It was sixty years ago, 1940, and we were in the midst of World War II. Our supply of rubber for things like truck tires and boots was getting cut off because the Japanese kept invading rubber producing countries in the Far East. Our War Production Board put out word to the American industrial world that we needed a synthetic rubber compound.
A Scottish engineer for General Electric was working on this problem in his lab and ended up with a gooey mess. In a frustrated moment, he threw the mixture on the floor – and it bounced!
Years later, Mr. Peter Hodgson, a marketing consultant, was hired by the owner of a toy store to produce a catalog for her. He talked her into adding a description of the putty on a page which described adult gifts. The putty outsold everything in the catalog except Crayola crayons. Still, the store owner was leery of the putty and didn’t order any more.
Mr. Hodgson came up with the name Silly Putty and took it to the International Toy Fair in New York. Toy makers weren’t impressed but a few outlets like Doubleday book shops and Neiman-Marcus did order some of the putty that was packaged in little eggs.
It took a writer from New York to really spark interest in Silly Putty. He wrote a story about the Silly Putty and Mr. Hodgson received orders for more than a quarter million eggs within three days. Like a lot of products, Silly Putty sales eventually began to die down.
It was Hodgson who created one of the first television advertising campaigns targeted at children. Guess what the product was. Of course, it was Silly Putty and shows like Captain Kangaroo and the Howdy Doody Show aired these Silly Putty commercials.
After that it was all up hill. In fact, Silly Putty even went all the way up to the moon with the Apollo 8 astronauts. It was packaged in a specially designed sterling silver egg and was used to fasten down tools during the periods that they were weightless. It also gave the astronauts something to play with during any boring times in space.
Binney & Smith acquired the rights to Silly Putty when Peter Hodgson died a millionaire in 1976. Just last year, they produced more than 6 million eggs or nearly 90 tons of Silly Putty.
For the 50th Anniversary of Silly Putty, they came out with a metallic gold Silly Putty and in 2001 Silly Putty was inducted into The National Toy Hall of Fame. There is now a Silly Putty that changes colors as you work with it and a glow-in-the-dark Silly Putty.
There is an artist, George Horner, who uses Silly Putty to make unique creations. They sell from $2,000 and up. Raymond Barry, an NFL Hall of Famer, used Silly Putty to strengthen his grip. Other atheletes have adopted that practice.
Maybe before you throw your mistakes away, you should see if you can’t find some use for them. It worked well for Silly Putty.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/a/sillyputty.htm
