerr said, it was fun. 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. 1948: WHAM-O founded. Wham-O eventually branched out from slingshots, selling boomerangs and other sporting goods. 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. 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. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Richard Knerr, a businessman who brought joy to millions of children around the world, died on Jan. 14 from complications of a stroke. Try again later. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. He was 82. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. "Superball was such a great one. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. There was a problem getting your location. Wham-O would never have seen that success if not for their open-door policy: Anyone could telegram, mail, or show up in person with a toy idea. Make sure that the file is a photo. The company ended 1958 with losses of $10,000. For many years, the company's strategy was to maintain eight to twelve simple, inexpensive products such as Frisbees, Super Balls, and Hula Hoops. based on information from your browser. To use this feature, use a newer browser. If it was good, the company would license it and pay out a royalty. Tiring of business, Mr. Melin persuaded Mr. Knerr to sell the company in 1982 to the Kransco Group Companies for $12 million. One bowling ball-sized promotional Super Ball wreaked havoc in an Australian hotel, putting a hole in the wall before accidentally falling out a window, bouncing 15 stories, and then crashing into asports carparked on the street below. 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. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. About 600,000 were made. By Melins estimate, the fad started in January 1958 and ended that October. 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. Failed to delete flower. Wham-O rebounded a few years later with the unusual spring of the SuperBall, made of a compressed plastic known as Zectron. WebIn 1948, he co-founded the company Wham-O with Arthur Melin (nicknamed "Spud"). Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. If Headrick firmed it up and added ridges to make it more aerodynamic, they might have something. Along with his wife, Melin is survived by five daughters, Linda, Sally, June, Carol and Della; one brother, Tom; and 11 grandchildren. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. 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 Their hobby was breeding falcons, and training them to dive by lobbing meatballs at them on the wing. Wham-O Inc. is an American toy company based in Carson, California, United States. The pair, who would remain lifelong pals and business partners, attended the University of Learn more about merges. By 1948, they had moved into Knerr's Los Angeles garage, where Spud Melin cut slingshots with a handsaw, Knerr sanded, and both sold, personally first, then by mail-order and through dealers all over the United States. By the summer of 1958, the Hula-Hoop, and its many imitators, took the nation by storm. The childhood friends formed WHAM-O in 1948, as college students, when they began making and selling slingshots in a garage. By 1957, the company had sold several million of the disks.But nothing could compare to the whirlwind force of the Hula-Hoop, which Wham-O introduced the next year. With other products, Wham-O tried to capitalize on existing national trends. Gender Male; Jobs. 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. They were more of an old-school company. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! Promoting the creations was a family affair. There is a problem with your email/password. They had her sign for it first. 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. Magic Window (1971), two 30 by 30 centimetres (12in 12in) oval plates of heavy clear plastic, with a narrow channel between them containing "microdium" (glass) crystal sands of varying colors that created complex patterns when shifted. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Arthur Melin (27070295)? Compared by many to be two sides of the same coin, Merlin and Arthur's relationship was at the heart of the show. Verify and try again. Many products were not successful. By 1957, the company had sold several million of the disks. cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Initially, Melin and Knerr marketed them on college campuses by word of mouth. Knerr and Melin left behind a considerable legacy in the toy world. WebArthur Spud Melin has recently died. [8] "Hula Hoop mania" continued through the end of 1959, and netted Wham-O $45million (equivalent to $418million in 2023[9]). A series of equally ingenious toys including Slip 'N Slide, Silly String, the Hula Hoop and the insanely bouncy Superball would soon follow. 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. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. They started making slingshots, just for kicks, out of the ends of orange crates, Chuck recalls. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. But I think this country gave us more than we gave it. They also offered mail-order sporting goods, such as pellet guns, crossbows and daggers. 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. The retail price for the rubber-band-powered toy was $3 (about $24 in 2020 money). He suggested they start making the toy at Wham-O, the San Gabriel-based company he had started with his childhood friend, Richard Knerr. March 5, 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 companys co-founder, Arthur Spud Melin. ", Ben Martin/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images. 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. ''Spud brought it home and showed it to me,'' Mrs. Melin recalled yesterday. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Knerr was also quoted in 1997 as saying the name came from a comic strip called Mr. Left strictly to their own sensibilities, items like the Bowmatic bow-making machine and the Super Foam Machine probably wouldn't have kept the lights on. They just banned Elvis Presley's hips from the Ed Sullivan show.' At first, they focused on sporting goods, rather than toys, but they kept an eye out for unusual items like boomerangs and crossbows. Wham-O also benefited from the relative economic sense of advertising nationally. Melin passed away in 2002; Knerr, in 2008. (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.)Mr. The enterprise ended with the oysters being dumped into a nearby bay because they could not get the venture off the ground. (It was later sold to Mattel, which then sold it to a group of investors.). (They couldnt.) Travel broadens one, it is often said, and it certainly gave Melin ideas. Arthur 'Spud' Melin, novelty inventor, born December 30 1924; died June 28 2002, The man who brought us the Hula-Hoop and the Frisbee, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. ''Spud brought it home and showed it to me,'' Mrs. Melin recalled yesterday. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. But neither Arthur Melin nor Richard Knerr can lay any claim to inventing the thing. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. 1948: WHAM-O founded. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? If subjects mastered the swing of it, they got to keep the toy. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. 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. 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. 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. Edit Overview Section. Melin retired when Wham-O was sold to Kransco Group Cos. in 1982. 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. The Americans had trouble duplicating the moves of the Australian kids until a Wham-O executive, Richard Gillespie, finally mastered the art after four straight days of practice. For about a year in the 1950s, the company markets their sporting goods under the name WAMO. 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. 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. 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. Knerr spent his final hours in Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, Calif., after suffering a stroke earlier in the day at his home. Kids would just throw it on the ground and it would just take off to the ceiling, into lights.". But knock-off artists had smelled opportunity. (The name had been used since the 18th century, but till then was not registered as a trademark.) Please try again later. 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. There was no one like Melin or Knerr sitting over a drawing board and trying to come up with an outlandish product. Nonetheless, Hula-Hoops remain the most extraordinary US global imposition - travelling faster in two years than Coca-Cola in decades. 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.

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