Tuesday, March 14, 2000
For 50 years, it's been leaving its imprint on our lives
BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
What's 50 years old and lays 20,000 eggs a day?
Silly Putty, the toy that “bounces like a ball and stretches like taffy,” the toy “with one moving part” in a plastic egg-shaped
container, the toy that leaves most of the fun up to your own imagination, is a half-century old.
To celebrate — and, coincidentally, to promote — manufacturer Binney & Smith of Easton, Pa., has introduced a new anniversary product (a “5-pound slab” of Silly Putty), a new anniversary color (metallic gold) a new Web site and a contest that asks, “What do you do with your Putty?”
Amy Sundermann, a graphic designer at Northlich, Cincinnati's dominant advertising agency, keeps Silly Putty on her desk in the creative department, where art directors and copy writers exercise out-of-control imaginations, sometimes with a glob of pink.
“Every time somebody passes by, it takes on a new shape,” Ms. Sundermann said. “It metamorphoses every day.
“Right now, I have three small Buddha babies sitting on it like it's a bridge.”
There are many applications. Some people use Silly Putty to exercise their hands and relieve stress. Some (mostly kids) use it to pitch and bounce and play games. Some use it to fill gaps in walls and under table legs.
In its early days, consumers loved to press it flat against newspaper pages — preferably the Sunday comics — and reproduce stretchable images in putty. Pull on the sides, and Blondie got fat. Shift your hands and make her skinny. Tee. Hee. Hee.
Apparently, the madness lives on. Although the evolution of printing inks has squelched abuses against Hi and Lois and their zany pals, Americans are finding other things to do with a half-ounce lump of boric acid and silicone oil.
Since 1950, they have bought more than 300 million eggs, which is about the equivalent of 4,500 tons of goop, which would be enough to build a life-size replica of the Goodyear Blimp, if you were so inclined.
They have pointed out the thrill of molding your own Pet Rock that's neither, of silencing doors that slam shut with a bang, removing lint and cleaning computer keyboards.
At King Arthur's Court in Oakley, adult customers buy Silly Putty at the checkout counter, usually for their young children, said Leah Tennyson, marketing manager.
“Our distributor delivers about 24 pieces at a time...and we're usually sold out within a week,” she said.
What started out as a novelty for adults quickly (by 1955) became primarily a children's toy, said Binney & Smith spokeswoman Stacy Gabrielle. Sales dropped in the late 1970s because of competition from brands such as Nutty Putty, Looney Tunes Putty, Sylvester Putty, Geoffrey Putty and Goofy Goo. But Baby Boomers renewed interest in getting Silly in the mid-1980s, and sales grew from 2 million eggs a year in the late 1980s to 4 million a year in 1990.
While the toy's name and the concept has a long history, beginning with its wartime development as a substitute for natural rubber, so do individual wads of Putty.
“It's been here for about a year, I guess,” said Ms. Sundermann, who had inherited the “bridge” at her designer cubicle from a co-worker. “Everybody tells me how disgusting it is.”
If you want some new silliness, go to Walgreen's, Wal-Mart, Target, Toys-R-Us, and other retailers for contemporary fluorescent, changeable and glow-in-the-dark colors. And 50-year anniversary gold. And original pink. Prices: $1.49-$2.
For a 5-pound slab ($85 plus shipping), call (888) 666-5768.
For trivia, go to www.sillyputty.com.
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