In 1957, wood rings were being made & sold in retail stores in Australia. This caught the attention of a toy company called Wham-o ( I remember that brand).
In 1958, Richard P. Knerr & Arthur K. Melin from the Wham-o company out out plastic colored hoops & it has been in our lives ever since. Some people can do some amazing things with the hula hoop. Now they have ones that light up creating amazing lights when done in the dark.
So that is how the hula hoop came into our lives. But what about the past? I mean the idea had to come from somewhere. Here is that history.
It is known that 1000 B.C., kids in Egypt would play with circular hoops from grape vines & stiff grass. A stick was also used to move it along the ground.
In the 14th century, it was called 'hooping'. Apparently some people got hurt with dislocated backs & heart attacks from hooping. The word 'hula' came into place for the toy in the 1800's when British sailors went to the Hawaiian islands & saw that hula dancing was like hooping.
When Knerr & Melin created them for their company, they would take them to playgrounds, show them what to do & gave the kids a free hula hoop. It caught on & they made millions.
I find it interesting how things are created & that something some simple catches on & people make millions from it. Now why can't I do that? lol I got my info from this site:
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/hulahoop.htm
A skimmed another site that pretty much said the same thing, just not in so much detail. I am working on doing the history of view masters. There is a lot of info & I am in the middle of other things but hope I can get to it soon. :) Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.
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