Toy+Fads

media type="youtube" key="CiDDBCEsD5I" width="425" height="350" Toy Fads By Connor

America was influenced by toy fads because when people would be working or living a normal day something would happen that plants an idea in someone’s head. That idea is a new toy and the joy of kids playing with that toy (or even adults) will bring out joy in everyone to get up and enjoy the day and smile. This still happens today. In 1943, Richard James, a naval engineer was trying to develop a meter designed monitor for horsepower in naval battleships. While working with tension springs, one fell off onto the ground and kept moving. This is what Richard saw and inspired him to design the Slinky. The slinky was famous in 1946 and 400 slinkies were sold in a 90 minute demonstration. In this legend, in 1919, George Hansburg was traveling through Burma (a city in Germany) and saw a poor farmer with his daughter named Pogo. Pogo wanted to go to temple every day so she could pray but she couldn’t because she had no shoes. So, her dad built a jumping stick for her. George returned to America and invented a similar stick. That is the legend of the Pogo stick. The teddy bear was designed because of this next true story. Teddy Roosevelt went bear hunting and came across a wounded cub and he ordered a mercy killing for the animal. A cartoonist drew a cartoon for the newspaper of Teddy Roosevelt sitting next to a cuddly cub. A year later, the cartoon cub became a toy for young children and the Teddy Bear was named after Teddy Roosevelt. The teddy bear was very popular by young children and the original was built by Morris Michton.

The Hula Hoop craze was in 1958. Men, women, and children all loved this toy. 20,000,000 hula hoops were sold for $1.98 each in the first 6 months of selling. The Hula Hoop was invented partly because the British went to the Hawaiian Islands and saw the hula dancers and wanted to have a toy where you could hula dance. The yo-yo was popular in 1962 mostly with children and was sold with another option of the butterfly yoyo. The butterfly is when the 2 sides are flipped the other way from the regular version.

Works Cited Educational, Grolier. __World War II and the Cold War: 1942-1958 (American Scene, The: Events: Volume 7)__. Grand Rapids: Grolier, 1999. "Toy Inventions - History of Toys." __Inventors__. 07 May 2009 .