Skip to content
Obituaries

Richard Knerr | Marketed fad toys, 82

Richard Knerr, 82, cofounder of Wham-O, the toy company that popularized the Hula Hoop, Frisbee, and other fads that became classics, has died. Mr. Knerr, who started Wham-O in 1948 with his childhood friend Arthur "Spud" Melin, died Monday after suffering a stroke earlier in the day at his home in Arcadia, Calif., his wife, Dorothy, told the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Knerr and Melin got their start in business peddling slingshots. They named their enterprise Wham-O after the sound a slingshot made when it hit its target. They branched into other sporting goods, including boomerangs and crossbows, then added toys that often bore such playful names as the Superball and Silly String. When a friend told them in 1958 about a large ring used for exercise in Australia, they devised their own version and called it the Hula Hoop. Around the same time, they bought the rights to a plastic flying disc invented by Walter "Fred" Morrison, who called it the Pluto Platter. Wham-O bought the rights and renamed it the Frisbee. - AP

    Inquirer
    Published 

Richard Knerr, 82, cofounder of Wham-O, the toy company that popularized the Hula Hoop, Frisbee, and other fads that became classics, has died.

Mr. Knerr, who started Wham-O in 1948 with his childhood friend Arthur "Spud" Melin, died Monday after suffering a stroke earlier in the day at his home in Arcadia, Calif., his wife, Dorothy, told the Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Knerr and Melin got their start in business peddling slingshots. They named their enterprise Wham-O after the sound a slingshot made when it hit its target.

They branched into other sporting goods, including boomerangs and crossbows, then added toys that often bore such playful names as the Superball and Silly String.

When a friend told them in 1958 about a large ring used for exercise in Australia, they devised their own version and called it the Hula Hoop. Around the same time, they bought the rights to a plastic flying disc invented by Walter "Fred" Morrison, who called it the Pluto Platter. Wham-O bought the rights and renamed it the Frisbee.

- AP

    Inquirer