Fisher & Price Were Actually Real People …
“The original founders of the toy company back in 1930 consisted of, yes, businessmen Herman Fisher and Irving Price, but also a children’s book author and illustrator named Margaret Evans Price (yes, married to Irving, so there were actually two Prices), and a toy store owner named Helen Schelle. While the businessmen were instrumental in launching the company, it was actually the two women who collaborated on most of the company’s early, successful products, like Dr. Doodle, the duck push-pull toy that was based on a character from her children’s books. Also, a lot of the early success of the company can be attributed to the fact that Helen Schelle had a lot of great connections in the incipient toy industry.”
I would like to ride a french fry rail cart … this should be a ride at Disneyland or in my back yard.
27 March 2012
5 Comments
These Fisher-Price toys are great. What was once a toy easily accessible in the toy aisle is now a collectible. I’m referring to the original little people and not the ‘chunky’ version of today. You can still find them a grandparent garage sales, but, you have to fight the eBayers for them. We still have about fifteen playsets and hundreds of little people. For a trip to yesterday peruse eBay.
For anyone who may be interested, there is a book by Bruce Fox and John Murray (Fisher-Price, Historical, Rarity and Value Guide, 1931-Present) which details the entire Fisher-Price line, when the toys were produced and modified, etc. It’s a great resource for figuring out which accessory or little person goes with which structure. Great fun!
OK- Maybe too much information, but, hey-you’re all collectors!
Got Lego sets in original boxes from the 1970’s. too!
(MET: Linked above – looks like the book is a collectible also. 🙂 ).
Have to admit we played with these in my family when I was a kid. Our older girl cousin and then her younger sister had a whole bunch of houses, characters, play sets etc. I even remember there being a plane. So this stuff was always around to play with. For some reason we called them Mickey men. I wonder if anyone called them other names?
Hmmm! I, personally, got some different information from the Mental Floss article (and, subsequently, Wikipedia).
Slicepie might be aware of some of this.
I grew up in Buffalo, NY from which the Village of East Aurora (the birthplace of Fisher-Price) was only about 15 miles. I never knew that Irving Price was once the Mayor of that village or that former president Millard Fillmore once lived there. East Aurora is a village, occupying only about 2-1/2 square miles and, as of the 2000 census, was home to just over 6,600 people. This is a large company to have risen from such a small community!
When I was a small boy, I can remember an older cousin of mine who worked for Fisher-Price took me and my family to see where he worked. Unfortunatey, I don’t remember going inside.
My grandmother has that McDonald’s set.
She used to run a daycare out of her home back in the 80’s and 90’s.
When I first read this headline, I read it as “If Fisher Price Little People Were Actually Real People”. I was thinking we would see some really weird photos!