I am so pleased when I write about a toy from our Boomer childhoods, and don't have to include it under the "Things that Disappeared When You Weren't Looking" category! Such is the happy case with the subject of today's piece, the Etch-a-Sketch, still proudly produced by Ohio Art! I was deeply hoping that they were being made in Ohio, but sadly, that's not been the case since 2003.
However, let us celebrate the fact that they are still around, exactly like they were during the Decade of Change, when many of us were enjoying wonderful childhoods as Baby Boomers.
It all started in France in the late 1950's. A gentleman named André Cassagnes (another source credits Arthur Granjean) crafted a drawing device in his basement. He filled a plastic container with aluminum dust. The container had a clear screen, also a stylus mounted to two bars which was moved by small cables attached to knobs. Thus, an adroit artist could make subtle movements to create a single line which could create infinite shapes.
In reality, he created a very cool toy which 98% of us could use to make basic shapes, and cause us to envy true artistes with the talent to create masterpieces.
He took his invention to the International Toy Fair in Nuremburg, Germany, where a US-based company called Ohio Art showed little interest. However, upon seeing "The Magic Screen" a second time, they decided to roll the dice and take a chance on it.
Ohio Art tooled up their factory in Dayton in time to have a boatload of Etch-a-Sketches on store shelves by Christmas, 1960. The result was a smash hit, and a memory for many of us.
The Etch-a-Sketch was a familiar product in dime stores when we were kids, pricey enough to only rate being purchased for a special occasion like a birthday or Christmas. But untold millions were sold during the 60's and 70's. And we all learned a few lessons about them as we created our artistic attempts.
- Not all of us were artists. In fact, most of us were pretty bad, but we still spent hour after hour twisting knobs, then turning the board over and clearing our efforts, and trying again.
- A mistake meant either starting over, or turning the lemon into lemonade, i.e. integrating the mistake into your creation.
- The Etch-a-Sketch would eventually crack on the black back side, leaving silvery aluminum dust all over the place.
- Once that happened, your choice was to (a) talk mom or dad into another one, or (b) move on to something else. In my case, it was the Spirograph.
But it generally took years of being tossed helter-skelter into a toybox to crack the durable plastic. In the meantime, the investment our parents made in the toy had paid off with hundreds or thousands of hours of entertainment, and perhaps inspiration to make a career out of art.
The Etch-a-Sketch continues to be a successful toy, so you can go out and purchase one for your own grandchild. My first is due in three months, I'll probably hold off for a year or two. ;-) But rest assured, that when little Edie grows up, she'll have pleasant memories of a plastic device which allowed her to magically create all sorts of black shapes on a silver background.
And odds are she'll be a lot more talented at it than her grandpa.
Comments (7)
Me, I could never even get a straight line from one corner to the other. Even doodles were beyond me. I had better luck with the "Magic Slate". A grey plastic sheet over a black backboard coated with wax. Using a stylus to write on the sheet caused it to stick to the wax, leaving a line, but to erase it all you had to do was lift up the plastic. I'm boggled by the artists nowadays who are doing detailed stuff on the Etch-a-sketch, like the pictures with this article.
Posted by OwenKL | June 20, 2011 3:31 PM
Posted on June 20, 2011 15:31
Ah, good memories! I remember asking my teacher how to spell it, as we were industriously writing letters to Santa for Christmas of 1960. Of course I received one. I always brought it out when any adult relatives visited. They all played with it some, seeming to enjoy trying to master it. I even took it off to college with me, fiddling with it for stress relief during study breaks. Alas, that was where it finally received the fatal crack.
Posted by NCeddie | June 20, 2011 5:02 PM
Posted on June 20, 2011 17:02
I remember using these everywhere I went. They were everywhere. Almost everyone had one. But I see them as rather gimmicky for a child. Adults in more recent times had done some amazing things with them. But something has to be said for a toy that was so common. What was it about it?
Of course, Americans have always loved gimmicks. But I see computer drawing as sort of a spin off the Etch a Sketch. It certainly was the 60s sort of thing, sort of like Mr. Potato Head or Dr. Seuss.
A childhood friend of mine and me have been writing a lot as of late about the 60s and 70s in particular. They really were a very unusual and distinctive period, always to be remembered of fondly, if historians dare be honest. That is asking a lot. But toys were sort of in their infancy in the 60s and the big sellers of then, well, many have not passed the test of time to be as popular now as they were with less competition and development.
Its like music. some songs were big upon release but were pathetic and forgotten now. Others did not make a big splash and now are classics in hindsight. But that Etchy is still around says something about its sentimental value to us still. 60-79 was a great time. the best!
Posted by Scott I | June 20, 2011 7:32 PM
Posted on June 20, 2011 19:32
I wasn't much of an artist, but was always curious about how things worked but I remember my first Etch a Sketch, early 60's, and spending excessive amounts time drawing vertical and horizontal lines to 'erase' the aluminum and see how the mechanism underneath functioned.
Posted by Roberta | June 25, 2011 8:38 PM
Posted on June 25, 2011 20:38
These are great toys. My wife teaches piano and has two that she bought at rummage sales, that she uses to entertain kids (and adults) while they wait for their piano lessons. I bought a mini version on a keychain a couple of years ago...amazingly, it actually worked.
Posted by Donald Dale Milne | August 20, 2011 9:10 PM
Posted on August 20, 2011 21:10
I actually got to the point where I could write cursive with an Etch-a-Sketch. A kid in my school used to draw what he called "The Elevator Shaft". He would draw starting on the outside of the screen and spiral all the way down to the middle of the screen. Mine didn't crack, but the right-hand knob broke off and that kind of plastic was unrepairable.
Posted by Marc Miller | October 3, 2011 5:13 PM
Posted on October 3, 2011 17:13
Oh yes! I had one of these as a kid! I was not very good with it! I couldnt do any of the fancy stuff! Mostly buildings and city scapes!
Posted by Rivers End | November 3, 2011 8:41 PM
Posted on November 3, 2011 20:41