Richard Knerr and his high-school buddy, Arthur "Spud" Melin, founded Wham-O Manufacturing Co. in 1948 in his family's garage in Alhambra, Calif. At first they made recreational weapons: crossbows, boomerangs, blow guns, throwing knives. Later, they branched out into toys, most spectacularly Hula Hoops, which dazzled the nation in 1958.
Mr. Knerr, who died Jan. 14 at age 82, was Wham-O's president. From hoops to Frisbees to Super Balls -- each of which sold in the hundreds of millions -- Wham-O's biggest hits always were about active, outdoor fun. Its best products transcended trivial toys and verged on the profound. They were simple shapes -- a disk, a ring, a sphere -- that behaved in unexpectedly wonderful ways.
Wham-O's failures were legion, from the "Instant Fish" home-hatching aquarium to a do-it-yourself bomb shelter that Mr. Knerr conceded was essentially a pile of bricks. But lesser hits kept the company afloat: Silly String, Slip 'n Slide, SuperElasticBubblePlastic.
In 1982, they sold the company to Kransco Manufacturing Inc. for $12 million.
Some products you may remember:
• The Wheelie Bar (1964) for bicycles, especially well suited for the popular Schwinn Stingray. The packaging featured 1960s icon Rat Fink, and the image was widely distributed on T-shirts, posters, and decals.
• The "Air Blaster" (1965), which could blow out a candle at 20 feet.
• The "Bubble Thing" soap bubble toy, which is an extremely large bubble wand, usually dipped in a small plastic wading pool filled with bubble solution that claims to make bubbles "as long as a bus".
• The "Huf'n Puf" blowgun, which shot soft rubber darts.
• Silly String
• Super Elastic Bubble Plastic
• Roller Racer Sit Skate
• Magic sand
• The Hacky Sack footbag
• Slip 'N Slide
• Nutty Knotter
• A boomerang
• Water Wiggle
Mr. Knerr, who died Jan. 14 at age 82, was Wham-O's president. From hoops to Frisbees to Super Balls -- each of which sold in the hundreds of millions -- Wham-O's biggest hits always were about active, outdoor fun. Its best products transcended trivial toys and verged on the profound. They were simple shapes -- a disk, a ring, a sphere -- that behaved in unexpectedly wonderful ways.
Wham-O's failures were legion, from the "Instant Fish" home-hatching aquarium to a do-it-yourself bomb shelter that Mr. Knerr conceded was essentially a pile of bricks. But lesser hits kept the company afloat: Silly String, Slip 'n Slide, SuperElasticBubblePlastic.
In 1982, they sold the company to Kransco Manufacturing Inc. for $12 million.
Some products you may remember:
• The Wheelie Bar (1964) for bicycles, especially well suited for the popular Schwinn Stingray. The packaging featured 1960s icon Rat Fink, and the image was widely distributed on T-shirts, posters, and decals.
• The "Air Blaster" (1965), which could blow out a candle at 20 feet.
• The "Bubble Thing" soap bubble toy, which is an extremely large bubble wand, usually dipped in a small plastic wading pool filled with bubble solution that claims to make bubbles "as long as a bus".
• The "Huf'n Puf" blowgun, which shot soft rubber darts.
• Silly String
• Super Elastic Bubble Plastic
• Roller Racer Sit Skate
• Magic sand
• The Hacky Sack footbag
• Slip 'N Slide
• Nutty Knotter
• A boomerang
• Water Wiggle
