Toys of summer

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By Karen Goldberg Goff

Let us pause for a minute to praise the plastic stalwarts of childhood.

Let's remember the memories made when you dared your brother to fire the Super Ball off the rec room paneling and it whooshed and ka-thwacked its way into a frenzy, making the dog practically hyperventilate. How about the afternoons spent idling on the college green, killing time tossing a Frisbee and listening to Bob Marley waft from the window of that dude who had the corner room? Remember the time you watched Becky from next door keep the Hula Hoops - two at a time - going until dark, long after the other neighborhood kids went home?

Good times, all brought to you by Wham-O. The venerable California toy company celebrates its 60th birthday this year, making it roughly the same age as the baby boomers with whom it has grown up.

The company's beginnings are reflective of what was going on in post-war America. Take two dreamers and a burgeoning middle class with more leisure time and disposable income. Add to that the growing popularity of plastic products, television marketing and the move to the suburbs, and, well, wham-o, you get an empire of games meant to be played in the driveways of those new subdivisions.

The story starts, as many trends do, in California, where new college grads Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin created a slingshot in Mr. Knerr's garage. When whatever they were firing made a "whamo" sound when it hit its target, the company name was formed, says Chris Gurlinger, Wham-O's vice president of marketing and licensing.

The founders of Wham-O were looking for playthings that were simple yet extraordinary, physics-defying but inexpensive. Soon after they were taking meetings with all kinds of inventors, as well as scouring the world for quirky pastimes that could be adapted to the domestic market.

Among the big hits: the 1955 visit from building inspector Walter "Fred" Morrison, who refined a flying plastic disc that Wham-O at first named the "Pluto Platter," to capture the interest of a public captivated by all things Sputnik and space related. By 1958, Wham-O renamed it the Frisbee (after a Connecticut pie bakery).

"When you think of Wham-O, Frisbee is the first thing that comes to mind," says Jim Silver, editor in chief of "Toys and Family Entertainment," a monthly publication. "What makes a great toy is one that is easy, but [offers] lots of ways to play. Frisbees are fun if you are 10 or you are 30. You can play at school, on the beach or in an organized sport like Ultimate Frisbee."

Wham-O has sold more than 300 million Frisbees, putting it in a league with Hot Wheels and Barbie as great American toys, says Tim Walsh, toy historian and author of the"The Wham-O Superbook," which will be published this summer.

"What other toy has another species as its biggest fans?" Mr. Walsh says. "Frisbee is huge among dogs. To me, that is the toy that should be in the time capsule."