WILD WORLD OF WHAM-O! – Dandy Fun House episode 54

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Hula Hoop. Slip n Slide. Frisbee. Super Ball. What do these names mean to you? To many, these are just the names of some fun toys from years gone by. But to others, these names all culminate into just one… WHAM-O! And in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to tell their story, have a deeper look into some of their most iconic products and discover what’s on the horizon for this epic company! Bam-O Slam-O let’s dig into WHAM-O! And let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! 

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! This is where we slam right into the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode, we’re going head first into the world of Wham-O! 

 

But first! I want to stick your head into one of these slammin’ Dandy Fun House t-shirts! 

Woven from the leftover strands of recycled superballs, you’re gonna look like a million bouncin’ bucks or no money back! They’ve got a front and a back because winter’s on the way and we very thoughtfully cut four very strategically – placed holes in em! That’s right! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! How much would you pay for luxury like this? It really doesn’t matter because we’re not changing our price! Just head over to our Dandy Fun Shop located inside the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and see for yourself! And if you enjoy this show on YouTube, we have a miniature Dandy Fun Shop set up there too! That’s the Dandy Fun Shop where we have Absurdity Amplified! 

OKAY! WHAM-O! Where do I even begin with an enigma like this? Wham-O is THE toy and sports product company responsible for such instantly-recognizable products such as Frisbee, Slip ‘N Slide, Hula Hoop, Hacky Sack, Super Ball, Boogie Board, Trac-Ball, Silly String and many, many more! You might think of Wham-O as a classic novelty company from the 70s and 80s but their history actually goes back farther than that. MUCH FARTHER!!!!!

The year is 1948 and two eager upstarts freshly graduated from the University of Southern California named Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin who were friends found themselves frustrated with their post-grad occupations and decided to team up and start of all things a business making extra-powerful slingshots out of Richard’s garage.

Why slingshots you ask? Both being falconry enthusiasts, they would use slingshots to shoot food up into the air for their birds.

They called their line of slingshots the WHAM-O Slingshot and it was made from ash wood. They promoted and sold the Wham-O Slingshot  by visiting various sports clubs and holding demonstrations. Both men were very skilled slingshot marksmen and their product quickly popular amongst these clubs for competitive target shooting and small game hunting. 

DANDY FUN FACT! The name Wham-O was derived from the sound of a slingshot hitting its target!

Knerr and Melin quickly outgrew the garage and rented their first proper business location on S. Marengo Avenue in Alhambra, California where they remained until 1955 when they once again found themselves in need of a location that could handle and even greater capacity of manufacturing. So they relocated to the neighboring town of San Gabriel, California where they would remain for the next 3+ decades.

With a greater capacity for manufacturing in place, they began looking to expand beyond the business of slingshot-making and came across the idea of re-branding the Australian bamboo exercise hoop, producing them from a type of plastic called Marlex and trademarking the name these hoops had been loosely called by since the 18th century “Hula Hoop.” And the rest is history.

Within 4 months of releasing the Hula Hoop onto the world it became literally the largest toy fad in history, catapulting Wham-O to 25 million units sold. Within 2 years, sales of the Hula Hoop would exceed 100 million units. Hula Hoop mania continued to rage through the end of 1959 and by the time the world stopped spinning, the 1950’s came to a conclusion with Wham-O netting a staggering $45 million (which would be around $500 million today). These two college friends who just a few years earlier were making slingshots out of a garage found themselves riding into the 60’s on a gravy train with biscuit freaking wheels!

Not ones to rest on their laurels, as the Hula Hoop fad was beginning to wane, Wham-O was looking for their next big thing and they found it in 1957 when they purchased the design of a plastic flying disc called the Pluto Platter from an inventor named Fred Morrison, quickly changed the name to Frisbee And once again, Wham-O had another hit on its hands!

ANOTHER DANDY FUN FACT! The name Frisbee was adopted by Wham-O after learning that this was the name students were using for the Pluto Platter on the east coast in a reference to pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Tin company which the Pluto Platter closely resembled in shape. 

ANOTHER ANOTHER DANDY FUN FACT! As the Hula Hoop fad waned and the Frisbee literally took off, Wham-O found itself with warehouses full of unsold Hula Hoops. So what did they do? They melted them down and made Frisbees! They were recycling before recycling was cool!

Wham-O also released some rather questionable products around this time which would probably never even be considered for production and marketing to kids today. We’re talking about such products as the Apache Throwing Tomahawk “An Ancient Indian Weapon For Killing Game.” The Borneo Hunting Blowgun “Kills Without Poison” and the Throwing Dagger “A Powerful, Silent Weapon that can split a 1” board from a distance of 30 feet!”

In 1961, Wham-O released the Slip ‘N’ Slide which was invented by an upholsterer. The Slip N Slide as we all know is a long sheet of plastic which gets lubricated by water from a garden hose and then you run, jump and slide onto it and get hurled into the patio furniture and bird baths.

Here in the South where I live, you actually haven’t lived until you’ve almost lost your life at a Summer party experiencing a redneck slip n slide which is basically a long sheet of industrial plastic, usually what they install as a moisture barrier underneath homes, run it down a hill, throw the hose on it and then a bunch of suicidal idiots take turns injuring themselves on it or they don’t take turns and just injure themselves enmasse. It’s really quite a spectacle. Almost as interesting as Cat-Fisting!

The Slip N Slide was indeed taken out of production once lawsuits started springing up over serious injuries including one death and two broken necks over people above the recommended age the product was intended for using it in very unsafe manners. Yes, idiots ruin everything!