ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
The inventor of the Hula-Hoop and the Frisbee has passed away. Richard Knerr was 82 years old. He suffered a stroke on Monday.
As NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports, Knerr leaves behind a legacy of baby-boomer icons.
KAREN GRIGSBY BATES: Early on, Rich Knerr decided he wasn't going into his dad's real estate business. He wanted to have fun.
The motto of the company he built with partner Arthur Spud Melin made sure no one forgot that, says Knerr's son, Chuck.
Mr. CHUCK KNERR: They really were all about fun. In fact, the motto for Wham-O was, our business is fun.
BATES: That was pretty revolutionary for the post-war era, but Knerr and Melin were not your normal American entrepreneurs. Fresh out of USC, the two tried a car business in downtown L.A., then segued into slingshots. Those were used to kill doves to feed the falcons and hawks they were training. People watching them has to buy the slingshots, so Rich Knerr and Spud Melin began selling them one by one. Then, says Chuck Knerr…
Mr. KNERR: Their barber recommended that they ought to put an ad in a magazine and try mail order because it - up until then, they've only been selling them in local department stores around the Los Angeles area.
BATES: Those ads, says Chuck Knerr, changed everything.
Mr. KNERR: And by golly, the dollars - because each slingshot was $1 - started coming in one or two at a time in these envelopes. And it wasn't long before he described sacks of these envelopes coming from the post office.
BATES: And Wham-O Incorporated was off and running. It would become world-famous later on for the Super Ball and the Frisbee, but the Hula-Hoop first put Wham-O on the map.
(Soundbite of Hula-Hoop ad)
Unidentified Woman: (Singing) Hula-Hoop, Hula-Hoop, everyone is playing with the Hula-Hoop.
BATES: Rich Knerr brought armloads of the yard-wide plastic circles home to the neighborhood kids who then took them to playgrounds and schools. Everyone clamored them, even cartoon rodents.
(Soundbite of "The Chipmunk Song")
Mr. ROSS BAGDASARIAN JR.: (As Alvin) (Singing) Me, I want a Hula-Hoop.
BATES: Richard Johnson, author of "American Fads," says the Hula-Hoop was the first toy to cause people to line up around the block.
Mr. RICHARD JOHNSON (Author, "American Fads"): It's the granddaddy of American fads. And you know, 50 years later, people still measure things against the Hula-Hoop.
BATES: Knerr's company was also one of the first to use television to sell toys directly to kids in fun-sounding commercials.
(Soundbite of Wham-O ad)
Unidentified Man #2: Wham-O presents the Firetron Formula Super Ball, and Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, plastic bubbles from a tube.
BATES: TV also made Silly String and the Slip 'n' Slide best-sellers. But Chuck Knerr's favorite of his father's inventions was the Super Ball, the tiny ball that bounces so wildly it put plenty of cracks in, among other places, classroom windows.
Mr. KNERR: I was so proud when that toy was banned from my school.
BATES: Wham-O's Super Ball remains a favorite in birthday party goody bags. And it's often still confiscated at schools around the country, which would probably make Rich Knerr smile.
Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
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