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Wham-O Toys Lava Lites Slinky Frisbee Bicycles Goldfish Swallowing Flagpole Sitting Diners Hula Hoop Pet Rock Earth Shoes Troll Dolls Cabbage Patch Kids Streaking Lego Roller Skating
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Slinkys reached Fad buying proportions in the Fifties and have since sold over 250 million worldwide. Made in Hollidaysburg, PA, it takes about 63 feet of wire to make a Slinky. Poof
Products of Plymouth MI owns Slinky Toys
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Invented in 1839 by a Scottish blacksmith named Kirkpatrick MacMillian. The early bicycle was called a boneshaker, due to its metal rimmed tires that transmitted every bump in the road. In 1876 the spoke tension wheel was invented in London. Its light weight and high strength allowed for a variety of designs in bicycles. The pneumatic tire was invented by John Dunlop and it gave cyclists a smooth ride. Bicycling as a fad came about in the 1890’s. People rode the "safety bicycle" with pneumatic tires, medium sized wheels, which were of equal size, (unlike the boneshaker, which had one large front wheel and one small back wheel) chain linkage, adjustable handlebars and a cushioned seat. Bicycles built for two were also very popular. Helped along by the publicized Sunday rides of Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell in New York’s Central Park, the tandem bicycle allowed couples to ride together. In 1884 Americans bought about 20,000 bicycles. In 1985, that number had risen to 10 million. In fact, cycling was such a craze that businessmen such as jewelers and tailors complained that they were going out of business. This was due to the fact that people spent their money on bikes, rather than on other goods. At one point a proposal was introduced in Congress requiring bike riders to buy two hats a year. The New York Journal of Commerce reported that in one year, merchandisers of competing goods lost $117 million. People simply weren’t doing much else, except cycling. By 1910, bikes had become more of a Christmas gift for children and adults had begun their love affair with the automobile. Source: Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias |
| Perhaps
the best representation from the Era of Wonderful Nonsense. Alvin
"Shipwreck" Kelly began the fad when he sat upon his first
flagpole in a stunt role for a Hollywood movie. He was then hired by a
publicity agent to drum up business outside a Los Angeles theater by
sitting atop a pole. One publicity stunt led to another, each covered
by the press and soon copycat pole-sitters were springing up, creating
a new fad. In the late Twenties Kelly was booked by hotels, fairs,
amusement parks, and resorts to hook crowds.
His best sit was 49 days on a flagpole over the boardwalk in Atlantic City. Imitators came in all ages and both sexes. Trees were the amateur’s substitute for a flagpole. During 1 week, Baltimore papers featured stories on 17 boys and 3 girls who were sitters. The fad died off at the time of the stock market crash. Kelly died homeless in New York, across the street from Madison Square Garden, where his name had once been on the marquee. Source: Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias |
| Began
as a horse drawn lunch wagon in the 1870s, selling sandwiches and
coffee to late night workers. Walter Scott of Providence, Rhode Island
is credited as the first lunch cart operator, according to the authors
of American Diner. For a nickel, a person could get a homemade
ham sandwich, or a boiled egg with a slice of buttered bread, or a
piece of pie. In the mid-1880s Samuel Messer Jones of Worcester,
Massachusetts constructed the first horse drawn lunch wagon that
customers could enter to be served. Samual thought it beat standing
out in the rain waiting to order. Later, Jone’s eatery had a
complete kitchen, stools for the customers, custom woodworked walls
and stained glass windows. An instant success, he expanded his
business by adding more wagons at different locations. Traveling lunch
wagons were so numerous and interfered with daytime traffic, that many
cities passed laws allowing the wagons to stay on the streets from
dusk until dawn. Diners were born when the owners conceived the idea
of making their wagons into stationary lunch spots.
Diners were fancy in the Twenties, streamlined in the Thirties and by the Forties, veterans were coming home, and opening their own diners complete with mirrored walls, stainless steel backbars and two-tone Formica countertops. Now that diners had grown in both popularity and respectability, families flocked to them. Menus were altered to suit the tastes of children-who were offered free balloons and lollipops on the way out. Many diners could seat up to 150 customers. Although diners would again change in design in future decades, the American classic version had arrived by the late Forties. A favorite architectural flourish of the time was the boomerang shape. The curves could be found in diner furniture and home coffee tables, rug designs and wallpaper. Also in many backyards-the kidney shaped swimming pool. The overall look, which came to dominate the Fifties design, was called "postwar razzle dazzle" by many. Source: Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias |
| Began
as a mania on March 3, 1939. Through newspaper coverage it is better
documented than many political decisions made during that prewar
period. Harvard freshman Lothrop Withington, Jr. became the first
goldfish swallower. Withington boasted during an evening bull session
of having once eaten a small live fish. This boast led to a dare and a
wager and word spread around campus that Withington would be live fish
swallowing in the freshman dining hall on March 3rd. Withington took a
3 inch goldfish from a small bowl and holding it up by the tail, bent
backward and lowered the fish into his mouth. He chewed, then
swallowed. He then cleaned his teeth with a toothbrush from his
pocket, and remarked "The scales caught a bit on my throat."
He then sat down to his dinner of fried fillet of sole. As such things
cannot be kept from other colleges, by early spring goldfish
swallowing was an intercollegiate sport. Frank Hope at Franklin &
Marshall College in Pennsylvania called Withington a "sissy"
and downed 3 goldfish, without chewing, but with salt and pepper. The
next day George Raab, a classmate of Hope’s upped the record by
swallowing 6 fish. Not to be outdone, Harvard retaliated through
Irving Clark. He gulped down 24 small fish and even announced that on
demand he would eat spiders, worms and beetles. New records were set
daily during that spring at the University of Michigan (28 fish),
Boston College (29 fish), Albright College (33 fish), and MIT (42
fish). At one college an anatomy professor calculated that the average
sized male could safely consume 150 goldfish, however the all time
record would actually surpass 300 fish in one sitting.
Source: Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias |
| The
standard by which other fads are measured, "the biggest fad in
history", "the granddaddy of American zaniness". The
Hula Hoop. The brain storm of Wham-O Toys, cost
$1.98 when it swept through America and beyond in the summer of 1958.
In Japan it was called the Huru Hoop.
Wham-O, having just come off of their success in 1957 with the Frisbee, decided to take the Australian bamboo hoop used by grade school gym classes., and try to create another craze. With surprisingly little advertising, word of mouth turned this light weight plastic hoop into a twirling frenzy. Over 25 million were sold inside of four months. By October of the same year, the fad had faded. Making the Hula Hoop a fad in the purest sense. By Christmas, 1958 the Hula Hoop was marked down to .50 cents Source: Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias |
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Founded in 1948, Wham-O Toys, manufacturers of the Wham-O slingshot and some of the biggest fads in the world. The zany founders of WHAM-O, Arthur "Spud" Melin and Richard Knerr, became known as the gurus of blockbuster fads.
Also to Wham-O’s credit was the Hula Hoop. The fad of fads. In addition, Wham-O produced the Super Ball, , Silly String and Monster Bubbles and in 1983 the Hacky Sack. Source: www.Whamo-O.com |
Their
successes include the
| Designed by
Englishman Craven Walker in the early 1960's, The Astrolight, as it
was called made it's way to the U.S. through Adolf Wertheimer, a
Chicago businessman. Wertheimer formed a company called Lava-Simplex
Internationale and marketed the product as Lava Lite. Within the
cylindrical shape was a ever moving ooze of semisolid wax, heated by a
coil. Having "a motion for every emotion" made this an instant hit among the sit-ins and love-ins of the 60's. Over 2 million Lava Lites were sold by the end of the decade. By the mid 70's the appeal had worn off. Only recently, as fads often do, has the appeal for for the flowing glob regenerated. Whole web sites are dedicated to this psychedelic piece of Fad History. Lava Lites or Lava Lamps are for still for sale as the new millennium brings improvements in style and variations. Sources: Panati's Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias |
