Best Classic Toys 2002

Hula Hoop

• Active
• Hobby

Price: $2.99

Phone: 888-942-6650

Year Introduced: 1960

The hula-hoop originated the concept of twirling a hoop around your hips, knees, arms or neck. The hoops are made with durable materials. They come in three swirly colors and hoop sizes. How many hoops can you keep up at once?

Brief History of Wham-O

Wham-O was founded in 1948 and got launched with a slingshot. Arthur Melin and Richard Kner introduced the slingshot. They met Fred Morrison who created a flying disc they called the Pluto Platter. The disc was modified in 1958 and renamed the Frisbee. The founders heard of Australian children using a bamboo ring for exercise and immediately turned it out as a Hula-Hoop. They promoted it for months in 1958 on playgrounds in Southern California where they did demonstrations and gave hoops away to get children to learn how to play. Twenty-five million hula-hoops were sold in four months. Dr. Toy in 1987 as Director of the San Francisco International Toy Museum at The Cannery in Fisherman's Wharf invited a hundred children to turn in their toy guns in exchange for Hula Hoops following the death of a child who was shot with a real gun. The event was a big success and marked the beginning of the identification of toy guns with orange rings so children at play would be safer.