Hula Hoops at Half Mast

Richard Knerr

This past Monday Richard Knerr, the founder of Wham-O, passed away. Wham-O was the company that brought us the Superball, Frisbee, Silly String, Slip ‘n Slide, and consequently hundreds of hours of childhood fun. Mostly these were the kinds of cheap toys that your parents could pick up for pocket change, the kinds of toys you could actually get by just asking while you were at the store. You couldn’t get an expensive G.I. Joe or Transformer that way, no sir. How they ever turned a profit is a tribute to mass production and low petroleum costs, I suppose.