The Mysteries of the Yo-Yo
Welcome- a brief introduction to our website.
Antecedents- Showcases the history of the yo-yo and introduces some of it’s predecessors.
Creation- Highlights the origin of the modern day yo-yo.
Popularization- Chronicles the rise of one of the most popular toys in American history.
Documentary- Here you will find a link to our in depth and well researched short format documentary.
Final Bibliography- our complete bibliography.
Preliminary Work- other.
The yo-yo, as we’re sure everyone knows, is one of the most popular children’s toys in American history, a simple device made out of either wood or plastic and some string that can provide countless hours of fun and entertainment to anyone. The reason we chose to delve into the history of this device is due to the fact that despite everyone knowing what a yo-yo is, very few people know even the simplest facts of the toy, and we decided it would be quite interesting to share these facts and history with our fellow students.
Here is a general timeline of what we are going to be focusing on for this digital project.
The Modern-Day Yo-yo was created in 1928 by the inventor, Pedro Flores, who immigrated from the Philippines to California, creating the Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company. Then came along Donald F. Duncan Sr. who saw his first yo-yo in San Francisco when Flores was demonstrating how the toy worked to a large crowd, which lead to Duncan buying the company from Flores for more than $700,000 and renamed it to Duncan Company. In 1932, Duncan received the trademark for the word yo-yo that forced the competition to use other names for their versions of the toy that they were inventing. In 1946, Duncan moved to Luck, WI that later become known as the Yo-yo Capital of the world.
That lead to an increase in production to make yo-yos to 3,600 yo-yos per hour. Plastic Yo-yos that we use to this day, began to be produced in 1960. In 1962, the company sold 45 million yo-yos in the country with only 40 million kids. That would actually not be able to keep up with the demand for Yo-yos. This will be further expanded on more in our documentary.
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Bellis, Mary. “He Did Not Invent the Yo-Yo, but He Sure Made It Famous.” ThoughtCo. Last modified July 1, 2019. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-the-yoyo-1992695.
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FamilyGamerTV. “Duncan Yo-Yo Hero & History of Yo-Yos with Takeshi Kamisato.” YouTube. Last modified April 11, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU8DkyHKz6I.
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Izarra, Charles De. “Mechanical Study of a Modern Yo-Yo.” European Journal of Physics 32, no. 4 (2011): 1097–1106. doi:10.1088/0143-0807/32/4/022.
Krupa, E, and W Tanska-Krupa. “Newtons Second Law and the Physics of the Yo-Yo.” Physics Education 32, no. 3 (1997): 185–87. doi:10.1088/0031-9120/32/3/019.
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Oliver, Valerie. “ History Of The Yo-Yo.” Museum of Yo-Yo History. Accessed December 2, 2019. http://www.yoyomuseum.com/museum_view.php?action=profiles&subaction=yoyo.
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To see Bibliography in Word Document download link below:
Origins of the yo-yo can be found in Greece in 500 B.C., but it is believed that ancient China also has origins of the toy. A Greek vase can be seen from 500 B.C. depicting a boy playing with a yo-yo. This vase can be seen in the Staatliche Museum Preussischer Kulturbesitz Antikemuseum in Berlin, Germany. (1)
Popularity in Europe:
The yo-yo became very popular in Europe during the 18th century. Different countries around Europe called the yo-yo different things. For example, Britain called the yoyo a bandalore or a quiz, while in France the yoyo was known as an incroyable or a coblentz. There have been reports of European nobles playing with yo-yos. These include King Louis XVII, Napoleon and his army had yoyos at Waterloo, and even the Prince of Whales.
The Yo-yo Comes to America:
The yo-yo has been a popular toy since it came to America in 1928. The toy was brought over from the Philipines by a man named Pedro Flores. In the same year he immigrated to the United States, Flores began to show off his toy and even hosted the first yo-yo competition in Santa Barbara, California. It was there in Santa Barabara that Pedro Flores decided to open up his own toy manufacturing company. The toy became popular and could be even seen with instructions on how to build one in Popular Mechanics, a very popular magazine at the time.
Donald Duncan:
Donald Duncan, a businessman, saw the yo-yo as a business opportunity for himself. He wanted to make his own yo-yos. To make his business plan work, Duncan bought the trademark from Flores. This gave Duncan the access to the name “Yo-Yo”. As his company was just starting out Duncan looked for a way to advertise his yo-yo’s. He met Randolph Hearst to try and get the newspapers to advertise Duncan Yo-yos. Duncan proposed that Hearst Newspapers would advertise the yo-yos to kids. The advertisements would also be competitions for the kids with prizes including bikes and other nice sporting equipment. Hearst thought the proposal would work and he would sell more papers. After Duncan’s proposal was accepted a 30-day campaign could be seen in the newspapers in Philidelphia. During the 30-day newspaper campaign, 30 million Duncan yo-yos were sold. As the yo-yos popularity increased, the newspapers started to publish pictures of celebrities playing with the yo-yo. In 1974, President Nixon could be seen learning yo-yo tricks as he attended an event at the Grand Ol Opry.
By this point in time, other companies have caught on to how popular the yo-yo had become. The Russel company could be seen making yo-yos in allegiance with Coca-Cola. It was seen in a ten-week campaign that 4 million Coca-Cola branded yo-yos were sold. At the time many advertisements could be seen on tv advertising the coca-cola branded yo-yo.
During the 1990s the popularization of the yo-yo soared even more than it ever did before. During the 1990s yo-yo competitions came back in full swing. These competitions were different than the other competitions. These competitions were for yo-yo tricks primarily. It was during this time that records were being set, including the record for the longest spin time. The first modern National Yoyo Championships were held in Califonia in 1993. As popular as the yo-yo was the popularization started to diminish as new toys started to emerge.
Notes:
While the modern-day yo-yo is definitely an American invention, its ancient predecessors far predate the USA. The earliest iteration of the yo-yo is known to have originated in ancient Greece in 500 B.C., but is also believed to have it’s origins in ancient china as well. Much like today, these devices were created as toys for children, which at the time were known as “Disks”. The disks were made out of materials common in Greece at the time, such as wood, metal, and Terracotta. A tradition that would occur at times involved the children sacrificing their toys, such as disks, to the gods when they came of age in order to appease them.
In the 16th century in the Philippines, another precursor to the yo-yo emerged. This device was not used as a toy however, but as a weapon. Hunters tied small rocks to cords up to 20 feet in length and, after positioning themselves in trees, would launch the rocks at the heads of small animals. A well placed shot would kill them instantly. The cord allowed the weapon to return to the hunters and attack multiple times from the same hiding spot without moving and fear of being discovered. This discovery proves that the yo-yo’s origins can be traced to locations all over the world all throughout history. It also just so happens to be where the inventor of the yo-yo, Pedro Flores, emigrated from.
Works Cited:
