Uncle John’s Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader (50 page)

But Duncan’s most productive effort came one afternoon in 1929, when he walked uninvited into the San Simeon mansion of newspaper press baron William Randolph Hearst, talked his way past the butler, and made a quick sales pitch to Hearst, telling him how he could use yo-yo contests to boost newspaper circulation.

Duncan’s idea was simple: Hearst’s newspapers would publicize his yo-yo competitions, and in exchange for the free publicity, Duncan would require all entrants to sell three Hearst newspaper subscriptions as the price of admission to the contests. Hearst knew a good idea—and a good product—when he saw one. He took Duncan up on the offer. The promotions worked; in 1931, for example, one month-long effort in Philadelphia helped sell three million yo-yos.

Picture Perfect

To make newspaper coverage of his product as exciting as possible, Duncan arranged to photograph as many actors, professional athletes, and other celebrities playing with yo-yos as he could. He got lucky: two of the first stars who agreed to the photos were Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford—then Hollywood’s biggest stars. Their superstar status guaranteed that other celebrities would enthusiastically follow suit.

Some celebrity endorsements went beyond mere photographs: he got Bob Hope to perform yo-yo tricks for U.S. troops during World War II, and talked a young singer named Bing Crosby into singing
promotional songs for the company, including this one:

What is the dearest thing on earth, that fills my soul with joy and mirth? My yo-yo.

What keeps my sense in a whirl, and makes me break dates with my best girl? My yo-yo.

THAT’S A LOT OF YO-YOS

These promotional efforts paid off. By the early 1930s, annual sales had shot from thousands of yo-yos to millions. The yo-yo craze spread all over the world. Demand became so great that in 1946 Duncan had to build a huge plant in Luck, Wisconsin, to keep up. The factory could turn out 3,600 yo-yos an hour—but at times Duncan still couldn’t fill all the orders…even running the plant 24 hours a day.

Still, long-term sales were unpredictable. In boom years, the demand for yo-yos was insatiable. Other years, the demand declined by as much as 90%.

UPS AND DOWNS

The biggest yo-yo craze in history took place in the 1960s. In 1962 alone, according to news reports, 45 million were sold—despite the fact that there were only 40 million kids in the country. This should have been the Duncan Yo-Yo Company’s finest hour—but it was their undoing. Why?

1. To meet the demand, they expanded and got too far into debt.

2. They stuck with wood when they should have switched to plastic. Wood had to dry for as long as six months, so they couldn’t increase production fast enough.

3. They lost their “yo-yo” trademark. There was so much money to be made selling yo-yos that competitors challenged the trademark in court. As proof that the term had become generic, they pointed to a billboard Duncan itself had erected near its factory:
Welcome to Luck, Wisconsin,Yo-yo Capital of the World.
If there was a yo-yo
capital
, that must mean yo-yos were made elsewhere, too. In 1962 a Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the trademark was invalid because the word yo-yo was the name of the toy itself.

These problems, combined with increasing costs and competition from Frisbees, skateboards, and other toys, sent the company into a tailspin. In 1965 the Duncan Co. filed for bankruptcy.

Three years later, the Flambeau Plastics Corporation bought the rights to the Duncan name and began cranking out plastic yo-yos. The Duncan name survives to this day (its yo-yos still have an 80% to 85% market share), and yo-yo fads still come and go; Donald Duncan, Jr. is even still in the business, producing yo-yos for the educational market under the name Playmaxx. But for purists, the end of the era came in 1965.

YO-YO FACTS

• Donald Duncan applied his promotional genius to other products: he also invented the Eskimo Pie, originated the Good Humor ice cream truck, co-patented the first four-wheel hydraulic automobile brake, and was the first person to successfully market the parking meter to cities and towns. (At one point, his parking meter company manufactured 80% of all meters in the United States.)

• In the early 1900s Hubert Meyer of Toledo, Ohio, patented an edible yo-yo.

• The Lego company built yo-yos for sale in the 1930s, but like Duncan, it sometimes found itself with huge inventories and low demand. One year it had so many unsold yo-yos in its warehouses that it sawed them in half and used them for wheels on toy trucks and cars.

• In 1984 astronaut David Griggs brought a yo-yo on board the Space Shuttle as part of NASA’s “Toys in Space” experiments. His finding: yo-yos don’t “sleep” in space—they just reach the end of their string and bounce right back up.

• The world’s record for yo-yoing was set by John Winslow of Gloucester, Virginia. He started on November 23, 1977 and didn’t stop for five days—120 hours.

• The world’s largest yo-yo, Big-Yo, is 50” tall and 31-1/2” wide, and weighs 256 pounds. The string is 3/4” braided Dacron rope. In 1980 the “You Asked for It” TV show launched it off Pier 39 in San Francisco. But the string accidentally got wet before the launch and Big-Yo kept spinning in a “sleeper” position until its axle overheated and the string burned through. The yo-yo plunged 30 feet into San Francisco Bay and frogmen had to keep it from drifting away until it could be retrieved and towed to shore.

They’re only human, after all.

John Madden:
As Oakland Raiders coach, he wouldn’t let his team leave the locker room until running back Mark van Eeghen belched.

Confederate General Stonewall Jackson:
Jackson always charged into battle with his left hand held over his head, for “psychic balance.”

Alfred Hitchcock:
The cameo appearance he made in each film he directed was for good luck.

Michael Jordan:
Always wears his North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform. “As long as I have these shorts on…I feel confident,” he says.

The Barrymores:
Lionel, Ethel, and John always gave each other an apple on the night of a show’s premiere.

Jimmy Connors:
Wouldn’t compete in a tennis match without a little note from his grandma tucked into his sock.

Jack Lemmon:
Whispers “magic time” as filming starts.

Thomas Edison:
Carried a staurolite, a stone that forms naturally in the shape of a cross. Legend has it that when fairies heard of Christ’s crucifixion, their tears fell as “fairy cross” stones. Also a lucky piece for Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

Greta Garbo:
Wore a lucky string of pearls.

Mario Andretti:
Won’t use a green pen to sign autographs.

Kichiro Toyoda:
A fortuneteller told him it was good luck to change his product’s name to
Toyota
and only use car names beginning with “C” (Celica, Camry, etc.).

John Wayne:
Considered it lucky to be in a movie with actor Ward Bond.

John McEnroe:
Thinks it’s bad luck to play on a Thursday the 12th. Carefully avoids stepping on a white line on the tennis court.

Randy Johnson:
Eats pancakes before pitching.

More unusual origins of everyday words.

P
ARTING SHOT

Meaning:
A final cutting remark or severe look at the end of an argument.

Origin:
Unlikely as it seems, this term apparently evolved from the term
Parthian shot
or
Parthian shaft.
In about 1 B.C. in Western Asia, Parthian warriors were known for firing arrows
backwards
as they were retreating from an enemy.

TO LICK SOMETHING (OR SOMEONE) INTO SHAPE

Meaning:
Improve something/someone; make them presentable

Origin:
Comes from the old belief that bear cubs were born featureless, as “shapeless masses of flesh and fur” and needed constant licking from their parents to achieve their final shape.

NO-MAN’S LAND

Meaning:
Any desolate or dangerous place.

Origin:
A thousand years ago in London, retribution for criminal acts was swift and severe. Most crimes were punishable by death. It was customary to transport condemned men just outside of the north wall of the city, where they would be hanged, impaled, or beheaded, and their bodies disposed of. Long after the surrounding territory was settled, no one laid a claim to the land where the executions had been held. Since no one owned it, it was designated as
no-man’s land.

TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

Meaning:
Be skeptical; examine something carefully before accepting a statement’s accuracy.

Origin:
In ancient times, salt was rare and people thought it had special powers. Among other uses, they sprinkled it on food suspected of containing poison. It became customary to eat a questionable dish only if it was accompanied with a dash of salt.

Most of us think we know more about the law than we actually do. We challenge you to take the BRI’s version of the Bar Exam. Can you tell the difference between legal myths and legal reality
? Answers
are on
page 499
.

P
ROBLEM #1

Bill and his wife get divorced, and he’s socked with a hefty alimony payment. His drinking buddy tells Bill to get out of it by declaring bankruptcy. Can he do it?

a)
Yes—if he moves around a lot and doesn’t hold a steady job.

b)
Nope. In his case, love may be temporary…but alimony is forever.

c)
Of course. Once the bankruptcy is final, all of his debts will be erased.

PROBLEM #2

Susan and Tom are first cousins who’ve fallen in love. They want to get married and raise a family. Tom’s brother tells them they’re out of luck—it’s not legal. So they do some research and find out:

a)
Tom’s brother is right. It’s illegal in the United States for first cousins to marry.

b)
They can get married, but first they’ll have to undergo psychological and genetic testing to evaluate the chances of insanity or birth defects. If the results are okay, a court will grant permission.

c)
They should start packing and head for Georgia.

PROBLEM #3

Speed-limit signs of 5 MPH are posted at the local mall. One of the mall’s security officers calls the local police to have some teenagers arrested for speeding through the parking lot. The police dispatcher tells the security officer to forget it—he’s not sending out an officer. Why not?

a)
The security guard didn’t have a radar gun, so the case would be thrown out of court for lack of evidence

b)
It’s not the police’s problem.

c)
Speeding violations are a low priority for local police.

PROBLEM #4

You bounce a check at the corner grocery store. Legally, what can they do about it?

a)
They’re required to request payment as soon as the check is returned to them. If you make good on it immediately, they can only charge you for the amount of the check.

b)
They can stick it to you and charge you for up to
ten times
the amount of the check.

c)
If they wanted to, they could have you arrested for theft.

PROBLEM #5

Sally loses her bank card, but doesn’t notice it’s gone until a couple of days have gone by; then she calls the credit card company right away. What’s her maximum liability?

a)
$50.

b)
None—the card is automatically insured.

c)
$500.

PROBLEM #6

You have a great idea for a new product. Your friends advise you to get it patented right away. Is that the best idea?

a)
Yes, it’s always the best protection for your idea.

b)
You can’t get a patent for something until you’re ready to produce it, so you’ll have to get manufacturing deals set up first.

c)
Not always. If you apply for a patent, you might be limiting your ability to make money from it.