During the fourteenth century, a "hooping" craze swept England, and was as popular among adults as kids.   The records of doctors at the time attribute numerous dislocated backs and heart attacks to "hooping."  The word hula became associated with the toy in the early 1800s when British sailors visited the Hawaiian Islands and noted the similarity between "hooping" and hula dancing.  In 1957, an Australian company began making wood rings for sale in retail stores.

The item attracted the attention of Wham-0, a fledgling California toy manufacturer. Richard P. Knerr and Arthur K. Melin, of Wham-O, manufactured a plastic hoop in a variety of bright colors.  Knerr and Melin promoted it for months in 1958 on Southern California playgrounds where they would do demonstrations and give away hoops to get the children to learn and play. Their perseverence turned HULA HOOP into the greatest fad the country has ever seen. Twenty-five million were sold in four months!
The Hula Hoop was introduced in 1958 and made the two men very rich indeed.  

The fad died out in the sixties, but Hula Hoops are now very much with us again thanks to the fitness craze.  What better way to grind off those unsightly bulges around the waist and hips.

TO LEARN MORE

RELATED INFORMATION:
The History of Toys and Games   from The Great Idea Finder

ON THE BOOKSHELF:
The Kid Who Invented the Popsicle : And Other Surprising Stories About Inventions
by Don L. Wulffson / Paperback - 128 pages (1999) / Puffin
Brief factual stories about how various familiar things were invented, many by accident, from animal crackers to the zipper.
Why Didn't I Think of That?: Bizarre Origins of Ingenious Inventions We Couldn't Live Without
by Allyn Freeman, Bob Golden / Paperback - 260 pages / John Wiley & Sons; (September 1997)
Filled with wacky and fascinating facts, awe-inspiring success statistics, and rags-to-riches stories, Chronicles the odd origins behind 50 famous inventions and reveals the business side of each product's actual production, marketing, and distribution.

ON THE WEB:
Wham-O Inc.
Official hula hoop site, of the newly independent Wham-O Inc.
(URL: www.wham-o.com/)
Invention Dimension - Inventor of the Week
Teachers will be interested in the possibilities of the Hula Hoop as an educational tool. Skeptics may change their minds after seeing MIT’s page honoring Melin and Knerr as Inventors of the Week.
(URL: web.mit.edu/invent/iow/hulahoop.html)
Hula Hoop Instruction Video
Have you ever wondered where the hula hoop® came from? Well wonder no more, a brief history on the round-ring of fun.
(URL: www.hula-hoops.com/)
Going, Going, Gone….
The way things used to be. Hula Hoops written by Lindsay. A ThinkQuest Project.
(URL: library.thinkquest.org/3205/gather/U960815.192539.html)

DID YOU KNOW:

• Truckloads of hoops were hijacked on their way to stores by crazed consumers.
• In 1958 a hula hoop cost $1.98 in the United States of America.
• Wham-O sold more than 100 million Hula Hoop's in the first twelve months on the market, and even that wasn't enough to meet the demand.
• In Japan,  nervous officials banned the toy's use in public for fear of mass impropriety.
• Wham-O founders Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr spotted a bamboo exercise toy on a trip to Australia.
• On August 5, 1999, in Reno Nevada, Lori Hula-Hooped her way into the Guinness Book of World Records by spinning 82 Hula Hoops simultaneously for three complete revolutions.
• Wham-O was also the company that brought us the Frisbee.
• Other toys that took the world by storm included Silly Putty, Slinky, and the Super Ball. 
• Wham-O was born in a garage in 1948 when entrepreneurs—and best friends—Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spuds" Melin began producing slingshots that sold for 75 cents. In 1982, Knerr and Melin sold out to Kransco Manufacturing for $12 million and retired. In 1994, Mattel purchased the toy maker. Now the Wham-O brand name is flying solo again as the newly formed Wham-O Inc