THE STORY OF MONOPOLY, SlLLY PUTTY, BINGO, TWISTER, FRISSBEE, SCRABBLE, ETCETERA (22 page)

I am a writer and performer, and have never been in the employ of any toy manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer. I have no special brief for this industry; only the fascination of one who has long observed its workings from a journalistic viewpoint.

When
A Toy Is Born
was published, it received an overall generous reception from the press. Yet more than one critic implied that I cherish such an affection for toy makers that I cannot bear to rap them on the knuckles when they deserve it.

This is an astonishing point of view. Mordant comments on the nature of toy marketing run continuously through this book. But since the avowed first intention of
The Story of Monopoly, Silly Putty, Bingo, Twister, Frisbee, Scrabble, Et Cetera
is to entertain the reader with the fascinating and incredible “success stories” of the starring products, the ironic tone was kept light—perhaps too light for some critics to comprehend.

However, I suspect the real reason a few reviewers took exception to
A Toy Is Born
was that in the chapters on TV toy advertising and product safety, I took the then-unheard-of stance of
defending
toy manufacturers; it must have seemed I was on someone’s gift-list. But I presented these views simply because, as a journalist, I have grown more and more offended by the misrepresentation of the toy business by a consumer press which drops in on the Toy Fair once a year, shops a few stores at Christmas—and then thinks it is well-enough informed to write meaningfully about its subject.

The chapter on TV advertising is one I considered excising from this reprint edition, since toy advertising has fallen into line in the intervening years. All anyone has to do is screen a few hours of children’s programming to realize that:

1.    Toy ads are now the most stringently regulated. They avoid the use of fantasy situations, except in minimal amounts, and the look and performance of a given product must be depicted exactly as they will be in one’s living-room or backyard.

2.    Other children’s products such as cereals, vitamins, cookies, and “empty-calorie” candies still are allowed to employ the very advertising techniques banned for toys.

The National Association of Broadcasters has looked the other way when it comes to the advertisers who really are able to saturate the air waves with tripe. And parent action groups continue anachronistically to bewail the war toy, though blithely unaware of the real abuses going on in children’s advertising today.

In the area of product safety, one newspaper reporter (perhaps disturbed by my position that the consumer press cynically crucified the toy industry) said that the safety chapter of this book is its sole blot. The same reporter failed to mention that it was his newspaper that originally published the erroneous statistics cited in the Washington subcommittee hearings on toy safety. Nor did he feel obligated to reply, either publicly or privately, to the note I wrote to him on the subject.

As a matter of fact, the chapter entitled
The Great Witch Hunt
is not half so harsh as the facts might have warranted. And, since this book was first published, new statistics from the agencies cited have
totally substantiated
the declaration that manufactured toys are responsible for very few accidents, while the ones that do occur are primarily the results of misuse, rather than poor construction of merchandise.

The Food and Drug Administration, which administers the toy safety law, has formally apologized to the toy industry for the injuries done it by the government in creating the present toy safety law. But to date, not one magazine or newspaper has admitted its earlier articles on toy safety were erroneous.

Anyone who wishes further information on this subject can contact either the public information office of the Toy Manufacturers of America at 200 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, or the back issues of the various toy trade magazines for which I chronicled in detail the safety story. These may be found in public libraries or by writing to the publishers: Geyer-McAllister, 51 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10010; Charlson Publications, 124 East 40 St., New York, New York 10016; or Harcourt Brace Jovan-ovich (Harbrace division), 757 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10017.

Ultimately, children’s toys and games are only as valuable and safe as individual parents care to make them. Properly utilized, playthings are tools for building minds and characters. Improperly treated, they may be lackluster pacifiers, solely meant to stave off boredom. A play hammer in a baby’s hand can become a weapon.

Yet—even when wisely used—toys and games bear comparison to Hal, the giant computer of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Hal, the bone, the artifact, the tool, is meant to serve civilization, not to dominate it. Playthings must always be adjuncts to the crucial activity of exploring our minds, the perceptions of our neighbors, the puzzle-box intricacy of the clockwork universe.

Marvin Kaye New York City 1977

“The Avalon Hill General,”
vol. VIII, no. 6.

"Barbie Talk”
vol. II, no. 3.

“Bingo Binge Is Big Business,” by Robert Daley,
New York Times Magazine
(December 8, 1957).

Children and Fiction,
by Wallace Hildick (World, 1970).

Children’s Games Around the World,
by Jeanne C. Wood and Helen Clarke (The Dietz Press, 1963).

Choosing Toys for Children of All Ages,
ed. by Doris H. Lund (American Toy Institute, 1971).

Dolls Your Grandmother Loved,
produced by Horsman Dolls Inc.

“Don’t Send Flowers,” by Earl Wilson,
Globe-Democrat Sunday Magazine
(December 7, 1969).

“Everyone Loves Frisbees,” by Jon Carroll,
L.A. Times West Magazine
(December 19, 1971).

Final Report of the National Commission on Product Safety,
presented to the President and Congress in June 1970.

The First Century of Selchow & Righter Co.,
issued by the company.

“Game Simulations and Learning,”
Research News,
Office of Research Administration, University of Michigan, vol. XXI, no. 9.

A Gamut of Games,
by Sid Sackson (Random House, 1969).

Growing Up with Barbie
(Mattel Inc., 1970).

“How Do They Ever Dream Up Those Crazy Toys?” by Glenn D. Kitler,
Coronet
(December 1968).

“Inventing Toys Is No Mere Child’s Play,”
Business Week
(December 21, 1963).

It’s All in the Game,
by James J. Shea as told to Charles Mercer (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1960).

The Man Who Lives in Paradise,
by A. C. Gilbert with Marshall McClin-tock (Rinehart, 1954).

The "Matchbox’’ Story
(Lesney Products, 1970).

“Programmed Games and the Learning of Problem-Solving Skills: The WFF ’N Proof Example,” by Layman E. Allen, Robert W. Allen, and James C. Miller,
The Journal of Educational Research,
vol. LX, no. 1.

“Santa Claus Is Alive and Well,”
TWA Ambassador
(December 1970). 75
Years of Fun
(Parker Brothers Inc., 1958).

The Story of the Toy Balloon,
issued by Oak Rubber Co.

Toy Marketing Today,
by Michael Spielman (Geyer-McAllister, 1971).
Toys in America,
by Inez and Marshall McClintock (Public Affairs Press, 1961).

Toys That Don’t Care,
by Edward M. Swartz (Gambit, 1971).

Toys Through the Ages,
by Dan Foley (Chilton Books, 1962).

Train Collectors Quarterly,
vol. XVI, no. 4.

“Tycoons in Toyland,” by Robert A. Rosenblatt,
L.A. Times West Magazine
(December 19, 1971).

The Wonderful World of Toys, Games and Dolls 1860—1930,
ed. by Joseph J. Schroeder Jr. (Digest Books Inc., 1971).

The Wonder of Growing,
by Dr. Esther P. Edwards (Sears, Roebuck & Co., 1971).

The World of Toys,
by Robert Culff (Hamlyn, 1969).

Yesterday’s Games,
ed. by Dr. Larry Freeman (Century House, 1970).

In addition to the above resources, numerous company catalogs and related literature were employed, as well as newspaper clippings from the press files of various firms.

Finally, an absolutely indispensable resource was provided by myriad issues of the two major toy-hobby trade magazines:
Playthings
(Geyer-McAllister) and
Toys
(formerly
Toys and Novelties;
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich).