The Jewish Origins of the American Toy Industry

Did you know many of the most popular toys of the 20^th century were created and/or manufactured by toy companies started by first-generation American Jews?

My great-great uncle and aunt, Morris and Rose Michtom, created the teddy bear in the basement of their Brooklyn candy store in 1902. Initially, I wanted to focus on their story in my book, "Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America." But the more I learned about their story, the more narratives I found that felt astonishingly similar. In fact, some of the best-selling toys of the 20^th century were created by the companies that these extraordinary Jewish immigrants founded.

Many immigrants were penniless when they arrived by steamer to Castle Gardens and later Ellis Island with nothing but a dream of making their way in a place where they hoped to find a home. What they found, of course, was a combination of opportunity and obstacles. Their drive, talents, resilience, and dogged determination created the material culture of many of our childhoods. Here are a few familiar toys that were created, developed, and manufactured by companies that were founded by first-generation American Jews:

• The Teddy Bear (1902) - Created by Morris and Rose Michtom, founders of the Ideal Toy Company, in the back room of their Brooklyn candy store. Named for Theodore Roosevelt (originally "Teddy's Bear") it became, perhaps, the iconic toy of the century.
• Betsy Wetsy (1937) - Manufactured by Morris Michtom and the Ideal Toy Corporation. Every year, Ideal created a new doll with a new feature such as eyes that opened and closed, cooing, or washable hair. Betsy Wetsy was the first "drink and wet" doll.
• Yakkity Yak's Chattering Teeth (1949) - Created by independent toy inventor Eddy Goldfarb and inspired by a model of teeth at a dentist's office. Over his career, Goldfarb created over 800 toys.
• Mr. Potato Head (1952) - The first dedicated toy created by Hasbro, which was founded by the Hassenfeld Brothers in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1923. Before this, Hasbro made pencil cases and doctor and nurse playsets. The original Mr. Potato Head actually required a real potato. However, in the aftermath of World War II, as recovery in Europe saw so many people going hungry, forcing people to use real potatoes was seen as being in bad taste.
• Barbie (1959) - Created by Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel. Based initially on a German comic strip character, 100 of these iconic dolls are sold every minute around the world. Since Barbie's creation, more than 1 billion Barbie outfits have been sold, perhaps making Mattel the world's largest women's clothing manufacturer.
• Rubik's Cube (1974) - Originally created by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian architecture professor, as a puzzle to teach students about geometrical space. The Rubik's cube was licensed and developed by Mark Michtom, the grandson of the founder of Ideal Toy Company. It was one of the last great toys manufactured by Ideal Toy Company.
• Kenner Star War Action Figures (1977) - Created by Bernard Loomis, also known as "Mr. Saturday Morning" for the many ads for all the toys he created. Loomis saw "Star Wars" and immediately saw the characters as "toyetic."

Quite a list, eh?

The more I dug, the more I found. First-generation American Jews also wrote many of the comic strips (Joe Palooka, L'il Abner) and children's books ("Eloise," "The Snowy Day," "Curious George," "Where the Wild Things Are") we know and love. Not only that, most of the developmental psychologists (including Erikson, Bronfenbrenner, Kohlberg, and Maslow) who theorized child development were Jewish.

Together, they created middle-class American childhoods of the 20^th century.