Balancing Act

I never had a toy gyroscope as a kid, but I sure had fun playing with the one pictured above. I rushed right home today to try it out after having a gyroscopic epiphany — more about that later. Without too much trouble I had this old science gadget performing its “balancing sideways on a string” trick. It was sooooo cool.

Elmer Sperry patented the first gyroscope in 1908. Beginning in the 1920s, an Indianapolis business called L.J. Hurst Manufacturing Company made toy gyroscopes. After Word War II, the Chandler Manufacturing Company made “Hurst” gyroscopes and sold them to the Baby Boomer generation. In 1982, Tedco, Inc. bought the Chandler Company, where they still make toy gyroscopes today.

Most of us have flown in airplanes which use gyroscopic technology for guidance and stability in flight, but you can’t feel the gyroscopic effects while seated in a commercial airliner. For a real hands-on experience I highly recommend you jump in feet first…

“Look, No Hands!”

My father-in-law, my wife and I took a tour of downtown Sarasota today on the Segway Human Transporter. For those of you who remember being awestruck holding and balancing that spinning toy gyroscope in your hand when you were a kid, you simply owe it to yourself to take a ride on one of these contraptions. You move forward or back by the slighest shift in weight from your heels to the balls of your feet. You are balanced by not one, but five gyroscopes. Being a tinkerer, I actually tried to fall off it at one point, rocking back and forth to see just how far those gyros would go to compensate for my shinanigans. The Segway stood the test, as did I, upright throughout.

We toured with the Florida Ever-Glides, paying $59 for a two hour tour. The owner, Tom Jacobson, told us that his company was the first to offer Segway HT tours and that now there are over 50 such outfits across America. I found tours available in Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington, Paris, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.

And as if that weren’t enough, gyroscopes actually prove that God exists!
I love the Internet.

Happy 75th Fisher-Price

Herman Fisher and Irving Price founded Fisher-Price in 1930. To commemorate the milestone of 75 years in the toy biz, the company is partnering with some cool companies to bring back some old favorites. According to this article in the Chicago Sun Times:

“In celebration of Fisher-Price’s 75th anniversary, Sababa Toys has obtained a licensing agreement to reproduce Dr. Doodle and Snoopy Sniffer, pull toys that came out around 1938.”

Here’s Snoopy!

Post Cards from Play Paradise

I am selling some of the memorabilia I’ve collected in the writing and research of The Playmakers on eBay. Along with the Flexible Flyer post card pictured above, check out these cool collector’s items.

Crayola Crayon Box of 64 with a Built-in Sharpener Ad
Lionel Train Brochure featuring Mickey Mouse
Frisbie Pie Truck Post Card — Frisbee History
Lilli Movie Brochure — Barbie History
Beanie Babies Ad — Full page in USA TODAY when the craze was red hot
Bild Lilli doll — Barbie History
Volland Raggedy Ann doll — great doll with patent date of 1915
Ideal Teddy’s Bear — great old bruin

Historic Monopoly Auction

Professor Ralph Anspach’s collection of historic Monopoly research is up for auction on eBay. Details on the contents of the collection are available at Thomas E. Forsyth’s website.

You’ll need to be a Rich Uncle Pennybags, because at last look the bidding was over $13,000!

UPDATE: The final selling price was $19,422.00!

It's Awards Season

The Playmakers took top honors (GOLD) in the Pop Culture category in Foreword magazine’s Book of the Year Awards! This on the heels of The Playmakers winning the Grand Prize in the Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards, and an “IPPY” award for the Best Pop Culture/Lesisure book at the 2005 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Once again, thank you Herb Booth at Booth Studio for taking great pictures; Giles Hoover and Amanda Smith at Osprey Design for designing a great layout; Marcia Fairbanks at The Careful Reader Editorial Service and John Michlig for their editing expertise; Dana Lutz for her thorough proof reading. Luke T. Murphy for his excellent photo editing; Wendy and Kevin Alex at Allex Indexing Services for their awesome indexing –– all pros, friends and colleagues who held my hand through this two and half year journey.

WBZ Questions... and ANSWERS!

While I was on WBZ radio in Boston with Paul Sullivan tonight, callers asked and I promised to answer. So without further ado…

The game of Jacks comes from the old game called Jackstones. In ancient Greece it was called Knucklestones because the Greeks used sheep bones as the implements. Later they were made of case iron and then some cheaper metal like zinc. The rubbery plastic ones you can find nowadays (as this father of two little girls can attest) are MUCH nicer to step on with bare feet.

Fred Lundahl named his company after his son Buddy. Buddy ‘L’ Manufacturing Company made toys beginning in 1921.

The game “skittles” with the wooden top that spins and moves through compartments knocking down wooden pins does not have a connection to the English phrase Beer and Skittles. “Beer and Skittles” refers to the old game of ninepins, which makes the expression somewhat equivalent to “Beer and Bowling.”

The geography game with plastic tokens in the shape of suitcases was called Travel and it was made in the 1960s by a company called Gardner Games.

Thanks for lisening.

Care to Super-Size Your Barrel of Monkeys?

In Ft. Myers, Florida there is a McDonald’s restaurant whose owner shares a passion of mine. No, not salted lard, silly. Board games! The place is decked out with tons of old games, beautifully framed in shadow boxes. Better yet, each framed game is a copy from the first year the game was introduced!

Giant versions of Connect Four and Barrel of Monkeys stand at the entrances and the counter is an altar to Monopoly and Scrabble (see picture above). Even the bathroom entrances have game murals surrounding them. But the Happy Meal moment came with the Dr. Kildare game. That’s when we realized that in 1965, Richard Chamberlain looked like Ben Affleck did in 1995. Weird.

Check out the framed games!
The Game of Life
Sorry
Chutes & Ladders
Concentration
Trouble
Stratego

I’m Lovin’ It!