Figure 1.--Here an unidentified group of boys on their summer vacation engage in a mass frisbee throw (July 1971). Cut-offs at the time were popular. Notice all the boys are wearing sneakers, almost all low-cuts..

There were a variety of throw toys. Probably the oldest throw toy was horseshoes. This was pppularvfir men and a little havy for younger boys. It bwa more of a popular rural game wherevhorse shoes were coomon. The most common throw toy were balls, but these are perhaps better included as part od sports equiipment. When I was a boy in the 1940s-50s, the most popular throw toy was probably balsa wood glider polanes. They camne in an inexpensive flat kit and you just put the wings on to the fuselage and yoynwere ready to go. You could also make paper planes on your own, but the balsa wood planes worked far better. I recall ring toss toys. I don't recall having this, but I recall seeing bthem. Amother throw toy was darts, but most American parents had better sence than to purchase thise for boys, ralizing they were asking for trouble. But some boys got them. A famous throw toy was a boomerang, but I don't recall ever seeing one. A new throw toy apopeared in the 1960s--the frisbee. The frisbee was invented before World War II, but there was no major commercial launch until the late-1950s. It is at that time that bham-O co-founders Richard Knerr and Arthur 'Spud' Melin named their discs the brand name that sticj=k--'"Frisbee'. This was waht college students were calling their Pluto Platter. It camne from the Connecticut-based pie manufacturer-- the Frisbie Pie Company. It becamevan enormously popular toy and while no longer a major craze continues to be popular today. The Frisbee was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame (1998).

Created: 4:12 AM 10/10/20190
Last updated: 4:12 AM 10/10/2019