The Nicest People

When we set out to make this movie on toy inventors, one stop I knew we’d make was the home of Kay & Bob Zufall. They are the developers of Play-Doh. You know? That modeling stuff that sells only about 95 million cans…per year?

I’d spoken to the Zufalls a number of times for the book and found them to be the nicest people. We sat down in their beautiful back yard on a chilly spring morning and got to know them in person.

Kay & Bob Zufall have dedicated their lives to others. In the 1950s they founded a clinic for the underprivileged in Dover, New Jersey. The Dover Community Clinic is still going strong and is staffed by 20 volunteer doctors who receive over 12,000 patient visits a year. Before that, Kay ran her own nursery school. It was from that school, which began in a small, leased space and then moved to the First Memorial Presbyterian Church, that Play-Doh was born.

It all started in the 1950s when Kay’s brother-in-law Joe McVicker ran Kutol Products, a company that made wallpaper cleaner. Kay ran the nursery school and when she spotted a magazine article that suggested using wallpaper cleaner to make Christmas tree ornaments, she suggested the idea to Joe. From Timeless Toys:

“I guess I was looking for inexpensive ways to decorate…I immediately drove out to the local hardware store and asked if they had Kutol wallpaper cleaner.”...Kay brought the doughlike material into her nursery and the kids loved it. “We rolled this stuff out, and then took cookie cutters and cut out the shapes. We put little holes at the tops and then I dried them out in the oven at home. Afterwards, we called Joe. I told him ‘You can make that stuff into a toy!’ So he flew out, looked at those ornaments hanging on our tree and said. ‘My God, we’ll do it.’”

Kutol Products became Rainbow Crafts and Joe set out to turn around his failing business by making Rainbow Modeling Compound. Once more, from Timeless Toys:

“Rainbow Modeling Compound!? You can’t call it that!’ Kay said she told her brother-in-law. “Bob and I talked about it. Neither of us can remember who thought of it, but we came up with the name Play-Doh.”….Kay and Bob Zufall downplay their significance in toy history. “People ask us, ‘You gave the name away?!’ Well, who knew it would sell anything?” Kay laughs now. “Joe did the hard work. We had a part in it for sure, but if it hadn’t been sold, it wouldn’t have been anything.”

That’s right, they’ve never received a penny for their idea or the name, Play-Doh. They are not bitter. They are not angry.

Kay & Bob Zufall have dedicated their lives to others. In developing Play-Doh, they’ve helped entertain and inspire millions and millions of kids. They are the nicest people.