Free Republic 3rd Qtr 2025 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $15,511
19%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 19%!! Thank you all very much!! God bless.

Keyword: whamo

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Arthur "Spud'' Melin, toy executive who gave world Frisbee, Hula Hoop, dies

    06/29/2002 8:25:26 PM PDT · by HAL9000 · 17 replies · 719+ views
    Associated Press | June 29, 2002
    COSTA MESA, California, Jun 29, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Arthur "Spud" Melin, co-founder of the toy company that introduced the world to the Frisbee, Hula Hoop and other faddish gems of American pop culture, has died. He was 77 and had Alzheimer's disease. Melin, who started toy giant Wham-O in 1948 with his boyhood friend Richard Knerr, died Friday. "No sensation has ever swept the country like the Hula Hoop," author Richard Johnson wrote in his book "American Fads." "(It) remains the standard against which all national crazes are measured." Melin and Knerr started with slingshots and...