Joan Anderson – now known to be instrumental in developing the Hula Hoop – has died. She was 101

Few people know the name Joan Anderson, but millions know the product she helped develop… The Hula Hoop.

Born Joan Constance Manning on December 28th, 1923, Joan went on to become a swimsuit model. At 5′ 2″ inches, she became known as ’The Pocket Venus’.

In 1945, Joan met and married Wayne Anderson, a U.S. Army pilot, before moving to California. In 1956, Joan travelled back to Australia to visit her parents. While there, she saw locals using wooden hoops as part of a fitness craze…

Speaking of this in the 2018 documentary ‘Hula Girl’, Joan said, “Everywhere I would go, everybody was giggling. I asked what was going on and they said, ’Oh, everyone’s doing the hoop.’” – swivelling wooden rings around their waists.

Joan asked her mother to send one of these hoops back to Los Angeles for her. After receiving the ring and using it with her children, Joan called it a ’hula hoop’. Thinking it would not be possible to patent this idea, she and her husband Wayne then pitched it as a toy idea to Arthur ‘Spud’ Melin at the Californian toy company Wham-O.

This meeting – which took place in the car park outside Wham-O’s offices – ended with what Joan described as a “gentleman’s handshake.” Soon after that, the hoop – manufactured in plastic – became a huge, multi-million-unit craze. Sadly, however, Joan and Wayne heard very little from Wham-O about this success:

“We called Spud and asked him what was going on, and he kept putting us off,” said Joan. “Then they just ignored us.”

Indeed, it wasn’t until 1961 – when the couple filed a lawsuit against Wham-O – that Joan and Wayne saw any money from their idea. Even then, it wasn’t as much as it might have been…

Wham-O’s records showed that the short-lived nature of the Hula Hoop craze meant it hadn’t made the company any profit. They were, it was said, left with vast unsold stocks of the toy. As a result, Joan and Wayne’s lawsuit settlement was just shy of $6,000 dollars after attorney fees.

Happily, the couple seemed mostly phlegmatic about their fate. As Joan herself put it, “We often talked about the money we could’ve made from it and maybe changed our life a little bit, but it didn’t work out that way.” She added: “The World isn’t fair, but life goes on. You win some, you lose some. I’ve had a great life: my husband lived to be 87 and we had 63 wonderful years together.”

Arthur ’Spud’ Melin died in 2002, aged 77. Wham-O has since changed hands numerous times. As well as the Hula Hoop, the brand’s IP includes SuperBall, Slip ’N’ Slide, Silly String and Frisbee.

Joan Anderson passed over in a nursing facility in Carlsbad, California on July 14th. She was 101. She is survived by a daughter, Loralyn Willis, and two sons, Warren and Gary, and six grandchildren. Our hearts go out to them at this most difficult time. A third son, Carl, passed in 2023.

You can see more of Joan’s extraordinary story in the short documentary ‘Hula Girl’. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/m6J32JLRNOk?feature=shared

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