"early tasks was finding something to do with all the excess stock of Wham-O hula hoops left over after the Hula Hoop craze had run its course. Headrick eventually worked his way up to the head of research and development at Wham-O where he experimented with plastics and rubber and designed popular toys like the super ball. Headrick's role was to come up with new toy ideas and to come up with ways to improve toys that were not selling well. It was this job which led him to reevaluate Wham-O's flying saucer which had been created by the American"
"used by fire and rescue departments to catch people jumping from buildings or heights. The first space walk manufacturing company was in New Orleans in a leased warehouse that also sewed horse pads. His wife, Frances, started the first inflatable rental company in 1966 and in 1976 they built a custom facility for the production and rental of the products. They marketed the space walks to children's events such as birthday parties, school fairs and company picnics. These original inflatables did not have the enclosure of today's inflatables. Their son Frank Scurlock expanded their rental concept throughout the United States"
"sold the design to Wham-O in 1957. In 1959, Wham-O marketed a slightly modified version of the toy, which they renamed the Frisbee—and once again a Wham-O toy became a common part of 1950s life. In the early 1960s, Wham-O created the Super Ball, a high-bouncing ball made of a hard elastomer Polybutadiene alloy, dubbed Zectron, with a 0.92 coefficient of restitution when bounced on hard surfaces. Around 20 million Super Balls were sold that decade, and the NFL named the Super Bowl games after it. The Frisbee and Hula Hoop created fads. With other products, Wham-O tried to capitalize"
"the 60 seconds expired, all four pies would be launched. By far the messiest. An audience member was sent to the top of a playground slide which ended up in a large vat filled with hundreds of gallons of whipped cream and a red beach ball made to look like a cherry. Participants would first remove their socks, shoes and other valuables, and go barefoot up the ladder to the top of the slide. Then the victim was usually allowed to choose whether to go head first or feet first, and would then set off down into the vat, following"
"was called Nissen/Gordon and lasted through the end of 1977 when George sold his company and the new owners were not interested in trampolines and landing pits. Gordon had already been working on his own version of Nissen's trampoline game Spaceball and convinced Nissen to sell him the rights for $1.00 to continue developing the game, which eventually became Hi-Ball and later Aeroball. 1978 saw the development of the first Hi-Ball unit. A company in Tallahassee Florida had developed the first Round Trampoline, which Gordon thought would be perfect for his idea. He flew to their facility with his 15-year-old"
"typically of very small diameter (1 to 2.5 feet). The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the introduction of hoop dancing into the world of physical fitness; a Swedish instructor began to incorporate the hoop into his special training system for dancers and musicians. In 1957, an Australian company began manufacturing bamboo hoops for sale in retail stores. This caught the attention of a new California-based toy company by the name of Wham-O, founded by Richard P. Knerr and Arthur K. Melin. In 1958, Knerr and Melin traveled to playgrounds across Southern California, where they gave away free hula hoops"
"on existing national trends. In the 1960s, they produced a US$119 do-it-yourself bomb shelter cover. In 1962, they sold a limbo dance kit to take advantage of that fad; and in 1975, when the movie Jaws was released, they sold plastic shark teeth. Many products were not successful. During an African safari in the early 1960s, Melin discovered a species of fish that laid eggs in the mud during Africa's dry season. When the rains came, the eggs hatched and fish emerged overnight. This inspired Melin to create the Instant Fish product, an aquarium kit consisting of some of the"
"retailing/shopping institutions closed: the oldest, a longtime Central Avenue fixture, Jim & Joe's Clothiers closed after 125+ years of service due to a number of related factors. The other, Minnick's Food Market, was Faribault's last mom-and-pop grocery store and closed after 60+ years of operation in late 2006. Herbert Sellner, a woodworker and maker of water slides, invented the Tilt-A-Whirl in 1926 at his Faribault home. Over the next year, the first 14 Tilt-A-Whirls were built in Sellner's basement and yard. In 1927, Sellner Manufacturing opened its factory in Faribault, and the ride debuted that year at the Minnesota State"
"Boulder. In 1959 Cunningham invented the Gerry Kiddie Carrier; it was patented in 1963. The company Gerry Designs, Inc. was spun off with Meg Hansson in 1960 to market the carrier to a wider audience. Nearly a million babies were toted in the carriers. In 1959, the company created a very compact survival suit for the US Air Force. The seven piece suit was made of nylon and goose down and came vacuum packed in a small box. It was used in jets and space capsules. The coat converted into a sleeping bag. Gerry expanded into outerwear and produced some"
"Hamilton Invaders The Hamilton's Invaders was a 1964 series of plastic toys of giant insect type monsters, toy soldiers and vehicles. The toyline was conceived and marketed by Remco on television during the early 1960s, inspired by the giant insect (see List of natural horror films) genre that were popular from the 1950s, that were in reruns on TV. A child could propel the giant insect toys via pull-string motors towards blue soldiers while counter-attacking with heavy motorized artillery and helicopters. Remco also produced a bug-eyed helmet and grenade pistol which the child could wear for total immersion in the"
"1960s rock and roll music throughout the park along with some compatible graphics. In its ""Rock–A–Hoola"" incarnation, the park included a river ride on inflated tubes. On June 26, 1999, Insomniac Events held the annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), an all-night rave, at Lake Dolores Waterpark. An on–premises RV park had been planned but its opening was delayed. In its three seasons the park amassed three million dollars in debt, one of the three investors experienced financial problems, and an employee crippled in a 1999 accident was awarded $4.4 million in damages (affirmed by the California Fourth District Court of"
"adult, it can leap over a three-story building. Toys similar to Super Balls are more generally known as bouncy balls, a term that covers other balls by different manufacturers with different formulations. Stingley sought uses for his Polybutadiene synthetic rubber, as well as someone to manufacture it. He first offered his invention to the Bettis Rubber Company, for whom he worked at the time, but they turned it down because the material was not very durable. So Stingley took it to toy company Wham-O; they worked on developing a more durable version which they still manufacture today. ""It took us"
"Hickory jump, Seagull Landing, and the Flying Squirrel. The first indoor elements were built in the Newburyport, Mass. gym in 1972, and by 1985 every outdoor element had been constructed in some sort of indoor environment. The refinement of the technology and equipment for the Ropes Course includes these innovations: galvanized cable, through-bolting, strand vises, telephone poles and accompanying guy technology, custom made pulley systems for the belay cable and for the Zip Wire. The invention of new activities was even more pronounced in the Initiative and game area, and the publication of Silver Bullets: A Guide to Initiative Problems"
"water slide resulted in 32 injures and the death of an 18-year-old female. It was stated that the slide experienced weight forces three times greater than what it was designed for. This incident was featured on an episode of Dateline. Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Concord Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Concord is a water park located in Concord, California. It was initially developed, owned, and operated by Premier Parks. It is currently owned by EPR Properties and operated by Six Flags. Waterworld California, originally Waterworld USA, opened in 1995. It was developed by what was then Premier Parks, which also leased"
"to Keiser for 10 years, where they had tremendous success selling these play units to places like Burger King, McDonald's, 24 Hour Fitness, auto dealerships and even jewelry store chains for their play centers for children. As of 2016 there are still many of these units still deployed throughout the United States. In the late 1960s, Gordon inadvertently invented the constant air flow inflatable with ""Moonbounce"" which began the whole bounce house revolution and also led to the larger scale inflatables used to jump off of buildings. This was done with premier Hollywood stuntman Dar Robinson with whom Gordon became"
"was adopted as the company name. In 1974, to solve the heat problem, a new product line called ""Jupiter Jump"" was created that has inflated columns that supported netting walls which allowed the air to pass through. Further enhancements of this style were developed such as a line of castles and animals which are referred to as the ""Inflatable Zoo"". In the early 1990s, Frank created the first commercial inflatable water slide called the ""Aqua Tunnel"". Space Walk was the first company to bring an inflatable to the IAAPA convention, Showmen's Club and the American Rental Association. The 1975 Neiman"
"was first the playground slide or the amusement park slide. Early slides were frequently referred to as ""Slide, Kelly, Slide"" (after the song of the same name), ""Helter Skelter"" (after the slide at Coney Island), or ""Shoot the Chutes"" (after the water slide made famous by ""Captain"" Paul Boyton). The manufacturer, Wicksteed, ballyhoo claim that the playground slide was invented by founder Charles Wicksteed and installed in Wicksteed Park in 1922, The discovery of Wicksteed's oldest slide was announced by the company in 2013. However, this has been countered by a 1916-07-25 US Patent and others who refer to a"
"In addition, there was also a miniature golf course as well as standard pools and rides for children. These were sometimes smaller, safer versions of the park's main attractions. In the mid-1980s GAR built an enclosed water slide, not unusual for that time; in fact, the park already had several such slides. On this one, however, they decided to build a complete vertical loop at the end, similar to that of a roller coaster. The resulting slide, called the ""Cannonball Loop"", was so intimidating, that employees have reported they were offered a hundred dollars to test it. Fergus, who described"
"1992, the Kentucky Kingdom made a large expansion and opened the Hurricane Bay water park along with the 150-foot-tall Giant Wheel. The following year a new slide complex opened in Hurricane Bay featuring four different slides. In 1994, the park opened Mile High Falls, the then world's tallest shoot-the-chute water ride. The children's roller coaster Roller Skater was also added that year. In 1995, T3 (formerly T2: Terror to the Second Power) was added. The ride was the first of its kind on the continent and the second only in the world, with the other being Condor at Walibi Holland"
"EmazingLights EmazingLights, LLC is a California-based retail company founded in 2010 by company CEO Brian Lim. It is best known for its light show gloves used for modern dance form gloving at rave and electronic dance music festivals. The company is listed as #189 on the Inc. 5000 List for achieving a 2281% growth rate over 3 years of operation and bringing in $5.8 million in revenue in 2013. Founder Brian Lim appeared as a contestant on ABC's reality competition series Shark Tank on March 13, 2015. Lim accepted a deal from sharks Mark Cuban and Daymond John for $650,000"
"the 1970 Special Olympics in Southern California and working with Olympic Decathlete Rafer Johnson at the games. In 1967 Gordon became interested with injection mold plastics. As an accomplished sculptor, he started to build different functional animal shapes to be used as chairs, stools, toyboxes, flotation devices or anything a child could dream up. The company continued until 1974 when plastic prices exploded due to rising oil prices. In 1975 George Nissen, who invented the trampoline in the 1930s, contacted Gordon to consult with his company on the development of next generation landing pits and other products. This joint venture"
"of the Eli Bridge Company, manufacturer of Ferris wheels and other amusement rides such as the Scrambler. W.E. Sullivan founded the firm with the introduction of his first portable ""Big Eli"" Wheel on the Jacksonville Square on May 23, 1900. Jacksonville was once home to the J. Capps & Son Company, one of the largest manufacturers of textiles and clothing in the United States, and owned by the Capps family, which was intermarried with the family of Jacob Bunn and John Whitfield Bunn of Springfield, Illinois, and Chicago. Reynolds Group Holdings (formerly Mobil Plastics, Tenneco, Pactiv) and Nestlé Beverage Co."
"Skip-It Skip-It is a children's toy invented by Avi Arad, Maggie Harvey and Mel Kennedy and manufactured by Tiger Electronics. The Skip-It apparatus was designed to be affixed to the child's ankle via a small plastic hoop and spun around in a 360 degree rotation while continuously skipped by the user. Time magazine included it in their 100 greatest toys ever. During its initial release in the 1980s, the Skip-It apparatus became a commercial success through its advertisements on daytime Nickelodeon broadcasting as well as other children's programming. It was based on 1960s toy Lemon Twist, which featured a lemon-shaped"
"the Flying Elephant and Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, the parking lot trams, Sky Buckets and the Prince Charming Carousel. Arrow was building small merry-go-rounds, playground equipment and rides for local amusement parks, including Alum Rock Park's Happy Hollow, by 1948. Karl and Ed set up a separate company called Easbey which won a contract with the city of Oakland, California to put rides in the Children's Fairyland at Lake Merritt, which was built in 1950. Arrow's 1979 product brochure listed eight Merry-Go-Rounds, mostly installed in California, ranging from in diameter. In 1955, Arrow built a demonstration children's park"
"DePiazza in August 1984. In April 1988, he founded American Builders & Craftsman Inc., a professional homebuilding and commercial construction firm in Saratoga, California. In 1995 Publicover's children, along with friends, were jumping on his trampoline when a young neighbor fell off, hurting herself. After that he began building prototypes of his enclosure design. Publicover went on to design and patent a trampoline enclosure that is sold as standard equipment with millions of trampolines each year. By July 1997, Publicover's family-run company, JumpSport, had Hedstrom of Bedford, Pennsylvania, manufacturing their trampoline enclosures, but few sales were achieved during the winter"
"House"", ""Bouncies"",""Moon Bounce"", ""Boingalow"", ""Astrojump"", ""Moonwalk"", ""Jolly Jump"" and ""Spacewalk"". Inflatable castles have been suggested as having some therapeutic value for children with certain sensory impairments, similar to ball pits. The first inflatable structure was designed in 1959 by John Scurlock in Shreveport, Louisiana who was experimenting with inflatable covers for a government request for proposal when he noticed his sons enjoyed jumping on the air structure. He was a electrical engineer and liked physics. Scurlock was a pioneer of inflatable domes, inflatable tents, inflatable signs and his greatest achievement was the invention of the safety air cushion that is"
"called their new product the Hula Hoop. (The name had been used since the 18th century, but till then had not been registered as a trademark.) The Hula-Hoop became the biggest toy fad in modern history. Twenty-five million were sold in four months, and in two years sales reached more than 100 million. ""Hula Hoop mania"" continued through the end of 1959, and netted Wham-O US$45 million (US$346M adjusted for inflation to 2012). Shortly thereafter, the company had another huge success with the Frisbee. In 1955, inventor Fred Morrison began marketing a plastic flying disc called the Pluto Platter. He"
"U.S. in the late 1950s. In 1958, two Swiss alpinists, Juesi and Marti teamed together, creating the first commercially available rope ascender known as the Jumar. In 1968 Bruno Dressler asked Petzl, who worked as a metals machinist, to build a rope-ascending tool, today known as the Petzl Croll, that he had developed by adapting the Jumar for pit caving. Petzl started a small caving equipment manufacturing company Petzl, which manufactures equipment for caving, climbing, mountaineering and at-height safety in civil engineering. The rappel rack was developed in the late 1960's by cavers in the Huntsville, Alabama caving club to"
"for 5% equity in the company and 20% of the revenue made from licensing deals. EmazingLights EmazingLights, LLC is a California-based retail company founded in 2010 by company CEO Brian Lim. It is best known for its light show gloves used for modern dance form gloving at rave and electronic dance music festivals. The company is listed as #189 on the Inc. 5000 List for achieving a 2281% growth rate over 3 years of operation and bringing in $5.8 million in revenue in 2013. Founder Brian Lim appeared as a contestant on ABC's reality competition series Shark Tank on March"
"major craze for several years, and remained widely popular through the 1980s. They are sometimes considered a symbol of the 1970s. The original space hopper of the United Kingdom was manufactured by Mettoy (Mettoy-Corgi). Wembley made a similar model which had smooth handles rather than the ribbed original. The orange kangaroo design is now available in adult sized versions in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the first mass marketed hopping ball (a version of an earlier European toy) was the Hoppity Hop, released by the Sun company around 1968. Because of the market and media saturation by this"
"Gymnast and Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash. Together with others, Morrison shares over 100 toy-related U.S. patents. Howard J. Morrison Howard J. Morrison (born 1932) is noted for his numerous contributions to the toy industry. Most notable is his work with Ralph H. Baer designing the game ""Simon"" while working for Marvin Glass at Marvin Glass and Associates. On leaving Marvin Glass and Associates, Morrison and his partners Jeffrey Breslow and Roben Terzian, were inducted into the Toy Industry Association Hall of Fame in 1998. Some of their best selling products include The Animal, Ants in the Pants, Guesstures (originally"
"following year, Eyerly changed the company's focus from aircraft to amusement rides based on the successful sales. Eyerly developed and patented numerous amusement rides which would become staples of carnival midways, including The Loop-O-Plane (1933), the Roll-O-Plane, the Fly-O-Plane and the Rock-O-Plane (1947). Perhaps their most popular design was the Octopus, which resulted in later variations: the Spider and the Monster. Two of the company's kiddie carousel rides were the Midge-O-Racer and Bulgy the Whale. Although Eyerly’s manufacturing business became amusement rides, the name of the company remained Eyerly Aircraft Company. Eyerly continued to produce amusement rides to 1985. After"
"made to look like steam shovels. Players would put a nickel into the slot of a glass-fronted cabinet and crank a wheel to engage a series of internal gears. The tiny bucket-jaws swung down, closed over a piece of candy, rose, and dropped the sweet into a chute where it could be retrieved. Early versions of these games include the Panama Digger, Erie Digger, and Iron Claw. The most successful model was the Miami Digger patented by carnival operator William Bartlett in 1932. The prizes were silver dollars or rolls of coins, and Bartlett operated the machines himself rather than"