Yesterday was the 50th birthday of the Hula Hoop, another classic Wham-O Inc. toy that holds a special place in plastics industry history.
I've seen and heard the story many times, and this version from the Houston Business Journal sums it up pretty well.
The short version: Phillips Petroleum Co. was trying to commercialize high density polyethylene in the 1950s, but its huge new commercial reactor was making way too much off-spec resin. Customers canceled orders, and Phillips had warehouses filled with resin that no one wanted.
Then Wham-O introduced the Hula Hoop, which used Phillips' Marlex-brand resin, and demand for the hoops was far beyond expectations -- 25 million in the first four months, 100 million in the first year, according to Wikipedia.
In no time, Phillips sold all of that off-spec resin to Hula Hoop makers.
So happy birthday, Hula Hoop. I'm sure there are still some folks in Bartlesville, Okla, who will raise a glass and toast your success (and good timing) today.
Comments (1)
Don: there's a good 'backstory' to the Hoop. Back then Vernon Pope was working for LOOK magazine and knew some folks at Phillips. They came to him with the Hoop photo and he selected it.
Waa-Laa. The Hoop was born. Phillips hit the plastics business big time and Vernon founded his own PR firm -- naturally his biggest client was Phillips.
The Vernon Pope Agency continued, becoming Sid Gross and Associates and later G+A Communications headed by Al Hirsch. I eventually came on board to run the Phillips Chemical, plastics division, account.
So the New York City PR firm started because of a Hoop had the Phillips account for nearly 60 years. I thinks that's a record. And the Hoop keeps on spinning.
Regards,
Steve Cooper
Posted by Anonymous | June 19, 2008 2:34 PM
Posted on June 19, 2008 14:34