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SARASOTA - Sell 3-million books and you're on the New York Times best-sellers list. Sell 3-million records and you're on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Sell 3-million copies of a game or toy and you're anonymous. Tim Walsh, who in fact did invent a game (TriBond) that sold 3-million copies and was recently picked up by Mattel, decided to remedy the anonymity of toy and game inventors with The Playmakers: Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys (Keys Publishing, $50).
The coffee-table book, designed by Giles Hoover of ospreydesign in Bradenton, tells the stories of 75 hugely popular toys and games of the 20th century. For example: Uno, a card game that has sold 150-million copies, was invented by a Merle Robbins, a barber in Cincinnati, and his son Ray to settle a family disagreement about the rules of a game.
The Slinky was invented by a mechanical engineer, Richard James. He and his wife, Betty, borrowed $500 in 1945 to form James Industries, which within 10 years had sold 100-million Slinkys. When Richard James abandoned the family, Betty James brought the company back into profitability.
Play-Doh was invented by N.W. McVicker and Joe McVicker as a wallpaper-cleaning compound. It was Joe McVicker's sister-in-law who discovered the compound could be shaped like dough and came up with the name.
Slip 'n Slide was invented by Robert Carrier, an upholsterer who watched his kids belly sliding on their slick, wet and very hard concrete driveway in California. He brought home a length of Naugahyde, patented the toy and took it to Wham-O.
Monopoly has its roots in a board game called The Landlord's Game, invented by Elizabeth Magie in 1903. Monopoly itself was developed by several people, most notably Charles Darrow, who created the look the game has had since 1933 (and who took all the credit).
Walsh spent more than two years on research, using five guidelines. The toy had to have sold 10-million copies, have been on the market 10 years, have been invented outside the major toy companies, have been invented by an identifiable person and have had personal significance to Walsh and his friends.
"The perspective of how these things came to be, as an inventor, that's what intrigues me," said Walsh, 39, who lives in Sarasota with his wife, Sarah, and their daughters, ages 7 and 5.