Top 10 Children’s Toys 1950-1960:[1]
1. Barbie – She debuted in 1959 invented by Ruth Handler and supposedly based on her daughter. Ruth is co-founder of Mattel and Barbie put them on the map as toy makers.
This is what Barbie looked like when she debuted.
2. Play-Doh – Created by Noah and Joseph McVicker as a non-toxic reusable wallpaper cleaner in 1955. A schoolteacher inquired about a safe modeling clay substitute and Joseph sent her some of their wallpaper cleaner, and the kids loved it. The brothers created Rainbow Crafts Company and renamed their product Play-Doh.
3. Frisbee – 2 ideas created this product. The first, a Connecticut pie baker, William Russel Frisbie, came up with a marketing plan in 1870 to sell his pies. He impressed his name on the bottom of reusable tin plates that his company sold their pies in with the intention that housewives would take the plate to bake a pie, see his name, and think about how much easier it’d be to just buy one. His business boomed and in the 1940s, students at Yale used the tins to throw them to each other and catch them. The second idea came about in the 1950s when Walter Frederick Morrison designed a saucer disc and sold his idea of playing catch with them to Wham-O. While the president of Wham-O toured college campuses across the country he noticed what the students at Yale were doing with the tins. Coming back to CA, he renamed the saucer disc after Frisbie only changing the “i” to another “e” to avoid legal issues.
What Frisbie's pie tin looked like.
4. Tonka Trucks – After failing at making and selling garden tools, a group of teachers turned that failure into success by taking the left over materials to make toys. The toy truck they created was named after the lake Minnetonka.
5. Matchbox Cars – Creator Jack Odell made a miniature brass model of a car for his daughter to take to school for Show and Tell. To help her carry it, he placed the car inside a matchbox making the toy a huge hit.
6. Yahtzee – A wealthy Canadian couple approached Edwin Lowe, a toymaker, to make copies of a game they created. He loved it and bought the rights. It was originally called The Yacht Game created for people to enjoy the game while cruising on the ocean.
7. Skateboards – Wow, I had no idea this actually dates back to the 1930s! It wasn’t until 1958 that the skateboard was manufactured as we know it today.
8. Hula Hoops – These have apparently been around for thousands years. The modern form of it was born out of a trip to Australia by a friend of the company Wham-O who saw children twirl bamboo hoops around their waist for exercise during school.
9. Mr. Potato Head – Creator George Lerner initially designed and produced this for kids to take and use face pieces as push pins for them to push into fruits and veggies. Companies declined to market it saying they didn’t think parents would want to waste food. In 1952, Mr. Potato Head debuted through television advertising where kids would use real potatoes to make countless faces. In 1960, plastic pieces were used instead.
10. PEZ – Originally created as a mint dispenser in 1927 by Edward Haas, an employee of PEZ, Oskar Uxa, eventually changed the design of the dispenser so that it would look more like a cigarette lighter. In 1955, the company decided to place heads on the dispensers in order to market them to children.
What PEZ must've originally looked like.
A vintage PEZ with Olive Oil's face (from Popeye).
[1] http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/460516/top_ten_toys_of_yesterday_the_1950s_pg2.html?cat=25
All images are found on Google Images by typing in the product name and "1950s."
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