100 Fun Facts About Retro

What was Richard James's job in 1943 when a fallen spring's 'walk' gave him the idea for the Slinky?

Naval engineer Richard James was working on springs to steady ship instruments at sea when one fell and kept moving. His wife Betty found the name Slinky in a dictionary.

How long did it take the first 400 Slinkys to sell at their 1945 Philadelphia department store debut?

90 minutes was all it took once the Jameses demonstrated the toy on a ramp at Gimbels in the 1945 Christmas shopping season. Each Slinky cost a dollar.

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by a Hungarian sculptor and professor of what?

Architecture was Ernő Rubik's subject at a Budapest design academy when he built the first cube in 1974. He called it the Magic Cube until Ideal Toy renamed it after him in 1980.

How long did it take Ernő Rubik to first solve his own cube?

A month of trial and error is what it took him, and at first he wasn't sure it could be solved at all. The cube has more than 43 quintillion possible arrangements.

French electrician André Cassagnes first gave the Etch A Sketch a name meaning what?

The magic screen, or L'Écran Magique, drew little interest at the 1959 Nuremberg toy fair, and Ohio Art passed on it at first. As Etch A Sketch it became the must-have toy of Christmas 1960.

The inside of an Etch A Sketch screen is coated with a fine powder of which metal?

Aluminium powder clings to the inside of the screen by static, and the stylus scrapes a dark line through it. Shaking the toy lets tiny plastic beads spread the powder back again.

Which 3-D picture gadget, fed with round cardboard reels, made its debut at the 1939 New York World's Fair?

View-Master began as a souvenir, sold through photography shops with reels of scenic sights. It turned into a toy after buying rival Tru-Vue in 1951, which brought the 3-D rights to Disney characters.

Which Wham-O toy was the fad of 1958, selling about 25 million within four months?

Hula hoop mania began after Wham-O's founders heard of Australians twirling hoops round their waists. The plastic ring takes its name from the Hawaiian dance its users seem to copy.

The 1975 Pet Rock came with a jokey training manual by creator Gary Dahl, who worked in which industry?

Advertising copywriter Gary Dahl wrote it as a spoof of pet-training guides, with tips on getting a rock to play dead. He sold more than a million at $3.95 each within a few months.

What did the mood rings of the 1975 craze actually respond to when they changed colour?

Skin temperature is all a mood ring reads: its liquid crystals twist as they warm and reflect a different colour. Josh Reynolds and Maris Ambats put theirs in American shops in 1975.

Edward Craven Walker invented the lava lamp in 1963 after seeing an egg timer bubbling where?

On a pub stove he spotted a homemade egg timer made from a cocktail shaker and set out to perfect it as a lamp. He settled on an orange squash bottle to hold the wax.

The Simon memory game was launched in 1978 at which famous New York nightclub?

Milton Bradley launched Simon with a party at Studio 54 in 1978; Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison based it on Atari's arcade game Touch Me.

Which 1980s doll craze began as 'Little People', soft-sculpture babies Xavier Roberts offered for adoption?

Cabbage Patch Kids was the name licensing agent Roger Schlaifer gave the dolls in 1982. Roberts had offered his originals from a mock hospital with staff in medical uniforms, each doll with a birth certificate and adoption papers.

The Magic 8 Ball's inventor took the idea from his mother, who worked as what?

A clairvoyant who claimed to talk with ghosts, she inspired a fortune-telling tube that sold poorly, even inside a crystal ball. It took off only after Brunswick Billiards ordered one shaped like an 8-ball in 1950.

The Tamagotchi's name is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for 'watch' and the Japanese word for what?

Egg is tamago in Japanese, which Bandai joined to uotchi, its spelling of 'watch'. The pet was first planned as a wristwatch, then became a keychain before its 1996 launch.

The 1990s Pogs craze took its name from POG, a Hawaiian brand of what?

Fruit juice blended from passion fruit, orange and guava gave POG its letters, and Haleakala Dairy printed the name on its caps. Oahu educator Blossom Galbiso revived the old milk-cap game in 1991.

Stuart Anders, whose slap bracelet many schools later banned, had which job in Wisconsin?

Teacher Stuart Anders taught high-school shop classes and came up with the steel band in 1983. Cheap knock-offs with sharp edges later cut children, which is what got the craze banned.

Which Sony gadget of 1979 was first sold in America as the Soundabout and in Britain as the Stowaway?

Walkman was a play on the Pressman, the reporters' recorder its prototype was built from. Sony's overseas offices doubted the name, but it had already caught on abroad, and it reached the Oxford English Dictionary in 1986.

Sony's Betamax launched a year before VHS, so which advantage helped VHS win the format war?

Longer recording time was a big part of it: early VHS tapes ran two hours, enough for a film, while Sony's smaller Beta cassettes lasted one. Sony still went on selling blank Beta tapes until March 2016.

The 8-track cartridge was created in 1965 by a consortium led by the founder of which business-aircraft maker?

Lear Jet founder Bill Lear had form with sound on the road: decades earlier he helped develop an early car radio, the product that gave Motorola its name.

IBM's first floppy disk, an 8-inch platter of 1971, held as much data as 3,000 of what?

Punched cards were still how many firms fed data to computers, so IBM adapted its card machines to write to disks instead. That first floppy held about 80 kilobytes and could only be read.

Which company, which devised the 3.5-inch floppy disk, stopped making them only in March 2011?

Sony had nearly three decades in the business, and millions of floppies were still being bought every year when it called time. The disk lives on as the save icon in software menus.

Touch-Tone phones gained their star and hash keys only in 1968, so what were the two keys for?

Advanced services were the plan: AT&T added the two keys with future uses in mind, such as business data entry, not for dialling. Early Touch-Tone sets had stopped at the ten digits.

Al Gross patented the first telephone pager in 1949 for which group, who were wary of it at first?

Doctors at a 1949 medical convention feared the device would upset their patients, but New York medics were using pagers by the next year. Gross had already built an early walkie-talkie.

Polaroid's SX-70 of 1972 spared instant-camera users which chore with every picture?

Peeling it apart was the old routine: earlier Polaroids made you time a minute, split the print and risk chemicals on your fingers. The folding SX-70 pushed out a picture that developed in daylight, at a steep $180.

Which console went on sale in 1977 as the Video Computer System, or VCS, and took its famous name only in 1982?

Atari 2600 became the console's name only once the newer 5200 arrived. Its sales had taken off in 1980, when a home version of Space Invaders gave players a reason to buy one.

In which state did Atari bury truckloads of unsold cartridges, including E.T., in 1983?

New Mexico's Alamogordo landfill kept its secret for 30 years, and many wrote the story off as an urban myth. A 2014 dig for a documentary turned up copies of E.T. and proved it true.

What stopped Atari's first Pong machine working soon after it reached a California bar in 1972?

A full coin box was the fault: players at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale had jammed it with quarters. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell had handed the project to engineer Allan Alcorn only months before.

What was Pac-Man originally called in Japan?

Puck Man echoed 'paku paku', the Japanese sound of gobbling, when the game reached a Tokyo arcade in May 1980. For America it became Pac-Man, for fear that vandals would turn the P into an F.

Three of Pac-Man's four ghosts are Blinky, Pinky and Inky, so what is the fourth one called?

Clyde is the odd one out, the only ghost whose name breaks the rhyme. Designer Toru Iwatani gave each of the four its own personality, so they hunt Pac-Man in different ways.

Why do Space Invaders' aliens speed up as more of them are shot?

The chip drew fewer sprites faster: with fewer invaders left to move, the hardware ran quicker, and the thudding soundtrack sped up with it. The accident stayed in, and that quickening drumbeat became the sound of the game.

Donkey Kong's hero was first called Jumpman, so after whom was he renamed Mario?

Nintendo of America's landlord Mario Segale rented the firm its warehouse near Seattle. Asked years later about his famous namesake, he said he was still waiting for his royalty checks.

Which game came in the box with the Game Boy at its North American launch in 1989?

Tetris drew in everyone from children to grandparents, widening the handheld's audience well beyond the usual players. Alexey Pajitnov had written the falling-block puzzle in the Soviet Union in 1984.

Coca-Cola's old formula returned 79 days after New Coke's 1985 launch with which word added to its name?

Coca-Cola Classic was announced on July 11, 1985, news big enough for TV networks to break into their programmes. It quickly outsold New Coke, which was renamed Coke II in 1990.

New Coke was briefly brought back in 2019 as a promotional tie-in with which Netflix series?

Stranger Things set its third season in the summer of 1985, the very year New Coke launched and flopped. Coca-Cola made about half a million cans for the May 2019 tie-in.

Which short-lived Pepsi drink was promoted with a 1993 Super Bowl ad set to Van Halen's hit 'Right Now'?

Crystal Pepsi was a clear, caffeine-free cola that Coca-Cola answered within weeks with Tab Clear. It flopped, but an online fan campaign persuaded PepsiCo to bring it back for limited runs in the 2010s.

Tang became famous when NASA put it on which astronaut's orbital flight in February 1962?

John Glenn ran eating experiments in orbit aboard Friendship 7, and Tang was on the menu. General Foods had developed the powder in 1957, so NASA never invented it, and Buzz Aldrin later declared that 'Tang sucks'.

Which gas, trapped under pressure inside the sweets, makes Pop Rocks crackle on the tongue?

Carbon dioxide bursts out of tiny bubbles as the sweet melts on the tongue. General Foods chemist William Mitchell hit on it in 1956 while trying to make an instant soft drink.

An urban legend claimed 'Little Mikey' from the Life cereal ads died after mixing Pop Rocks with what?

Cola and Pop Rocks were said to have burst his stomach, a rumour General Foods fought with letters to school principals and adverts in dozens of publications. Actor John Gilchrist grew up to sell TV advertising.

Which meat came with peas and sweet potatoes in Swanson's first TV dinner of 1953?

Turkey it was, at 98 cents, in a compartment tray borrowed from airline meals. Swanson sold more than ten million of the dinners in 1954.

The DeLorean DMC-12 was built from 1981 in a factory near which city?

Belfast's Dunmurry suburb built the gull-winged car only briefly before the British government shut the plant in 1982. Three years later it found fame as the time machine in Back to the Future.

The last original Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the line on July 30, 2003, in which country?

Mexico's Puebla plant built the last of more than 21 million Beetles, one of a farewell edition of 3,000. A Mexico City rule phasing out two-door taxis had helped to seal the car's fate.

The first patented drive-in movie theatre opened in 1933 a short drive from Philadelphia, in which US state?

New Jersey's Richard Hollingshead tested the idea in his driveway, with a projector on his car bonnet and a screen fixed to trees. By one account, he wanted a cinema where his mother could sit in comfort.

On the BBC's Test Card F, what is Carole Hersee playing noughts and crosses with?

A clown doll faces eight-year-old Carole, whose father George Hersee was the BBC engineer who created the card in 1967. It has been on screen for an estimated 70,000 hours, close to eight years in all.

Kenner's 1976 Stretch Armstrong figure owes its stretch to a gelled filling of which sugary liquid?

Corn syrup, gelled and sealed inside a rubbery skin, gives the 15-inch strongman his pull. Disney bought the film rights in 1994, the first of several Hollywood attempts at a Stretch Armstrong film that came to nothing.

Which company introduced the Speak & Spell at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in 1978?

Texas Instruments gave the toy a voice made by a chip, with no tape or record inside, which was new for a talking toy. In 1982 it helped E.T. to phone home.

The jukebox trade long fought its own name, which dictionaries trace to a Gullah word probably meaning what?

Wicked or disorderly is how dictionaries gloss the Gullah 'juke', which gave the rough roadhouses called juke joints their name. Machine makers shunned the word for years because of those roots, but it stuck.

Which company introduced the Compact Cassette in 1963?

Philips engineer Lou Ottens began with a block of wood cut to fit his jacket pocket, and the cassette made its debut at a Berlin electronics fair. He later helped to develop the compact disc that pushed it aside.

Which 1960s toy craze began with a wooden figure that Thomas Dam carved for his daughter?

Trolls began as a wooden birthday present, and by 1959 Dam was mass-producing them in rubber. A flaw in his American copyright then let cheap imitators flood the market.

Which toymaker, already home to Mr Potato Head and GI Joe, launched Lite-Brite in 1967?

Hasbro licensed the peg-and-bulb picture maker from Chicago design firm Marvin Glass and Associates, whose team is said to have been struck by a New York window display of coloured lights. It joined the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2022.

Which arcade amusement was outlawed in New York City from the early 1940s until 1976 as gambling?

Pinball was outlawed by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who said the machines robbed schoolchildren of their nickels and dimes. Police raids seized thousands of them.

Which modelling compound was first made as a putty for cleaning coal residue off wallpaper?

Play-Doh began in the 1930s as a wallpaper cleaner, and demand shrank after World War II. Reworked for Cincinnati schools in the mid-1950s, the same putty became a toy.

What heated the cakes inside Kenner's original Easy-Bake Oven when the toy went on sale in 1963?

Light bulbs did the baking: two ordinary 100-watt incandescent bulbs, one above the food tray and one below. Later ovens swapped them for a true heating element.

Which video rental chain turned down the chance to buy a fledgling Netflix for $50 million in 2000?

Blockbuster passed on the deal while it was still growing: at its peak in 2004 it ran more than 9,000 stores worldwide. Netflix's mail-order service later hastened its decline.

Sea-Monkeys, the instant pets sold through 1960s comic-book ads, are really which creatures?

Brine shrimp were first sold by Harold von Braunhut in 1957 as Instant Life, for 49 cents. He renamed them Sea-Monkeys in 1962.

Which chattering 1998 toy did the National Security Agency ban from its premises as a spying risk?

Furby was banned in January 1999 because officials feared it would repeat classified talk. It could not: its microphone records nothing, and the ban was later withdrawn.

Which cream flavour filled the original Twinkie until wartime rationing forced a switch to vanilla?

Banana cream was baker James Dewar's choice in 1930, a way to keep strawberry shortcake machines busy out of season. Vanilla proved so popular that the old filling rarely returned.

Which variety host introduced the Beatles to more than 73 million American viewers in February 1964?

Ed Sullivan usually drew about 21 million viewers, so the Beatles more than tripled his audience. That night is treated as the start of the British Invasion in music.

Which frontiersman's Disney TV episodes set off a 1955 craze that sold 5,000 coonskin caps a day?

Davy Crockett, played by Fess Parker, had Americans spend over $300 million on merchandise by the end of 1955. Most boys' caps were faux fur with a raccoon tail attached.

In which classroom computer game, first played by teleprinter in 1971, can pioneers die of dysentery?

The Oregon Trail was written in two weeks for a Minneapolis junior high history class. It had no graphics at all, because the computers it ran on printed on paper instead of using screens.

Which brand of trading stamps issued more stamps in the 1960s than America's postal service?

S&H Green Stamps were handed out at supermarket and gas station checkouts, then pasted into books and swapped for catalogue goods. The company sent out 35 million catalogues a year.

Which men's grooming brand advertised with rhyming poems split across rows of small highway signs?

Burma-Shave took its famous signs down after the company was sold to Philip Morris in 1963. At its peak it was America's second-best-selling brushless shaving cream.

Which shared phone service gave most mid-century Bell System subscribers no privacy from neighbours?

Party line service cost less than a private circuit, and during wartime shortages it was often all that was on offer. Listening in became a form of entertainment and gossip.

Which 1958 car brand, mocked for a grille like a horse collar, became a byword for commercial failure?

Edsel was named in honour of Henry Ford's son, over the objections of Edsel Ford's own son, Henry Ford II. The cars arrived in a recession that hit every medium-priced model.

Which mute clown on Howdy Doody communicated by honking horns on his belt and squirting seltzer?

Clarabell stayed silent to save money: a speaking actor would have had to be paid scale on the low-budget show. He spoke only at the very end of the final broadcast in 1960.

Which 1950s sitcom was the first scripted TV show filmed on 35 mm film before a live audience?

I Love Lucy was shot with three film cameras at once before an audience of 300. Its sponsor had refused to show East Coast viewers a low-quality kinescope copy.

Which cowboy hero appeared on the 1950 Aladdin lunch box that was the first based on a TV show?

Hopalong Cassidy sold 600,000 lunch kits in the first year alone, at $2.39 each. More than 120 million metal lunch boxes were sold between 1950 and 1970.

Which retailer's Christmas toy catalogue, first published in 1933, was known as the Wish Book?

Sears sent the Wish Book out each August or September, months ahead of Christmas. The company stopped publishing its big American catalogues in 1993.

Which company, dominant in American telegraphy from the 1860s, ended its telegram service in 2006?

Western Union also launched the first stock ticker in 1866 and wire money transfers in 1871. Sending money, once a telegraph sideline, is the business that outlived the telegram.

Which rock and roll star died with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a 1959 Iowa plane crash?

Buddy Holly chartered the plane because he was fed up with the tour's poorly heated buses. His bandmate Waylon Jennings gave up a seat to the Big Bopper, who had the flu.

On which TV dance show did teenagers score new singles from 35 to 98 in the Rate-a-Record segment?

American Bandstand had host Dick Clark average two audience members' scores, then ask them to justify the numbers. The show came from Philadelphia until it moved to Los Angeles in 1964.

Which singer's 1960 cover of a Hank Ballard B-side took the Twist to number one in America?

Chubby Checker topped the Hot 100 with it in September 1960 and again in January 1962, when the record resurfaced. Ballard is said to have written the song after watching teenagers dance in Tampa.

The Frisbee is named after a Connecticut company whose empty tins Yale students tossed, so what did it sell?

Pies from the Frisbie Pie Company came in tins that students flung for fun, and their name for the pastime passed to the plastic disc. Its inventor had sold it as the Flyin-Saucer and then as the Pluto Platter.

Which Milton Bradley game became a hit after Eva Gabor played it with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show?

Twister took off after that May 1966 broadcast, even as rival toymakers accused its maker of selling something indecent. It had been developed under the name Pretzel.

Which 1920s endurance fad did former sailor Alvin 'Shipwreck' Kelly start with a 13-hour perch?

Flagpole sitting began with Kelly's first sit in 1924, taken either on a dare or as a publicity stunt. He went on to last 49 days on a pole above Atlantic City.

Which record company launched the 7-inch 45 rpm single in 1949 to rival Columbia's new LP?

RCA Victor refused to license Columbia's system and answered with its own disc, sold with a player that stacked and changed records automatically. The large centre hole became the mark of a single.

Which screen dog was first played by a dog named Pal, whose descendants inherited the role?

Lassie was meant to be played by a female collie, but Pal replaced her and the first six weeks of Lassie Come Home were reshot. He began a line of collies in the part.

Which cartoon inspired by The Honeymooners was the first animated series with a prime-time TV slot?

The Flintstones borrowed so openly that Honeymooners star Jackie Gleason considered suing Hanna-Barbera, then let it pass. Fred even looks like him.

Which rigged 1950s quiz show put Charles Van Doren on the cover of Time before the scandal broke?

Twenty-One had champion Herb Stempel answer a question wrongly on instruction, clearing the way for Van Doren. The 1994 film Quiz Show retells the scandal.

The S.S. Minnow of Gilligan's Island is said to mock Newton Minow, who chaired which US agency?

FCC chairman Minow had attacked the quality of television in a famous 1961 speech. Producer Sherwood Schwartz reputedly named the doomed boat after him in return.

In which NES run-and-gun game did the Konami Code famously grant players 30 lives?

Contra made the cheat famous in North America, but it first appeared in the NES port of Gradius. Developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto added it because he found that game too hard to test.

Under which name did Sega sell its 16-bit Genesis console in Japan, Europe and Brazil?

Mega Drive was the original name: the console launched in Japan in October 1988 and became the Genesis only for North America in 1989. It fared poorly at home but thrived abroad.

Which gory 1992 fighting game was singled out at the US Senate hearings that led to the ESRB ratings?

Mortal Kombat alarmed senators with its digitised actors, blood and finishing moves. Fearing government oversight, the games industry set up its own ratings board in 1994.

Which Nintendo adventure reached America in 1987 on a gold cartridge with a battery for saving progress?

The Legend of Zelda was one of the first console games with an internal battery, so players could save instead of starting over. Japan had it more than a year earlier, on the Famicom Disk System.

Which 1972 machine, conceived by Ralph Baer, was the first commercial home video game console?

Magnavox Odyssey players stuck plastic overlays on the TV screen to add scenery to each game. Baer's prototype, shown to several manufacturers first, was known as the Brown Box.

Which 1983 arcade game sent Dirk the Daring through LaserDisc animation by ex-Disney artist Don Bluth?

Dragon's Lair used the vast storage of a LaserDisc to show its cartoon footage, at the cost of limiting the actual gameplay. Dirk's task is to rescue Princess Daphne from the dragon Singe.

Which company did disgruntled programmers found in 1979 as the first independent developer of console games?

Activision was set up by programmers upset at how their old employer treated them. They went on to make hit games for the very console they had walked away from.

Which 1995 Nintendo console showed its 3D games only in red and black through a binocular eyepiece?

Virtual Boy was pushed to market unfinished so Nintendo could focus on the Nintendo 64, and players reported headaches, dizziness and eye strain. It was dropped within about a year.

Which video game mascot wears red shoes inspired by Michael Jackson's boots and Santa Claus?

Sonic the Hedgehog also owes his colour to Sega's cobalt blue logo. Sega wanted a mascot to compete with Mario, and the hedgehog was the design it chose.

Which simple game, written by Taneli Armanto, came built into Nokia's 6110 mobile phone in 1998?

Snake fell to Armanto because colleagues wrongly believed he had experience of making games. It was one of three games included with the phone.

Which band's song was the first music video played when MTV launched on August 1, 1981?

The Buggles opened MTV with Video Killed the Radio Star at 12:01 a.m. The channel's launch sequence used NASA stills of the first Moon landing.

Which musician played both Live Aid concerts in one day in 1985 by flying Concorde to America?

Phil Collins went by helicopter from Wembley to Heathrow, then by Concorde to New York and by another helicopter to the American show. On the flight he ran into Cher.

Which song was Michael Jackson miming to when he made the moonwalk famous on the TV special Motown 25?

Billie Jean was the only non-Motown song performed that night, and it was midway through seven weeks at number one. More than 47 million viewers watched the broadcast.

Which sitcom inspired the phrase 'jumping the shark' with a 1977 water-ski stunt by Fonzie?

Happy Days wrote the stunt to show off Henry Winkler's real water-skiing skill, with Fonzie in swim trunks and his leather jacket. The phrase itself was coined in 1985.

Which series ended in 1983 with a finale watched by almost 106 million American viewers?

M*A*S*H drew 105.97 million viewers to its last episode, more than that year's Super Bowl. Its 30-second ad slots sold for $450,000, also more than the big game charged.

Which file-sharing service, launched by Shawn Fanning in 1999, was shut down by lawsuits in 2001?

Napster took its name from Fanning's high school nickname, Nappy. Record companies sued about six months after the launch, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

Which candy's sales soared after it featured in E.T., a placement Mars had turned down for M&M's?

Reese's Pieces were still a relatively new product when Hershey said yes to Steven Spielberg's 1982 film. Sales may have jumped by as much as 300 percent.

A toy whistle packed with which cereal sounded the exact tone that controlled AT&T's long-distance network?

Cap'n Crunch gave phone phreak John Draper his nickname, Captain Crunch. He later befriended Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, before the pair founded Apple.

Whose dairy farm in Bethel, New York, hosted Woodstock in 1969, 60 miles from the town of Woodstock?

Max Yasgur came to the rescue after the town of Wallkill set permit conditions the promoters could not meet. More than 460,000 people turned up on his land.

Which cartoon mascot taught 1950s schoolchildren to shelter from nuclear blasts in Duck and Cover?

Bert the Turtle ducks into his shell when a monkey dangles a lit firecracker at him, and comes out unharmed. The civil defence film joined America's National Film Registry in 2004.