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Yo-Yo
Factoids for the Press
Questions or need quotes for articles contact Lucky Meisenheimer at 407-352-2444
Lucky Meisenheimer,
M.D. has the Guinness World Record for the largest yo-yo
collection with 4251 different yo-yos
The name yo-yo has been used
in the Philippines for hundreds of years to describe the toy.
Prior to 1928 yo-yos were
called bandalores in the United States.
The yo-yo had nothing to do with the invention of the
guillotine, but many French nobles that played the toy, which was very
fashionable at the time, did lose their heads.
The British Association of Toy Retailers voted the Yo-Yo the "Craze of the
Century" for the 20th century.
The first patent for a
bandalore (yo-yo) in the United States was filed in 1866.
The yo-yo is believed to have originated in China around
1000BC, but there may have been multiple independent countries of origin.
Largest Reward:
$10,000.00. In the 1970’s, Linda Sengpiel
offered $10,000.00 to anyone who could do her ten-trick routine…nobody
collected.
The most people yo-yoing at the same time is 630.
This took place in 1991 at Marley Station in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Lucky Meisenheimer has
built a six foot tall statue of a man out of 603 different yo-yos.
Tim Redmond in 2005
made a yo-yo sleep for 16min and 17 seconds for the current world record.
In 1928 Pedro Flores a Filipino immigrant was the first to market the toy
by the name of yo-yo in the United States.
The yo-yo was sold as a
souvenir for the 1904 world’s fair.
Pedro
Flores ran the first yo-yo contest in Santa Barbara, CA in 1928, which
started the first yo-yo craze.
The world's largest wood yo-yo is 6 feet tall and weighs 820lbs. It has
been yo-yoed using a 160 foot crane. It was built by a wood working class
in Shakamak, IL. This yo-yo is part of Lucky
Meisenheimer's collection.
The press likened the late 1920s yo-yo fad to a case of
measles. They said the yo-yo craze
would run it course in a few weeks never to be seen again.
Fortunately we have never mounted immunity to the toy and 70 years later
millions of yo-yos continue to be sold each year.
The marketing genius Don Duncan
bought the yo-yo trademark from Pedro Flores in 1932 and subsequently made the
yo-yo a household name. Duncan also
invented the Eskimo pie and unfortunately also produced the Duncan parking
meter.
In the 1930s Duncan convinced William
Randolph Hearst to use his newspapers to promote yo-yo contests.
In exchange Duncan required contestants to sell 3 subscriptions to the
newspaper for entry in the contest. The
first contest promoted in this fashion resulted in 50,000 new subscribers for
one newspaper in just 8 weeks.
In the early 1940s yo-yo production almost stopped from the
lack of material and manpower due to World War II.
Duncan released its first light up yo-yo in 1950
called the Electric Lighted yo-yo.
In the middle 1950s the first plastic glow yo-yo was
produced called the Dyna-Glo
Duncan did not own the yo-yo trademark in Canada it
was owned by a company called Cheerio. In
the U.S. during the 50s this company marketed its yo-yos as “Cheerios”.
The
Duncan Company released its new “high tech” model the “Butterfly” in
1958.
Prior to 1965 Duncan was responsible for 85 percent of
all yo-yos purchased in the United States.
Duncan lost it trademark to the
name yo-yo in 1965 and went bankrupt the same year.
Flambeau Plastics bought the Duncan trademark in 1968
and continues to produce Duncan yo-yos to this day.
In 1968 Abbie Hoffman
“walked the dog” with his yo-yo while testifying before a congressional
committee and was found in contempt.
President Richard Nixon,
shortly before his resignation in 1974, played a yo-yo at the “Grand ole Opry”
with country music legend Roy Acuff. Twenty
years later the Nixon autographed yo-yo sold at auction for $16,029.00.
At the peak of its production the Duncan
factory employed 640 and produced as many as 60,000 yo-yos per day and in 1962,
45 million sold in one year.
A yo-yo was taken on the space shuttle Discovery in
1985. Astronauts played the yo-yo
while orbiting the earth. They
found it was easier to do the trick “around the world” when you weren’t
going around the world. Gravity definitely makes the toy more fun.
Yomega released the first yo-yo with an auto return
mechanism in 1984. It was called
“Yomega the Yo-Yo with a brain”
Seventeen different collectible models of yo-yos have
broken the $1000 mark at auction on eBay.
The first ball bearing transaxle yo-yo was introduced by a
ball bearing manufacturer in Sweden in 1984.
In 1986 Tommy
Smothers made his “YoYo Man” debut on “The Tonight Show” with
Johnny Carson.
The National Yo-Yo Museum is located in Chico, CA.
In 1990 “Fast Eddy”
McDonald set a world record for yo-yo loops doing 8437 in one hour.
The first modern world yo-yo championships were held in 1992
organized by Dale Oliver,
The first modern national yo-yo
championships were held in 1993 in Chico, Ca organized by
Bob Malowney.
The American Yo-Yo
Association was founded in 1993.
The youngest person to win the world yo-yo championships is
Takumi Nagase (1999) from Japan at age 12; the
oldest is Dale Myrberg
(1996) at age 54. The first female to win the world championships was
Jennifer
Baybrook (1998) at age 18.
In 1999 Lucky Meisenheimer, M.D.
published the first instructional book on collecting yo-yos “Lucky’s
Collectors Guide to 20th Century Yo-Yos”.
The most expensive retailed yo-yo is the Duncan Mg at $400.00!
In 2000 Steve Brown introduced Freehand Play where the yo-yo is not
attached to the finger.
Over 2000 different yo-yo tricks are known to currently exist.
Lucky Meisenheimer produces the poster
"Lucky's Periodic Table of Yo-Yos" in 2006
Copyright © 1999 Lucky J's Swim & Surf Inc. All rights reserved.
Revised: April 02, 2007
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