How did these brands get their names?

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Continuing...

Doritos:

Frito-Lay executive Archibald Clark West (Sept 8, 1914 – Sept 20, 2011) loved toasted tortillas. So he worked on a new company snack. It looked golden and "oro" means gold in Spanish, "ito" is a nod to the company name. And they decided to add a D. Doritos were released nationwide in 1966, the first tortilla chip to be launched nationally in the United States. An early television commercial for Doritos called them "a swinging, Latin sort of snack."



Doritos is an American brand of flavored tortilla chips produced since 1964 by Frito-Lay, a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. The original Doritos were not flavored. The first flavor was Toasted Corn, released in 1966, followed by Taco in 1967 and Nacho Cheese in 1972. Other specialty flavors began to make their debut during the late 1980s. The concept for Doritos originated in a restaurant at Disneyland.
His parents, James and Jessie West, were immigrants from Scotland. West and his brother were raised at a Masonic home because his mother was too impoverished to care for them. Archibald served in the US Navy in the Pacific theater during World War II as a gunnery officer. At a memorial service, family members had dust his grave with a layer of Doritos.

Ashes to ashes, crunch to crunch.



Even when the phrase "junk food" became popular in the early 70s to describe salty snacks—Ralph Nader hosted a "Junk Food Hall of Shame" exhibit, and President Nixon’s adviser (Dr. Jean Mayer) on food and nutrition publicly questioned the value of potato chips...Result: Frito-Lay’s sales continued to explode.


Frisbee:

Walter Frederick "Fred" Morrison (Jan 23, 1920 – Feb 9, 2010) stated that the original idea for a flying disc toy came to him in 1937, while throwing a popcorn can lid with his girlfriend, Lucile Eleanor "Lu" Nay (1920–1987), whom he later married on April 3, 1939, in Los Angeles, California. The popcorn can lid soon dented which led to the discovery that cake pans flew better and were more common. A year later, Morrison and Lu were offered 25 cents for a cake pan that they were tossing back and forth on a Santa Monica, California, beach. Morrison detailed, in a 2007 interview, "That got the wheels turning, because you could buy a cake pan for five cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it, well—there was a business."  Morrison and Lu developed a little business selling "Flyin' Cake Pans" on the beaches of Los Angeles.



In June 1957, Wham-O co-founders Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin gave the disc the brand name "Frisbee" after learning that college students were calling the Pluto Platter by that term, which was derived from the Connecticut-based pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company, a supplier of pies to Yale University, where students had started a campus craze tossing empty pie tins stamped with the company's logo—the way that Morrison and his wife had in 1937.

For fun, workers at the Frisbie Pie Co. tossed empty pie tins on breaks. The pastime caught on at colleges, namely at Yale University. Wham-O sold the Pluto Platter. But Sports Illustrated reported students were calling them "Frisbees" so Wham-O changed the name to boost sales.

The longer true "Saucer" story...

Fred and his father tinkered with the idea of producing a “better-flying cake pan” out of custom-formed sheet metal, but then along came WWII. Fred enlisted in the Army Air Corp and flew missions over Italy in a P-47 Fighter Bomber. His flying experience gave him new insights on the aerodynamics of flight...and, once out of the service, a new inspiration to pick up where he had left off.

In 1946 he drafted a brand new design for a flying disc and called it the “Whirlo-Way” (after the champion race horse). At the time Fred was moving their growing family about while searching for work as a carpenter. He took a job working for Warren Franscioni who had a business installing butane heating systems in the San Louis Obispo, California area. Warren had also been a WWII pilot and took a liking to flipping cake pans with Fred. Warren also took an interest in Fredʼs idea of producing a better-flying design...especially after Fred shared his Whirlo-Way drawing with him.

They decided to explore manufacturing the Whirlo-Way... but take advantage of the newly-developed plastic injection process instead of metal. An arrangement was agreed upon whereby Warren would secure the funds for developing Fredʼs design and both would contribute to the sales and promotion of their new product. In late 1947 their new business, PIPCO, was born. (PIPCO did NOT stand for “Partners In Plastic” as has been erroneously asserted by many sources beginning in the 1970s, but for—as Fred abashedly admitted—“If Itʼs a PIPCO Product, Itʼs a Pip!” A “pip” at the time meant a “humdinger.”)

By March 1948 Southern California Plastics (SCP) was molding the first colorful batches of the very first plastic flying discs. But instead of Whirlo-Way, “Flyin-Saucer” was tooled into the mold to take advantage of the publicʼs fascination with U.F.O. reports that had begun grabbing headlines in 1947.

Despite relentless effort by the PIPCO duo, Flyin-Saucers didnʼt take off. Direct sales to the public at various fairs and events were effective, but limited, and not cost-effective. Attempts to promote sales through stores or wholesale representatives were unsuccessful and by February 1950, Fred had had enough. He gave up his half-interest in PIPCO and never again had any contact with Warren.

Warren continued to keep the business afloat by engaging additional financial partners and in May 1950 entered into an agreement with Al Capp to promote Liʼl Abnerʼs Flyinʼ Saucers. The deal turned disastrous. Faced with financial ruin, Warren Franscioni shelved the mold and re-enlisted in the Air Force.

In 1953 SCP asked Warren if he would allow them to remold the Flyin-Saucer using the newly-developed softer, more-durable polyethylene plastic in exchange for royalties for all sales that might be generated through their own promotion. Warren agreed, and Flyin Saucers (no hyphen) were soon soaring again.

By 1954 Fred Morrison yearned to augment his income by selling saucers again in his spare time and decided to contact SCP to find out if Flyin-Saucers were still available. He learned they were! He placed several orders, but soon discovered that producing his own disc from a brand new mold would be much more profitable than continuing to buy them from SCP.

In early 1955 Fred sat down at his kitchen table and designed the disc that would prove to be the archetype for the modern plastic flying disc. The media was all abuzz with talk of future space travel. Fred wanted a name that was “spacey.” Pluto was the last planet discovered...what would euphoniously go with “Pluto”? A platter was disc-shaped. “Pluto Platter” it was! Lu added the instructions: “Flat Flip Flies Straight–Tilted Flip Curves, Experiment!”

Pluto Platters began sailing at fairs on weekends promoted by Fred and Lou through their new business: American Trends Co. Sales were so vigorous over the next two years that they caught the attention of Rich Knerr and Spud Melin, owners of Wham-O, who manufactured slingshots, crossbows, and boomerangs, but were interested in breaking into the burgeoning popular toy market.

After weeks of negotiation, Fred and Lu reached an agreement with Rich and Spud on January 23, 1957 (Fredʼs birthday) to allow Wham-O full control of manufacturing and sales promotion of the Pluto Platter in exchange for royalties on all future sales.

A few months later, apparently Rich Knerr learned that college students back on the East Coast were calling the Pluto Platter a different name: Frisbee. Being a passionate sportsman, it seems likely that Rich read about this in a May 13, 1957 article in Sports Illustrated about the new fad of flying discs. The article doesnʼt mention the Frisbie Pie Company at all. In fact it states, “Nobody at Princeton seems to know who named the Frisbee, or why.” Regardless of the unknown source, Rich liked the name, and, if it would help sell more of his new Pluto Platters, what the hell, heʼd call them Frisbees, too! By June 17th Wham-O did.

In 1958 Wham-O helped Fred obtained a design patent for his flying disc.

Sales of the Platters remained steady, but relatively modest until 1964 when
Wham-O hired Ed Headrick, a former appliance sales executive. Edʼs first job
was to boost sales of their flying discs by re-inventing the Pluto Platter. Gone was the “spacey” name and flying saucer design from the ʻ50s. Times were aʼchanging! Baby-Boomers were coming of age and needed an outlet for their hormones. Sports were in! Ed beefed up the weight of the rim for added stability, replaced the planet names with raised ridges for a better thumb grip, added a wide, black, racing stripe, and a label using the Olympic logo to legitimize the discʼs appeal to sports fans. The Pluto Platter had become “Professional”-ized and sales soared!

THE HISTORY OF THE FRISBEE (PDF) By Phil Kennedy, Co-author (with Fred Morrison) of FLAT FLIP FLIES STRAIGHT, True Origins of the Frisbee.

Note: Fred Morrison was a fighter pilot during World War II, flying 58 missions in a P-47 Thunderbolt over Italy before being shot down and imprisoned for a month and a half in Germany's infamous Stalag 13.




Jacuzzi:



The Jaccuzi brothers came to California from Italy. First they made airplane propellers. Then water pumps. Brother Candido Jaccuzi developed a hydrotherapy pump to give his son relief from his rheumatoid arthritis.



I owned one of these and had to become somewhat of a jack of trades dealing with water chemistry, jet pumps, hoses, fittings, Ozonators & patching, filthy little kids, & cleaning. Paying the spa guy to come out got to be too expensive and was sick of their sales pitches to upgrade this or that. About a dozen or so houses in my suburbia area also had jacuzzi's and word spread around that I knew all about them. Really, I didn't but I liked getting my hands dirty & trying out new pumps. Long story short in following summers the neighbors were begging me to come fix something on their beloved hot tub. After a few times I started charging...not cash, but a case of micro brew beer. If the job required an entire weekend I charged beer + $200 cash. Always had plenty of beer in the summer.


LIFE SAVERS:

Clarence Crane made chocolate. But in the summers, it would melt. So he made a new candy and punched a hole in the center. It looked like a life preserver. So he called them Life Savers in 1912. Newspaper ad from Oct 1917:


The Secret is out (much larger image)

POPSICLE:

In 1905 in Oakland, California, 11-year-old Francis William "Frank" Epperson was mixing a powdered flavoring for soft drinks with water. He accidentally left it on the back porch overnight, with a stirring stick still in it. That night, the temperature dropped below freezing, and the next morning, Epperson discovered the drink had frozen to the stick, inspiring the idea of a fruit-flavored "Popsicle". He named it after himself — an "Epsicle" and years later, his kids called it "Pop’s ‘sicle." By 1924 Epperson had received a patent for his "frozen confectionery" which he called "the Epsicle ice pop". He renamed it to Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children. It also made a "pop" noise when pulled from the test tube it was made in.





Q-TIPS:



The first mass-produced cotton swab was developed in 1923 by Polish-American Leo Gerstenzang who observed his wife covering a toothpick with cotton to clear their baby's ears. That was the product spark. His product was originally named "Baby Gays" in recognition of them being intended for infants before being renamed "Q-tips Baby Gays", with the "Q" standing for "quality". The product eventually became known as "Q-tips", which went on to become the most widely sold brand name of cotton swabs in North America.

The Q-tips brand is owned by Unilever and "Johnson's buds" are made by Johnson & Johnson. The European Union instated a ban on the use of plastic-stemmed cotton swabs in 2021. Italy had previously instated a ban in 2019 and Monaco in 2020. England, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man each instated a ban between 2019 and 2021.

A Q-tips cotton swabs History


SLINKY:



In 1943 when American naval engineer Richard James knocked spare parts off his shelf by accident...a tension spring "walked" across his desk. He thought it’d be a fun toy. His wife Betty found the name "slinky" in the dictionary. It means sleek and graceful. The Navy never took interest, but US troops in Vietnam used them as mobile radio antennas; NASA has used them in zero-gravity physics experiments in the Space Shuttle.

Inventor of the Week Archive | Toy Tales