RARE ORIGINAL Vintage 1950\'s WHAM-0 HULA HOOP with ORIGINAL BROCHURE 1958
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RARE ORIGINAL Vintage 1950\'s WHAM-0 HULA HOOP with ORIGINAL BROCHURE 1958:
$125.00
THIS IS AN ORIGINAL 1958WHAM-O BRANDHULA HOOPWITH ORIGINAL BROCHURE
PURCHASED AT AN ESTATE SALE FROM ORIGINAL OWNER IN PASADENA CA. HOOP FEATURES \"SAN GABRIEL\" IDENTIFICATION AND BROCHURE FEATURES \"1958\" COPYRIGHT.
ABOUT WHAM-O:
Richard Knerr and Arthur \"Spud\" Melin, a native of South Carolina, two University of Southern California college graduates unhappy with their employment, began the company in 1948 as \"WHAM-O Mfg. Co.\" in the Knerr family garage in South Pasadena. Their first product was the Wham-O slingshot, made of ash wood, which Knerr and Melin would promote by showing off their own skills at demonstrations. The powerful slingshot was used by clubs for competitive target shooting, as well as for small game hunting. The name \"Wham-O\" was based on the sound of the slingshot\'s shot hitting the target. When they outgrew the garage, they rented a building on S. Marengo Ave in Alhambra, California; in 1955, the company eventually moved its manufacturing plant to neighboring San Gabriel, California.
ABOUT THE HULA HOOP:
The Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, was patented by the company’s co-founder, Arthur “Spud” Melin. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone.
Melina and Knerr were inspired to develop the Hula-Hoop after they saw a wooden hoop that Australian children twirled around their waists during gym class. Wham-O began producing a plastic version of the hoop, dubbed “Hula” after the hip-gyrating Hawaiian dance of the same name, and demonstrating it on Southern California playgrounds. Hula-Hoop mania took off from there.
The enormous popularity of the Hula-Hoop was short-lived and within a matter of months, the masses were on to the next big thing. However, the Hula-Hoop never faded away completely and still has its fans today. According to Ripley’s Believe It or Not, in April 2004, a performer at the Big Apple Circus in Boston simultaneously spun 100 hoops around her body. Earlier that same year, in January, according to the Guinness World Records, two people in Tokyo, Japan, managed to spin the world’s largest hoop–at 13 feet, 4 inches–around their waists at least three times each.
Following the Hula-Hoop, Wham-O continued to produce a steady stream of wacky and beloved novelty items, including the Superball, Water Wiggle, Silly String, Slip ‘n’ Slide and the Hacky Sack.
THIS IS AN ORIGINAL VINTAGE TOY - WELL PLAYED WITH - BUT WITH ORIGINAL BROCHURE AND PROVENANCE - offer WITH CONFIDENCE - I HAVE 100 PERCENT POSITIVE response
UNCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE HULA HOOP
TO ME, PART of being a mom is enjoying my kid’s toys as much as they do. My natural inquisitiveness leads me to wonder where a lot of these toys come from. And recently I looked at the Hula Hoop. Conventional lore holds that the hula hoop was first made by the Wham-O Toy Company. That’s only partially true: Wham-O was the first company to mass market their brightly colored plastic Hula Hoop in the United States.
So if the guys at Wham-O didn’t invent the hula hoop, where did it come from?
Actually, from many places. As far back as 3000 BCE Egyptians were curving reeds and rattan into circles. These hooped circles were swung around the waist, pushed along the ground by a stick or thrown in the air. In Greece grapevine hoops were used not just for toys but as exercise equipment for those not strong enough to handle a harder workout - or for those who were a bit too snug in their toga. Later, both Greek and Roman children played with hoops made from strips of scrap metal.
In the North American continent, Eskimo children used hoops to learn harpooning skills; they would roll a hoop and then attempt to throw a pole through it. This fun form of target practice helped teach accuracy for many First Nation and Native American people as well. For the Lakota, however, the hoop has extra significance in that it symbolizes the Circle of Life. As many as thirty hoops can be used by one person performing the Hoop Dance. The dancer uses the hoops as storytelling props, spinning or holding them to transform himself into animals and other elements from the story.
Homemade hoops started showing up in English households in the fourteenth century, and were used by all ages. “Hooping” became a craze that swept the country until British doctors starting blaming the use of hoops for everything from back pain to heart attacks. Three hundred years later many cultures had some sort of hoop toy, but it wasn\'t until British sailors visited the Hawaiian Islands was that toy got the name we are all familiar with. The sailors saw the traditional Hula dance and recognized the similar hip movements and the name hula hoop was born.
In the early 20th century, a modern version of the hoop was made of bamboo. Australian schoolchildren used hula hoops as exercise equipment. Soon the demand became so high it drew the attention of two American toy manufacturers, Richard P. Knerr and Arthur \"Spud\" Melin, the founders of Wham-O . They began producing plastic hoops in bright colors, for $1.98 each, and a craze was born. In 1958, in the space of four months twenty-five million Wham-O Hula Hoops® were sold. Knerr and Melin trademarked the name Hula Hoop®, but they could not trademark the hoop itself because it is such an ancient invention.
Hula Hoops are popular all over the world but were once banned in Japan for indecency, and in Russia for being an example of “the emptiness of American culture.” Although the fad has faded, there are competitions for most hoops spun at one time (currently 105) and for freestyle hula hooping routines set to music. Fans young and old use a hula hoop for fun and exercise, just like they have been doing for almost three thousand years.
Cie McCullough Buschle is a sculptor and has two kids and a puppy named Einstein. She is a Speculative Fiction fan and is an administrator of the Reading For the Future Facebook page. Her other geek interests are researching history through everyday objects and way cool science.
RARE ORIGINAL Vintage 1950\'s WHAM-0 HULA HOOP with ORIGINAL BROCHURE 1958:
$125.00