The yo-yo. It may not be as popular as it was 40 years ago, but you can still get yourself a pretty decent one if you look hard enough. But how did the yo-yo craze get started? For that matter, when was the first yo-yo made?
The truth is, nobody really knows where the yo-yo came from. There are some who say that the yo-yo originated in China. But the first time the yo-yo was ever mentioned was in Greece around 500 BC. The old yo-yos were made out of various materials like wood and metal. Supposedly, when a kid got to be a certain age he was supposed to offer up his yo-yos to the gods.
The modern day yo-yo didn't actually come to be until the 1920s when a guy by the name of Pedro Flores brought one to the United States from the Philippines. In 1928 he began a toy company in California to start making them. His first yo-yos were very unique in that instead of having the string tied to the axle, the string was wrapped around the axle. This made it so that the yo-yo could hang, or what they called "sleep" at the end of the rope.
A year later, a guy by the name of Donald Duncan saw this yo-yo and was fascinated by it. Because Pedro was able to do quite a few tricks with his yo-yo, he drew large crowds by putting on exhibitions. Duncan saw this as a big money maker. So, not only did Duncan purchase the idea of the yo-yo but he bought the company from Flores himself. You know the rest of what happened.
Duncan yo-yos became a monster of a company. In 1946 they moved to Luck, Wisconsin, which became known as the yo-yo capital of the world. They were producing yo-yos there at an alarming rate of over 3,600 per hour. Back in the 40s the yo-yos were made out of wood, but when the 1960s rolled around they started making them out of a very hard plastic.
The early yo-yos were still pretty simple looking. Still, by 1962 over 45 million of these yo-yos were sold. That's not bad considering the country had only 40 million children at the time. Some kids were buying two or three different yo-yos. And that number began to increase when Duncan started making different styles of yo-yos.
But then the legal battles began. The Duncan trademark of the word "yo-yo" was being fought against. The word had become the toy itself. Well, finally, Duncan lost their battle with the courts and in 1965 Duncan was driven into bankruptcy. The Duncan name itself was purchased by Flambeau Plastics.
In spite of this, the yo-yo became more popular than ever. Yo-yo tournaments were being held all over the world. New tricks were being thought of including the popular "walk the dog". There were even more styles of yo-yos than ever before. And then finally, on April 12, 1985, the yo-yo was taken into space.
The yo-yo may have lost some steam over the years, but it is still one of the most popular toys to have ever been made.
Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Toys
