Hula Hoop turns 50
SAN
FRANCISCO (AP) —
It’s hard to believe in an age of action-packed video games and other whiz-bang
gadgets, but the Hula Hoop once was the hippest toy around.
The
hoopla began 50 years ago this week when entrepreneurs Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin
sought a trademark for a plastic cylinder based on a similar toy that had
enjoyed modest success in Australia’s school yards.
Before
long, the Hula Hoop had more hips swiveling than Elvis Presley.
Wham-O
Inc., the company founded by Knerr and Melin, sold more than 100 million Hula Hoops — at a
suggested retail price of $1.98 apiece — after just a year on the U.S. market.
“It
became a real piece of Americana,” said toy historian Tim Walsh, whose book
about Wham-O is scheduled to be published in October.
The
Hula Hoop became so ubiquitous that the former Soviet Union banned the toy as a
symbol of the “emptiness of American culture.”
Not
long after that, the Hula Hoop became a glaring example of the toy industry’s
now familiar boom-and-bust cycles.
Almost
as quickly as they became a household staple, millions of Hula Hoops began
collecting cobwebs in garages across the country.
“The
Hula Hoop was the granddaddy of all fads,” said Chris Guirlinger,
Wham-O’s vice president of marketing and licensing.
Hula Hoop’s downward spiral would have ruined Wham-O but
for another off-beat toy it developed: the Frisbee.