Fraternity parties became a national obsession when Wham-O Manufacturing Co. of California began producing the Pluto Platter (soon renamed Frisbee) on this day in history, January 23, 1957.
“The Frisbee started out as nothing more than a container carrying pastries,” reported the University of Southern California's online engineering publication Illumin Magazine, which looked at the physics and history of the toy.
“However, thanks to the ingenuity of some college students, the inventiveness of Fred Morrison, and the marketing skill of the Wham-O Manufacturing Company, it eventually became an immensely popular and internationally recognized toy.”
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Two USC alumni, Arthur “Spud” Mellin and Richard Knerr, created Wham-O. They are also known for popularizing the Hula-Hoop.
The origin of Frisbee dates back decades before Wham-O appeared on the scene.
The strange story of the toy is a testament to the ability of Americans to achieve success from seemingly mundane opportunities.
Rachel McCord is seen playing frisbee on July 30, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. The original Frisbee, called the Flying Saucer, was introduced in 1948 by Southern California businessman Fred Morrison. (TSM/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
“The story of Frisbee begins in college,” writes the National Museum of Play, which inducted the plastic surf-and-sand frisbee into its Toy Hall of Fame in 1988.
“Late 19th century students at Yale and other New England colleges played ball with pie plates…made by the nearby Frisbie Baking Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. They shouted 'Frisbie!' to warn passers-by to stay away from the rotating discs.”
“Yale students in the late 19th century played ball with pie plates…made by the nearby Frisbie Baking Company.” — National Museum of Gaming
The activity spread to campuses and beaches throughout the country.
California businessman Walter Frederick Morrison came up with the idea of marketing flying discs in 1937 when, according to industry lore, someone on a Santa Barbara beach offered him 25 cents for a plate of pie he was tossing with his future wife. Lucilla.
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Cake pans at the time cost only 5 cents, according to a story of the invention in The Saturday Evening Post.
Morrison immediately saw the profit potential.
World War II, however, interrupted his plans.
“Morrison served as an Army Air Force fighter pilot,” according to the Saturday Evening Post account.
A dog grabs a frisbee on the beach of La Grande Plage in Biarritz, southwestern France, on October 18, 2022. (GAIZKA IROZ/AFP via Getty Images)
“His P-47 Thunderbolt was shot down over Italy and he was held as a prisoner of war for more than a month, but he survived. After the war ended and he returned home, Morrison's thoughts returned to his homemade aircraft.”
His experience as a pilot fueled his knowledge and interest in aerodynamics.
He began working to maximize the toy's potential flight distance.
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Meanwhile, the nation was hit after World War II by UFO fever. It all started when a pilot named Kenneth Arnold claimed to have seen flying saucers over Washington state in 1947.
“Arnold reported seeing nine inconspicuous flying objects flying over mountain peaks,” Foreign Policy magazine's website reports.
Californian businessman Walter Frederick Morrison came up with the idea of marketing flying discs in 1937.
“He described them as silvery or metallic, fast and appearing to be intelligently controlled… When he landed, he told his colleagues. He later told the press. Arnold's sighting was followed by a series of copycat sightings.”
The now-famous first reports of flying saucers in Roswell, New Mexico, came just weeks after Arnold's sightings.
A group of protesters march in front of the General Accounting Office (GAO) in Washington, DC, to raise awareness about an examination the GAO is conducting to obtain documents about the 1947 weather balloon crash in Roswell, New Mexico. Protesters believe the balloon was a crashed UFO. (JOSHUA ROBERTS/AFP via Getty Images)
Morrison introduced his new toy in 1948 and called it, yes, a flying saucer.
“Wham-O founders Arthur 'Spud' Melin and Richard Knerr…bought the rights to the toy in 1955 and renamed it 'Frisbee' in 1958,” the Museum of Play writes.
Wham-O boosted the popularity of Frisbee with a brilliant marketing effort that turned the toy into a sport.
“Sales skyrocketed, reaching 100 million before Mattel bought Wham-O. In the early 1960s, people treated frisbee as a countercultural sport.”
Wham-O boosted the popularity of Frisbee with a brilliant marketing effort that turned the toy into a sport.
“The early years of the game of flying discs were dominated by the influence of the International Frisbee Association, which was a promotional arm of the Wham-O Manufacturing Company,” reports the World Flying Disc Federation, whose existence is the only evidence of the success. of the product. .
Xi'an University of Physical Education V7 team (wearing blue jersey) competes against Xi'an Terra-Cotta Warriors-RJM team in the first match of China's first National Ultimate Frisbee League on August 6, 2022 , in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. (Zhang Yichen/China News Service via Getty Images)
The organization includes 103 member associations, representing flying disc sports, including Ultimate Frisbee and beach golf, and the athletes of these sports, in more than 100 countries, according to its website.
Rutgers and Princeton played the first intercollegiate Ultimate Frisbee competition on November 6, 1972, 103 years to the day the same two New Jersey schools played the first college football game.
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Some toy industry sources estimate that more Frisbees have been sold than residents in the United States today, and that more than 90% of Americans have thrown a Frisbee at some point. That would make it the most popular participation activity in the country.
China appears to be the next frontier for Frisbee.
Disc sports have gained popularity in the communist nation in recent years.
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“The next two years will be a period of rapid growth for China's frisbee industry,” frisbee expert Xue Zhixing told China Daily, the Chinese government's official English-language news outlet, in August.
“The supply side, such as sports fields and Frisbee-related products, must be fully prepared, with primary and secondary schools and universities expected to be the possible future for the industry.”
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